Prepping to get my first chameleon

[RyanBRZ]

In the past few days it was really cold in the northeast and I'm thinking it may get too cold (65Fish) for the cham once January-February comes around. What do you guys think I can do to heat up his cage at night? I was thinking maybe getting a ZooMed heat cable and run it up the center of the cage or along the outsides and/or wrap the sides of the cage in plastic wrap or shower curtain?

 

[ERKleRose]

In the past few days it was really cold in the northeast and I'm thinking it may get too cold (65Fish) for the cham once January-February comes around. What do you guys think I can do to heat up his cage at night? I was thinking maybe getting a ZooMed heat cable and run it up the center of the cage or along the outsides and/or wrap the sides of the cage in plastic wrap or shower curtain?

Use a ceramic heat emitter instead at a low wattage if it gets below 60*F

 

[RyanBRZ]

Where would be a good place to put it? Off to the side, facing the enclosure?

By the way, some of my silkies hatched today! I put them in an incubator over the weekend and that got the hatching process moving.

 

[ERKleRose]

Where would be a good place to put it? Off to the side, facing the enclosure?

By the way, some of my silkies hatched today! I put them in an incubator over the weekend and that got the hatching process moving.

Put the ceramic heat emitter on top of or above the screen top of your cage

 

[ERKleRose]

Where would be a good place to put it? Off to the side, facing the enclosure?

By the way, some of my silkies hatched today! I put them in an incubator over the weekend and that got the hatching process moving.

What type of incubator?

 

[RyanBRZ]

That sounds super easy, but heat rises, so won't the heat do nothing for the lower portion where he sleeps?

What type of incubator?

It's a hovabator, I bought it probably 10+ years ago when I bred leopard geckos and had it laying around and figured it was worth a shot for my silkie eggs. I am using the thermostat I bought for my dubia colony to keep it between 78 and 85. My roach colony comes in tomorrow so I'm hoping the remaining eggs hatch over night.

 

[ERKleRose]

That sounds super easy, but heat rises, so won't the heat do nothing for the lower portion where he sleeps?


It's a hovabator, I bought it probably 10+ years ago when I bred leopard geckos and had it laying around and figured it was worth a shot for my silkie eggs. I am using the thermostat I bought for my dubia colony to keep it between 78 and 85. My roach colony comes in tomorrow so I'm hoping the remaining eggs hatch over night.

You only need it on top of the screen in one corner, he’ll thermoregulate and go closer to it if he’s colder

 

[RyanBRZ]

Ok. I've never seen him leave his sleeping spot once he heads down.

 

[amfire125]

@RyanBRZ Also keep an eye on the humidity levels as you use a ceramic heat emitter. I use a ceramic space heaters or emitters can easily suck out the humidity in the room/enclosure. So if this does happen, you can combine it with the use of a humidifier. Use common sense for what makes sense for you. Also, if you end up using a humidifier, just make sure to keep it very clean and free of bacteria. Even if it's a cool humidifier they're easily a source of bacteria that can give your cham a respiratory infection. Maybe some people don't run into this problem with using a ceramic heat source, but even in humid Virginia I do, and I think that's normal with a screened enclosure, so again, do what makes sense for your setup. I have a ceramic space heater and a warm humidifier, and I still play around with the placement of the heater, though the humidifier is always near the enclosure.

 

[RyanBRZ]

Thanks amfire125, not sure what I am going to do yet, going to keep an eye on temps and humidity. If humidity becomes an issue I may wrap the sides with plastic wrap or something.

For those who have a dubia colony, do you take X out the night before to gut load them, or do you consider their food/roach chow as adequate for gut loading? I have Repashy bug burger gutload and dubia roach chow for roach food and I also plan on adding fresh veggies/fruits.

 

[RyanBRZ]

I recently added a new light to my setup and my chameleons behavior drastically changed. I wanted to post this here for others who may be starting out and not sure what to use.

Since day 1 I had a T5 Zoomed UVB bulb and a 60watt household bulb for his basking area. I had this lighting setup for 1.5 months (up until last week). My chameleon would wander the top/mid areas of his cage during the day, and would go to bed every night at ~6:30PM (lights go on at 11:00AM so this is only ~7 hours of being awake) which I thought was weird.

I was having issues with my umbrella plant losing leaves. In an effort to save the umbrella, I added at 6500K high power LED bulb up top to revive the umbrella and help out with my pothos growth. My chameleon is now much more active throughout the day, wandering throughout his enclosure, even to the lower levels which he has never gone to before getting this bulb. He also now stays up until 11PM, up until lights go out. I am thinking maybe the 60watt household bulb & T5 wasn't giving him a full day-light vibe, or something. I usually leave his cage door open when I am in my room, last night he decided to escape and went on to the top of his cage. I have not held him at all yet so I was unsure how to handle this. I approached him and he threw a small hiss and climbed up the basking light clamp and no where else to go, I kept my hand there and he crawled onto me and I put him right back into the cage.

More details regarding the bulb are here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...zy-on-back-side-schefflera-arboricola.166850/

Showing off some colors last night, and he, for the first time, slept out in the open instead of in the umbrella plant.




Sleeping

 

[ERKleRose]

I recently added a new light to my setup and my chameleons behavior drastically changed. I wanted to post this here for others who may be starting out and not sure what to use.

Since day 1 I had a T5 Zoomed UVB bulb and a 60watt household bulb for his basking area. I had this lighting setup for 1.5 months (up until last week). My chameleon would wander the top/mid areas of his cage during the day, and would go to bed every night at ~6:30PM (lights go on at 11:00AM so this is only ~7 hours of being awake) which I thought was weird.

I was having issues with my umbrella plant losing leaves. In an effort to save the umbrella, I added at 6500K high power LED bulb up top to revive the umbrella and help out with my pothos growth. My chameleon is now much more active throughout the day, wandering throughout his enclosure, even to the lower levels which he has never gone to before getting this bulb. He also now stays up until 11PM, up until lights go out. I am thinking maybe the 60watt household bulb & T5 wasn't giving him a full day-light vibe, or something. I usually leave his cage door open when I am in my room, last night he decided to escape and went on to the top of his cage. I have not held him at all yet so I was unsure how to handle this. I approached him and he threw a small hiss and climbed up the basking light clamp and no where else to go, I kept my hand there and he crawled onto me and I put him right back into the cage.

More details regarding the bulb are here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...zy-on-back-side-schefflera-arboricola.166850/

Showing off some colors last night, and he, for the first time, slept out in the open instead of in the umbrella plant.
View attachment 219666

View attachment 219669

Sleeping
View attachment 219668

Awesome!

 

[RyanBRZ]

Finally held him tonight! I have been putting my hand in his cage with and without food on it every day since I got him, touching his feet/tail/body when I could, waiting for him to decide to walk on me... I figured it can only help to get him to realize I'm not going to hurt him. I put a silkworm on my forearm and he was reaching out to get close enough to shoot at it and I lifted his back legs up and he came out on my arm. I held him for a few minutes, he wasn't bad, he wanted to keep moving but he didn't seem threatened. I didn't think it was ever going to happen.

 

[KingGoodman]

Congratulations. Your patience is paying off. I doubt I would have waited months but I’m happy for you

 

[RyanBRZ]

Congratulations. Your patience is paying off. I doubt I would have waited months but I’m happy for you

Thanks! Yeah trust me it was tough, I was starting to think I had a cham that would never come out of his cage. I got him October 29, so it was a little over 1.5 months.

 

[Zevil]

Nice setup. I know how it feels to build your own enclosure, pretty rewarding when it's done. I just My 2 months old male veiled is afraid of me currently, hopefully that will change in due time.

Btw I have bred dubia roaches, Turkestan roaches, silkworms, waxworms and bsf. Any feeders that go through a pupa stage is troublesome to breed. I swear never to breed those again.

 

[RyanBRZ]

Just wanted to post an update to my setup. After adding the bright LED plant light, I found the chameleon preferred to bask under it but it was too hot so I moved it to a location where he could not bask under it, while allowing it to provide plants with light. Today I built a frame to sit on top of the cage to elevate it higher, lowering the basking temp to ~85F. I also moved the temp/humidity gauge outside of his enclosure (see top left of door, mounted to light frame) and I moved my cham cam into the cage so I do not see the screen anymore in the video.