New cham-mom - Husbandry check, please :)

[NewChamMom2020]

My personal recommendation with dubias is not letting them free roam the cage unless you're setting them free in front of him and he's getting them right away. They are excellent at hiding, much more so than crickets. Might be a good idea to get a feeding cup or two that you can use to keep the dubia in the enclosure without the worry of them burrowing into a plant's dirt. This nice person from the UK makes these awesome feeder cups: https://www.facebook.com/chameleonbugbar/

Thank you for the recommendation! Noted on dubias being able to hide and burrow into plants.

 

[jcarlsen]

Thank you for the recommendation! Noted on dubias being able to hide and burrow into plants.

No worries! I'm more than happy to tell people about the many mistakes I've made along the way. At one point in time my poor guy contracted a parasite and I stripped out the whole cage and found dubia wedged into a plant and along the back corner of the enclosure. Who knows how long they'd been hiding there ?

 

[NewChamMom2020]

You will probably get advice to raise the basking lamp up off of the cage top. There are various options for doing that and I am sure others will chime in on your question.

One other item I just noticed: Those enclosures usually aren't water tight at all. Depending on size, I do know that some manufacturers make trays that I have used in the past to sit the screen cage in and catch any water draining out the bottom. I always got a larger size than the one that goes inside the cage, because those just give a spot for feeders to hide and slowly die. But I would suggest getting a larger one, and I have seen rabbit trays that could hold even large enclosures inside them (I think Dumor was the company? I can find a link for you if you want me to.). Again, just a thought.

I completely missed that you mentioned raising the basking lamp. Sorry for the repeated question -- will look into getting a solarmeter to properly measure.

Ah, thanks for the recommendation on using a larger tray than my cage to catch all the water. Thank you!