New Veiled Owner. Any tips?

Erfir

New Member
Hey everyone. I'm new to the forum.

I got Mac, a Male Veiled Chameleon about 4 months ago.
I'm estimating his age at approx 5 1/2 to 6 months old.

Feeding has just been standard crickets so far, planning on adding in superworms/hornworms every now and then.

For the enclosure, 30x30x48 mesh reptarium. All the plants are live.
I mist 3 times a day, thinking about investing in a mist king system because work sometime conflicts with the schedule.

Lighting has been somewhat problematic.
I live in eastern canada, and the only place I can keep him safe from the cat is down in the basement with me.
Unfortunately it's pretty cold down here.
To compensate, I have a wide array of lighting.

I have a 75W infared basking lamp I leave on constantly so there is always a constant heat source for him.
He seems to like it. There is also a 150W Daylight bulb in the center of the enclosure,
and it provides most of the daytime heat.

In addition to all this, I have a dual top set up with 2x tube 5.0 UVB lights and 2x 15W halogen lamps.

Any tips?

Also, Pics!
 
he looks nice, how are you supplimenting your feeders for your cham? as well is with all that light how are humidity levels.
if you dont have a decent digital temp/humidity meter i would get one.
and welcome to the forum and the addiction
hoj
 
Dusting the crickets with a multivitamin every 3-4 days.

The plants have been keeping the humidity pretty well. When I mist I do so pretty heavily, keeping in mind how much lighting there is =P.
 
That seems like a bit too often for a multi-vitamin. Also, you will need some calcium supplements as well. Some with vitamin D3, some without. Most people seem to suggest the multivitamin and the calcium with D3 one or two times a month and the regular calcium much more often, depending on the age of the chameleon. Since your guy is still growing, but not a baby, every few days should be good. My panther at that age would always have excess out of his nose if I gave him calcium more often then every three days. But that is just my experience.
 
Ok, Sounds good. I also forgot to mention I have a liquid electrolyte & vitamin
D3 supplement I add directly to the misting bottle every second or third day.

I Also have some multivitamin minus phosphorus that I use for my ocelot gecko,
but I didnt know if I should use it or not.
 
is all that lighting in one cage? I would not put Vitmamin d3 in the water. Just dust your feeders with the calcium with d3 a couple of times a month. Use your plain calcium at every feeding. what are you feeding your crickets and superworms for gutload?
 
Yes, all the lighting is in one cage. It's hard to understand how cold a concrete, non insulated basement is on the shoreline of eastern canada. Freaking freezing.

I have a premixed feed I get from the petstore for next to nothing (Friend is a manager there) that I use to gutload.

Again, thanks for the input.
 
Here is some information that I hope will help...
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption. Temperatures needed can vary with the species and age. For hatchling panthers I keep the temperature in the warmest area in the low 80's. For older panthers I keep it in the mid to high 80's for the most part.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

Since many of the feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.

Here are some good sites for you to read...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
 
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