New Cham Carer

[swimgeek44]

Hi all, I just got a Jeweled Chameleon (furcifer campani) a week and a half ago. Jade got to the US just before Christmas, I believe. Unsure on age.

I have a red-eared slider aquatic turtle, some freshwater fish, but didn't research chameleon care enough before jumping into it. Luckily she seems to be acclimating well and settling in just fine.

Let me know if you have any suggestions, there are a few things I'm still working on to get the setup just right long term. Mainly want to get a better stand for the lights above the cage, work out an automated dripper (in addition to mistking), and rework the inside so it's easier for her to get around and things like that. also want to get posts that blinds can attach to (with grommets on blinds), instead of the duct tape solution to keep blinds up now. Also need to do fecal check for parasites as I'm not sure the shop did.



Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - female jeweled, unknown age, small but based on what i've read not sure she will get much larger
• Handling - hand-feeding a cricket a day, she took it starting day 3-4 of being in our household, allowing her the option of coming onto a hand but she hasn't taken it.
• Feeding - 8-10 quarter inch crickets a day, roaming the cage
• Supplements - just had calcium with d3 for first week, now have calcium without, still figuring out how often to add d3 and the more vitamin dense dust
• Watering - mistking just set up a few days ago - 2 min / 2 hours during day. working on getting an automated dripper that can pull from the same 3.5gal water source as mistking
• Fecal Description - small dark, nice white urates
• History - picked up at a reptile show, I believe arrived from Madagascar pre-Christmas and the store got her acclimated for about 2-3 weeks before I got her

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - small screen cage, block off 2 sides during day and 3rd side at night to keep down the commotion exposed
• Lighting - right now fluorescent zoomed uvb and halogen for heat, figuring out if i should get the tube fluorescent and do anything differently with heat
• Temperature - 90 basking, around 70 ambient
• Humidity - around 70-80%
• Plants - large ficus that takes up the whole cage
• Placement - in living room, pretty quiet except for 2 hours at night
• Location - los angeles

 

[WAMBO]

Really cute! Congrats!

 

[Andee]

I don't think her basking needs to be that high but I am actually not that sure. She is definitely full grown and I wouldn't be surprised if she was wild caught. So you may have issues with her being gravid though I am not sure what jeweled girlies look like when they are gravid. Definitely chose a more complicated species to start with. Not the best, XD not your fault, generally these guys don't do the best in captivity even under the more experienced keepers' care. I think one of our other keepers has actually got some to breed in captivity and has raised at least one female to adult maturity... I think? Not sure if it was exactly this species? Or one similar to it. Either way I think she needs a bit more water at the moment. I would work on changing her misting sessions from 2 minutes every 2 hours to more like 4 minutes every 3 hours? Longer and farther apart is usually better. I will try to find the user name of our keeper who I think has raised them if he doesn't answer before I tag him.

 

[Andee]

@NHenn

 

[kinyonga]

I would make sure she has an egglaying site.

 

[swimgeek44]

Thanks for the info, I'll have to get a good egg laying place. Right now there's the ficus pot but probably not ideal.

I'll have to play around with different misting schedules too - she's still staying well hydrated which is good

 

[WAMBO]

Thanks for the info, I'll have to get a good egg laying place. Right now there's the ficus pot but probably not ideal.

I'll have to play around with different misting schedules too - she's still staying well hydrated which is good

Nursemaia has some sensible advice about the laying bin. I'll ask her to post the info.

 

[Nursemaia]

I'm not sure if the laybin I use would work for this species. That's a pygmie and the live on the forest floor. Idk how she would get into a 12 in tall bin. I'm not even sure if they would need something like that or how deep they bury their eggs. She is darn cute though

 

[Andee]

I would agree she would probably be able to use a smaller bin but you could probably create an easy way for her to get in and out.

 

[NHenn]

@swimgeek44

Congrats on the new campani. I have to admit, you certainly picked a difficult species to start out with. I guarantee you she is wild caught which will add its own level of difficulty to keeping her healthy and happy. One suggestion right off the bat is to offer her more food and to not hand feed as that is only going to cause additional stress which you don't want during the transition time. She could easily eat 6+ crickets a day as well as some other feeders like fruit flies, bean beetles, etc.