Questions

[Mommynov07]

This may be the right place to ask these questions, First I am new to owning a chameleon , I have a Veiled (spelling) chameleon who is about 2-3 months old , for a bout 3 days now, I have Plenty or room for it , and plenty of heat ( 75-80) Have a heat lamp @ 90 +/- so he can soak, humidity is @ 60% +, keep it water on his leaves to drink ( fake leaves) feeding him crickets (small) he ate 5 yesterday and prolly 5 more today. I have not handled him for more than 15 min in the past 3 days ,

Questions
1. is he eating to much
2. I seen him on the bottom of the tank in the dirt, is that normal ? should i worry
3. he moves real slow like he is freaked out or something is that thier thing , just moves slow ,
4. I only have the leaves it came with so there is about 8-12 inches of glass exposed , Is this a bad thing , I plan on getting more decor for him, Because i read that if he sees him self in the reflection he will get spooked ,,,
5. If he gets sick will the color of him dull ? or what ever, His eyes are fine you can see the hyper white (if you will) color in his eyes.


Please help me out because i wanna take good care of him

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."is he eating to much"...no, he could be eating more.

You said..."I seen him on the bottom of the tank in the dirt"...I would recommend that you use no substrate. Too often a chameleon will become impacted from ingesting a substrate.

You said..."he moves real slow like he is freaked out or something is that thier thing , just moves slow"...they can move quite quickly when they want/need to...but if you are watching the moves can be slow and deliberate and it might even do a waddle-walk (move forward and back ending up taking a step in the end and repeating it).

You said..."I only have the leaves it came with so there is about 8-12 inches of glass exposed , Is this a bad thing , I plan on getting more decor for him, Because i read that if he sees him self in the reflection he will get spooked"...I have not had any problems with them seeing reflections. I don't know what your cage looks like, so I can't tell you if its enough or not..but IMHO its best to use non-toxic real plants that have been well-washed (both sides of the leaves) since its a veiled.


You said..."If he gets sick will the color of him dull?"...sometimes this happens. A sick chameleon often just shows subtle signs of being ill until its too late to save it. Just watch for changes...you might see lethargy, the chameleon sitting low in the cage, sunken eyes, lack of appetite, and any number of other signs.

If your chameleon is healthy and your husbandry is good, then it should live a long life.

Here are some sites to help you learn good information about chameleons......
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
http://adcham.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060421.../index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=102

 

[Mommynov07]

I was wondering what you mean by a substrate??

 

[thealissa]

I was wondering what you mean by a substrate??

Substrate is whatever material you use for the bottom of the enclosure (i.e. bark, moss, straw, dirt, etc) Most will agree that you shouldn't use any substrate. In other words, don't place anything at the bottom of his cage. You can use paper towels if you'd like, but they need to be replaced often.