Newbie Help

joeandsoph

joeandsoph

Established Member
We are getting a veiled chameleon in a few weeks and have never had one before. We were wondering if heat is needed at night as well as in the day and also if there are any other tips you can give us such as feeding (i.e do they need salad as well as live food, what temperature is recommended, how many hours of light is needed, and any enclosure help etc,).

Thanks
 
Hi Brad,

We have looked a little on that site and it has been helpful, we were just looking aswell for extra tips that any of you may have through experience.
 
Well lets start off with the seach link you have as an option :). I know your looking for straight forward answers, which I will give you. But try and use the search link, then if you cant find it. ask on the forums :)

Heat needed at night : Needs to stay above 60-65degreese(note: the temp SHOULD drop 10-15degrees at night as it helps the cham sleep)
Feeding : Crickets are a good staple, MAKE SURE you gut load them with fruits n veggies. Yes Veiled chameleons will eat veggies, They will also eat the plants you have in your enclosure. So make sure you buy REAL plants that are non toxic. You can find a list of non-toxic plants in the enclosure part of the forums. Chameleons MUST HAVE a UVB(i recommend the reptisun5.0) depending on the size of your cage. Make sure the UVB light is no more than 10 inches away from his basking light. Temperature recommended for a veiled cham all depends on his/her age. They must have a 12 hour duration of your UVB and Basking light. and BTW if you have not set up your cage/enclosure. DO NOT USE any substrate, it is NOT recommended at all. The live plants you put in there. Make sure you repot/cover the soil with rocks or something so the chameleon will not eat the soil as it can cause digestion problems. If you have any basic questions feel free to post on this forum, as there are ALOT of highly experienced cham owners on here :). But dont forget about the search link as alot of people have asked the same questions you may ask.

Goodluck!!
-Sean

joeandsoph said:
We are getting a veiled chameleon in a few weeks and have never had one before. We were wondering if heat is needed at night as well as in the day and also if there are any other tips you can give us such as feeding (i.e do they need salad as well as live food, what temperature is recommended, how many hours of light is needed, and any enclosure help etc,).

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Sean. The place we are getting him from already uses a substrate in his tanks, why shouldn't it be used? We use it with our beardie and he's ok with it.

Thanks
 
subtrate is a bad idea i had wood chippins in my viv which the pet shop advised but when it comes to feeding time and the crickets are running around if your cham misses it could pick up a piece of subtrate and become impacted,choke also sand is a bad idea to i now use newspaper,paper towel with no probs some people dont put anythin on the bottom but using news paper or towel it's easier to clean the poo lol and it saves you loads of money cause i get a paper everyday lol hope that helped a bit
 
It is recommended that it is not used because it can cause impaction (clog their digestive tract) if they accidentally eat some when shooting at a cricket.

Also with all of the water that will be going onto the enclosure through mistings and drippers running it can cause bacteria to grow if it cannot dry out completely.

Some people (mainly europe and cooler/dryer regions such as canada) have had positive results with using substrate in their enclosure.

Some people claim that it helps keep the humidity up.

Others claim it is a death sentance.

I (as well as many other people on these forums) do not reccomend substrate because it raises the risk of having a problem
 
A beardie is not a chameleon :p

Chams are never on the ground, enless they arent doing well, which incase see a vet asap.

Pet stores usually dont know ANYTHING, and just want the income. You will hear some stories on this forum about pet stores screwing people over, giving stupid advice.

Put down newspaper/paper towels/ or even some carpet as a substrate.

Get a screen enclosure for your cham as they need the airflow. They will also need good humidity, im not sure exactly how much a veiled needs but i would try and keep it around 55-75..
Chams are one of the harder reptiles to take care of in my opinion. I have only had mine for about 2months now...But ill tell you.

Some chameleons hate being held, you want to try to avoid holding them as much as possible(only when cleaning the cage ect.)

But ive heard stories of chams climbing right onto their owners hands right when they open their cage.

All chams have a diff personality.

Also you will need a VARIETY of insects for your cham as he grows. Crickets are AWESOME for them as they are easy to gutload. Avoid feeding your cham mealworms as they are not great for your chameleon(shell is hard, MAY be hard to digest and they are hard to gutload)

Good feeders are Crickets, Dubia Roaches, Hornworms, Silkworms, Superworms when he is big enough. And Wax worms are OK as they are high is fat, and should be used as treats mainly

Hope this helped!
-Sean
 
i have noticed since i switched from the wood chippins the news paper creates a lot of humidity on the glass doors and on the fake plants also it's true about the bacteria and mould it's white and fluffy i know i had this to i only noticed it when i was cleanin them out one day it was buried underneath and slowly goin up one of the walls
and don't trust pet shops they have told me loads of bad info which is why i use this forum for my info now they told me i could keep a male and female together in a fish tank forever wow my male out grew that in a couple of weeks he then nearly killed my female she was in a corner black and cold with a cut on her eye i built them a new viv now [seperate] lol there is loads of people on here who can give really good info so use this forum if you need advice the people are good and you get loads of good ideas
 
Eeek I'm confused now lol. The pet shop is pretty good it's a guy who has had reptiles forever. He gave us a bag of this bark stuff but not I'm contemplating whether to use it.

Thanks for your help guys.
 
ye the guy in the pet shop i go to keeps chameleon as pets lol and that bark stuff is the stuff he gave me lol says they use it in the zoo and the other guy who owns the pet shop keeps diff reptiles lol
 
John, doesn't your newspaper goe a bit disgusting with the damp and also do you change it every day or how often?
 
Get a nice sreen cage with the hard plastic white bottom. That is all you need. Then, you can spot clean up poops-they wipe up easily, and once a month you can take it outside, spray some bleach water on it, let it soak for 10 minutes, then rinse it off. Much healthier than newspaper, or carpet, or bark, or substrate of any kind, and much easier to keep clean. If you set your plants on a plant stand or kitchen cabinet style shelf, it makes it even easier for both clean up and drainage if you choose to drill holes in the bottom. If your cage is planted well enough, I find that I can mist and not worry to much about holes for drainage.
So-you need a screen cage, a UVB flourescent tube, a clamp lamp and 60-75 watt household lightbulb, some vines, some live plants (washed and re-potted in organic soil or washed and large smooth rocks too big for the cham to eat covering the dirt) and a hugely important tool-the DIGITAL THERMOMETER to make sure your temps are spot on. Supplements, gutloaded feeders, and now you are ready for your chameleon.
Just because a Petstore says it is OK, don't believe them. They may very well have used substrate for years and just been lucky enough to not have an issue-or probably more realistic have had problems they never attributed to the substrate.
Welcome and good luck-we are here if you need us. 1000's of experienced chameleon keepers chanting the same message! No compact bulbs and no substrate! :)
 
Thanks for all your help. Really glad I cam on here because I've found out a lot more stuff in these last 2 days. More than they guy who is selling him to us =D The only other issue I really have it the heat. Do they need a heat lamp at night because we don't have one yet?
 
We have a heater in our cage, just in case, but it never goes below 18C, so doesn't kick in. i think it's better to have it and not need it, rather than the other way round.
 
i live in the uk and my max temp by the basking spot is 32c and at nite they dont have any type of heating at all an the temp is between 19c and 20c i read on the kitty blog they need this drop in temp at nite and yes i change it every day it no prob tho because you just make sure ur branches or logs are above ground it pretty easy to do i just tied the jungle vine around the branches and things have you read the kitty blog yet some one has it on here???? ask a member
 
Hey thanks John, that help with the heat. Yeh the kitty blog has been really helpful just couldn't find that particular thing son there. I like to hear what other think too. Quite looking forward to getting the little dude now =D Just need to think of his name.
 
ye they are really cool but do take a lot of time to look after lol i just built a new viv nearly finished it now and i would advise to get timers for the lights because if your anything like me it varys wot time it goes on in the morn lol it will also help with a routine im goin to get one for this new viv so if you do go out or forget the lights go on/off anyway alot easier lol
 
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