New veiled owner

[jbc]

Hi.
I'm new and have 2 veiled chameleons a male & female they are now 10 weeks old and I got them when they were 6 weeks old.
I have them feeding from my hand and have the male coming to me for food.
The female comes but not every times as she keeps a eye on him.
They are brother and sister from the breeders first clutch and he sold the father and replaced him with new blood.
I was told I had to have a male so she wouldn't die from not mating over her having eggs in her.
Her mother is bossy and took off her partners tail !.
So I'm trying to get them tame and also trying out a dripper for them to drink from.
They are in a 3x2x15 viv with heating and uv light..substrate is forest bed .
I have a 10 inche rear vent for air flow.
I have seen on YouTube veiled being handled and very tame so this is what I'm trying to do with them and if need be I'll buy another viv for her if they fight.

Thanks for Reading.

 

[Julirs]

Welcome JBC! I am going to assume you are accross the ocean somewhere. You definitely need to separate them before they are 4 months old. That stuff about needing a male so that the female does not die is NOT TRUE. You certainly do not want them breeding as they are siblings. Females will lay infertile eggs as young as 6 months mated or not. It is necessary to have the proper laying bin in her cage at that age just in case she needs to lay. If the female is always keeping an eye on that male it probably means he is dominant and I would go ahead and separate now to keep her from getting stressed and dieing. I would also remove the substrate-it is an impaction danger. What kind of temps are you keeping them at and what lighing, supplements are you using. I am worried that with what that breeder told you so far you might be off to a bad start.

 

[jbc]

details

Uv is best I could get for em I did alot of searching around to get it right as I have a 12 yr old bearded dragon and use the same for him.
Forest bed I checked out it's coco nut brick only use small layer 1/4 inche deep.
Female bossy over male ... like her mother .
Heating 88f - by bulb none spotlight .. So just heating .
habistat temp thermostat. elect thermometer .. sheld over heater with mesh guard .
they love to eat locust.. he loves wax worms .
feed em crickets too.
Food dusted with nutrobal.

 

[Pumpkinface]

get rid of the substrate, not only for the chamd health, but also for you. printer paper is way easier to change than substrate. veilds like hot temps so you can let the temps be in the 90's. Sorry the breeder scammed you, but now you have two great pets, who shouldnt breed, because its gross. bust most importantly WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEIR MOM TOOK A MALE'S TAIL?!?!

 

[jbc]

get rid of the substrate, not only for the chamd health, but also for you. printer paper is way easier to change than substrate. veilds like hot temps so you can let the temps be in the 90's. Sorry the breeder scammed you, but now you have two great pets, who shouldnt breed, because its gross. bust most importantly WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEIR MOM TOOK A MALE'S TAIL?!?!

the mother took off the fathers tail and left just a stump .. the breeder had some others that were like this also.

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum and the world of chameleons!

In addition to removing the substrate and separating them here is some more information that should be helpful...

Exposure to UVB either from direct sunlight or from a UVB light that provides the right range of UV. There should be no glass or plastic between the light and the chameleon. Some of the compacts, spirals and even some of the tube lights have caused problems so the most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0. Exposure to UVB allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system.

Appropriate temperatures aid in digestion and thus play and role in nutrient absorption. To provide heat/a basking area, if needed, you can use a regular incandescent household bulb of a wattage that produces the appropriate temperature. The bulb is put into a hood.

Many of the feeder insects we use have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous so dusting them before feeding them to the chameleon with a phos.-free calcium powder helps to make up for this.

To ensure that the chameleon has enough D3 without overdosing it, the insects can be dusted twice a month lightly with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder. D3 from SUPPLEMENTS can build up in the system so don't overdo it.

The insects can be dusted with a vitamin powder twice a month. I use one with a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A because it doesn't build up in the system like prEformed vitamin A can. However, its not proven as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene so some people give a little prEformed vitamin A once in a while. Excess prEformed vitamin A can interfere with the D3 and push the chameleon towards MBD though...so be careful with it.

Gutloading/feeding your insects a nutritious diet is important too. I gutload/feed crickets, roaches, superworms with a mixture of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, sweet potato, squash, sweet red pepper, zucchini, celery leaves, etc.).

D3, calcium, phos. and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems and need to be in balance. When trying to attain a balance you need to look at the supplements, what you feed to the insects and what you feed to the chameleon.

Here are some articles that you might like to read...
http://adcham.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060421.../index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html
http://chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=102
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/

Also, its important that the female have a place in her cage to dig to lay eggs should she need to once she has become sexually mature. They can lay eggs even when not mated (infertile, of course) and failure to provide her with a place to lay them can lead to eggbinding and death.

Good luck with them!

 

[jbc]

advice

Welcome to the forum and the world of chameleons!

In addition to removing the substrate and separating them here is some more information that should be helpful...

Exposure to UVB either from direct sunlight or from a UVB light that provides the right range of UV. There should be no glass or plastic between the light and the chameleon. Some of the compacts, spirals and even some of the tube lights have caused problems so the most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0. Exposure to UVB allows the chameleon to
!

thanks .. I'm not going to breed them and I use a UVB 5.0 .. What I'll do is buy another viv for her and also try to find the right container for her to use for laying the eggs.
What should be used ? Play sand? and how much if to be mixed with water?.
I was using sand sheets used for caged birds on the bottom to make the viv look nice . But spraying did not go well with it.
Also they hate the spray !.

 

[pssh]

What kind of UVB? Though not all compact coil types are deadly or bad, it is usually safest to just stick with what is known and use a long reptisun 5.0.

What many use for the laying box is clean play sand or a mix of clean play sand and coco fiber. it should be moist enough that you can form a ball in your hand with it and so that she can dig a tunnel in it without it collapsing. The bin should be big 10-12 inches deep and big enough for her be able to have three or so inches in every direction. She probably wont need a laying box until the 6 month mark however.

A drip system would help with them, just poke a hole in a cup and set it on top of the screen. Also, they may seem to not like the spray, but you should still do it at least 2 times a day for a minute or longer each time. Go ahead and take out the sand sheets and use paper towels or nothing at all.

With the caging, make sure there is enough air flow in it. What some UK members do it cut out a few holes in the cage and cover them with screen so that more air gets in the cage.

By the way, if the breeder's chameleons are loosing tails, it obviously means that he doesn't know enough about chameleons to be breeding them. I would strongly advise him to rethink what he is doing to his poor animals and either stop, or get his act together. I would not buy from him in the future if I were you.

 

[jbc]

What kind of UVB? Though not all compact coil types are deadly or bad, it is usually safest to just stick with what is known and use a long reptisun 5.0.

It's a long tube light UVB 5.0 and they can clime up to be under heat and uvb.
The chameleons he has on show in his fathers shop lose tails because they have them biten off by the other chameleons they are in with.
The viva he keeps em in are 24x24x15 so not enough room.
he has bred snakes and b'dragons geckos and his family have been in carp trade for years.
It's a well known shop for fish and the son has his own rep side.
The breeder is in his 40's and trades with other shops too.
I will some time post pics of my chams for all to see.

Thank for a kind welcome. I'm hoping to learn as much as I can.

 

[pssh]

I understand that it's from another chameleon biting the first. In order to even consider keeping chameleons together as adults you have to be able to monitor them extremely carefully to make sure that the animals aren't getting stressed or fighting. If he's keeping other chameleons together and they are biting each other's tails off it means he doesn't understand the signs the chameleons are showing. If he were a good breeder, he should have known when the female started to bully the male and seperated them immediately. Because he didn't separate them, it shows that he doesn't know enough about chameleons to keep them together.

I suppose just because he doesn't know enough about chameleons to be keeping them together, doesn't mean he doesn't know enough to breed them. But still, he should separate them and put them in larger enclosures.

 

[jbc]

Drinking from bottle

Yep I totally agree ,
and today both my chams drank from a small water bottle that's use for mice,hampster, it's taken a week for them to learn it's water.
Well worth doing and all I had todo was make a pin hole in it's top to speed up the drops- 75m bottle with a 75m bowl under it.
It's better as they hate the spray on them so now I spray just the bottom of the viv and branshes.
I suppose just because he doesn't know enough about chameleons to be keeping them together, doesn't mean he doesn't know enough to breed them. But still, he should separate them and put them in larger enclosures.[/QUOTE]

 

[pssh]

It may be a good idead to spray them every once in a while directly because its good for them to clean out their eyes.

As soon as they have their own enclosures, pictures would be nice. Everyone loves pictures.

 

[jbc]

Pics

It may be a good idead to spray them every once in a while directly because its good for them to clean out their eyes.

As soon as they have their own enclosures, pictures would be nice. Everyone loves pictures.

I have some I took with my iPhone so I'll get around to uploading them.
Also my male is calming down as he comes right up to the opening standing on it's edge to get food.
Female is slow to come for feeding..

 

[Shimpy45]

I to woundered about the egg laying contaner?

 

[pssh]

Very cool. Mine wouldn't come to me if his life depended on it. He also gets all puffed up when I try to hand feed. I love it.

 

[jbc]

Very cool. Mine wouldn't come to me if his life depended on it. He also gets all puffed up when I try to hand feed. I love it.

I found my male loves wax worms and locus.
So if he puffs up I stand my ground and keep my hand there with a wax worm he soon stops and goes for the food and now he is happy to walk or stand on my hand and if he puffs up I know it's a bluff.
My female is not bluffing when she opens her mouth but she's smaller so in time I will find what food she loves .
I'll be posting pics very soon just trying to get more up to date ones.