Newbie here!

[mintchocolate]

Hey everyone. We got a small chameleon today and I want to make sure we are doing everything 100% right. We have an adult bearded dragon named Monster, dont worry, they arent together and will never meet!

Chamele aka Venture AKA mint chocolate ice cream is very small but friendly and tolerant of my children (well supervised meeting!)

Hes in a pretty good sized glass system with a ceramic uv lamp 6-12 inches above the cage.

He has a water dish (I just saw he wont drink standing water, ) we are working on getting plants tomorrow for hidding.

We got gut loaded mini crickets, no mealworms at the store small enough. He has a nice vine to climb and a moss sub along w a cage liner.

If I can figure out how to load pics I will share my beautiful boy. I believe they said he was a vail?

Please dont be shy and give me any and all hints and advice!
thanks!!!

 

[sharp229]

Welcome to the forums and the world of chameleons! You will get lots of great advice here on how to keep your chameleon healthy.

Yes, you have a young veiled chameleon, I would guess around 3 months old. If you post a picture of the back of his back feet we could tell you whether he is a male or female.

There are several things you will want to change immediately to ensure he stays healthy. First you will want to add lots more leafy plants and climbing sticks/vines. I would recommend pothos and umbrella trees (schefflera) for the plants. You will need to mist the cage a few times a day since chameleons drink from water droplets on leaves. In the picture he looks stressed and a large reason is probably because he has nowhere to hide.

I would also not handle him for the first week or two if possible, and then get him accustomed to you by hand feeding.

What kind of lights are those? You will need both a UVB light source and a heat light source. There should be no lights at night, and the cage should be completely dark.

I would recommend you read the following care guide thoroughly:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

Also, when you have a chance, please copy and paste and fill out the following help form:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

This will help ensure you get the best advice on how to keep your chameleon healthy.

 

[mintchocolate]

Its a lamp from my husbands beardie. The pet store didnt have much and they looked over crowded with 10+ in a tank. When I went to pick one, he came right to me. Anytime I have put my hand near him or the cage he comes by.

I am getting him some plants tomorrow. Any quick fixes for tonight? Hes in my bedroom so we can make sure he isnt bothered. I will get a pic of his feet tomorrow.

 

[mintchocolate]

By no lights, a heat lamp is not good at night? We keep the beardies on in the winter and hes the only reptile I have had.

 

[sharp229]

He needs no heat or light at night unless the temperature gets below 50F. If your temp gets below 50F, you should use a heater that does not put out light, like ceramic heat emitter, or by heating the whole room with something like an oil heater. Even though pet stores will often say they cannot see red light, they can. They can actually see a larger spectrum of light then humans since they can also see UVB.

As for plants, it should be fine as long as you get him a lot of leafy plants by tomorrow. You can use dowels from home depot/lowes as a cheap solution for climbing branches.

For chameleons, especially veileds, you will want to make sure you have the right lights. Even if they worked for your bearded dragon they may not work for him. The make and model of the bulb is critical. I would recommend you get at least a ZooMed ReptiSun 5.0 fluorescent tube (linear) light. The same model in compact fluorescent (spiral bulb) will work, although it is not as ideal because the area it covers is less. You can use a standard incandescent light for heat.

He should have horizontal branches at different levels from both the UVB light and the heat light, so he can regulate his temperature and UVB levels. The basking spot should be 85F at the hottest at that age.

 

[mintchocolate]

Wonderful thanks! His spot is 72-74 with an elevated heat source. Im going to a bigger area tomorrow and will get leafy plants for him.

I was going to get some thinner limbs off our apple tree (no chemicals, 110% organic) and see how he likes that.

If our room gets down to 50 we have a bigger problem on our hands. The house stays around 65-70 in the winter.

I just peaked in on the temp and hes hanging out on his vine asleep.

So excited to have this guy/gal.

Thanks for the help. I try to do the best I can before I get an animal but theres always something we forget right?? Lol

 

[laurie]

Hello and welcome. You should take time to read the link posted to the veiled cham care sheet. You may want to get a cheap screen cage. You will have lots of problems with the glass cage. LLL Reptile, a forum sponsor has cheap cages. By the time he is grown he will need a 24x24x48 cage, for now a 16x16x30 will work well.

 

[fluxlizard]

You will want to get rid of your moss and probably your carpeting. He may eat the moss, and you don't need that level of humidity for veileds.

I bred and raised veileds in glass tanks for many years. I highly recommend if you want to go that route, that you use newspaper (at least for now) as your substrate and use a drip cup with a shallow catch bowl on the floor of the enclosure (plastic dixie cup with a pinhole pressed into the bottom. The hole should be large enough for a steady drip, small enough that it takes 20-30 minutes for the dripping to stop when the cup is filled). aim the drip so a plant leaf get's hit before it splashes into the bowl. Use a slight hand misting morning and night - just enough to kind of fog up the glass and leaves, not so much that you have puddles on the floor of the terrarium. A correct amount of moisture will evaporate and the newspaper completely dry after 2-3 hours, whether it is from the hand misting or the splashover from the drip. The hand misting is really just to add a little humidity- not enough for drinking as he grows and his need for water grows with him, the drip becomes more important. That is for a glass tank anyway- I use screen nowadays and all the water needed is provided by misting with lots of drainage. Easier for me (less work than drips and catch bowls for many cages) but not necessary for a single pet.

Oh- for your bearded dragon- I've bred dragons since 1994 and on a large scale. You don't need a heat light on him at night either, unless it freezes in your house. Even my small dragons that haven't grown much yet can take a light frost at night when they are outdoors, without any problem at all. They are very cold tolerant lizards.

Reducing the temp at night for lizards helps them lower their metabolism and enter a deeper rest state. For chameleons, moreso than bearded dragons, it seems to be important for their long-term health to be able to do this, at least to moderate levels (for veileds, at least 70 or below at night, but similar to bearded dragons, they are very cold tolerant. I leave veileds outdoors until night temps drop below 40 in the fall).