urgent help required!!! egypt

L

lostinegypt

New Member
Hi,

i need help!!!! i am a teacher at a british school in cairo egypt. today a parent bought a veiled chameleon into school as a present!!! it was in a carboard box and had been fed on dry cat food!!!!

i was given the chameleon to look after. i have very little knowledge of reptiles and have never owned one before.

I have put the chameleon into a glass fish tank stood upright (so it is tall) put a plant in with some branches, spayed the leaves and put a mesh panel over the open end of the tank to stop it escaping.

I am getting a mesh enclosure made - this can be any size. what size is best??

i have a basking lamp and reptisun uvb lamp from my terrapins tank (i have moved the terrapin outside temporarly so the chameleon can have its tank.)

i also have some reptasol liquid vitamin supplement that my mother bought by mistake for my terrapin.

i live in egypt so i cannot buy anything that you can buy in the uk etc. I am going to mist the leaves and set up a drip water system.

however the main problem is food, in that i have none!!!!!

i do not know where i can buy live insects. i have asked the two small pet shops i have in my city but they dont have them. does anyone know of any suppliers wither in cairo or that will ship to cairo???

what can i feed him on in the meantime. we do have lots of insects here but i am wary of giving him wild insects as pesticide is sprayed into the air outside almost daily.

please help with any advice you can give me, i want to make the best of a bad situation, but am struggling due to living in egypt.
 
The chameleon is probably wild caught so I would look for insects in your area since you have no other choice. Roaches, crickets,moths, whatever you can find that has no poisons.
 
You said..."a parent bought a veiled chameleon into school as a present!!! it was in a carboard box and had been fed on dry cat food!!!!"...are you sure its a veiled? Can you post a picture please? Cat food has too much preformed vitamin A. in it...hopefully the chameleon is okay.

Here are some good sites with good information...
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
http://www.adcham.com/
http://www.chameleonnews.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/index.htm
https://www.chameleonforums.com/supplementation-mbd-1-a-2451/

You said..."I have put the chameleon into a glass fish tank stood upright (so it is tall) put a plant in with some branches, spayed the leaves and put a mesh panel over the open end of the tank to stop it escaping"...this should be fine for now...the UVB should not pass through glass or plastic.

You said..."I am getting a mesh enclosure made - this can be any size. what size is best??"...the size depends on the age of the chameleon. Hatchlings are kept in smaller cages. The smallest I would use for an adult is 2'x 2'x 18"

You said..."i also have some reptasol liquid vitamin supplement that my mother bought by mistake for my terrapin"...I don't know what is in this....but the chameleon needs to have phos.free calcium dusted on the insects at most feedings. A vitamin powder and a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder can each be used twice a month. The vitamin powder should have a beta carotene source of vitamin A so it won't build up in the system. Preformed vitamin A may be given once in a while...but it can build up in the system and excess may interfere with the D3. D3 from supplements can also build up in the system...so don't overdo it either. Its important to gutload the insects and feed them a nutritious diet too.

You said..."however the main problem is food, in that i have none!!!!!"...although I would recommend using ones purchased from an insect supplier (pet store or ordered over the net...don't know who would ship there.) if you have none and can't get any you could use some insects form the wild that are found in pesticide free areas (which you said is difficult).

A veiled can eat veggies, greens and a bit of fruit...but they generally won't start to do this until they are about 5 months old. You can give it greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (slivers of carrot, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.) and fruit (apple, pear, berries, melon, etc.)

Hope this helps!
 
thank you so much for your help!!! i thought vieled chameleons came from yemen, saudi arabia???

egypt is not great for animals, i got my terrapin in similar situations.

am going to look at the link provided, thanks again!
 
I'm wondering if it truly is a veiled since the mediterranean chameleon is more likely to live in that area?
 
i will try to post pictures of the chameleon. I thought it was a vieled because of the appendage on his head and looking at pictures of chameleons on the internet.

Also can they eat ants or will the ants bite the chameleon?? I have lots of ants in my house!!
 
They could probably eat ants. But I would stay away from them. If you leave the chameleon unsupervised, the ants could swarm the chameleon. They will eat house flies if you can catch them. Try to find either crickets or Locusts as a staple diet.
 
how would i catch house flies so they are still alive? also how many should i feed him? should i give him fruit and vegetables until i can get insects?
 
You could probably leave out some rotting fruit outside. That will attract some flies. Then, sneak up and trap them with a bowl or large plastic bag.
 
lostinegypt said:
how would i catch house flies so they are still alive? also how many should i feed him? should i give him fruit and vegetables until i can get insects?
Click to expand...

You could put some lettuce in the cage and see if he'll eat it. Just put a large junk up where he can bite junks off. People have fed strawberries cut into smaller bite size pieces to their cham. What you NEEEED to make sure of, is that you wash the fruit and veggies VERY well. You don't want pesticides on the food.

We would really like to see some pictures of your cham. Don't forget to mist him well during the day. I am sure it is quite warm by you?
 
will get some pics up today if possible.

i have put in some apple, melon, yellow bell pepper and some grated sweet potato. is this ok? I have also set up a fly trap outside - cut a drinks bottle in half and put one half back inside the other - so it is like a funnel. i have added a sugar and water mixture to it. No flies as yet thou!!!

I have been misting him. I was thinking three times a day is this enough?? He seems to really like this and is drinking well. I havent seen him eat any of the fuit or veg yet thou.

it is cooling off a bit now here so it is only about 28 degress celcius now (temp goes up to late 30's here), so pretty hot still.

its holy day today so have to wait until shops open later today to go and get materials for enclosure. The chameleon is about 5 inches long (not including tail). I was going to make the enclosure maybe 6 feet tall. Is this too tall?? I was going to make it that tall so that there was enough distance between the uv bulb and him - as it is meant to be at least 12inches (as it says on the box) is this right? Also put in a normal lightbulb for heat??? going to make a drip tank as well.

what do you put in the bottom of the enclosure to catch all the water?

he can climb well, but i dont think he knows how to climb back up from the bottom. should i put him on a branch or leave him to figure it out himself??

thank you so much guys for all your help, i really appreciate it. Its just hard being in egypt when it comes to animals, there is a real ignorance about the care of animals, they have no education about them. its really sad and i need to keep telling myself, i cant save everything.
 
4 ft(or around 1.3m) height is probably fine. what kind of light is the uvb? ( fluorescent tube, compact fluorescent, or mercury vapor? what does the box say(like "reptisun 5.0")?

to catch some insects, you could try setting a light on the ground outside after dark....bugs should flock to it, and it should be pretty easy pickings.

water run-off controll.......if you find a great solution, let us know. search this site under "drip tray"...etc. for hints in that department.


GOOD LUCK, and WELCOME ABOARD!!!:D
 
its a reptisun 5.0 compact.

another question... he doesnt seem to be moving around much - not very active. is this normal??

as i have just got him i have no idea of when the parent bought him, where she got him from, where he lived (what enclosure etc).

if the enlclosure is 4ft that means the plants can be no higher than 3ft because of the uv lamp right? i have a ceramic bulb holder that you attach to the side/ top of the enclosue.
 
sorry another question. my mam lives in the uk she said she could post whatever i wanted to me in egypt (this would take about week or so) is there anything that is a MUST HAVE???

I have used zoomeds tinned insects before for my terrapin, should i get my mam to post some tins out to me in the meanwhile until i can find a live insect supplier?? will the chameleon eat dead insects??

sorry for all the questions but i really want to get this right.
 
A misting system would also be a good investment. It really saves time on spraying water when you are not around. http://www.mistking.com/Standard-Misting-System-p-16194.html

Here is a cheap way to make an outdoor cage.
Materials:
PVC pipe
PVC connectors
Garden Netting
Alot of Zip ties
Inside.jpg

314view.jpg

Fullcage.jpg
 
I think you should remove the bell peppers and potato.

Mist the guy as much as you can for now. If he is drinking well, he wants more. A cham will stop when it is no longer thirsty. Your misting should last about 5 minutes of constant spraying. If you begin to mist and he doesn't drink... miss anyway. sometimes eventhough they are thirsty they don't drink right away. It is ok if you see him buldging his eyes out. He is cleaning his eyes when he does this.

Cage size for an adult male veiled can be about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide and deep. Place the cage so that the chameleon can have a perch higher than your head. Doesn't need to be super high, just above eye level. Chameleons live in trees and feel more secure the higher they are.

What kind of UV lamp do you have? is it a screw in style or tube? What brand and what output level is the lamp?

The screw in style lamp isn't a good choice. The tube is a MUCH better lamp to use

IMG_6406RS.jpg


as for a heat lamp. You may not need much of one. I would start off with a low wattage house lamp to see what kind of temp you get at its basking spot (temp below the lamp...) put a vine or stick about 8 inches from the top of the cage where the lamp is and have the UVB lamp near the heat lamp so that the cham es exposed to UVB, UVA and heat at the same time. you don't want the basking temp to be much more than 95 degrees F. Also provide a high perch for him to bask in the UVB light. You want to give the cham heat optins... basking to get warm and moving lower in the cage to get cool. They need to have night time temp drops as well. You should have at least a 10 degree F night time temp drop.

hope some of that helps
 
please help i think he is dying.

he is lying on his side with his leg in the air. i thought he was dead but he has moved. i still havent found any insects, he has not eaten the fruit. what can i do, is there any other food i can try him with?? i hate this parent for putting me in this position. i think he is starving to death.
 
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