Substarte Question?

[lilLostduckie]

Hey there,

We recently established a terrarium, and are hoping to bring our veiled home later this week. He is a rescue, and is roughly 5-6 inches in length.

As I said, our terrarium has been established, and we are in the process of monitoring humidity and heat levels. We DO have a waterfall, though my husband made it himself so that it includes a filtration device for the water and is entirely self contained.

We used a substrate of coconut shavings, as we put some smaller pants in the substrate directly, with the larger plans and trees in pots. I have read that substrate can be harmful to a cham, so was hoping for some feedback.

I know ingestion is a large concern, especially when hunting. However, most of the substrate is covered with plant life, and the only truly open area has a paper towel on it. I find this helps keep the soil more moist, while maintaining a happier humidity level in the terrarium itself.

However, I don't want to do anything that would put our future cham in danger. As I mentioned, we want to monitor everything as a final set up for a minimum of 48 hours before bringing him hom, so any feed back is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[TheLivingLegend]

organic soil, liquid houseplant food.

 

[andynco]

Welcome,
Most of us use screen cages and no substarte cause its more of a pain then anything and watching for mold...
Hopefully someone else will help shade some light on this.
And you could cup feed.

 

[reptilover]

can you post a picture?
i hate to say it.. i bet the water fall is terrrific. but filtered or not its a drowning hazaard and still a bacteria hazard. filtering the water does help but i wont recommend it.

and i dont recommend substrate either.. i prefer just potted plants sitting on a plan floor.. if you think about it your chams natural habitat is spending its life hight up in trees coming down only to lay eggs if its a female or if they fall or are sick... a healthy chameleon doesnt know there is a ground.. so not only is it sort of unnatural impaction from consumption of mossy dirty fibbery things is always a hazard..

 

[lilLostduckie]

The waterfall is only about 1 cm at its deepest, there isn't exactly a pooling area, it is just constantly running. I posed the idea to my husband of a drowning hazard, and he is doing his own research.

Divide and conquer - we will both research and form opinions, and then discuss.

As for substrate, potting the smaller plans IS an option we are considering, but haven't made any decisions yet. I really appreciate all the advice so far! I will snap a few pictures in the morning!

 

[reptilover]

The waterfall is only about 1 cm at its deepest, there isn't exactly a pooling area, it is just constantly running. I posed the idea to my husband of a drowning hazard, and he is doing his own research.

Divide and conquer - we will both research and form opinions, and then discuss.

As for substrate, potting the smaller plans IS an option we are considering, but haven't made any decisions yet. I really appreciate all the advice so far! I will snap a few pictures in the morning!

to each is there own on the water fall idea.. it can be done but its an extra cleaning pain.. such as when he lands a poo bomb into it (he will i promise) and then it needs to be broke down and completely cleaned out.
describe your cage style and size.. screen plexi glass mix?? size??
i like to have 2 bigger pots sitting on bottom and one hanging up high. the two sitting on the ground i plant smaller plants in around the base of the larger plant that its for.. such as i have 2 pots. one holds a dracena (palm tree thing) and around the base habe a purple passion and a few other little things to cover some area then filll in with larger rocks.. and then i have a pothos that hangs

 

[HolyToledo]

waterfalls can be a problem for chams mostly because of the moving water. chams drink moving water and prefer to poop in moving water because it washes away the poop maybe. they don't understand the water is being cycled. so they are very likely to drink the poopy water and the filters don't catch/kill the bacteria that rinses off the poop. so even if you are cleaning the poop out, the bacteria continue unless you put something like a diotomacious earth filter or ionization system in.

maybe you will be lucky enough that he won't drink it but watch close to make sure he doesn't.

as for substrate, coco hairs from the substrate is what my first girl choked on and died from. you can keep the substrate but advise you cover it well with plants and rocks that are too big to go in his mouth. then you give the feeders hiding places unless you do cup/bowl feeding.

 

[carol5208]

My issue with the substrate(especially in glass) is the fact that it is going to get wet and breed mold and bacteria. Impaction is always an option too, but if you think you have that covered then great. If you can find a way for when you mist and drip water in your cage, that your substrate will not get wet and yucky, then it will be ok. You have to consider that your chameleon is going to breathe the air in the terrarium and if it is too humid and creates mold spores you could be setting your chameleon up for a respiratory infection.

 

[HolyToledo]

agreed! i didn't think about it maybe being closed in??? i was only thinking of it being fully screen cage with good airflow. you are right carol...

 

[lilLostduckie]

Ok, the hubby and I had a long discussion, and made two decisions.

We are definitely going to remove the substrate and pout our plants in pots, at least in the beginning. We are also going to remove the water fall.

Where as his design and what not may have worked, the fact is we ARE first time owners, and don't want to do anything that could jeopardize PJ's health.

There was also a decision on a name, PJ, standing for Pascale Jr. My niece used her pouty face, so we are all watching Tangled the night we bring him home. She definitely doesn't have us wrapped around her finger or anything....

I will be posting pictures of the set up later today in all it's modified glory. I just wanted to say thanks so much for all the feedback, it makes me a bit more comfortable knowing I have a community at my back should anything go wrong! Well, anything minor, haha. We have two RES turtles, and love our exotic/reptile vet, so we will start PJs care with her.

 

[chameleonkev]

Ok, the hubby and I had a long discussion, and made two decisions.

We are definitely going to remove the substrate and pout our plants in pots, at least in the beginning. We are also going to remove the water fall.

Where as his design and what not may have worked, the fact is we ARE first time owners, and don't want to do anything that could jeopardize PJ's health.

There was also a decision on a name, PJ, standing for Pascale Jr. My niece used her pouty face, so we are all watching Tangled the night we bring him home. She definitely doesn't have us wrapped around her finger or anything....

I will be posting pictures of the set up later today in all it's modified glory. I just wanted to say thanks so much for all the feedback, it makes me a bit more comfortable knowing I have a community at my back should anything go wrong! Well, anything minor, haha. We have two RES turtles, and love our exotic/reptile vet, so we will start PJs care with her.

It's the right move for the health of your chameleon and you weren't to no, there is a lot of bad advise out there about chameleons and a lot of it comes from pet shops them selfs and there the ones you trust to give you the best start possible, I always recommend this forum there is always someone who nos more