I am new at owning a chameleon, i have a senegal and am aware of everything it needs to survive and be healthy. I am just having problems doing this in a convenient way. First off I have a terrarium glass on sides, opens in front, and screened on top. I know this is not the ideal cage for it, but it is a baby and I will get a better one soon. The problem with this is the excess water at the bottom of the cage. I don't know what would be the best way to go about managing it. I don't even understand how you do manage it with screened enclosures. I don't want to cause my cage to become a breeding ground for bacteria, please someone help me think of a solution to my problem. Thanks. Also my senegal is eating crickets all the time, how many is normal a day???? Thanks
My first chamleon was a Senegal that I bought at a flea market. I then put it into an aquarium. A textbook case of doing everything wrong...buying a wild caught from an unknowledgeable seller, using an aquarium, etc. The weird thing is that he lived for a long time, and thrived. FWIW, I gave him enough food that I thought would have the volume to fill his belly every day...I visualized the size of his stomach.
I set him up with a soil floor about 3 inches deep, and I watered him by misting him with a pump sprayer. Never had any problems with fungus...maybe due to the microorganisms in natural soil and because I would always let the "cage" dry out before I turned it off at night.
What was odd about this set up was that the crickets started to lay eggs in the soil, so I would put dogfood down in there so the crickets wouldn't chew on the Senegal at night. Well, over time, the baby crickets hatched and ate the dogfood, and would go through their life cycle and lay eggs. Eventually, it was self-sustaining...so I only had to add water and cricket food.
Like I say, there was a lot of stuff I did wrong there...the aquarium, the dogfood, etc., but he lived a long time...I think almost 2 years.
The thing about aquariums is I swear by them for raising baby chams as a method for maintaining a good density of pray items and keeping the humidity up. I've never lost a baby ever if I put it into an aquarium while using certain parameters, and I can't be convinced that its improper for baby chams with the proper care. Go ahead and try to convince me.
Steve
