New Chameleon

[Anniel]

Hi I got a baby veiled chameleon and he got sick and I brought him back to the breeder to be nursed back to health. I am probably going to be getting an older chameleon since only after a few days my first chameleon got sick. This will be my first chameleon so I need to know if there are any flaws with my set up. My cage set up is a large reptibreeze(18x18x36). I have a nightlight basking bulb(100 watts) Should I keep the basking light on at night? I also have a uvb lamp(zilla slimline tropical fixture which includes a tropical 25 UVB T8 florescent bulb) is this the right UVB? I have an umbrella tree and a small pothos, and I will also get a bigger plant if I get a bigger chameleon. I a stick for the basking bulb, how far away should the basking bulb be from the light? And I also have a twisty vine for him to climb around on. I have cage carpet on the bottom of the cage, and I have been hand misting the cage since my Exo Terra mister has been soaking the cage. What do you guys suggest free roaming feeding or cup feeding? What should I gut load my crickets with, and how often can I give them meal worms? I dust my crickets with the calcium that has d3 in it and I also have the reptivite supplement, how often should I give my chameleon the reptivite. Also how high should the humidity be since I live in Northern Nevada the humidity is hard to keep up. What kind of stuff should I use to clean the cage, how often do think I should clean the cage? What does healthy chameleon poop look like? This will be my first official chameleon, Thank!

 

[Hakai]

Hi I got a baby veiled chameleon and he got sick and I brought him back to the breeder to be nursed back to health. I am probably going to be getting an older chameleon since only after a few days my first chameleon got sick. This will be my first chameleon so I need to know if there are any flaws with my set up. My cage set up is a large reptibreeze(18x18x36). I have a nightlight basking bulb(100 watts) Should I keep the basking light on at night? I also have a uvb lamp(zilla slimline tropical fixture which includes a tropical 25 UVB T8 florescent bulb) is this the right UVB? I have an umbrella tree and a small pothos, and I will also get a bigger plant if I get a bigger chameleon. I a stick for the basking bulb, how far away should the basking bulb be from the light? And I also have a twisty vine for him to climb around on. I have cage carpet on the bottom of the cage, and I have been hand misting the cage since my Exo Terra mister has been soaking the cage. What do you guys suggest free roaming feeding or cup feeding? What should I gut load my crickets with, and how often can I give them meal worms? I dust my crickets with the calcium that has d3 in it and I also have the reptivite supplement, how often should I give my chameleon the reptivite. Also how high should the humidity be since I live in Northern Nevada the humidity is hard to keep up. What kind of stuff should I use to clean the cage, how often do think I should clean the cage? What does healthy chameleon poop look like? This will be my first official chameleon, Thank!

That is quite a lot of questions, many of which can be answered by looking around on the forums a bit. I'll try to answer some of the more important ones right now. First of all, 100w seems a bit much for basking, I would take it down to maybe a 50w, that's what I use. It doesnt need to be colored or anything, a standard house bulb will do fine. Turn it off at night, they need 12 hours of light 12 hours of darkness. The light will disturb his sleep. If your room goes under about 60*F at night that's the only time any extra heating is needed. At that point you can grab a colored (usually dark blue/purple or red) night time bulb. I'm not sure what the 25 means in the UVB. If it means the %UVB then I think it should be lower, 10 I think, and you also want a light that gives off UVA (i think, hopefully som1 else will help out) but most lights will give off both. This is the light i use http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/EntryDetail.php?EntryID=105&DatabaseID=2&SearchID=1
You can gutload your crickets with fruits and veggies, pretty much any will do. I like to used orange cube (found at your local pet store) I find that I have less casualties when I use it. Its a 3 in 1 solution (food, water, gutload). Alternate using the reptivite and calcium with D3 every sunday, so that each is used every other sunday NOT at every feeding. Get a calcium w/o D3 and use that for every feeding. Some will disagree with this, that's just the standard most keepers use. Humidity should be between 50-70%, which, in dry conditions, can be achieved with a humidifier to increase the humidity of the entire room. Spikes up to 90% are good to stimulate drinking. Poop should be kind of slimy but in multiple solid turds, not falling apart, with a solid white/off white urate. I usually just clean my cage about once a week with paper towel and water. I'm not sure what to do about the carpet stuff you have the bottom of my cage is just plastic. Hope I hit most of your questions and answered them correctly, hopefully som1 will correct me if I got something wrong or missed something important.

~Ben

 

[nj011908]

if you place stays cold at night just put in a ceramic heater on a timer to turn on when the lights go out and off in the morning when the lights come back on

 

[ir0k]

Well said hakai, also check out the caresheet section. Good luck ;-)

 

[Devokid]

I would always start by filling this out: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

That will save a lot of time. If you do not have a way to accurately measure the heat and humidity, I recommend you get one. The heat at the basking location will solve your placement question.

I would ditch the night light. Chameleons need the dark to get a good nights sleep. It can get cold at nights in the wild, so they should be fine sleeping in temps that you are comfortable sleeping in. I also recommend the Zoomed bulb Hakai recommended.

For feeding, it depends on how you want your chameleon to behave. Personally, I always try to hand feed. This will make them tame and not get upset when you are near. I rarely just let the food run free in the cage because lost crickets are notorious for munching pets and making super irritating noises while I try to sleep . You also should feed them many different insects, not just one or two kinds.

I am sure that people will disagree with me on this, but I am not a fan of humidifiers. I live in Utah, so the air here is similar to yours. I have had many chameleons live long and happy lives without humidifiers. I did try to use a cold air humidifier once, and it resulted in lung infections, so I no longer use them. It may have been a coincidence, but there is no reason for me to risk it. What I do instead is I always have dripping water available, mist them, and give them the occasional shower.

 

[Hakai]

I would always start by filling this out: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

I am sure that people will disagree with me on this, but I am not a fan of humidifiers. I live in Utah, so the air here is similar to yours. I have had many chameleons live long and happy lives without humidifiers. I did try to use a cold air humidifier once, and it resulted in lung infections, so I no longer use them. It may have been a coincidence, but there is no reason for me to risk it. What I do instead is I always have dripping water available, mist them, and give them the occasional shower.

This is definitely something to consider. I personally haven't had this issue. I just resort to humidifiers because this winter has been especially dry and my room has been between 22 and 30% for the past 3 months (if I don't have the humidifier running). But a shower every once in a while would help a lot. That's a good suggestion.

 

[Anniel]

Thanks!

Thanks for all of the info! I will definitely get a different heat lamp and look into the UVB bulb to see if it produces UVA too. Thanks Again!