Veild chameleon casque irregularly shaped

jeffjw

New Member
I have a male veild approximately 7mos old and his casque is a bit misshaped, growing slightly sideways at the top and curled around at the sides. I see other people on the forums with similar concerns and mixed opinions as to whether its perfectly normal or early signs of MBD. He does lean to one side when basking so I suspect that may have something to do with it, but want some expert opinions ;) he is also more brown and his scales appear somewhat dry compared to other veilds.

For uvb I have one zoomed 5.0HO 5% across the top of the enclosure and for basking I have a zoomed 75w repti basking spot lamp approximately 10" above the perch. basking temp at the perch is about 85F. I've tried moving it closer a few times, but he starts gapping so I move it back.

his auto mister is set to go off every 2 hours so he has lots of opportunity to drink from the leaves, although I never actually see him drink. I run a small humidifier on days when theres low humididty, and the ambient temp of my house is set to 72F.

lights are on a timer with a 12 hour cycle 7:30 to 19:30 every day.

he eats crickets dusted in reptical without D3. usually about 6 to 8 half inch crickets per day. I've tried to give him greens but he ignores them. I occasionally give him dusted meal worms for variety which he likes much better than crickets.

his poops seem normal enough I guess although the urea has a hint of yellow and is fairly wet and runny. it's not a solid white chunk like some people describe.

any thoughts?
 

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Stop with the mealworms. Try feeding him BSFL, Silkworms, Super worms, and Dubia as your staples and Horn worms as a treat
 
I was using carrots because I found the crickets were dying quickly when I had greens in with them and thought that might be causing it, but I'll give it another try. I also read somewhere that the commercial gut loads could be problematic, but if the general consensus is that these 4 are good I will start using them.
 
Bug burger and cricket crack are good commercial gutloads
ok good to know. I was also wondering about the 5% UVB vs the 10% UVB? I went with the 5% because I read that overexposure to UVB could be bad, however now it seems like everything I read is saying 10% for veilds. should I change out the bulb?
 
ok good to know. I was also wondering about the 5% UVB vs the 10% UVB? I went with the 5% because I read that overexposure to UVB could be bad, however now it seems like everything I read is saying 10% for veilds. should I change out the bulb?
You have a single reflector UVB, stick with 5%. @nightanole please check me on this^
 
You have a single reflector UVB, stick with 5%. @nightanole please check me on this^

Yup, 4ft cage, single bulb, you want a 6%/5.0 T5HO. If you are plant crazy and have a quad with 1 big reflector accross all bulbs, you want 1 12%/10.0.

If you are stuck with T8's, you want the 12%/10.0, and thats still not going to give you much UVB past 1 foot into the cage.


looks like
jeffjw
has the $50 22" reptisun T5 HO hood that comes with the 5.0, so that should be perfect.
 
there are a lot of plants in there, but he spends at least 50% of his time in the basking spot about 8" away from the UVB bulb
 
there are a lot of plants in there, but he spends at least 50% of his time in the basking spot about 8" away from the UVB bulb

Thats perfect. The 10.0 is for the "pet tree" setups where you cant even find the cham, and you have a meter just incase.
 
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