Newbie here! What advice do you have?

[PascalsMama]

Hello! My name is Katie, I am 24 and got my first veiled cham on Saturday, his name is Pascal. My girls named him Pascal because of the movie Tangled. My husband and I have 3 kids, 2 dogs- one American Eskimo and one Chihuahua, 2 cats-one all white long haired that we aren't sure of the breed, and one Bengal, 1 bearded dragon, 2 Chinese water dragons, 3 rats, and of course our newest- our veiled chameleon. I am a student and of course a Mom, and I love having all of these animals to teach our children about. I want them to grow up respecting animals and learning about them, and especially not to be afraid of them. It has been such a learning experience so far, they love them and know a lot about them, more than most adults that don't have lizards.

What advice do you have for me? What do you wish you would have known when you bought your chameleon? I've read many different websites online, but personal experience is always nice to hear.

I've heard different things about feeding crickets. My veiled is about 2 inches long not including the body- maybe a little more. How many crickets would you recommend feeding him? The guy @ the pet store said 5-6 small crickets every other day, but our cham seems to want to eat way more, and we have been feeding him every day, and more than 5-6. We put a bunch in the cage, some hide so he can't even find them, so we put about 10-15 in there every day.

Also- I was wondering about the glass vs. screen cages. I know air flow is important. What cage do you have & why?

Thanks so much, I have read these forums already and look forward to talking with you all and learning a whole lot more!

 

[froggielog]

Well first off, welecome to the forum! This is a wonderful site chocked full of great info and good people.

Now i do recomend a screen enclosure. The air flow is very important.
In glass cages they trap the heat and make it one: almost like a oven, amd two: chameleons are aboerl (sp?), they spend most of there time in the trees, so its hard to find a glass cage thats tall enough to cater the needs of a chameleon. And screens are always cheaper

Well for young growing chameleons they should be eating 10-20 crickets a day/every other day. If might be better though to cup feed him or hand feed him at such a young age, so that the rest of the crixs dont go to waste.It is important though to not leave so many uneaten crix in the cage at night, when your little guy is sleeping, the crixs might think hes a meal and can injure the cham.

 

[kinyonga]

Glass or screen? It depends on your location and whether or not you have air conditioning in your house as to which would be best. I've kept chameleons for 20+ years and never kept them in all screen cages because I live in Ontario. With glass cages you can get air flow but not as much as in a screen cage....humidity will stay better in glass than in screen. However, if you live in a cold climate or have air conditioning in your house you will likely find that the chameleon has to sit up near the lights most of the to stay warm. Watering in a glass cage can present the problem of not letting water lie stagnant on the floor of the cage...but with screen cages you have to worry about collecting the water and over spray. Both have advantages and disadvantages, as you can see.

Here's an article that talks about glass cages...
http://chameleonnews.com/10JulAndersonGlass.html

Here's some information I hope will help you with things like supplements, gutloading, etc. to start you off...
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

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.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it. At that size you only need to feed it every two or three days. Feed it enough that it doesn't get fat (and, of course, doesn't get thin either).

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity 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 too...
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://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.

 

[PascalsMama]

Thanks so much! There's a lot of info. to read. Right now he's in an Exo Terra terrarium. We live in Wisconsin so it's cold up here a lot.

Have you all heard good things about Screameleons? I was thinking about possibly purchasing one from them eventually, but not in the near future.

Thanks for the replies! =)

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Screameleons is well trusted, so is LLLreptile, and you can find on the top right a button that says view our sponsors, sites we trust for chameleon food, enclosures, etc.

Here are some basics:

Dust the food of the cham every day with a calcium duster with OUT d3, use WITH d3 twice a month.

You'll want an enclosure higher than it is long, so usually a 2x2x4 I'd think for Veild's.

Mist 3 times a day with warm water, you can also purchase a Mist King which you can have automatically mist if say you're a working mom, they can be set to mist, drips, or rain.

Best feeders are crickets and Dubia roaches, the roaches are best because they breed better, have a better content, and can't jump or climb glass. You can occasionally feed them with other feeders like Meal worms, superworms, butterflies, etc. NEVER take the chance with spiders and fireflies, they are poisonous and can kill them. Avoid any brightly colored foods.

You'll need the UVB light for 12 hours a day, have no lights on at night, you can purchase other heaters if it's very cold there. In daytime you can have the heat lamp.

Avoid substrate! They can easily swallow aiming at a bug at swallow it, causing them to not be able to digest and poop them out, and they'll die.

If it's a female you'll need a laying bin, they will have eggs regardless of there being a male or not, and if they see you looking at them while they're gravid and laying, they'll stop, not lay their eggs, become eggbound and need surgery/die.

Some good live plants to have are: hibiscus, pothos, schefflera, etc, you can find threads on others.

Wash your hands if you're going to handle it, they can get sick and stressed if they are handled too much and with people with greasy or dirty hands.

Do NOT have a waterfall or bowl of water, they're just targets for the chameleons as a toilet and will grow plenty of bacteria, they only drink water that is moving such as when you mist anyway.

Their fecies should be white for the pee, instead of yellow, yellow means that it's usually dehydrated.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Gutloading is important, feed the insects about 4 hours before feeding them to the cham, use fresh feggies and fruit, as said in other posts.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Also, you'll want alot of plant covering, since some like to be able to hide if necessary. Have a nice warm 80ish temperature basking, and have it cooler where they can cool down if necessary.

 

[LeorandtheChameleon]

this was something that i didn't know at first. when you powder your crickets make sure the daily one is calcium WITHOUT d3. i didn't know that at first at leonard had only calcium with d3 for the first 3 days. poor guy. post some pics. also you can summit a general form in the health clinic and people can help spot out any problems.