Rocco'z Diary - Veiled Cham

[SageZA]

Hi Guys

Mr Sage here from South Africa ;-)

Rocco is 2 months old and Id like to create this thread dedicated to Him.

What i can say is his 1st week at home is going well, he is eating like a champ, and drinking. Has had around 5 hours natural Sunlight around 14:00 to 15:00

Week 1 Diet: +- 30 Pin Heads (dusted) 4 Small Silk Worms (no Dust)

Current Setup

DIY Mesh Cage

Fiscus

Lighting:

Day Light

Exo Terra Repti glo 5.0 14 w ( on From 6:45am till around 19:30)
Zoo Med 50w Basking Lamp. (on From 6:45am till around 19:30)

Night Light ( If the room temps are lower than 18 degrees)

Exo Terra Night Glo 65w

My Camera is really bad sorry. Please see the attachment It looks a bit messy ATM will keep you guys updated

Look i do not want to chop and change his cage every 2 min but i am going to build a Aluminium frame with mesh the weekend no to big though. And change the current location of his cage with the lighting positioned perfectly.

I am up for any comments, and will be updating regularly.

Sage

 

[SageZA]

Its DIY Terrarium building weekend. 42x42x76 cm Aluminum Frame with inner square wire mesh. I am thinking of giving the mesh a fine coat of PVC paint excluding the top of the cage. I am thinking of using a stainless steal mesh for the top.

Also an adjustable Lamp Stand to clip the lamps onto.

 

[carol5208]

When do you plan on putting him in the new enclousre? He is only 2 months old and that is awfully large. That is really for an adult. that is even bigger than the standard 24 X 24 X 48. You really shouldn't use any substrate on the bottom of your cage. Although your substrate looks large enough in the picture and he is small, when they shoot for their prey they can injest substrate in the mouths, which can lead to an impaction. When he gets older I would remove it or if there are pieces small enough in there now. You have the light awfully far away from the cage also. Have you checked your basking temp for him with a thermometer?

 

[SageZA]

He loves his feeder bowl, its not on the floor for the time being.

I have the exo terra temp probe, he is basking outside at the moment 32.2 degrees Celsius. I have ice cubes on the top and he is attracted to it big time

This cage is temporary. Is it really to big? also he does hangout on the ficus alot and seems to climb the cage too.

I made the cage to fit the small fiscus

see feeder pic attached.

Any other feed back on what i should get him please Guys? 42 x 42 x 76 cm for the rest of the world its 16.5" x 16.5" x 30", he is just over two months.

 

[carol5208]

oops!!! So sorry! I did not notice the cm!! Stupid of me!! I thought it was inches!!! When he is an adult the proper size cage should be 24 X 24 X 48 inches(2 foot by 2foot by 4 foot) the cage you have him in now is very nice size for now. the 16 X 16 X 30 would be ok good for a juvenile and then you can graduate up to the adult size.

 

[SageZA]

OK So this weekend i decided not to go build a new terrarium and throw him in.

I decided that his cage is awesome for the moment, Here in Johannesburg is Uber Hot at the moment the summer has just started last three days the ambient temperature has been 30 -31 Degrees Celsius.

He has been out in Natural sunlight for at least 2 hours on Friday Saturday and Sunday. He had a mild sunset this evening got a few rays in. I included spray downs on all occasions.

He is getting used to the Spray, he really enjoyed last nights.

Ok so at the moment is around 29 Degrees Celsius sundown, had about 6 to 7 few day old pin heads.

The humidity is hard to keep in the cage as it is totally ventilated, this i have heard is recommended for Veiled Chameleons.

The humidity hangs around 40 and if i spray down the cage it hits 60 for a few min. Got it up to 80 but i used loads of water.

Most of the time he is a bright light green in the cage.

My Questions are

Is an average humidity level of 40 50 ok?

Is it fine to still have the basking and Repti Glo 5.0 on until he goes to sleep around 19:30. (I can see when he gets sleepy he goes and claps down somewhere. Then i shutdown most of the lights in the house.

Is it cool to give him sunlight everyday although he is under the lights.

 

[SageZA]

Ok So Rocco is shedding already. Starting from the back legs up.

 

[SageZA]

ta taaaa!

ok fine cheers run along done done

 

[chameleonneeds]

Hey psyrocco sounds like your really enjoying the little guy.

Putting him outside in natural sunlight is always the best so do it as often as possible.
It does get very hot under the sun nowadays in JHB.
I usualy just put my panthers and veileds out in the direct sunlight until I see they are changing to very light colours, then I get the hose and adjust the nozzle to spray out fine mist, this cools them down and lets them drink, and then I move them into some tree shade. They can still get good ultra violet rays from the sun under the shade from the trees.

Who did you buy your veiled from?
And you should get some more pics up of him, some close ups too.

Cheers

 

[SageZA]

Oh Hi

I bought him at Reptilians Mirdand

My phone camera is horrible, but i am sorting that out soon.

Going to the expo tomorrow for some idea's on his main cage in a few weeks, when he gets bigger.

Ran out of Crickets on Wednesday, so the last two days he has had dusted Black Soldier flies, i have silk worms but after his first few he does not like em it seems.

 

[chameleonneeds]

Thats great, Reptilians is a good petstore for reptiles.

You can also try feeding him roaches which you can buy from the SAroachman.
I feed mine lobster roaches and the chams love them, they are also easier and cheaper to breed.
The black soldier flies, those are the flies of the gagagrub things right?
Silkworms are great for hydrating your reptiles, but dont feed him too much of them, rather give him them as a treat, and not so often like every day.
The gagagrubs are a good feeder to feed growing chameleons and gravid females, I heard from somewhere that they are a good source for calcium (correct me if Im wrong).
The crickets and roaches are a good source for protean so its best to feed him them as a staple diet. At the show there might be some wax worms forsale, you should maybe get some of those, the chameleons love them!
If you give him a varied diet of roaches, crickets, gagagrubs, and silkworms then he will grow up very healthy, but remember to always have a good UVB source to prevent him from getting mbd.

 

[SageZA]

Nice info thanks.

I heard that MEALWORMS have a hard exo and can eat your baby cham from the inside if not digested properly. I think ill give him that when his a bit older.

Currently i have a 14w repti glo 5.0 compact in a reflective lamp holder.

Please have a look at the image in my 4th post and tell me if you think he will be getting enough. He does go quite close to it and i bring his basking lamp down till the probe tell me its about 30 degrees c.

 

[chameleonneeds]

I think maybe you have heard wrong from other people, the wax worms are actualy quite soft. What your talking about sounds like super worms/giant mealworms.
People who feed those to their chams usualy cut their heads off (I think).

About the UV...there was a lot of problems with chameleons and the compact UVB lights. Apparently they have been fixed though and are now safe. So you should be fine with it, though most the chameleon keepers on this site will recommend you to get the tubes and not compact bulbs.
The safe brands that I use are the exo terra repti sol or glo, the zoomed reptisun and I cant remember the whole brand name but it is also called the repti sol, the last one I mentioned is probably the cheapest brand you will find.
For the other 2 you are looking to pay R300-R550 depending on size and where you buy it.
The Repti Sol is around R100-R350 depending on size and where you buy it.

 

[SageZA]

I want to go Linear soon with the next cage upgrade.

Would be cool to know at what age to move them to a medium or full size cage.

See updated lighting image below and the early morning shedding

 

[chameleonneeds]

You will probably need to move him into a bigger cage when he is about 5-7 months, youl know when he needs a bigger cage.

 

[SageZA]

Cool - will be looking at a few ideas. Will put something together and show and tell here. Then decide on a commercial or DIY product.

Rocco has been outside since 8 this morning, gave the cage a fine mist pray down with the garden house

Better go get some crix at the EXO TERRA Kyalami show. He is not liking the silkies at all.

 

[SageZA]

Sundays are the business

Cool so rocco is once again basking in the awesomeness of the sun.

This guy is really coming out of his shell, and to my surprise loves being handled, if you put your hand on top of the open cage he comes running.

Its is sunday so i have his crix dusted with a lil Reptivite.

At the exo terra kyalami show Needa Feeda gave me 300 1/4 crix yesterday for next to nothing. (Thanks Needa Feeda) Will definitely be supporting those guys guys. As they are being really innovative with there product.

 

[chameleonneeds]

Your veiled does sound quite tame, but he can change as he gets older so dont be shocked if he one day hisses and gets angry with you.

Thats great, my chams will be out today too.
I wanted to buy crickets from I think Needa Feeda but they told me they wont sell me because they need to keep some for tomorrow(and they had a lot of crix still there), that is quite irritating. Then they should just pack up and leave and come back tomorrow if thats the case...
I found Crickets for Africa to be very nice and very affordable.
Got 2 one litre box of crickets for R20, with 1 tub I fed my bearded dragon, 3 panther chameleons, male veiled, female veiled and my 2 leopard geckos. And I wasnt being stingy with how much I gave them I was just pouring in, and amazingly the crickets arent even half way done.
So I will be supporting them!
The silkworms were also quite cheap. I bought some that were 50cents each and then I got tubs that had 50+ for R7!! I found that to be quite a good bargain.

I was also amazed that there wasnt 1 panther chameleon there...
I heard that there was a young male carpet chameleon, but someone bought it before I got there

 

[SageZA]

I agree with you totally when he is totally in his element, i have to expect that he is his own boss The trick is to make him feel comfortable. No Pressure.


Crix4africa hmmmmmm cool will be checking that out to.

Laurissa cost me 6k at the show because she couldn't resist the marmoset

I just laughed my ass off i gave the cage a uber mist down rocco then went for a dip in the pool below.

Chamneeds dude thanks for all the info man you rock

At least i can chat with you the Americans seems full of it lol jokes!!!! he he

TBH it is uber fail you cannnot get exhibition price'z everyday, unless you distribute etc !!!


BUT!! chameleons are priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The things is i am trying to keep Rocco in his element as much as possible, done loads of research, I am at that age were i can keep things constant. so he is going to have a good few years ahead.

(Attached) you see this dude at Kyalami was a good example to show the GF what a year old male cham looks like.

 

[chameleonneeds]

Sweet, those monkeys were pretty cool hay.
But I liked those baby fennec fox's aswell, dont know if they were for sale though, but wasnt going to ask since the last time I heard of them forsale they were about R10 000 each!

I find that the only cheap things you can buy at the expos are the feeders. The animals are normaly the same as what they would charge in their shops, but I thought they were supposed to be a bit cheaper at the shows...
I think S.A has still got A LONG way to go before the expos are really something great, I give it 2 years and there will be a lot more to see.

I saw that you also posted on the SA forum, they are more into snakes and not really interested in chameleons. Thats why you didnt get any nice replies back. But most the chameleon breeders and keepers arent even on forums.
Best place to post about chameleons is definetely on this forum.

I did see that male, was nice that he was just free roaming on that wood structure. He will probably grow a lot more, I had an old male that was almost double that males size.