PLEASE HELP! Opinions and Suggestions!

[Trudeau7]

Ok! Hello everyone! First off, I would like to apologize for putting this in the general discussion. I am going to ask questions regarding everything. Pretty much.

To start off, I need your guys opinion on my enclosure. I have this mesh enclosure which seems to be perfect size (though i would like to up size soon) and I clean it very often. As you can see by the pictures, I have a tub of soil (the soil is clean and fert free) with an Umbrella Plant in it. It was a plant I had sitting in the living room so I took it, cleaned it thoroughly, and changed it into the orange tub. She did happen to lay in the tub successfully and I extracted the eggs. There are fake plants in the back left and front right corners and two vines running through the cage. I have a ZooMed 50W basking spot lamp for her basking spot which reaches 85-89 degrees. She loves hanging out there. Her ambient from top to bottom goes from around 89 at the top to 74 at the bottom. I also have a ZooMed Reptisun UVB linear bulb in a hood on top of the cage. I do not remember the wattage, but I believe it is the 10.0 model. I have an automatic mister that runs perfectly. I have it set to run every hour for 12 seconds. Does this seem ok to everyone? I was thinking of getting a bigger plant for her to hide and get more water to drink. Her poops/pees have been looking very healthy up until today when her urate was completely yellow. Should I syringe her water or wait till the next defecation?

Next up is her feeding. I feed her 5-8 crickets per day Monday through Friday. Is this a good diet? I have tried giving her mango but she is not the fruity type I take it. I keep the crickets in a clean, healthy tub and feed them "cricket oats" and put a bit of carrot or apple in the tub each day. I dust the crickets every feeding with ZooMed Repti Calcium without D3. She loves them and can eat them all easily.

So that is my main setup. Please take a look at the pictures and of my Cham. I love reading posts about healthy, happy, and beautiful looking chameleons and I would love for Cleo to fall into that category. Please comment any opinions and suggestions as they will help greatly and I have funding for everything, so price is not a problem! If I forgot anything please let me know and feel free to ask! I can take more pictures! Thank you guys so much!

 

[JaxyGirl]

Hi there! How old is your Cham? She's very pretty!

Here's some suggestions that I have.
Adding more branches horizontally so she can have more areas to climb on. Her vegetation looks a little sparse.

You should also dust your feeders every day with calcium without D3. You should also dust your crickets with calcium plus D3 twice a month. And dust your feeders with a Multivitamin twice a month.

I would suggest running your mister for longer periods of time because if she has yellow urates that means she is dehydrated. Some chams take 3 or more minutes of misting before they start drinking.

I wold also add more variety in feeders along with the crickets such as Horn worms, roaches, super worms etc to give her a well rounded diet.

I'm not sure what cricket oats are? Is it a type of gut load? You should be gut loading your crickets every day with a well fortified cricket gut load along with veggies etc. I use Rapashy Superload. Some people on the forums use Cricket Crack. Several sponsors sell good gut loads

 

[Trudeau7]

Hi there! How old is your Cham? She's very pretty!

Here's some suggestions that I have.
Adding more branches horizontally so she can have more areas to climb on. Her vegetation looks a little sparse.

You should also dust your feeders every day with calcium without D3. You should also dust your crickets with calcium plus D3 twice a month. And dust your feeders with a Multivitamin twice a month.

I would suggest running your mister for longer periods of time because if she has yellow urates that means she is dehydrated. Some chams take 3 or more minutes of misting before they start drinking.

I wold also add more variety in feeders along with the crickets such as Horn worms, roaches, super worms etc to give her a well rounded diet.

I'm not sure what cricket oats are? Is it a type of gut load? You should be gut loading your crickets every day with a well fortified cricket gut load along with veggies etc. I use Rapashy Superload. Some people on the forums use Cricket Crack. Several sponsors sell good gut loads

Hello JaxyGirl! Thank you for the reply!

I believe she is around 6-8 months. I adopted her from a bad owner that did not know her exact age. But that is the range.

The branches sound like a good idea. I was considering tying them down to the mesh walls and also would a much larger umbrella plant be good? Enough for her to hide and drink off of but she would still have her basking spot?

I do dust my feeders and give her D3/Multivitamin every other week.

So I will start running the mister longer to try and get her to drink. I need to work on a drainage system if I plan on doing that though. Any suggestions?

I do treat her with super/horn worms every once and a while. She loves those things.

And yes. Cricket oats is my way of saying gut loader. I make my own at times but I do have a few bags of cricket crack for when I need them.

I really do appreciate your reply and I will use your suggestions immediately! I just want to make sure she lives a happy healthy life!

 

[Wowbango]

As previously suggested, the feeder dusting is super important. Upping the mistings will definitely help. I think the biggest suggestion would DEFINITELY be more plants/vines for her to climb around and different hiding spots. I've seen Chameleons not drink because they don't have enough hiding spots to be confident and are essentially to paranoid to think about eating/drinking. Most Chameleons tend to thrive in a much more dense habitat. Here's a picture of one of my cages for reference. The bottom is heavily vegetated and the top a little less to allow for several different basking spots. I built a stand at the bottom that houses the pot for the large umbrella plant which takes care of the drainage....none! It all just goes into the soil of the plant. Also, I would add river rocks to the top of the soil of your plant, large enough so that your chameleon can't accidentally swallow them. You don't want her to shoot for a feeder down there, and get a mouthful of dirt.

 

[Lovereps]

I think Cleo will do well in your care, as you want to learn as much as possible to help her to be strong and healthy.

One thing you may not realize is that the UVB bulb must be replaced every 6 months.
The bulb will still light and look OK to our eyes because we can't see the decreasing UVB that it emits after 6 months. (Your cham can, though.)
For greater feeder variety, look here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/

I imagine you've already seen the forum's Veiled caresheet and care section, but in case you haven't, here it is:https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

She will definitely appreciate more foliage and horizontal perches. Umbrella plants are good and can often be found at Home Depot or similar stores for fairly reasonable prices.

While it is nice outside, you might consider moving her cage outdoors for a few hours on days when the temps are within range for her.
Make sure she can get into the shade if she needs to.
Something simple, such as a dish towel can be put atop the cage to create a shaded area.
You want the cage to be off the ground, just like when it's indoors.
This will not only make her feel more secure--she will actually be more secure--being higher up than cats, possums, etc. that may be strolling by.
Don't have her outside and not in a cage, as birds can swiftly swoop down and harm/eat her before you even realize they're nearby.

 

[Trudeau7]

As previously suggested, the feeder dusting is super important. Upping the mistings will definitely help. I think the biggest suggestion would DEFINITELY be more plants/vines for her to climb around and different hiding spots. I've seen Chameleons not drink because they don't have enough hiding spots to be confident and are essentially to paranoid to think about eating/drinking. Most Chameleons tend to thrive in a much more dense habitat. Here's a picture of one of my cages for reference. The bottom is heavily vegetated and the top a little less to allow for several different basking spots. I built a stand at the bottom that houses the pot for the large umbrella plant which takes care of the drainage....none! It all just goes into the soil of the plant. Also, I would add river rocks to the top of the soil of your plant, large enough so that your chameleon can't accidentally swallow them. You don't want her to shoot for a feeder down there, and get a mouthful of dirt.

I have a quick question. Since I got this new umbrella plant, the steams near the bottom have just been falling off. And the tree looks a lot thinner now. Not as full. Is this a bad thing? How do I prevent it?

 

[Lathis]

Do you have a grow light? I found that my umbrella plants never did very well in the cage due to low light conditions.

 

[Ben65434]

What enclosure is that? Looks really nice. Is it the fl chams one?

As previously suggested, the feeder dusting is super important. Upping the mistings will definitely help. I think the biggest suggestion would DEFINITELY be more plants/vines for her to climb around and different hiding spots. I've seen Chameleons not drink because they don't have enough hiding spots to be confident and are essentially to paranoid to think about eating/drinking. Most Chameleons tend to thrive in a much more dense habitat. Here's a picture of one of my cages for reference. The bottom is heavily vegetated and the top a little less to allow for several different basking spots. I built a stand at the bottom that houses the pot for the large umbrella plant which takes care of the drainage....none! It all just goes into the soil of the plant. Also, I would add river rocks to the top of the soil of your plant, large enough so that your chameleon can't accidentally swallow them. You don't want her to shoot for a feeder down there, and get a mouthful of dirt.