New Chameleon owner❤

Hi!
I'm going to start off with a disclaimer.
I discovered this website while googling different stuff about chameleon ownership. One of the posts I read, people were very unkind. Even go as far as to tell someone they are going to kill their chameleon.
I suffer from depression and anxiety so I am asking they any opinions/facts stated in this thread, please do so with kindness as you can possibly trigger a depressive episode. I feel my mental health is just as important as the health and happiness of my cham. If I feel people are being rude or disrespectful or keyboard warriors, I will simply never visit the site again. Though I hope that's not the case?

I'm new to chameleons. I've had some lizards as a kid bur always dreamed of a chameleon.

Finally, I got Pascal. (I know it's a cliche name but I love Tangled so I don't care lol) I've had him for 3 weeks now and he is doing wonders for my depression! He honestly makes me so happy just watching him climb all over his cage.

I am posting here for thoughts on what others think of my set up, how I can improve it, and where to look for a new cage when he gets full grown! I have attached pictures!

He (who I actually think is a she) eats a lot! Hunting crickets gets him all excited! (No I don't think he has human emotions but if chams can get annoyed and scared, im sure they can get excited too!) I'd sat he eats about 15 large crickets a day..maybe 20. I gutload them with orange cube cricket diet i got from petco. (Yes Pascal is also from Petco and I know their animal's aren't always the healthiest so I have been keeping an eye on him!)
I admit, I was doing the calcium wrong for the first 2 weeks. I would dust the orange cubes the crickets eat. I now know in supposed to dust the crickets in a bag and shake!
I also feed him meel worms..like 5 every morning but he doesn't seem to like them as much as the crickets!

His lights. He has a UVB buld and a day light bulb! He loves to bask! I turn his Iights on when I wake up in the morning around 715am. He wakes up. Basks. Goes potty. Then eats. Then goes for a good long climb around is cage. At night around 10pm, i turn the daylight bulb off, he crawls into his favorite place to sleep, then 10 minutes later i turn the Uvb light off. He stays til morning.

The temperature during the day near the lights ranges between 85-90 and i mist hist cage twice a day to keep humidity between 50-70. At night the temperature reads between 70-75 with the humidity around 50.
He also had his dripper that he is an expert at using to drink so water!

All plants in his cage are fake and from the dollar store. I cleaned them very thoroughly before putting them all in.
I do have 1 live plant for him. While I'm working, I open his cage and put the plant in front. He climbs onto it and hangs out on it. Sometimes I bring the plant to my desk and he watches me work.

I do handle him. Not often, maybe every other day. I allow him to climb on me while I'm sitting on me bed. I believe he is starting to recognize me as his care taker. When I put my hand in his cage to get his food dish, sometimes he'll walk to the other end of the cage and hide and other times he'll walk on my hand and just sit on my finger. I always giggle cause I'm just trying to feed him. I wonder if he can feel my body heat? I run very warm and people call me a human heater.

There isn't anything that makes me think he has any health issues however I do notice white stuff in his nose from time to time. I read that it could be salt since chams don't have sweat glands, that's how they rid excess salt. I included a picture of him on ny finger and you can see the white stuff.

I'm very proud of his setup as I feel it mimics his natural habitat pretty well, so I hope I get food feedback on that!

Thank you and hello!!
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Ignore all my typos! Also, if I postwdthis in the wrong thread, just let me know which one and I'll copy and paste! For a 30 year old, I'm pretty dumb on using forums.
 
A few things to help. He needs a t5
Uvb linear bulb like reptisun, the bulb type you have is just no good for supplying the uvb he needs. Also i see you use a live plant outside the cage but looks like all fale in the cage. You did a great design job, really cool, but he needs some real plants inside the cage also.
 
Also you said only you dust calcium, can you take a picture of what you use? Also look into a variety of feeders like bsfl and roaches, the more variety the better.
 
Thank you for the reply!
I thought I had a uvb light? One is the blue day lighy bulb, but I thought the other was the uvb. If not, ill go pick it up tomorrow!
As for a live plant inside the cage, that's the plan! I just don't know what plant would be small/big enough for it. Any suggestions?
 
Hi!
I'm going to start off with a disclaimer.
I discovered this website while googling different stuff about chameleon ownership. One of the posts I read, people were very unkind. Even go as far as to tell someone they are going to kill their chameleon.
I suffer from depression and anxiety so I am asking they any opinions/facts stated in this thread, please do so with kindness as you can possibly trigger a depressive episode. I feel my mental health is just as important as the health and happiness of my cham. If I feel people are being rude or disrespectful or keyboard warriors, I will simply never visit the site again. Though I hope that's not the case?

I'm new to chameleons. I've had some lizards as a kid bur always dreamed of a chameleon.

Finally, I got Pascal. (I know it's a cliche name but I love Tangled so I don't care lol) I've had him for 3 weeks now and he is doing wonders for my depression! He honestly makes me so happy just watching him climb all over his cage.

I am posting here for thoughts on what others think of my set up, how I can improve it, and where to look for a new cage when he gets full grown! I have attached pictures!

He (who I actually think is a she) eats a lot! Hunting crickets gets him all excited! (No I don't think he has human emotions but if chams can get annoyed and scared, im sure they can get excited too!) I'd sat he eats about 15 large crickets a day..maybe 20. I gutload them with orange cube cricket diet i got from petco. (Yes Pascal is also from Petco and I know their animal's aren't always the healthiest so I have been keeping an eye on him!)
I admit, I was doing the calcium wrong for the first 2 weeks. I would dust the orange cubes the crickets eat. I now know in supposed to dust the crickets in a bag and shake!
I also feed him meel worms..like 5 every morning but he doesn't seem to like them as much as the crickets!

His lights. He has a UVB buld and a day light bulb! He loves to bask! I turn his Iights on when I wake up in the morning around 715am. He wakes up. Basks. Goes potty. Then eats. Then goes for a good long climb around is cage. At night around 10pm, i turn the daylight bulb off, he crawls into his favorite place to sleep, then 10 minutes later i turn the Uvb light off. He stays til morning.

The temperature during the day near the lights ranges between 85-90 and i mist hist cage twice a day to keep humidity between 50-70. At night the temperature reads between 70-75 with the humidity around 50.
He also had his dripper that he is an expert at using to drink so water!

All plants in his cage are fake and from the dollar store. I cleaned them very thoroughly before putting them all in.
I do have 1 live plant for him. While I'm working, I open his cage and put the plant in front. He climbs onto it and hangs out on it. Sometimes I bring the plant to my desk and he watches me work.

I do handle him. Not often, maybe every other day. I allow him to climb on me while I'm sitting on me bed. I believe he is starting to recognize me as his care taker. When I put my hand in his cage to get his food dish, sometimes he'll walk to the other end of the cage and hide and other times he'll walk on my hand and just sit on my finger. I always giggle cause I'm just trying to feed him. I wonder if he can feel my body heat? I run very warm and people call me a human heater.

There isn't anything that makes me think he has any health issues however I do notice white stuff in his nose from time to time. I read that it could be salt since chams don't have sweat glands, that's how they rid excess salt. I included a picture of him on ny finger and you can see the white stuff.

I'm very proud of his setup as I feel it mimics his natural habitat pretty well, so I hope I get food feedback on that!

Thank you and hello!!
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Hi! Welcome to the forum! Pascal is a cutie! You can determine gender by looking at the back feet. Males have little nubs, called spurs. I can’t see very well from the pics if they’re there or not. If Pascal is a female, you will be needing to make her a lay bin, as she’ll lay eggs even if not mated.
I do see some errors that need to be corrected as soon as possible to make sure Pascal stays healthy and with you for a long time. Please keep in mind that whatever I say, it is with kindness and concern...not just blatant criticism.
You will eventually be needing a larger enclosure. The standard recommended size is 24x24x48”.
Very important is that you need a linear T5 fixture with a 5% bulb for uvb. The coil bulb that you currently seem to have isn’t able to provide adequate uvb levels.
While your enclosure looks very nice, veiled chams nibble on their plants. They have been known to eat a fake leaf and get impacted. Your Pothos is an excellent plant for Pascal and I suggest either putting it inside the enclosure or getting another. Whatever real plants you get need to be safe. There are several...dracaena, schefflera, wandering Jew, weeping fig to name a few.
You could also add some more little highways for Pascal with branches. You can get those free outside. Just avoid anything like pine that has sap. Wash with Dawn dish soap, rinse well and set them up.
I think most of us got the orange cubes when starting out. Lol They really aren’t good for much other than keeping your crickets alive. Whatever you feed your bugs, your cham will also be getting. I’ll attach a couple of infographics on guy loading and feeders. Chams do appreciate variety in their diet, same as us. Mealworms aren’t good feeders as they have low nutrition and are harder to digest.
Supplements are super important! You want to lightly dust the feeders in a phosphorus free calcium without D3 with every feeding except one per week. One feeding every other week dust with calcium with D3 and one feeding on the alternate every other week, dust with a multivitamin.
Temps seem ok. Humidity is a touch too high. Daytime you don’t want it to get any higher than 50%. At night it can get much higher. You still want to mist twice a day so Pascal can drink. Usually about a good 2 minute mist early morning and about 1 hr before lights out and maybe a shorter one mid day.
Lights should be on for 12 hours, off 12 hours. Most use a timer system.
Chameleonacademy.com has all sorts of great info and podcasts to learn from. I may have missed something, in which case another member will catch it. Again, welcome! :)
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Hi! Welcome to the forum! Pascal is a cutie! You can determine gender by looking at the back feet. Males have little nubs, called spurs. I can’t see very well from the pics if they’re there or not. If Pascal is a female, you will be needing to make her a lay bin, as she’ll lay eggs even if not mated.
I do see some errors that need to be corrected as soon as possible to make sure Pascal stays healthy and with you for a long time. Please keep in mind that whatever I say, it is with kindness and concern...not just blatant criticism.
You will eventually be needing a larger enclosure. The standard recommended size is 24x24x48”.
Very important is that you need a linear T5 fixture with a 5% bulb for uvb. The coil bulb that you currently seem to have isn’t able to provide adequate uvb levels.
While your enclosure looks very nice, veiled chams nibble on their plants. They have been known to eat a fake leaf and get impacted. Your Pothos is an excellent plant for Pascal and I suggest either putting it inside the enclosure or getting another. Whatever real plants you get need to be safe. There are several...dracaena, schefflera, wandering Jew, weeping fig to name a few.
You could also add some more little highways for Pascal with branches. You can get those free outside. Just avoid anything like pine that has sap. Wash with Dawn dish soap, rinse well and set them up.
I think most of us got the orange cubes when starting out. Lol They really aren’t good for much other than keeping your crickets alive. Whatever you feed your bugs, your cham will also be getting. I’ll attach a couple of infographics on guy loading and feeders. Chams do appreciate variety in their diet, same as us. Mealworms aren’t good feeders as they have low nutrition and are harder to digest.
Supplements are super important! You want to lightly dust the feeders in a phosphorus free calcium without D3 with every feeding except one per week. One feeding every other week dust with calcium with D3 and one feeding on the alternate every other week, dust with a multivitamin.
Temps seem ok. Humidity is a touch too high. Daytime you don’t want it to get any higher than 50%. At night it can get much higher. You still want to mist twice a day so Pascal can drink. Usually about a good 2 minute mist early morning and about 1 hr before lights out and maybe a shorter one mid day.
Lights should be on for 12 hours, off 12 hours. Most use a timer system.
Chameleonacademy.com has all sorts of great info and podcasts to learn from. I may have missed something, in which case another member will catch it. Again, welcome! :)
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Wow! So much information! I appreciate it! I can't wait to utilize it all!
 
It’s been almost one year to the day that I got my first chameleon and I’ve learned so very much. We all start out knowing almost nothing, but if our hearts are in it (and they usually are), we learn and get everything right for our scaly little friends. :)

Where would you reccomend getting feeders? The chain petstores seem to only have crikets and meelworms. I have my fingers crossed that I don't have to catch them on my own!
 
Where would you reccomend getting feeders? The chain petstores seem to only have crikets and meelworms. I have my fingers crossed that I don't have to catch them on my own!

What area are you located in? I am in Toronto Canada and I have found dealing with an actual reptile store is best!
 
Where would you reccomend getting feeders? The chain petstores seem to only have crikets and meelworms. I have my fingers crossed that I don't have to catch them on my own!
I order crickets on line from Ghanns. There’s lots of different on line bug sellers though. Check out the forum sponsors for feeders. @jamest0o0 sells roaches. You may want to learn how to breed you own feeders eventually...it’s not that hard at all.
 
View attachment 267938I also moved the ladder for extra climbing!
This 2 changes already make his home look so much better!

So far, im glad I made a post here!
I’m glad you’re here too and that you’re headed towards enjoying Pascal for many years. ☺ If you have any questions about anything, just ask. The forum is full of truly wonderful people who share a love, passion and learning of chams.
 
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