New Owner: Health and Coloration Question

[Ninjazrain]

I was actually wondering if my chameleon has healthy coloration
We got him from a breeder in Jersey all skin and bones and BLACK
Opened the bag and looked at my girlfriend like what did you bring into our home
Lol
He’s turning around though but still has a darkness
It’s been a month now
Excuse my cage making skills
Please let me know your thoughts

Species: “Premium” Veiled

Sex: Male

Age: Young Adult?

Time Owned: 1 Month

Handling: Twice a day for free roam tree

Feeding: 3-4 Superworms and Hornworm treat randomly

Gutload: Superworms- Apples
Hornworms- Red Pep, Celery

Supplement: Prep Cal- Phosphorous free calcium with VIT.D ultra fine powder

Watering: Water Vase and Misting

Fecal: Guano It’s kinda of like bird poop

History: CB Reptiles didn’t give me any info

Cage Type: Half glass half of aluminum mesh
Height 4ft. Length 2.5ft. Depth 1ft

Lighting: Fluckers Ceramic Repta:100wEmitter
Tropical UVB & Heat Lighting Kit . from Zoo Med: 40w
Zilla Slimeline Tropical Reptile . Fixture- UV

Temp: 85 high 78 low

Humidity: Roughly 60%

Plants: Hibiscus

Placement: Near a window in the “Lizards Room”
The window is nearly always open and there is one vent in the room
I have a small fan for the cage if it starts to smell stuffy

Location: Dundalk, MD

 

[Flick boy]

Hi and welcome I don't believe superworms are staple feeders. Charts added variety is best . 30 / 50% humidity for veileds daytime but I don't know what the humidity is in nj now. As for lights a t5ho reptisun 5% or an arcadia 6% fluorescent light for uvb. Dark colours can indicate stress . Do you have pictures of your supplements? Are you going between an enclosure and free range

 

[ElliotG]

Hello and welcome! “Premium veiled” is just a label they put on Chams to charge more. He seems to be a normal veiled.

Super worms aren’t staples and are actually considered treats. Roaches are great staples, crickets can be as well.

Do you plan on upgrading him? How long do you mist and how many times a day? Dark colors can be from stress, or from soaking up heat from your lamp. Depends on circumstance that you have to be careful about.

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi. I’ll put my feedback in red.

Species: “Premium” Veiled It’s already been said that this is just a way to charge more.

Sex: Male

Age: Young Adult?

Time Owned: 1 Month

Handling: Twice a day for free roam tree

Feeding: 3-4 Superworms and Hornworm treat randomly This too has already been addressed and you were given the feeder graphic. Roaches and silkworms are perhaps the best feeders and my personal favorites.

Gutload: Superworms- Apples You’ll need to add more so that you are keeping your bugs healthy rather than just alive. The healthier your bugs are, the more nutritious they’ll be. Check the graphic you’ve already been given.
Hornworms- Red Pep, Celery

Supplement: Prep Cal- Phosphorous free calcium with VIT.D ultra fine powder What is your schedule? You should be using a calcium without D3 at every feeding except for one every week. For that feeding, you’ll alternate weekly between using a calcium with D3 and a multivitamin. There are other regimens, but this is the basic one.

Watering: Water Vase and Misting Not sure what you mean by water vase. Chams don’t normally drink from water bowls and it can be a risk to leave any standing water in their enclosure…they become laden with bacteria. Mist your plants for at least 2 minutes, 2-3 times a day and your cham will have good drinking opportunities. Do keep in mind that some chams are very secretive about drinking, so you may never see him drink.

Fecal: Guano It’s kinda of like bird poop It’s always a good idea to get a fecal check for parasites with all new animals. You can determine hydration from the urate. You want either white or with a little bit of yellow/orange. All orange or dark indicates not enough hydration.

History: CB Reptiles didn’t give me any info

Cage Type: Half glass half of aluminum mesh
Height 4ft. Length 2.5ft. Depth 1ft

Lighting: Fluckers Ceramic Repta:100wEmitter
Tropical UVB & Heat Lighting Kit . from Zoo Med: 40w
Zilla Slimeline Tropical Reptile . Fixture- UV
I’m a little confused why you have a heat emitter and a basking light.
Your uvb is a bit short and I wonder if it is a T5 or T8. T5 provides the best coverage and strength and you’ll want either a 5.0 ReptiSun uvb bulb or Arcadia 6%. I prefer Arcadia as it’s good for one year vs only 6 months for ReptiSun. The fixture should be long enough to span the width of your enclosure, so you need at least a 24” one. This is a great light and comes with bulb. https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/arcadia-prot5-uvb-kit.html

Temp: 85 high 78 low What are your night temps? At night you want a good drop in temps. Veileds can handle temps in the 60’s with no problem.

Humidity: Roughly 60% I’d try to bring this down as much as possible. Ideal day time range is between 30-50%. At night, with a good temp drop humidity can reach 80-100% to simulate natural hydration like in the wild.

Plants: Hibiscus Great plant! It does have very high light needs though and without a good plant light, won’t do well at all. Pothos and philodendron are cham staples and very easy to grow and thrive. Attaching safe plant list. Your guy will nibble your plants so they all need to be live and safe.

Placement: Near a window in the “Lizards Room”
The window is nearly always open and there is one vent in the room
I have a small fan for the cage if it starts to smell stuffy
I do have a bit of feedback about your enclosure. It’s best to have the bottom bare (or bioactive). While the substrates look nice, they can pose an impaction risk if your cham ingests any and again going back to bacterial growth. If that’s a fountain in the corner, is best to remove it. Again, bacterial risk. I know it’s a challenge to hang branches and vines on both screen and glass, but your little guy needs many more of them. What may be a good option for you is garden lattice secured to the sides and then you can attach branches/vines. All of that empty space can’t be used by your cham. Once you get the correct uvb light, you’ll want his basking area to be around 8-9” down from the top.
Stuffy smell is not good. Many who use glass or hybrid enclosures use a small muffin fan on the top of the enclosure to help move air upwards. As you are lacking bottom air vents, there’s no chimney effect to draw the air up thru the top. Using a small fan to suck the air up will help. Poor air circulation plus heat is a risk for a respiratory infection. You’ll also want to replace the fake plants with real, as I mentioned above. I would suggest planning on upgrading your guy to an all screen and slightly larger enclosure. While 4’ high and 2.5’ wide is great, 1’ deep is a bit short. If you search the forum for enclosure builds, you’ll find lots of ideas for making your own if you are handy. Checking Facebook marketplace and Craig’s List you may be able to find a decent enclosure…just be sure to sanitize it well first. I use ReptiBreezes XL and DIY enclosures. I like DIY’s better, but wasn’t able to get as many as I needed. https://www.diycages.com/collections/vertical-screen-reptile-chameleon-cages …and they’re STILL sold out.
For some great accurate and up to date keeping guidelines, do check out https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-basics/
On YouTube, Neptune the chameleon is another great resource.
There’s also https://caskabove.com/
Of course feel free to ask whatever questions you may have and sharing about your cham here. I hope I’ve been of some help.

 

[Ninjazrain]

Sorry for the late response
Super busy with work
This is all such great info
Thank you all
Jinx will be getting a brand new habitat and eating regiment
We’re also going shopping this weekend for new lighting and lots of plants
I’ll definitely reach out if any other questions surface