New veiled question

[Aynjelsprite]

We bought a juvie veiled charms over the weekend and she's been awesome. She even started molding on Monday. Today, when my husband got home, she was a darker green than normal, but brightened right up as soon as he opened the cage door and let her roam a bit. She ate some crickets, drank some water, and turned back darker green again. Is it possible that she's starting the egg process?

 

[kinyonga]

Post a photo of her please.

She's likely reacting to you and being in and out of her cage.

 

[Aynjelsprite]

Will post a pic as soon as we get home.

As for letting her out, she comes up to the door and starts trying to get to him thru the door. Today, she started out dark until he opened the door and she turned bright green again while climbing all over him. She also brightened back up while eating.

 

[Aynjelsprite]

Pictures don't seem to do her colors justice (but I'm new to all this too).

 

[Aynjelsprite]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - veiled. Not sure how old. Bought from Petsmart this past weekend.
• Handling - once a day maybe.
• Feeding - small crickets (8-10)
• Supplements - just bought calcium with d3 powder tonight. Haven't seen calcium without d3 yet.
• Watering - automatic mister set to 4 hour intervals for 12 seconds at a time.
• Fecal Description - looks normal.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Exoterra glass viv 18x18x36 I think.
• Lighting - 1 5.0 uvb bulb and a basking bulb.
• Temperature - ambient temp seems to stay around 72-74. Not sure on basking as I haven't gotten a second thermostat yet.
• Humidity - stays between 50% and 70% depending on time of day.
• Plants - all fake at the moment
• Placement - On a dresser.
• Location - Florida

Current Problem - darker than normal coloring than she's been since we got her. Just had her first shed session over the kast few days. Possible egg process beginning?

 

[lycan_megura0523]

It is probably just trying to absorb some of the UVB or trying to warm up their color darkens when they are cold or wanting to absorb some rays. I would get a thermometer as soon as possible.
Is she spending a lot of time at the bottom of the cage and clawing the ground?

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

You definitely need at least one real plant. They help with humidity and your chameleon will be very unhappy without one. If you need a list of chameleon plants, here is a good one: https://flchams.com/chameleon-safe-plant-list/
For basking temp, shoot for around 80-85. That will be best for the chameleon.
As for the egg process, if you just recently bought her from PetSmart, then I am guessing she is under 5 months old and therefore not sexually mature yet, which you may start to notice maturity around 6-7 months, but every chameleon is different. Do you feed her every day?
Also, you are going to need to find calcium without D3 soon because you shouldn't give them D3 calcium at every feeding. You should have a cycle between regular calcium and D3 calcium. Usually the calcium product will advertise the fact whether it has D3 or not.
Also, handling once a day may be a bit to stressful for your cham. Limit it to maybe once a week, if not less often than that.
The dark coloring is probably from stress. Can you send a picture of her entire enclosure so we can see the setup? Also, you may want to think about buying a linear UVB bulb because they are longer lasting and are easier on the chameleon's eyes. Hopefully some of that helps.

 

[Aynjelsprite]

Thanks for both replays.

I'll start by saying that she initiates being let out. As my husband is normally the first one home, he sees her first and she tries to get to him. This is actually what made us look at her to begin with. She tried to get to our son at the pet store.

We haven't given her calcium anything as of yet. Just bought the powder tonight after reading these forums yesterday and last night. Normally just crickets. Yes, we feed her every night.

We'll also be looking into a live plant this weekend as we don't get paid again until friday. Woohoo! Also need a few other things for the enclosure that we weren't sure on at set up and petsmart utsmart peeps dont seem to be the most informed.

I haven't seen her on the bottom of the cage much, but I do see where she has been digging over the last day or so. Also something she was doing the day we got her.

 

[Aynjelsprite]

Dang, forgot to attach pic of cage before hitting post reply. Sorry! (It's been a long day)

 

[Aynjelsprite]

 

[lycan_megura0523]

You. need to look up hoot make a laying bin on youtube just to be on the safe side you don't want her to become egg bound.

 

[Kristen99]

Remove the substrate this can cause your chameleon to become impacted if ingested. Not worth the trip to the vet.
Your misting sessions need to be more like 3 mins ever 4 hours or so at lease 3 times a day for 3 mins at a time 12 seconds is not nearly long enough they need to be stimulated into drinking.
Look into getting a screen enclosure with glass your more likely to cause a RI (respritoy infection) witch will in turn cause problems all around in health, with a glass enclosure the air circulation is important therefore a screen enclosure is preferable.
Like @CamrynTheCham22 get the linner uvb bulb and make sure your heat bulb is a white light no coils or colors for bulbs. Live plants are great and dusting your feeders is important lightly dust with d3 and vitamins 2 times a month not on the same day and lightly dust with no d3 every or every other feeding. Gutloading your feeders is also important with things like kale,orangers,ect.
You want to have more foliage at the top of the enclosure rather than at the bottom here is a attachment of my set up for reference.
Congratulations on your little lady!

 

[Aynjelsprite]

Should there be anything on the bottom then if we take substrate out? Like I said, petsmart employee's apparently don't know much as that's what they suggested to put in it.

 

[Fiona's Mom]

Nothing needed on floor to replace substrate...makes it easier to keep clean. Also chams are better off being fed in the morning...it gives them more time to digest. Feeding at night could csuse inpaction.

 

[Fiona's Mom]

Should there be anything on the bottom then if we take substrate out? Like I said, petsmart employee's apparently don't know much as that's what they suggested to put in it.

Petsmart employees as a rule don't really know about their care nor do most of them care. It is their job to sell stuff.

 

[Aynjelsprite]

Nothing needed on floor to replace substrate...makes it easier to keep clean. Also chams are better off being fed in the morning...it gives them more time to digest. Feeding at night could csuse inpaction.

I read that yesterday also. We have her half the normal amount of crickets last night and gave her more this morning to start her on that process.

We'll start getting the substrate out tonight then and moving plants and such around the top of the cage until we can get a few more things for her.

 

[Graves923]

Just want to throw in my suggestion since everyone covered everything else I was gonna say. Increase your misting times. 12 seconds in not nearly enough. 3+ minutes is ideal and will allow the chameleon to be stimulated to drink and clean their eyes.

I dont have any experience with keeping chameleons in glass enclosures but I would imagine that increasing the misting will cause the ambient humidity to linger longer than needed which is why good air flow in and out of the cage is necessary.

Also, I would like to add, your chameleon will be growing fast so start planning out and adult size cage. Currently, that cage is good for her but she will out grow it quick. I had my male in a cage that measured 16X16X30 inches when I first got him and had to upgrade to a 24 X 24 X 48 inch cage at around 9 months old.

Another thing, add more climbing branches or vines higher up in the cage. In the photo you posted it doesnt look like she had a basking branch 6 inches under the basking light. Once you add some more branches up there, measure the temp on the branch directly under the basking light and adjust the branch height to get the desired basking temperature.

Hope all this helps! There is alot of info to digest in general when learning how to keep these creatures but its worth it.

 

[Aynjelsprite]

You all have been a great help for sure. It is a lot on information and the lady at the pet store was fairly informed, but not neat the level that you guys are. I love to look through everything here to get more, and better, ideas about how to keep her going as long as possible.

We've already been talking about getting (or making) a bigger enclosure. I've actually been looking online this morning (instead of adulting and working lol) to see what options we have and what will be the cheaper option. Would it be feasible to do 2 sides of the cage as a solid material and 2 sides open? I'm just concerned about misting and it constantly getting on walls or whatever since we keep her inside.

This morning the humidity was pretty high, but it was also cooler in our house than normal due to yuck weather over night. As soon as I opened the doors to put some crickets in and hand mist the leaves, the humidity level dropped almost 10 degrees so that was nice.

We will also be stopping back by a pet store tonight to get calcium without D3 and some bendy vines for the basking spot. (yay for rearranging the cage!)

**random after thought here, and possibly be a stupid question, but how does water/misting stay inside an open air cage??**

 

[Fiona's Mom]

I stapled an attractive plastic tablecloth around a piece od plywood that I set on my stand...it is 6" bigger than the cage all around. If you spray from above it doesn't hit the walls etc. so much. You can also hang plastic shower curtain on the sides if it helps. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Graves923]

**random after thought here, and possibly be a stupid question, but how does water/misting stay inside an open air cage??**

The majority of the mist stays inside the cage if you position the misting nozzles just right. I also wrap two sides of my cage, opposite the nozzle, to keep over spray in the cage and trap humidity as well. That, along with proper drainage, will keep 90+ percent of the water in the cage. The only issue I've encountered is slight over spray on my floors directly under the side of the cage in which I have my nozzle. I just started laying a beach towel down to keep my wood floors from warping and all is good.

Lots of live plants help keep most of the mist inside the cage and help maintain humidity better than fake plants.