New Chameleon

[chase31157]

Hello,

Me and my girlfriend have been thinking about getting a chameleon for months and finally decided to do it! We have both read many articles and have prepared ourselves as well as you can without actually having experience. We set up the cage yesterday (old school oceanic 38g glass with screen on top and the two sides are screen doors). We plan on moving her to a full screen cage in a few months. We purchased the female chameleon two days ago and have not picked her up yet due to us both trying to set up the cage and proper humidity/temp. We have ran across some problems. We have moss at the bottom to keep humidity (very dry here in Colorado) and a red heat lamp and 5.0 uvb bulb. Our problem is that the two gauges we have for humidity/temp read completely different depending on where they are in the tank. Right now the basking area eight inches under the red heat lamp reads 97 degrees and the humidity reads 40. We have a automatic sprayer that is directed onto the fake plant leaves to create more humidity and water for the lil' gal. If anyone could give us any advice on how to read the gauges or how to keep our humidity up without having a pool of water under the moss would be much appreciated! It is just confusing because if I put the gauge near the bottom (by the moss) humidity reads 80.. and near the top 30.. Again any help would be great,
Chase

 

[chase31157]

oops

Sorry I forgot to mention it is a veiled chameleon. Also we plan on getting live plants inside the cage but have to wait a couple months for the fertilizers to decompose.. A pothos plant to be more specific

 

[laurie]

Welcome Chase and unnamed girlfriend. We need to talk about a few things, the first is would you go the the top of the page click on forums, select health forums. and fill out how to ask for help. That will give us the information needed to help you.

First question, what king of chameleon, what age and where are you getting it? (that is only 1 question right)

You said you have a red heat lamp? What is that for? All the cham will need for basking will be a regular household bulb. I use a 40 watt as my house is warm, most people use a 60 watt. Also if you have the red one is it so you can use it at night? Chameleons don't want/need a light at night. If additional heat is needed there are better options than a red light.

Next question, the moss for a substrate? Not a good idea, the cham could ingest some of it and cause impaction, it is better to have no substrate. You can create the humidity you need with the use of real plants, misting and drippers, or a combo of those three.

It is hard to address what temp you should have for basking and non basking without knowing the type and age of the cham.

Hany in there, lots of folks here will help you, just start with the "how to ask for help form and we can go from there.

 

[chase31157]

Thank you for the reply (p.s. my girlfriends name is Amanda). I am getting a veiled chameleon and it is four or five months old. The red lamp is for basking and heat (I may replace with 50 watt zoo med basking lamp). I mist with a habba mist (I know it is not the best) with two sprayers attached and aimed at the fake plants. Thank you for the reply I read the form and think I answered most of it in my first post and the rest here.. So I am going to ditch the red lamp and go with a normal one and get a blue or black colored heat lamp for night since I was reading having bright lights on at night throw them off.. Any other suggestions are welcome and appreciated,
Chase

 

[ciafardo 4]

If i were you and you just wanted a pet chameleon i would go with a male veiled not a female they are a bit more work and need to lay eggs even if they dont mate and theres always the chance of egg binding its all a headache i would just recomend a MALE VEILED

 

[Dunnigan]

So I am going to ditch the red lamp and go with a normal one and get a blue or black colored heat lamp for night since I was reading having bright lights on at night throw them off

Unless your temps are going to drop into the 50's at night no lighting is needed at night.

 

[chase31157]

Thank you for the replies! I went out and got a normal spotlight (100 watt uva zoo med) in between posts and I guess I do not need any heat lamp at night? The employee at the local pet store said having a ceramic heater for night would be much better than a red heat lamp.. but If I have AC and heat and the room does not go under 70 I do not need any heat lamp/ceramic heater at night?

Also I know about the potential troubles with females but that is what we bought and that is the one my girlfriend has her heart set on.. We are planning on taking her to a reptile vet and planning around it. The owner of the pet store had a plastic milk jug with soft media of some sort for his female to lay eggs..

 

[Dunnigan]

A 100w may be a little warm, make sure you have a good thermometer to check the temps. In my males cage i use a 75w and that keeps it around 87*, the ambient room temp is 75

 

[warpdrive]

hi,

here are a few ideas that pop into my head...

get a male if you can as they are easyer for a beginer.

use a houshold bulb for heat (40w if house is warm, 60w if it is cool).
they will need a UVB bulb...ONLY BUY REPTISUN 5.0 tube style bulbs.

they need no heat at night, so no bulb is needed.
(unless your home goes bellow 60F at night, then use ceramic bulbs like this...
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...ramic-bulbs/-/exo-terra-40-watt-ceramic-bulb/ )


try to get at least 1 plant in there to help with drinking and humidity.
the more plants the better.
pothos, ficus, and umbrella trees are great choices.

remove the plants from the soil they came in and wash them off good.
a little soapy water on the leaves also helps remove any pestisides that might be on them.
them replant in organic soil...and some rocks on top of the soil to help prevent the Cham from eating any soil.
your done, so add the plant into the cage.

humidity needs to be around 45%-60% when the cage is dry.
I keep my humidity thingie near the top...so if it reads 50% then I'm good regardless that the bottom may or may not be higher.

if in the winter you find that even with plenty of live plants you still can't have enough humidity, then a room humidifier is in order.
a room humidifier can get your room's humidity up real fast and just needs to be filled like 2 or 3 times per day with water.

you didn't mention feeders but no matter what you feed they will need to be gutloaded with freash "greens" and fruits.
my crickets get the following:
I use kale, dandilion, collardgreens, and romaine...a different green each day.
I also use a slice of orange, carrot, or potato to help with moisture.
I also use some crushed up cereal like kashi "heart to heart" once or twice a week.

also, please try to feed more then just crickets.
I use silkworms, superworms, butterworm, as well as crickets and gutload them too with the proper foods.

above all, keep reading and checking this forum for ides.

Harry

 

[Metric]

A 100w will be too hot. Jacksons require cooler temps, high 70's. Also Jacksons are a live bearing species so they do not need an egg laying bin

They're getting a vieled, not a jackson : P

 

[Dunnigan]

I got 2 different threads mixed up...

 

[chase31157]

Well we picked her up an hour ago and everything went real smooth. I ended up ditching the red heat lamp and getting a spotlight with uva and of course my uvb 5.0. I also figured out that the red heat lamp is radiant heat and was greatly affecting my humidity sensor due to it drying out the area.. Once I put the spotlight in the gauges read 85 degrees with around 100 in the basking and 50 humidity in the upper part of the tank. She has been real active exploring but we are trying to leave her alone. We may try to feed her latter tonight if she is ready but it will have to be worms because every pet store around Fort Collins/ Greeley is out of crickets.. did not believe the local pet store but called around and it is true.. Thank You for all the help! I will try and get some pictures taken soon to show you all

 

[Dunnigan]

Personally i would not keep a young veiled at 100*...nor would i keep a full grown female at 100*. This is because females will produce eggs. Period. With out without mating. If you keep the chameleon at temps that high she will produce too many eggs and that may reduce her life.

 

[chase31157]

The temp gauge reads 85 on the side with the heat lamp.. the cooler side is closer to 75.. It is only 100 when i actually took the gauge and put it face up on a branch where the actual chameleon would be directly below the spotlight at its highest point.. If this is a problem I will buy a 75 watt.. But it is not 100 in the cage..

 

[jannb]

Basking for a female veiled should be between 80 to 82...don't forget your 3 supplements for the feeders. Below is a blog with some great info for raising a veiled cameleon....be sure to read the part about female veileds.
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

 

[Bay687]

nice to hear from you, well first off definitley get rid of the red heat lamp for the night, they dont want it or need it, its better to leave the light completely dark at night, they like it dark, plus temp needs to be 20 degrees lower, i live in az, and i have moss and little live plants at the bottom.. it definitley keeps the humidity around 60 to 70 percent at all times, definitley look into getting the good products instead of the cheap its well worth the money, and i have a 60 watt light bulb .. my temp sits about 90 through out the day, and definitley look into timers for lights and if you ever plan to get misting system, mist king is a great setup.. i would definitley keep a younger veil between 80 and 85

 

[chase31157]

Day 2

Well after we got her last night we tried to put some meal worms in the white ceramic bowl we have for her in the cage branches. She looked at them for a few minutes and decided not to go for them. I noticed this morning a very very small insect (like the ones you feel tickling your skin when you lay in the grass but can barely see they are so small) quickly making its way up the tank. She somehow saw it and moved quickly across the tank and snatched it up (do not know how the bug got in there). That encouraged me to get crickets today and she ate the four medium ones I gave her right away!

The spotlight I am still thinking about replacing with a 75 watt (current one is 100 watt) but she hangs around the basking branch all the time and even tries to climb the mesh side of the cage to get closer to it.. So not sure I want to change it yet.. The overall temp is hanging around 77.. I also got rid of the red spotlight and let her sleep last night with no additional heat.. Temp never dropped below 70.. So now as far as i can tell the only problem is water. I have not seen her drink from the leaves yet so my girlfriend is going to buy a drip line from petco on her way home so she can always have a steady place to get water in between the mist cycles..

Tanks for all the help and please let me know of any other suggestions or tips that could help me