Trip to the Vet?

byrnesr

New Member
First to get this out of the way:
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male CB Veiled Chameleon (purchased as a "Juvenile") est. 5 months. He's been with me for 7 weeks. His name is Caesar.
Handling - Handled twice for less than 5 min. He was more fearful than curious and opted to go back to his enclosure.
Feeding - ~5 crickets 3 times daily for a total of 14-16 crickets, a variety of ~4-6 small to medium locusts/hornworms/butterworms (he's not a fan of silkworms) at varying times of the day. A substitution mealworm or two twice a week. Crickets are watered using Fluker's Cricket Quencher Calcium Fortified, fed using Fluker's High-calcium Cricket diet. Locust are wild caught in a non chemically treated area.
Supplements - ZooMed ReptiCalcium, ReptoCal w/D3, Rep-Cal Herptivite. Following the Chameleon Forums recommended supplement schedule.
Watering - MistKing w/3 misting heads. Misting 9:45 a.m for 2 min., 11:45 30 sec., 1:15 2 min., 3:15 30 sec, 4:45 2 min, 6:15 30 sec. I have seen him drink from vines and leaves, even the misting head at the end of the cycle, and occassionally shoot water drops from a distance. He has a good sense of where and when to look for water, even headed to a section of dense foliage in search of water between misting cycles, and of course finding it on leaves and stems.
Fecal Description - Droppings are dark brown solid pellets with white urinates. This chameleon has never been tested for parasites.
History - This chameleon is a highly opportunistic eater. He currently uses a feeding station which I keep stocked with food most of the day. He rarely passes up a free roaming bug. He is still reclusive and prefers to eat when I am not near the cage. But will take bugs offered by hand.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen enclosed baker's rack with several shelves removed. Suspended inside is a large live pothos plant. A money tree fills in the other side of the cage. 10 to 15 vines of assorted diameters and textures provide the support for chameleon travels.50"X20"X56"
Lighting - 1 60 Watt daylight bulb for basking, 1 30" Reptisun 10.0, both are on a 12 hour on/off cycle. I opted for the 10.0 due to the depth and size of the cage. In addition, he spends the majority of his time under the basking light outside the UVB zone, with limited treks through the UVB zone several times a day for drinking, napping, and pooping (he's latrine oriented! Makes cleanup a cinch.)
Temperature - Temperature ranges from 75 to 91 degrees fahrenheit. Temperatures are taken with both digital devices and spot checks with pet store variety thermometers several times a week.
Humidity - 30% to 45%, a cool mist humidifier in the room,
Plants - One large live pothos, and 1 small money tree. Variety of other "reptile" artificial planets to provide additional cover.
Placement - Cage is in front of two windows with 1.5 hrs of filtered morning sunlight in my office. A 15" space between the windows provides a guaranteed source of shade during exposure time as does the foliage. There is an overhead fan turned on occassionally no particular schedule. The top of the cage is 6'5" above the floor.
Location - Oklahoma, United States.

Photos of enclosure and recent photos of Chameleon can be found here.

First off his activity has changed. He has had a pretty good routine of simply eating and basking, pooping and sleeping at roughly the same times of the day. I recently noticed a slight bend in his casque which I attributed to the the locatation of his basking branch being too close to the top of the enclosue. I've adjusted the branch so he cannot bump his head at the top or get burn because of laziness. During the beginning of his last shed cycle (5 days ago) he had some difficulty sheding (it took about 4 days). He stopped visiting his feeding station for food. Chalking it up to being unconfortable I let it go a day. On day 2 of no eating I decided to step in and offer locusts in the afternoon(he can't pass them up). So he ate 5. During these last days he has been very active and intent on testing the boundries in the rear of his enclosure near the windows, with much less interest in eating and basking. The entire front of the cage is open, he could simply walk out the front if he wants. (Of course as I'm typing this he's down at the feeding station now picking off crickets, sheesh.) I believe I heard him sneeze once or twice. Once the misters were on...could been a little mist in the nose. :-0

Question #1: Thinking it best to establish him with my vet, I'm curious as the best way to transport my guy with the least trauma and most safety.

Question(s) #2: I have purchased an artifical tree and added some vines and perching branches for him to use to get some sun outside. He is still very leary of me,no gapping or hissing, but not ready to walk on out. Should I wait until he's a bit older? What is the best way to introduce this to him, place near his enclosure? Indoors for a little while first, let him get used to it? or just pick him up like it or not and put him on it where-ever, like ripping a band-aid off?

Thanks in advance.
 
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