Rescue veiled...help!

Lisamarie

New Member
So I went into my local mom and pop owned pet store for hornworms for my pac man frog. Looked at all the critters and saw this little girl.

She was in a six inch by 8 inch glass box with screen lid, one water bowl and one twisty thin branch. No cover, no mist on anything. Awful.

I do not have chameleon experience. I did not have a cage or plans for one. But I couldn’t leave her there so I bought her the only chameleon cage they had for sale 16x16x30 if only because I had nothing to put her in at home. (It can become an emergency cage later or whatever, no big deal since I figured it’d likely be too small for the long term.)

She was pretty out of it when we got home and I set up the cage. Very lethargic seeming from the stress of it all. I set up her enclosure as best I could quickly; using an organic ficus tree with new safe soil (no fertilizer) that completely fills up the space and some vines twisting all through it. I misted her cage, let her slowly crawl onto a vine and turned off the lights ASAP so she could de stress a bit.

This morning I went and turned her uvb and heat lights on and she seems more peppy. I misted her plant again and put a hornworm in a dish for her perched precariously on a vine. How do you feed your chameleons on a tree? Do you attach a bowl up high somehow? She hasn’t eaten anything here yet.

I know I have severely newbie questions but she does have a vet appt scheduled tomorrow. I have read the care file here for veiled and I guess I just need some advice from people on how to best care for her? Also about how old do you think she is? She seems skinny to me but I don’t know what’s normal. I’ll attach some pics of her and her enclosure as it is right now. She’s hiding and I won’t disturb her so the pics aren’t great. She’s about 3 to 3 1/2 inches in length from nose to bum. ( not counting tail)
I’ll update the thread with better pics if I get them.
Her name is Sakura.
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Also females lay infertile eggs. You will need a lay bin for her.
I read this. But would she lay while shes small? Also is it similar to birds (who I’m much more of an expert in) where some females do this and others may never lay their infertile eggs?

The dimensions of the recommended adult veiled lay box is also the entirety of her floor space so not sure where that would go since her ficus pot takes up the majority of the room. I’m having no luck finding a huge screen cage that will accommodate both her tree and the lay box. I may put my husband to work and have him just make one.
 
Recommended dimensions for a female are the same for male. Minimum 2x2x4'. DIY, Dragonstrand, Reptibreeze all have an enclosure in this size. Female veileds become sexually active around 6 months. She will lay infertile eggs no if ands or buts about it. Just a question of when.
 
Ok, I’ll check out various options then and either get started on one or more likely order one shortly. Hopefully she’ll be ok de stressing in her temp one for a little bit. She seems to enjoy the dense foliage and is fairly in the center of the plant now.
 
@CamoChameleonsHuman It is literally the only thing I could bring her home to last night ten mins before closing time of most stores. Not a super smart move on my part lol, but I’ll get her correctly set up. I knew it was like throwing my money down the toilet but I figured it would do for a couple of days while I get everything right shipped.
Theres a few items you can use in that kit but mostly everything is insufficient for even a baby. She should be fine with the size of the enclosure for a few months but proper lighting is key especially in early development. Focus on that first if budget or money is of concern.
 
I’m going to order it all now so I don’t have to later. I figured this would be a not insignificant investment but I just fell for her and couldn’t leave her there in her gross little glass square.

I’ll get a cart loaded up and post it here before I order for a final go ahead if that’s ok lol to prevent making any mistakes.
 
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