TOO much foliage??

Progrmor

Member
For my baby veiled im setting up alot of foliage right now, so that she will feel secure! But the problem right now is that I got so much foliage that the UVB light and the natural light lamp is not providing any light in the middle of the cage (Where she uselly sits) because of the foliage. It kinda blocks the light.

Should I remove some plants or something? It is really dark in the area where she hangs out most of the time :/
 
Lets see the cage first.

Also, what is the basking temp?
As you can see, there are only light in the top of the cage and she is currently not spending much time up there.
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basking temp is about 82-85.
 
I would honestly suggest switching it out with one big umbrella plant. If it's to thick just thin it out a little. There won't be as much light at the bottom, but that's how it should be. As long as the temps are right through out the enclosure and they have a good basking area it's not a big deal.

What is the accuracy of the humidity gauge ?
 
Your enclosure is fine. she has enough room to access both of the lights. I don't think there should be any problem :)
 
My cages are much denser than that, although I keep montane species. Your cham should be spending most of the time above the foliage anyway. If it spends a lot of time down underneath the foliage, I'd make sure it is not too hot up by the lights.

It does look fairly dark down below, so using the pruners to open it up a bit won't hurt either. I try to keep the really dense foliage towards the bottom half of the enclosure, and then less dense towards the top with open areas to let the light go all of the way to the floor of the enclosure in certain areas.

Basically, big leaves like hosta towards the bottom, and smaller leaves like palm towards the top works well for me.
 
Psssshhhhh, I have a 3' Pothos that consumes the majority of my 18"x18"x36" cage and my Veiled just chills at the top most of the time then ventures down into the leaves for water/shade.
 
The way I set my enclousre up was to make a jungle through 2/3 on the bottom, the top is basically a wooden/vine jungle gym with 2 smaller potted plants. My veiled is pretty active and loves to climb through the jungle part for most of day after his morning sunbathe. It's always good to have tons of foliage with new chams so they can hide when they feel uncomfortable.
 

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I try to keep my cages fully planted top to bottom on one side (left or right) and more or less open top to bottom on the other side. This allows the chameleon the choice of how exposed to be. Most of the time, they choose to be on the UNplanted side.
 
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