PascalDude
New Member
Hello all!
I'm new to the site and could use some pointers on how to get started. I don't know how to put up pictures or anything on my profile. I joined the forums because I have a young chameleon and want to be a good mom!
Any and every advice is appreciated!
An introduction to my chameleon
and our story of how we came to be:
*Caution: May be a tearjerker!*
I am personally more of a cat/dog/horse type person. I would have never imagined myself owning any type of reptile in my life. Yet, here I am! My friend had gone to a reptile convention and bought a juvenile chameleon for the heck of it and didn't ever pick up an information guide before taking him home. When I met the little chameleon, I had never seen one before and he was so interesting! I enjoyed watching and handling it every time I went over to her house. He had such a personality, I almost instantly fell in love with him. My friend let him roam freely around the house: climbing up drapes, scavenging through indoor plants and sleeping on top of the towel rack in the bathroom. In transport, he was put in a clean/humid plastic pretzel jar with a crested gecko (the other pet). Her boyfriend mainly took care of him. Almost two months ago to this day (around the end of July) he committed suicide in their apartment. He was a good friend of mine as well. A few weeks after his death, my friend decided she didn't want to take care of the chameleon anymore so I adopted him from her. Before, his name was Dude (the gecko's name was Bro...original, lol). I had seen disney's film Tangled previously. People used to call me Rapunzel all the time when I was little because of my long hair. I fell in love with tangled at the end where it show's she's actually a brunette, cause I am too! So, it seemed appropriate to name my new chameleon Pascal after the one in the movie! <3
I obviously wasn't going to keep him in a plastic pretzel jar. He was extremely capable of climbing out of it anyway. I had a 5 gallon tank that I kept him in for awhile. It had a screen top, I bought bark bedding, and put a stick in it from the yard to let him climb onto something. The next day I decorated the outside of the cage with fake vine leaves to make him feel more protected, bought crickets and a cricket keeper (put in a piece of manderine orange for food/water), and a uvb/uva bulb and lamp. He lived in that on my screened in back patio for about a week. I had a little mister bottle and sprayed him in the middle of the day. During this week, I educated myself a little on chameleon care through google (yay google!) and realized that he needed a MUCH bigger cage. I went to petsmart and found an awesome cage for about $70. Yea, I was like forget that! I had some scrap wood (teak) donated to me from a friend who helps build sail boats and bought a $7 screen, went home and built the cage!
After a week of labor, I built my first hardy piece of furniture! The cage has a removable glass cover to the bottom wood base so it will be easier to clean, a top hinged "lid" and a side hinged "door". The dimensions are 29" tall, 21" wide, and 19" deep. That's what I was able to do with the wood I was given. I built it vertical because I was told chameleons prefer heights. All five sides are screen because I read that it was a better habitat for them. I tossed the bark bedding and bought coconut fiber bedding that apparently absorbs moisture better and is easier to clean. The only thing holding the screen to the wood are staples from a gun and then covered it in wood caulking so he wouldn't scratch himself (I let it dry before putting him in the cage. As a chemical is this safe for him?). The cage is now indoors. He also has a foam wire stick to climb on (from petsmart) and I cut the fake fabric vine leaves and stuck them in the sides of his cage so he could climb on it (he sleeps on it at night). I got calcium supplement to coat the crickets in but I'm not sure I'm using it right because half of them die within a few hours and also bought food cubes for the cricket cage.
I read about dehydration and upped his misting to two times a day for 10 minutes manually or three times a day 5 minutes manually. I make sure to spray toward the leaves in the morning so that it would imitate the "dew" for him to drink. I also take him outside once a week to bask in normal sunlight and natural Florida humidity. I only do this for 15-30 minutes because I read that juveniles can't stand heat very well. While we were out the other day, he had his mouth open while basking and I noticed black powder looking stuff on the back his throat. The back/ top of the inside of his mouth was greyish but his gums were their normal pinkish color. I dont know if this is calcium buildup (giving him too much) or some kind of infection, or just a normal condition. I'm not sure how old he is. He is about 4" long with his tail curled up under him. A night when sleeping and when he is climbing on my arm he is usually a pale green. When basking in the cage and outside he turns tan with dark brown diamonds on his back and speckles everywhere else. I've also seen him turn all dark brown with the line on his underbelly and chin almost white when climbing around in his cage. Sometimes he looks like he's trying to show a orange or red color but never really gets there. Is this because he is young? Or is he sick?
Extra: (AKA- stuff I forgot to put in... He is a veiled chameleon, I keep a towel over the outside of his cage on one side between the cage and my bed to help hold humidity, his cage is in the corner of a room up against the two walls. I was told to not have glass as a side or door because their reflection could make them think it is another chameleon, he is fed large crickets. I have have seen him eat several house flies before I owned him and I've attempted feeding him collard green leaf, mustard green leaf, and turnip green leaf but he won't eat it. I've put a live meal worm in front of him before and he walked over it, never looking at it as food. I make sure the water I spray into his cage is spring or other filtered water because I was told tap water could have chemicals in it that would kill him.
I've been caring for this little guy for almost 5 weeks now. He's taught me so much already and like I said, I want to be a good mom! Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I'm really glad I found this forum and hope you all could help me out a little. It's hard learning how to take care of an exotic animal in a little apartment while going to college, but it's worth it!
I'm new to the site and could use some pointers on how to get started. I don't know how to put up pictures or anything on my profile. I joined the forums because I have a young chameleon and want to be a good mom!
Any and every advice is appreciated!
An introduction to my chameleon
and our story of how we came to be:
*Caution: May be a tearjerker!*
I am personally more of a cat/dog/horse type person. I would have never imagined myself owning any type of reptile in my life. Yet, here I am! My friend had gone to a reptile convention and bought a juvenile chameleon for the heck of it and didn't ever pick up an information guide before taking him home. When I met the little chameleon, I had never seen one before and he was so interesting! I enjoyed watching and handling it every time I went over to her house. He had such a personality, I almost instantly fell in love with him. My friend let him roam freely around the house: climbing up drapes, scavenging through indoor plants and sleeping on top of the towel rack in the bathroom. In transport, he was put in a clean/humid plastic pretzel jar with a crested gecko (the other pet). Her boyfriend mainly took care of him. Almost two months ago to this day (around the end of July) he committed suicide in their apartment. He was a good friend of mine as well. A few weeks after his death, my friend decided she didn't want to take care of the chameleon anymore so I adopted him from her. Before, his name was Dude (the gecko's name was Bro...original, lol). I had seen disney's film Tangled previously. People used to call me Rapunzel all the time when I was little because of my long hair. I fell in love with tangled at the end where it show's she's actually a brunette, cause I am too! So, it seemed appropriate to name my new chameleon Pascal after the one in the movie! <3
I obviously wasn't going to keep him in a plastic pretzel jar. He was extremely capable of climbing out of it anyway. I had a 5 gallon tank that I kept him in for awhile. It had a screen top, I bought bark bedding, and put a stick in it from the yard to let him climb onto something. The next day I decorated the outside of the cage with fake vine leaves to make him feel more protected, bought crickets and a cricket keeper (put in a piece of manderine orange for food/water), and a uvb/uva bulb and lamp. He lived in that on my screened in back patio for about a week. I had a little mister bottle and sprayed him in the middle of the day. During this week, I educated myself a little on chameleon care through google (yay google!) and realized that he needed a MUCH bigger cage. I went to petsmart and found an awesome cage for about $70. Yea, I was like forget that! I had some scrap wood (teak) donated to me from a friend who helps build sail boats and bought a $7 screen, went home and built the cage!
After a week of labor, I built my first hardy piece of furniture! The cage has a removable glass cover to the bottom wood base so it will be easier to clean, a top hinged "lid" and a side hinged "door". The dimensions are 29" tall, 21" wide, and 19" deep. That's what I was able to do with the wood I was given. I built it vertical because I was told chameleons prefer heights. All five sides are screen because I read that it was a better habitat for them. I tossed the bark bedding and bought coconut fiber bedding that apparently absorbs moisture better and is easier to clean. The only thing holding the screen to the wood are staples from a gun and then covered it in wood caulking so he wouldn't scratch himself (I let it dry before putting him in the cage. As a chemical is this safe for him?). The cage is now indoors. He also has a foam wire stick to climb on (from petsmart) and I cut the fake fabric vine leaves and stuck them in the sides of his cage so he could climb on it (he sleeps on it at night). I got calcium supplement to coat the crickets in but I'm not sure I'm using it right because half of them die within a few hours and also bought food cubes for the cricket cage.
I read about dehydration and upped his misting to two times a day for 10 minutes manually or three times a day 5 minutes manually. I make sure to spray toward the leaves in the morning so that it would imitate the "dew" for him to drink. I also take him outside once a week to bask in normal sunlight and natural Florida humidity. I only do this for 15-30 minutes because I read that juveniles can't stand heat very well. While we were out the other day, he had his mouth open while basking and I noticed black powder looking stuff on the back his throat. The back/ top of the inside of his mouth was greyish but his gums were their normal pinkish color. I dont know if this is calcium buildup (giving him too much) or some kind of infection, or just a normal condition. I'm not sure how old he is. He is about 4" long with his tail curled up under him. A night when sleeping and when he is climbing on my arm he is usually a pale green. When basking in the cage and outside he turns tan with dark brown diamonds on his back and speckles everywhere else. I've also seen him turn all dark brown with the line on his underbelly and chin almost white when climbing around in his cage. Sometimes he looks like he's trying to show a orange or red color but never really gets there. Is this because he is young? Or is he sick?
Extra: (AKA- stuff I forgot to put in... He is a veiled chameleon, I keep a towel over the outside of his cage on one side between the cage and my bed to help hold humidity, his cage is in the corner of a room up against the two walls. I was told to not have glass as a side or door because their reflection could make them think it is another chameleon, he is fed large crickets. I have have seen him eat several house flies before I owned him and I've attempted feeding him collard green leaf, mustard green leaf, and turnip green leaf but he won't eat it. I've put a live meal worm in front of him before and he walked over it, never looking at it as food. I make sure the water I spray into his cage is spring or other filtered water because I was told tap water could have chemicals in it that would kill him.
I've been caring for this little guy for almost 5 weeks now. He's taught me so much already and like I said, I want to be a good mom! Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I'm really glad I found this forum and hope you all could help me out a little. It's hard learning how to take care of an exotic animal in a little apartment while going to college, but it's worth it!
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