Opinion on new baby cham cage??

[Freyja737]

Hello everyone, after my baby cham spent a couple of weeks in a small glass cage (15x15x30cm) for almost a month now he has a big Reptibreeze cage. I could really use some tips, because I think it lacks something. He doesn’t seem so happy in it. The first days he used to go up and bask, but lately when I go to him in the morning to feed and spray I always find him in the lower middlish part of the cage and when he sees me he runs off to the back of the Ficus Benjamina ( where he usually used to move to every evening around 19:30 to get ready to sleep.) The last days he spends most of the day back there and he doesn’t seem interested in the crickets I give him either. I don’t see him bask under the basking lamp at all and I’m pretry sure it’s not too hot (around 27-29C). He did eat some flies, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t eat enough. So I’m thinking there’s sth wrong with the cage. I would appreciate and I’m open to any opinion or criticism on how to make his home better. The bigger circle is where he is every morning before I turn on his lamps and the smaller circle is where he stays all afternoon and then sleeps

 

[Beman]

Hi there... The cage is a bit exposed. pulling the plants on the bottom to the front will be helpful.

What type of cham and how old?

What are your temps at basking?

What type of UVB and bulb strength also what is the distance from the fixture to the closest branches?

How are you giving baby feeders?

 

[elizaann2]

I would suggest more plants. If you can look in your enclosure and easily find your cham you don’t have enough hiding places. Here is a picture of one of my enclosures so use as a reference.

 

[Freyja737]

What type of cham and how old?

What are your temps at basking?

What type of UVB and bulb strength also what is the distance from the fixture to the closest branches?

How are you giving baby feeders?

- He’s a Veiled chameleon
- I was told he hatched in January
- The basking temp is 28-29C (from a 50W bulb)
- I’m using Reptisun Terrarium hood T5 HO with Reptisun 5.0 UVB 24W
- The distance to the closest branches is around 30cm
- The flies I let walk around freely and he cathes them. The crickets I put in a small plastic cup and either hold it close to him, wait a bit and then he comes and eats or if he doesn’t feel like eating like this I just hold it close so he sees them, then I leave it and walk away so he goes to them himself.
I will go and buy couple more plants tomorrow. About the water tho…I spray at least 2-3 times a day and it dries very fast. What mister could you recommend me? I also have a dripper plant, but I’m not sure how to put it so the bowl with water isn’t in the cage where he can fall in.

 

[Beman]

- He’s a Veiled chameleon
- I was told he hatched in January
- The basking temp is 28-29C (from a 50W bulb)
- I’m using Reptisun Terrarium hood T5 HO with Reptisun 5.0 UVB 24W
- The distance to the closest branches is around 30cm
- The flies I let walk around freely and he cathes them. The crickets I put in a small plastic cup and either hold it close to him, wait a bit and then he comes and eats or if he doesn’t feel like eating like this I just hold it close so he sees them, then I leave it and walk away so he goes to them himself.
I will go and buy couple more plants tomorrow. About the water tho…I spray at least 2-3 times a day and it dries very fast. What mister could you recommend me? I also have a dripper plant, but I’m not sure how to put it so the bowl with water isn’t in the cage where he can fall in.

How are you determining your temps at basking? I recommend a gauge with a probe hooked in at the branch below the heat. 27c is more of what I would shoot for since baby is young.

With your UVB you need a measured distance from the bottom of the fixture to the branches below of 21-23cm. This will put the cham in the correct UVI level. At 30 cm it is too far away.

I would get a feeder run to put in the cage. When they are young they really need to be taking in 2-3 dozen feeders every day. This means having access to them. I keep my feeder runs higher in the cage so they can see the insects easily from the basking level.

Mist king is the best automatic mister. The dripper plant should go. THese can not be kept clean and bacteria will grow on them. You can toss a few ice cubes on top of the screen top of the cage and they will slowly melt.

For a Veiled make sure you are sticking to veiled tested plants.

Are you positive you got a male? Does he have tarsal spurs?

 

[elizaann2]

I am not familiar with that dripper plant. I just use a plastic cup or water bottle with a small hole poked in it. Droppers you usually put in enclosures tend to get a lot of bacteria growth in them.

 

[Freyja737]

How are you determining your temps at basking? I recommend a gauge with a probe hooked in at the branch below the heat. 27c is more of what I would shoot for since baby is young.

With your UVB you need a measured distance from the bottom of the fixture to the branches below of 21-23cm. This will put the cham in the correct UVI level. At 30 cm it is too far away.

I would get a feeder run to put in the cage. When they are young they really need to be taking in 2-3 dozen feeders every day. This means having access to them. I keep my feeder runs higher in the cage so they can see the insects easily from the basking level.

Mist king is the best automatic mister. The dripper plant should go. THese can not be kept clean and bacteria will grow on them. You can toss a few ice cubes on top of the screen top of the cage and they will slowly melt.

For a Veiled make sure you are sticking to veiled tested plants.

Are you positive you got a male? Does he have tarsal spurs?

View attachment 336795

For the moment to determine the basking temps I am using a simple mercury thermometer, which I attached next to the basking branch under the lamp.(photo)
Also after measuring the distance yesterday I established that the branch under the UVB lamp is exactly at 23cm.
I am working on getting a feeder run. There was actually a video on the chameleon academy website on how to make our own (it’s the faster option since deliveries take forever where I live).
It seems that Mist King is way above the price I can afford at the moment. Gonna have to find an alternative. Is it necessary to have a mister and a fogger or only one of both would work ? At the moment I spray whenever I see it’s completely dry. I’m looking for a way to make the Reptibreeze enclosure a hybrid one, because it’s so hard to keep the humidity high.
My concern is that I have to travel for 2 weeks. I already found a programmer to switch the lamps on and off at certain times, but the humidity issue needs to be addressed though asap.
And about whether he’s a male everyone has doubts. I asked the breeder to confirm and he said as far as he saw he is. I myself can barely see, because he’s in a running away phase at the moment and doesn’t let me get close to him

 

[Beman]

For the moment to determine the basking temps I am using a simple mercury thermometer, which I attached next to the basking branch under the lamp.(photo)
Also after measuring the distance yesterday I established that the branch under the UVB lamp is exactly at 23cm.
I am working on getting a feeder run. There was actually a video on the chameleon academy website on how to make our own (it’s the faster option since deliveries take forever where I live).
It seems that Mist King is way above the price I can afford at the moment. Gonna have to find an alternative. Is it necessary to have a mister and a fogger or only one of both would work ? At the moment I spray whenever I see it’s completely dry. I’m looking for a way to make the Reptibreeze enclosure a hybrid one, because it’s so hard to keep the humidity high.
My concern is that I have to travel for 2 weeks. I already found a programmer to switch the lamps on and off at certain times, but the humidity issue needs to be addressed though asap.
And about whether he’s a male everyone has doubts. I asked the breeder to confirm and he said as far as he saw he is. I myself can barely see, because he’s in a running away phase at the moment and doesn’t let me get close to him

So you want to replace that mercury thermometer with a gauge that has a probe.

So misting over fogging. Fogging can only be done at night when temps are much cooler and it can not be the only form of hydration. So you have to mist during the day. Manually spraying is not as easy as having an automatic. The mist is harsher and not fine like a mistking. And the chams tend to go into hiding with manual spraying. You would mist for about 2-3 minutes in the morning before the cage heats up and in the evening before lights go out.

You can add corrugated plastic panels to the back and two sides of the cage then leave the front open. This will make it a hybrid style.

You will want to have someone come in and feed him and spray while you are gone. He will need someone looking after him for that long of a time period.

When he settles and will hold still take pics of the back of the back feet so we can determine gender.

 

[Freyja737]

The thermometer is ordered, but needs time to arrive. I also bought Monsoon Multi 2, which I’m setting up at the moment. My question is at what intervals and for how long should the mister spray?
Also finding corrugated plastic panels is not so easy in Germany. I’m looking for a place to order them from when I come back from my trip. At a hardware store I found a thicker plastic foil which is usually used to cover up floors when renovating and so on and I covered the back and the 2 sides of the cage with it. I noticed though that the foil smells in a way that I find really unpleasant and I believe that smell might be unhealthy for him. I left the window of the room halfway open just in case. I don’t really have other options atm and that makes me worried.
Otherwise of course someone will come every day to feed him, let fresh air in the apartment and check how he’s doing. Wouldn’t leave him unattended for the world and I actually feel like I don’t want to go at all because of him
Also I’ve been meaning to ask sth else - few days ago he started changing his skin and he suddenly he became even more afraid of me than he usually is. I wonder if that’s just because he feels unsafe, because he knows he can’t “hide” well? We had a rough start usually considering him being a gift and me not having anything or knowing anything about chameleons. On the first day I managed to fix him up a small glass cage with some plants and sushi sticks to climb on. He had a dripper plant for a couple of days which flooded the glass cage a couple of times and I had to take him out to drain the water. This traumatized him a lot and now I don’t know how to make him trust me. We’re having a hard time with that. Any tips?
P.S. When I manage to make him trust him I will take photos so we see if he really is a he

 

[Beman]

The thermometer is ordered, but needs time to arrive. I also bought Monsoon Multi 2, which I’m setting up at the moment. My question is at what intervals and for how long should the mister spray?
Also finding corrugated plastic panels is not so easy in Germany. I’m looking for a place to order them from when I come back from my trip. At a hardware store I found a thicker plastic foil which is usually used to cover up floors when renovating and so on and I covered the back and the 2 sides of the cage with it. I noticed though that the foil smells in a way that I find really unpleasant and I believe that smell might be unhealthy for him. I left the window of the room halfway open just in case. I don’t really have other options atm and that makes me worried.
Otherwise of course someone will come every day to feed him, let fresh air in the apartment and check how he’s doing. Wouldn’t leave him unattended for the world and I actually feel like I don’t want to go at all because of him
Also I’ve been meaning to ask sth else - few days ago he started changing his skin and he suddenly he became even more afraid of me than he usually is. I wonder if that’s just because he feels unsafe, because he knows he can’t “hide” well? We had a rough start usually considering him being a gift and me not having anything or knowing anything about chameleons. On the first day I managed to fix him up a small glass cage with some plants and sushi sticks to climb on. He had a dripper plant for a couple of days which flooded the glass cage a couple of times and I had to take him out to drain the water. This traumatized him a lot and now I don’t know how to make him trust me. We’re having a hard time with that. Any tips?
P.S. When I manage to make him trust him I will take photos so we see if he really is a he

Ok so let me know what options the monsoon will give you. Typically you want it to spray morning and evening at least 2 minutes.

Remove the foil if it has an odor. If you can smell it then it is gassing off and the cham will be breathing it. Do you have a craft store? Sometimes they will sell the plastic panels. You may have to hook a few together.

Or look for Duct brand window film. This has no odor.

Once you get the entire new cage set up properly you can start working on trust building. Right now your still making changes so this is stressful. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/