really long sorry, Four setups, I am a brand new owner

[krbshappy71]

Hello! I recently received four chameleons with their setups included. I've been reading a ton and am happy to find this forum. Please give me input/advice on my setups.

Three panther chameleons (2 girls, one boy, each a year old). They have screened enclosures, not sure if ZooMed brand but identical to the 16x16x20 ZooMed ones on petsmart's website. They have a fake vine and leaves. No substrate. They have metal clamp lamps with UVB bulb positioned about 6 inches from the top of the cage. They each have their own lamp. I am misting by hand several times a day both morning and late afternoon.

Veiled Chameleon is a male, don't know the age, he has a larger fully screened (no solid frame doors, just zipper screened door) enclosure that is 31" tall, 17x17". No substrate but he does have a large broad leaved philodendron that I just bought him. "Lacy Tree" is the leaves that it resembles. I am misting the leaves and he drinks readily from them. (his previous plant died before I got him, it was a cane palm) He has his own lamp, I have it positioned very close to the cage, just a couple inches away, but can move it if that's too close.

None of the chameleons can see each other, as I read that can stress them out. None are near reflective surfaces. Room is kept at 73 or higher, (I own hedgehogs as well and they like it warm) and I have used the ceiling fan on low when it gets stuffy lately and have the window cracked a bit for ventilation.

Things I need that I'm aware of:
humidity and temp gauge
better sprayer/mister for the water as this hand-held one isn't a joy to use so often.
Just found out I will be needing egg-laying setup for the females?

Things I think I'd like:
Live plant for each of the panther's cages
To have a shower curtain or plastic behind the cages so when I spray it doesn't muck up the wall behind it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and telling me what I should change/improve on.

 

[pssh]

Well, the adult male panther should be in a 24"x24"x48" cage (as should the male vieled) and the females should be in at least (in my opinion) 16"x16"x30" cages. UVB lights should not be coil bulbs (they have been known to cause eye problems and even death) and should be reptisun 5.0 or reptiglo5.0 in linear (tube) form. They male veiled and male panther should have basking spots of 85-90 degrees with the rest of the cage in the 70's. The females should have basking spots of 80-83 degrees and the rest of the cage should be in the 70s.

They should be sprayed for several minutes several times a day (a new pesticide sprayer that is pumped up works well) and should have drippers on at least a few times a week for the whole day. The humidity should be around 40-50% when dry, 80-90+% after misting, and hang around 60-70% for an hour or two after misting. A digital thermometer/hygrometer combo from homedepot or lowes would work well for each cage.

They should all have calcium without d3 dusted on feeders (lightly!) at almost ever meal, and have calcium with d3 two or so times a month, and a multivitamin once a month. They should be fed 4-6 adult crickets (or equivalent of in other feeders) three times a week.

The females should have a laying bin that can hold 10-12 inches of substrate and is large enough for them plus several inches on all sides including above them. It should eb filled with damp/moist organic fertilizer free soil or sand or a mix of the two. IT should be moist enough that you can dig a tunnel with your finger and it wont collapse.

I believe philodendrons are toxic and you dont want it in their cages (especially the veileds and they tend to eat plants.) Good plants are pothos, ficus, hibiscus, and dwarf umbrella plants. they should be repotted in organic fertilizer free soil and the dirt should be covered with river rocks or screen or something. A leaves should be washed with soapy water on both sides and rinsed thoroughly.

 

[laurie]

You should read "raising kitty the veiled chameleon" a thread by Brad Ramsey. It has complete details on veileds and panther are only a bit different for veileds.

For now, I hope I can offer some helpful options. Cage sizes should be at least, 18x18x36 for the female panthers, 24x24x36 for the male panther and ideally 24x24x48 for the male veiled. You can get fairly good ones from LLL reptile at a great price. Are your uvb bulbs the compact coiled kind? They can cause eye problems, most of us use the long tube style also for LLL.

We also need to discuss watering, supplements, plants, temps and humidity, but reading the thread I listed above will answer most of your questions. But after reading it come on back and we can talk again.

 

[krbshappy71]

Ah, thank you for the replies. I will read the article suggested.

Gotta change the bulbs (yup, they are the coiled kind)

Drat on the plant, I read this on a plant care site:

A popular, easy-to-grow indoor plant, Pothos is often called devil's ivy or variegated
philodendron.

And mistakenly bought another type of philodendron because I liked the huge leaves of it. (you can see the leaves in the picture named "Jolly") I'll buy a new plant and remove that one.

They should all have calcium without d3 dusted on feeders (lightly!) at almost ever meal, and have calcium with d3 two or so times a month, and a multivitamin once a month. They should be fed 4-6 adult crickets (or equivalent of in other feeders) three times a week.

oops, I have just been alternating the Multi Vitamin and d3 dusting each day and feeding them daily. Thanks for the numbers of crickets as that's exactly what two of mine have been eating, the other two were eating less and I didn't know what was normal.

I've only had them a couple of days, thanks for giving me a direction to go.

 

[pssh]

Dont forget to gutload the feeders well! Dusting doesn't mean a thing if they aren't well gutloaded. Provide high clacium greens like collards, dandelions, mustard greens, endive, escarol, turnip greens, and celery leaves. Also use other veggies like squash, carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, and sweet peppers. Fruit like papaya, oranges, other citrus, apples, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are also okay. A good dry gutload is also pretty important (Cricket crack sold by Steve Sims and Tiki Tiki reptiles is awesome.)

 

[krbshappy71]

Just an update. I returned the large plant and purchased four small Pothos, one for each chameleon's cage. They still have their fake vine and leaves until these grow, I'm happy to have a live plant in each cage!

I purchased 300 crickets after doing the math of how many I would need for a month's worth. I do have the gutload, clear cricket quencher stuff, and various powders to sprinkle on them before feeding. They have a 10 gallon tank with screened top, it has lots of hidey places such as egg carton, tp tube, small cream cheese box, etc. They seem pretty happy. Oh, and high-end dry cat food that my hedgehogs eat. The guy I buy them from claims they are fed high quality food as well.

I purchased a larger mister, 56 oz pumping kind and wow talk about ease! That and the plants are my happiest purchases yet.

Still need to upgrade cage sizes but I have to wait on that right now, still need to change their light fixtures and thought I would put that on higher priority and that shouldn't be quite as expensive as the cage upgrade. BF might be able to help me with cage situation, he's pretty handy.

 

[pssh]

Cat food has too much preformed Vit A and protein in it for chameleons. It should not be used to gutload as it can cause Vit A overdose and gout. It's okay to feed them when you aren't going to feed them off, but they should be fed veggies, fruits, and a dry cricket food (cricket crack from Steve Sims on here or Tiki tiki reptiles is amazing) at least 24 hours before they are fed off. I just blend two types of high calcium leafy greens (kale, endive, collards, mustard greens, dandelions, escarole, celery leaves, turnip greens) in a blender with two other types veggies (squash, sweet peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, etc.) with a few types of fruit (papaya, orange, other citrus, apple, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries) in a blender and add some dry ingresdiants (or a pre-made dry food like cricket crack) to make it thicker and put it in ice cube trays and freeze them. Then I just pop an ice cube of food into the cricket cage when needed and remove them before they get moldy.

 

[krbshappy71]

Thanks for the tip on the crickets. I am separating off 15 every other day and gut loading those the night before the morning feeding with Hi-Cal Cricket Monster. Two of mine are eating 5 each, the other two are not so until I see them "cleaning their plate" I am working on keeping them hydrated, humid, and watching their poop. They were severely dehydrated, I only know this now that I've looked at pictures and read about the symptoms since I've found this board or I'd have acted faster.

Today I purchased the digital thermometer hydrometer and priced out the lamps. I wrote everything down of what Petsmart had but wasn't exactly sure. Some of them looked like they were the same bulb in just a long hood. I'm going to read up as I was thinking I wanted tubes, not bulbs.

Ok will wander off for now, thanks for the head start on this! I'll just keep reading as much as I can.

 

[pssh]

It would be much much cheaper to buy from lllreptile.com for stuff. The fixtures for the reptisuns can just be any old t8 fixture from lowes/home depot/walmart.

Don't forget to add some veggies to the dry gutload! Maybe one or two types a week then switch it up the next week.

 

[krbshappy71]

It would be much much cheaper to buy from lllreptile.com for stuff. The fixtures for the reptisuns can just be any old t8 fixture from lowes/home depot/walmart.

Don't forget to add some veggies to the dry gutload! Maybe one or two types a week then switch it up the next week.

The more I'm reading about the lightbulbs the more I'm realizing how important that is. Sorry if it sounded like I would "get around to that", I wasn't grasping the severity of the problem. Thanks for telling me about the site and that I'm looking for a t8.

So much info, oh my stars. I'm enjoying it, just need to read faster/more so I get them up to par as fast as possible.

 

[krbshappy71]

Oh whoops. I guess I can't start a blog on here? It looked like another site I belong to (non chameleon) where you can start your own blog. I was going to do that instead of keeping this thread going when the original questions have been answered.

I'll check the help file. Anyhow I am going to update their progress in a blog if I can rather than here.

 

[Manik6]

as far as preventing the walls from getting wet i just bought painters plastic from home depot and cut and taped it to the outside of the enclosure. helps with keeping in humidity too.

 

[krbshappy71]

I have a blog! Thanks!

I have a shower curtain liner I could do that with, thanks.