Recommendations on how to improve my veiled chameleon cage

Butterbean

New Member
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Male, veiled chameleon, probably about 8 mouths old, have had him for about 5 months
  • Handling - Never handle, he is very shy
  • Feeding - he eats about five large crickets a day and about three mill worms a day, ( just switch from mealworms to wax worms). Crickets eat Fluker’s orange cubes
  • Supplements - Dust my crickets with repti calcium with D3 on Monday, Friday and Saturday. And dust them in Rep-cal multivitamins Wednesday every other week
  • Watering - are used 2 drippers, one on the inside of the cage that is smaller and the other sits on top of the cage. I use a spray bottle to mist and I try to mist in the morning and whenever I get home from school. Have seen him drink
  • Fecal Description - Have not looked closely at it, so I do not know. Has never been tested

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Screen 24x24x48
  • Lighting - I have a zoomed double down with a 100w heat bulb and a reptisun 5.0 uvb bulb
  • Temperature - the hottest spot is about 80 and the coolest spot (the bottom of the cage) is about 70. I have a Digital thermometer and humidity reader.
  • Humidity - humidity is one of the hardest things for me to keep in my cage consistent so on average is probably about 30. I just put in a humidifier in my room next to the cage hoping the humidity will go up.
  • Plants - I have a ficus tree but it is pretty much dead. I am looking at getting another one
  • Placement - The cage is located in the corner of my room next to a window, and there is a air vent that blows just to the left of it. It is about 6 feet off the ground.
  • Location - I live in north eastern oklahoma

I am still pretty new to caring for a Chameleon would love an recommendations on how to improve his cage and the care I provid him. I am interested in learning anything I can to take better care of him. If you have any recommendations on something I should buy I would appreciate if you could send me a link to it. Thank you
 

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reptisun T5HO 5.0 is good. If its a CFL (curly house bulb) get rid of it, its uvb is only good for about 6-8" away from the bulb. Great for "fish" tanks with geckos and anoles, not good for a 4ft tall cham cage.

Your humidity levels are way to low. If they stay like that for weeks you will have high odds of skin/shed problems and even upper respiratory infections. In winter you have to try your darndest to at least keep it at 50%, with peaks during the day much higher when you mist.

lets see here. Like like you have green astroturf carpet at the bottom. Substrate is a nono for chams, so ditch that. Best case is bugs hide under the carpet, worst case stuff starts growing under the carpet.

Finally i would put in ALOT more sticks of different thicknesses, so he can run around the whole cage. And for plants, pothos are almost impossible to kill as long as you just water them.
 
Lots more horizontal branches! I think the 100w might be a bit much once you get more branches. Mine is 65w but as long as your basking spot is in the right range (90 for veileds) then go with that. Swap the UVB with a t5 bulb.

Dusting should be calcium without d3 every feeding, with d3 once a month, and vitamins once a month opposite schedule of with d3.

Stop using orange cubes. They are useless get cricket crack or repashy bug burger.
 
well for starters there are a lot of husbandry improvements I would like to address

meal worms an waxworms are fatty and mealworms can cause impaction, the orange cubes don't really provide much nutrients in crickets you need something more nutritional like cricket crack or bug burger along with an organic gutload

you should mist for two mins each time three times a day

supplement calcium no d3 every day and calcium with d3 twice a month and multivitamin twice a month

T5HO is better for chameleons, make sure your bulb is not compact and it should be 10.0 power

basking spot should be around 85 to 90
 
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