New to owning a chameleon

[BellaBella]

Hi guys I'm new to the Chameleon World! We've had our chameleon for 2 weeks now. Did lots of research beforehand, we're still learning as we go as with anything. Any advice and tips would be greatly appreciated. She still tends to be in the dark green to brown color range. Is this normal? She's never gotten back to the beautiful green she was at the pet store. She does brighten up when excited or sleeping. This is a picture of her from this morning. Thanks!

 

[BellaBella]

I have no idea how I posted the pic 3 times lol

 

[Lazereth]

Congrats on your little girl shes beautiful!
If you like, you can fill this form out and copy it here and we'll take a look at your setup. How to ask for help
Also if you haven't already read this top to bottom. Veiled Chameleon Caresheet

 

[bobcochran]

Welcome to the forums! If you haven't already, check out the Resources tab at the top of this page, Thea's a wealth of info there for general cham care and specifically for veileds.
Your little girl looks to be in good health, she may be going to shed soon which might explain her slightly grayish tint..

 

[BellaBella]

Your Chameleon - veiled chameleon, female, estimated she's around 8 weeks old by her size. Have had her for 2 weeks.
Handling - not often, only when necessary Feeding - crickets and mealworms. 5 crickets some days and 10 worms other days. She's picky. Half in the morning rest in the evening. Supplements - flucker's cricket quenched calcium fortified. Reptile calcium daily.
Watering - have a dripper going constantly and mist about 3 times a day for roughly 5 minutes. I do see her drinking sometimes.
Fecal Description - never been tested for parasites. Poop and urate are normal in color.
History - no previous history

Cage Info:
Cage Type - nat geo wild Terrium with screen top and glass sides with screened portion on one side.
Lighting - 5.0 uvb and 75w daylight blue reptile bulb. 12 hours light 12 hours dark. No heat light needed at night currently.
Temperature - thermostats in top and bottom. Top usually gets to 80 bottom stays around 70. 60 at night
Humidity - really humid in Louisiana so it's not hard to maintain. Stays around 80. Sometimes right after misting it stays in 90s to 100 for a little while.
Plants - no live plants as of now. Do plan to get some soon. Suggestions would be great.
Placement - living room. Lots of foot traffic. Is not her permanent place she will be moved into my bedroom once remodelling is finished.
Location - south louisiana

Current Problem - not sure if I have one. She seems healthy just moody and picky. Also the last couple of days I noticed her opening and closing her mouth and sometimes puffing her throat out and back in. Is that normal?

Picture is of current cage set up. There were more plants she didn't eat for a couple of days and didn't seem to move around too much. We took the extra plants out and she immediately perked up ate and moves around daily. The cage is actually crap. My hubby will be making improvements when he comes home from work.

 

[BellaBella]

Welcome to the forums! If you haven't already, check out the Resources tab at the top of this page, Thea's a wealth of info there for general cham care and specifically for veileds.
Your little girl looks to be in good health, she may be going to shed soon which might explain her slightly grayish tint..

Thank you! I suspected shedding was going to happen soon.

 

[Theveiled]

Hey and welcome to the forums! What do you gut load your crickets with? Also do you use vitamin and calcium with d3 supplements? They should be used twice a month. Also mealworms are not the best for them as they have a hard shell and are hard to digest. I would try to use superworms instead.

 

[BellaBella]

Hey and welcome to the forums! What do you gut load your crickets with? Also do you use vitamin and calcium with d3 supplements? They should be used twice a month. Also mealworms are not the best for them as they have a hard shell and are hard to digest. I would try to use superworms instead.

The calcium I have does not have d3 in it. I thought the flucker's cricket quencher was the gut loader, I was misinformed at the pet store. I have made a list and am heading to the pet store today. Any suggestions on real plants?

 

[BellaBella]

The calcium I have does not have d3 in it. I thought the flucker's cricket quencher was the gut loader, I was misinformed at the pet store. I have made a list and am heading to the pet store today. Any suggestions on real plants?

Also I do not have any vitamins. I was aware chameleons needed them, I did not make the decision to get one blind or uninformed. I was not sure which was best to get.

 

[Hheartfire]

She is a lovely girl! Congratulations! I'm your chameleon loving neighbor in Texas. One thing I noticed that you might want to do is add a basking branch up close to her heat lamp. Even in very hot temperatures apparently this particular type of Chamaeleon still likes to bask. I like sunbathing sometimes even here in Texas so I totally get that.

My understanding is that this particular species is from Saudi Arabia and they like a hotter ambient temperature. One thing I learned to do is put one thermometer up at the top of the basking lamp and another at the bottom. The humidity gauge of course can go anywhere. I bought a $10 digital thermometer that has a probe on the wire and put that on the basking branch I know exactly what her temperature is there.

In the picture of her enclosure I see her sitting as close as she can for that lamp and I think that if you put the branch there you'll find surely enjoyed basking and I think you'll enjoy watching her do so.

I can't recall if you mention that you use a UVB lamp but she'll need one as well. The combination of the UVB lamp and D3 and her calcium supplement help them keep from getting metabolic bone disease.

One thing I just learned that you might not know is that females who aren't around a male might still get gravid with eggs so this would be a good place to get information on what to do just in case of that possibility.

I'm so excited for you and your venturing to chameleons! It'll be great to see some more pictures and enjoy as you learn about this beautiful species. Cheers!

 

[Theveiled]

The calcium I have does not have d3 in it. I thought the flucker's cricket quencher was the gut loader, I was misinformed at the pet store. I have made a list and am heading to the pet store today. Any suggestions on real plants?

I personally use dracenas but you could also use a lot of other plants like pothos. I know this is a good sitethis HTML class. Value is http://flchams.com/c

 

[Theveiled]

Sorry the link wont work but fl chams has a great list of safe plants

 

[Hheartfire]

Also I do not have any vitamins. I was aware chameleons needed them, I did not make the decision to get one blind or uninformed. I was not sure which was best to get.

On the vitamins I have heard to use twice a week. I've also heard that you can dust the vegetable portion of the diet because this particular species does enjoy some veggies even if they pick them up accidentally with their super worms or treat of butter worms. I've heard people using delicate greens like baby Romain for example for that ... seems to be the most favored. Mine hasn't touched hers yet but she's pretty new to me.

 

[Theveiled]

Sorry the link didnt work but fl chams has a great site on plants that are safe

 

[BellaBella]

She is a lovely girl! Congratulations! I'm your chameleon loving neighbor in Texas. One thing I noticed that you might want to do is add a basking branch up close to her heat lamp. Even in very hot temperatures apparently this particular type of Chamaeleon still likes to bask. I like sunbathing sometimes even here in Texas so I totally get that.

My understanding is that this particular species is from Saudi Arabia and they like a hotter ambient temperature. One thing I learned to do is put one thermometer up at the top of the basking lamp and another at the bottom. The humidity gauge of course can go anywhere. I bought a $10 digital thermometer that has a probe on the wire and put that on the basking branch I know exactly what her temperature is there.

In the picture of her enclosure I see her sitting as close as she can for that lamp and I think that if you put the branch there you'll find surely enjoyed basking and I think you'll enjoy watching her do so.

I can't recall if you mention that you use a UVB lamp but she'll need one as well. The combination of the UVB lamp and D3 and her calcium supplement help them keep from getting metabolic bone disease.

One thing I just learned that you might not know is that females who aren't around a male might still get gravid with eggs so this would be a good place to get information on what to do just in case of that possibility.

I'm so excited for you and your venturing to chameleons! It'll be great to see some more pictures and enjoy as you learn about this beautiful species. Cheers!

Thank you so much for your input. I do use the uvb. I'm considering purchasing a new cage that is all screen. It's been super humid down here and her cage I think may be over 100% humid for a while after misting. My digital Guage only goes up to 99. I did know about females still laying eggs. I'm hoping that by the time she is ready we will have built the bigger more functional cage we are making plans for.

 

[BellaBella]

On the vitamins I have heard to use twice a week. I've also heard that you can dust the vegetable portion of the diet because this particular species does enjoy some veggies even if they pick them up accidentally with their super worms or treat of butter worms. I've heard people using delicate greens like baby Romain for example for that ... seems to be the most favored. Mine hasn't touched hers yet but she's pretty new to me.

Thank you I happened to catch her trying to eat on the fake plants in her cage. It was incredibly cute so I'm sure she'll certainly enjoy what I provide for her. Good luck with your new girl!

 

[BellaBella]

She is a lovely girl! Congratulations! I'm your chameleon loving neighbor in Texas. One thing I noticed that you might want to do is add a basking branch up close to her heat lamp. Even in very hot temperatures apparently this particular type of Chamaeleon still likes to bask. I like sunbathing sometimes even here in Texas so I totally get that.

My understanding is that this particular species is from Saudi Arabia and they like a hotter ambient temperature. One thing I learned to do is put one thermometer up at the top of the basking lamp and another at the bottom. The humidity gauge of course can go anywhere. I bought a $10 digital thermometer that has a probe on the wire and put that on the basking branch I know exactly what her temperature is there.

In the picture of her enclosure I see her sitting as close as she can for that lamp and I think that if you put the branch there you'll find surely enjoyed basking and I think you'll enjoy watching her do so.

I can't recall if you mention that you use a UVB lamp but she'll need one as well. The combination of the UVB lamp and D3 and her calcium supplement help them keep from getting metabolic bone disease.

One thing I just learned that you might not know is that females who aren't around a male might still get gravid with eggs so this would be a good place to get information on what to do just in case of that possibility.

I'm so excited for you and your venturing to chameleons! It'll be great to see some more pictures and enjoy as you learn about this beautiful species. Cheers!

I just noticed in the picture you can't see my thermostats and gauges. But they are there

 

[Virgil1972]

It looks like you have her in a glass cage. I have read that they are not good for chams because they can become stressed by seeing their reflections.

 

[HueTheChameleon]

My veiled loves pothos and if you position them well, they will survive on the misting water plus sunlight.