New Female veiled chameleon

[Mcjones91]

Hello! I purchased my female veiled chameleon earlier today. She seems to be doing well since getting her home. Just curious as to what you guys think of her enclosure, and any recommendations you may have. I only want the best for her and hope you can help!

 

[Kristen99]

Please fill out the help from I see that your enclosure needs some adjustments made so far this information will help get your husbandry on point.


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[Mcjones91]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Female veiled chameleon about 3 months old, I’ve had her about 12 hours
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?- none beside transport from the store
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?- she was being fed small crickets about 6-10 per day. I haven’t fed her yet due to she still has crickets left from the store
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?- haven’t started yet.
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?- I have a drill sysytem that drips every 3-5 seconds
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?- mostly white with a little black. She has not been tested to my knowledge.
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.- unknown

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Sceeen- 16x16x30inches
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?- her lighting I am not sure what brand but she is on a UVB And a heat source. Turned off the light last night about 9p’ and turned in about 9 am.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?- Basking temp is about 77 and I do not have a thermostat the floor. Lowest overnight temp was 74. I have a digital thermometer and a hygrometer and thermometer combo in the middle of the cage.
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?- Use a hygrometer to measure, she has a constant drop source and I mist her cage a couple times a day. Level stays around 66%.
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? - currently using a croton plant. I know I need to cover the soil. ( doing that today)
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? She is in my bed room away from the daily commotion. The ceiling fan is on at night but in low
• Location - Where are you geographically located? Located in Lampasas, Texas.

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about. Cage setup

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

[/QUOTE]

 

[RJChamers]

Im a newbie here also, but reading all the prized info from other members, I beleive you need more folage from the level of your potted plant on up. Not quite enough to hide and be secure. And i beileve basking temp should be about 80-82. My have to move up the basking vines closer to light?

 

[Bmjo]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/
Some very useful information it helped me get my ChameleOn get set up

 

[Mcjones91]

Thank y’all for the advise I just bought some vines for coverage and a Pothos plant to grow with her! I’ll work on the basking temp as well

 

[renzo0684]

1. Your lights get a tube t-8 reptisun 10.0 bulb for uv. Use a 75 watt house light for basking

2. Your times should be that of the sun. So right now I have mine 6:45-6:45.

3. Your temps should be 85° basking and down to mid to lower 70's in lower parts of the cage. Night 65-70.

4.Your humidity should be up around 70-80 for a couple hours after misting and it should not drip below 50.

5. You need more plants to help with drinking and help with the humidity. I have crotons and umbrellas in my enclosures.

6. You should feed you chameleon as much as she can eat now. The best way to do this in my opinion is cup feeding. It lets yo u know exactly how much she is eating.

7. You need to dust your crickets with a phosphorus free calcium daily and a d3 supliment 1-2 times a month.

8. You need to mist 2-3 times a day for 2-3 minutes. This will stimulate your chameleon to drink and also keep the humidity up.

9. Since you have a female she is going to need a laying bin. I have. Never had a female chameleon so my suggestion is talking to an AVID member who has dealt with females and eggs.....

 

[Mcjones91]

Renzo-

Thanks for the advise I just went and got her a Pothos plant and some Greenery to add to her enclosure. I will make the investment in a bar light asap.

Do you know anyone who has a female veiled that I may be able to reach out to regarding gender specific needs?

Thanks!

 

[opheliaeatsbugs]

Renzo-

Thanks for the advise I just went and got her a Pothos plant and some Greenery to add to her enclosure. I will make the investment in a bar light asap.

Do you know anyone who has a female veiled that I may be able to reach out to regarding gender specific needs?

Thanks!

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help

 

[jannb]

Here’s a video about making a laying bin for her and a couple blogs about female care.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video.77225/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html

 

[Mcjones91]

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help

Hey! I have a few for you... when should I make her a place for laying her eggs? She is about 3 mo and i didn’t know when was the idea time to incorporate that. She is living her new live plants in the cage and has explored them this afternoon.

Supplements- her calcium supplement for daily use should not have D3 is that correct? D3 should be given 2 times monthly? Kinda confused on all this and want to make sure to give her the correct supplements.

She has only been fed crickets since being at the store I bought her from. When and what should I add to her diet? I read about different greens that could possibly be added.

Her basking temp reached about 81 today. Should I move her vines closer for a higher temp?

Thanks so much!!

 

[Mcjones91]

Here she is sleeping ( I haven’t named her yet)

What do you think?

 

[opheliaeatsbugs]

Hey! I have a few for you... when should I make her a place for laying her eggs? She is about 3 mo and i didn’t know when was the idea time to incorporate that. She is living her new live plants in the cage and has explored them this afternoon.

Supplements- her calcium supplement for daily use should not have D3 is that correct? D3 should be given 2 times monthly? Kinda confused on all this and want to make sure to give her the correct supplements.

She has only been fed crickets since being at the store I bought her from. When and what should I add to her diet? I read about different greens that could possibly be added.

Her basking temp reached about 81 today. Should I move her vines closer for a higher temp?

Thanks so much!!

It can be overwhelmig at first. I found it gave me peace of mind to keep a journal, or just make notes on a monthly calendar. It helped keep me on track. I made notes on poop, temps, how many food items each week, supplement schedule, when to buy new lights, etc. Everything you could ever wonder about can be found by searching this forum.

I got Ophelia about 4 months old, I think. The #1 mistake I made in the beginning wad over feeding. It was so much fun watching her eat and she was all too happy to oblige lolol she puked up a feeding of meal worms once. Don't feed mealworms, they have zero value.

The #2 mistake I made was the laybin. I put the right sized bucket in her enclosure with the right mix of organic soil and sand and it had the right moisture to hold a tunnel. But when she started to dig, she stopped after the first night. The next day she still hadn't laid. I decided to check her tunnel and found that she had dug down and found a few inches of water at the bottom. After all my care to set it up correctly, I hadn't drilled big enough holes near the bottom to drain out the water. So I had to do take the laybin out, drill more holes and put the whole thing back. Of course, I was freaked out that she wouldn't continue laying and would be egg bound. So my suggestion, since you have time, is to figure out the laybin now. Do u have auto-mist system? Do you manually mist? However you do it, make sure that your system keeps the laybin moist but you also have good drainage. Once she starts digging, you really shouldn't disturb her.

Veileds are probably the easiest to take care of. Once you have a routine, you can sit back and enjoy.

You will need a couple temp/humidity gauges. One for the basking (85 degrees) and one to check the lower/ambient (72-80). I bought a heat gun at Home Depot, not expensive.

The care sheets say to feed 3-6 month olds 10-12 crickets a day. About 6 months is when O laid her first clutch. After that, I followed a plan of lower temps (83) and fewer food items. Now at 1.5 years she gets fed 2x a week (5 items each feeding). Variety is important, but our staple is dubia roaches. I hate crickets.

Take her out into the sun several times a week, if possible. Or even once... it is very beneficial.Ophelia knows that when I open her door, good things happen (food, outside) and she will quickly hop onto my hand.

I hope this is helpful

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."when should I make her a place for laying her eggs? She is about 3 mo and i didn’t know when was the idea time to incorporate that" ...you need to do it when she gets her big girl colors but sooner won't hurt either. That way she'll get used to it. It should be an opaque container at least 12" deep x 12" x 8" filled with moist washed playsand. It should be moist enough to hold a tunnel el...not really wet.

You said..."Supplements- her calcium supplement for daily use should not have D3 is that correct? D3 should be given 2 times monthly? Kinda confused on all this and want to make sure to give her the correct supplements".... I would also recommend using a vitamin powder twice a month.
Supplements 101....we recommend dusting at almost every feeding lightly with a phosphorus-free calcium powder to help make up for the poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus found in most feeder insects. We recommend dusting twice a month with a phosphorus-free calcium/D3 powder lightly to ensure that the chameleon gets some D3 without over doing it and leaving it to produce the rest of the D3 from it's exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system leading g to health issues but D3 produced from exposure to the UVB light won't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of the UVB at will. We recommend dusting twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A. PrOformed sources of vitamin A will not build up in the system but prEformed sources can so this way the vitamins are safe but it leaves it up to you to decide if/when your chameleon needs some prEformed vitamin A.

It's important to feed/gutload the insects properly. For crickets, roaches, locusts and superworms you can use dandelion greens, kale, collards,. endive, escarole, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, and a SMALL amount if berries, melon, papaya, pears apple, mango, etc.

Appropriate temperatures are important for good digestion. Low 80's is ok for one the age that yours is. I would feed her as many appropriately sized insects as she will eat in a couple of minutes at this age but once she reaches sexual maturity you will want to be careful because overfeeding constantly can lead to large clutches, MBD, prolapses, eggbinding, etc.

You can also add a dripper that runs long enough each day to stimulate drinking.

You said..."She has only been fed crickets since being at the store I bought her from. When and what should I add to her diet? I read about different greens that could possibly be added"...veiled females can have the same greens and veggies cut into appropriate sized pieces that I listed in the gutload above. Remove heavy stems from things like collards and kale..

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[Mcjones91]

It can be overwhelmig at first. I found it gave me peace of mind to keep a journal, or just make notes on a monthly calendar. It helped keep me on track. I made notes on poop, temps, how many food items each week, supplement schedule, when to buy new lights, etc. Everything you could ever wonder about can be found by searching this forum.

I got Ophelia about 4 months old, I think. The #1 mistake I made in the beginning wad over feeding. It was so much fun watching her eat and she was all too happy to oblige lolol she puked up a feeding of meal worms once. Don't feed mealworms, they have zero value.

The #2 mistake I made was the laybin. I put the right sized bucket in her enclosure with the right mix of organic soil and sand and it had the right moisture to hold a tunnel. But when she started to dig, she stopped after the first night. The next day she still hadn't laid. I decided to check her tunnel and found that she had dug down and found a few inches of water at the bottom. After all my care to set it up correctly, I hadn't drilled big enough holes near the bottom to drain out the water. So I had to do take the laybin out, drill more holes and put the whole thing back. Of course, I was freaked out that she wouldn't continue laying and would be egg bound. So my suggestion, since you have time, is to figure out the laybin now. Do u have auto-mist system? Do you manually mist? However you do it, make sure that your system keeps the laybin moist but you also have good drainage. Once she starts digging, you really shouldn't disturb her.

Veileds are probably the easiest to take care of. Once you have a routine, you can sit back and enjoy.

You will need a couple temp/humidity gauges. One for the basking (85 degrees) and one to check the lower/ambient (72-80). I bought a heat gun at Home Depot, not expensive.

The care sheets say to feed 3-6 month olds 10-12 crickets a day. About 6 months is when O laid her first clutch. After that, I followed a plan of lower temps (83) and fewer food items. Now at 1.5 years she gets fed 2x a week (5 items each feeding). Variety is important, but our staple is dubia roaches. I hate crickets.

Take her out into the sun several times a week, if possible. Or even once... it is very beneficial.Ophelia knows that when I open her door, good things happen (food, outside) and she will quickly hop onto my hand.

I hope this is helpful

I will definetly start working on a laying bin for her. I mist for about 2 minutes 3 times a day, and she hates it! Any recommendation on that? I know getting a misting system would most likely be better, and I plan to do that in the near future. Last night during the night I hear her cry out a little, and I have no idea why?

I would love to take her outside, but she is so scared right now. I will work on that once she gets use to us and her new home.