kj9
New Member
Chameleon Info:
• Chameleon - Veiled, female, approximately 1-2 months. One week.
• Handling – We’ve held her three times since we got her.
• Feeding – We are feeding her small crickets. We saw her hunt and eat one a couple of days ago. Yesterday we were able to get her to eat 4 crickets and this morning I was able to get her to eat 4 ½. We have not been gut-loading our feeders, but would appreciate any and all advice on the topic.
• Supplements – We have not dusted our feeders yet, but as with gut-loading, we would greatly appreciate any and all advice on the best way to do so.
• Watering – We have a mister that runs all day long and we mist her with a spray bottle as well. Multiple times per day; until all of the leaves in her cage are wet. Yes, we’ve seen her drink water both off of the leaves in her cage, as well as off of the cage itself.
• Fecal Description – Light brown with a white-ish top. She has never been tested for parasites.
• History – We really don’t have much history as we have only had her one week. We are first time chameleon owners, and really had no clue what we were getting ourselves into. Now that we have her though, we are determined to be the best possible pet parents that we can be. This is all one big learning process for us, and we are learning new things about keeping a chameleon every day. The lady in the pet store that sold her to us said that we should keep her in a glass aquarium with a screen top and that we didn’t need any substrate in the bottom. This woman told us that we should be feeding her mealworms, as she had never seen her hunt crickets. Us being incredibly unprepared and naïve took her word for it and only bought mealworms as feeders. That night I was doing some reading online, and realized that we should definitely NOT be keeping her in a glass aquarium and should NOT be trying to feed her only mealworms. The next day we went out to a different pet store and bought the screen cage that she is currently in. While at this store the woman working there told us that we SHOULD put substrate in the bottom. We made the mistake of listening to a pet store employee again and bought ZooMed eco earth substrate. Also, when we told this woman about the mealworms, she said that we should try feeding our cham flightless fruit flies. We got a bottle of those to try out (our cham was not interested at all). After doing more research we took all of the substrate out of the bottom of her cage and replaced it with two layers of paper towels. Yesterday we bought Zilla Jump-Start (caloric supplement and appetite stimulant). We were able to get some of that in her through the syringe. She opened her eyes once after we fed her Jump-Start. She started getting a lot more active and my boyfriend came up with the idea of coating her crickets with the stuff and then feeding them to her that way. We were able to get her to eat both yesterday and today by doing that.
Cage Info:
• Cage Type – Screen cage. 18”x18”x36”.
• Lighting – We have a Zilla day blue light bulb and a ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 UVB lamp. Both domes sit directly on the screen on the top of her cage. We have a deep dome for the UVB bulb. I turn on both of the lights around 8:30am and turn them both off around 9:00pm. We just got the UVB light yesterday, after doing more reading on what keeping a chameleon healthy and happy requires.
• Temperature – The top of her cage nearest the basking lamp is around 90 degrees according to our thermometer. We recently moved it to about 2/3 of the way down her cage and it reads that the temperature there is about 80 degrees. The lowest overnight temp is about 75 – 80 degrees, as it does not get any cooler than that in our house. We measure these temps with a thermometer/hygrometer that we bought with a bunch of starter stuff. We’re pretty sure it isn’t very accurate and have talked about getting a better one. Any recommendations?
• Humidity – The little thermometer/hygrometer that we have reads that her cage sits between 40 – 50% humidity. We have a mister that runs all day and we also mist the cage with a spray bottle multiple times daily. We think that readings are not accurate, because if you walk into the room where her cage is located it feels like the whole room is damp.
• Plants – No.
• Placement – Her cage is located in my boyfriend's office at our house. The door stays closed all the time and the only time people are in there is if my boyfriend or I have work to do that we can’t do out in the kitchen (it gets so hot in the office). There are no fans, no vents, and almost no traffic in our office. The top of her cage is about 4 feet off of the floor.
• Location – Northeast Ohio.
Current Problem – Her eyes are closed and she is not eating. We have only seen her hunt and eat a cricket one time (a couple days ago). We were able to feed her Zilla Jump-Start through a syringe and a few crickets by hand when they were coated in the goo. Her grip seems to be very weak and we have seen her fall a couple of times. I have been doing extensive reading on what it takes to be able to keep a cham and now know just how grossly unprepared we really were. We have become increasingly worried about her health over the past week and I decided to post on here to see if anyone has any recommendations about what to do for our cham. Thank you, LM.
Photos:
1. Full view of her cage.
2. Inside her cage
3. Sitting on the side of the dish we have in there. We now leave it empty after learning that they don't need water dishes. You can see that her eyes are still closed.
4. Walking over to climb up the screen.
5. Climbing the screen to go sit right under her mister.
• Chameleon - Veiled, female, approximately 1-2 months. One week.
• Handling – We’ve held her three times since we got her.
• Feeding – We are feeding her small crickets. We saw her hunt and eat one a couple of days ago. Yesterday we were able to get her to eat 4 crickets and this morning I was able to get her to eat 4 ½. We have not been gut-loading our feeders, but would appreciate any and all advice on the topic.
• Supplements – We have not dusted our feeders yet, but as with gut-loading, we would greatly appreciate any and all advice on the best way to do so.
• Watering – We have a mister that runs all day long and we mist her with a spray bottle as well. Multiple times per day; until all of the leaves in her cage are wet. Yes, we’ve seen her drink water both off of the leaves in her cage, as well as off of the cage itself.
• Fecal Description – Light brown with a white-ish top. She has never been tested for parasites.
• History – We really don’t have much history as we have only had her one week. We are first time chameleon owners, and really had no clue what we were getting ourselves into. Now that we have her though, we are determined to be the best possible pet parents that we can be. This is all one big learning process for us, and we are learning new things about keeping a chameleon every day. The lady in the pet store that sold her to us said that we should keep her in a glass aquarium with a screen top and that we didn’t need any substrate in the bottom. This woman told us that we should be feeding her mealworms, as she had never seen her hunt crickets. Us being incredibly unprepared and naïve took her word for it and only bought mealworms as feeders. That night I was doing some reading online, and realized that we should definitely NOT be keeping her in a glass aquarium and should NOT be trying to feed her only mealworms. The next day we went out to a different pet store and bought the screen cage that she is currently in. While at this store the woman working there told us that we SHOULD put substrate in the bottom. We made the mistake of listening to a pet store employee again and bought ZooMed eco earth substrate. Also, when we told this woman about the mealworms, she said that we should try feeding our cham flightless fruit flies. We got a bottle of those to try out (our cham was not interested at all). After doing more research we took all of the substrate out of the bottom of her cage and replaced it with two layers of paper towels. Yesterday we bought Zilla Jump-Start (caloric supplement and appetite stimulant). We were able to get some of that in her through the syringe. She opened her eyes once after we fed her Jump-Start. She started getting a lot more active and my boyfriend came up with the idea of coating her crickets with the stuff and then feeding them to her that way. We were able to get her to eat both yesterday and today by doing that.
Cage Info:
• Cage Type – Screen cage. 18”x18”x36”.
• Lighting – We have a Zilla day blue light bulb and a ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 UVB lamp. Both domes sit directly on the screen on the top of her cage. We have a deep dome for the UVB bulb. I turn on both of the lights around 8:30am and turn them both off around 9:00pm. We just got the UVB light yesterday, after doing more reading on what keeping a chameleon healthy and happy requires.
• Temperature – The top of her cage nearest the basking lamp is around 90 degrees according to our thermometer. We recently moved it to about 2/3 of the way down her cage and it reads that the temperature there is about 80 degrees. The lowest overnight temp is about 75 – 80 degrees, as it does not get any cooler than that in our house. We measure these temps with a thermometer/hygrometer that we bought with a bunch of starter stuff. We’re pretty sure it isn’t very accurate and have talked about getting a better one. Any recommendations?
• Humidity – The little thermometer/hygrometer that we have reads that her cage sits between 40 – 50% humidity. We have a mister that runs all day and we also mist the cage with a spray bottle multiple times daily. We think that readings are not accurate, because if you walk into the room where her cage is located it feels like the whole room is damp.
• Plants – No.
• Placement – Her cage is located in my boyfriend's office at our house. The door stays closed all the time and the only time people are in there is if my boyfriend or I have work to do that we can’t do out in the kitchen (it gets so hot in the office). There are no fans, no vents, and almost no traffic in our office. The top of her cage is about 4 feet off of the floor.
• Location – Northeast Ohio.
Current Problem – Her eyes are closed and she is not eating. We have only seen her hunt and eat a cricket one time (a couple days ago). We were able to feed her Zilla Jump-Start through a syringe and a few crickets by hand when they were coated in the goo. Her grip seems to be very weak and we have seen her fall a couple of times. I have been doing extensive reading on what it takes to be able to keep a cham and now know just how grossly unprepared we really were. We have become increasingly worried about her health over the past week and I decided to post on here to see if anyone has any recommendations about what to do for our cham. Thank you, LM.
Photos:
1. Full view of her cage.
2. Inside her cage
3. Sitting on the side of the dish we have in there. We now leave it empty after learning that they don't need water dishes. You can see that her eyes are still closed.
4. Walking over to climb up the screen.
5. Climbing the screen to go sit right under her mister.