Veiled Stressed or Mayb Sick

[OkiCham]

Hey guys, This is my first post so i will make it a good one.

I have a male veiled cham who i aquired a month ago from a freind who bought him and quickly got deployed. we are in Okinawa, Japan and as for other cham owners or any knolage on island that is non existant.
the Cham is 2 months old he was being housed in a 18''x18''x24'' glass/screen enclosure so i quickly ordered a 29x29x48 screen enclosure. he is dark and rarly goes light color (this being my worrie) he was like that in his old enclosue and still in his new one which he has housed for 3 days now. i have not seen him drink in the new enclosure or eat but crickets are disapeering.

so, i will give a run down and then follow with some questions;

29x29x48 screened mesh
1 ZooMed 5.0 uvb (1 week old)
1 exo terra 2.0 uvb (1 month old)
(both bulbs in same reflective fixture)
1 75watt exo terra sun bulb ((2 weeks old) own fixture)
1 3.5 foot hawaiian umbrella plant (added with new enclosure)
2 poted hanging Pathos plants (added with new enclosure)
1 small ficus at bottom (was in original enclosure)
multiple vines
wooden dowl to hang plants in cage
5 fake hanging plants surrounding
1 custom built rain system on 6x a day 15min intervals (not rain more of droplets)
sprayed 3x a day (morning, lunch, night)
basking temp between 78-82 F
humidity 60-75% (very humid climate to begin with)
lights on timmer for 12 hrs 9-9

Ok, so thats what i'm dealing with and i hope that is alright and if not please let me know.

questions;
why is he so stressed/Dark? (also he just started his 1st shed this morning/last night)
is his set-up optimal?
is their anything i can do better for him?
what are my "Qs" for him getting dehydrated?
is their a better way to manage his food/ water intake?

i know alot of general questions but i want to make sure he is good 2 go.

on a side note, as for a Vet on island that deald with reptiles yes found one but they have 0 experiance with chams. My, Wife how ever is a Vet for the Army but their mission is Dogs and Cats. thay can run basic fecal tests and so on but have no idea what to look for.

thank you to anyone who responds in advance. although he was indeed a sper of the moment pet i am going to do all i can to make him one happy cham while i have him.... (he will remain with me and will not go back to original owner, i will eventually be seeking info for flying with him which i know can be done but at what cost to his health and well being i dont know)

Adam
OkiCham
Okinawa Japan

 

[chameleoman]

HI there welcome to the forums,


well everthing seems to look fine but if im right you said the rain mister is 6x a day? if so thats to much, limit it to 2-3x and are you dusting crickets with any vitamins or anything? how much food are you feeding him? they usually are black/ brown because there smart and know dark colors absorb sun so they turn those colors to bask i have the same thing with my guy because he basks ALL day i problaly need to get a hotter lamp i dont know about your heat those your uvb should be a repti-sun 5.0 linear bulb but i dont know if people use the ones you have

 

[chameleoman]

for us to be able to undestand the situation a little better could you feel this out

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/


and pics of the setup and him would be really helpful

 

[okiroo]

i lived in okinawa 6years. i'd say its a gr8 place to raise a cham. nice and humid + gr8 weather

as for vets....they killed my iguana. didnt give the right meds ect and were treating secondary sysmtoms rather then the real problems. the guy was suposed to be gr8 but wasnt gr8 imho. i went to others but off base wuddnt take them. how is oki-town? i miss the beach and chu la u

 

[OkiCham]

Thanks for the welcome, i will post a few photos when i get home to take some pics.
i will touch base on some things i did miss.

feeding is 5 small crickets in am and 5 return from work 430 being dusted with Ca w/o D3 also using a multi-vit that is being givin 1x feeding week. Gut load is apples, squash, and sweet potato

his placement is in a spare bedroom that i have a fishtank and TV in but is rarely used. i put a cardboard piece on side of A/C vent so it is not directly affecting him.

as for fecal description, i am color blind so bare with me. but i say black looking with a white part attached.

i am using two different brands of temp+humidity guages that were bought from local pet store (Japanesse)

i am glad to hear it could just be him trying to absorb light that dose make sense, although i read that dark colors = stress so i want to be sure. i will also look into a linear bulb and order this weekend which will take a week or so to arive via Amazon. is their anything els you would recomend? i will cut rain down to 3x a day.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Hello, welcome to the forum It sounds like you have a pretty good set up for him. Here is a caresheet I always recommend to new members with Veileds - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/chameleonsinmyhouse/395-veiled-chameleon-care-sheet.html
The first indication of dehydration is that the urate section of his poop should be white. If it is yellow or worse, orange, then he is dehydrated. Sunken eyes is even worse.
The best things you can do for him is make sure you have the right vitamin and mineral supplements, gutload the insects well and get some variety of insects for him to eat.

 

[OkiCham]

Man i hate to hear that you wern't able to get a good vet either.. that is worriesom that they coulden't even save a Iguana.. Oki is great we love it her been on island for 2 years now and man will we miss this place when we leave also...

 

[OkiCham]

David, thanks for the care sheet i dont know how i did not find this sooner. i will also be keeping an eye on his dropings for color change. my question that dose come from that care sheet is should he be in such a large cage yet? i tried cup feeding in old inclosure with no sucess but i did not think about him being so small and not finding dinner... Hell i cant find him from time to time lol.. as for gut loading of corse and supplements also. but a varied diet is going to be hard i have inly been able to find crickets and small meal worms which he wont eat.. maybe some of the old Oki folks could chime in on ideas? or do you think i could wild catch bugs?

 

[DavidBuchan]

Most people will move them into the larger cage between about 5-8 months old, so it's a bit earlier than I did it. I don't think it will be any problem though if you can get him to cup feed . You usually need a pretty big cup to get the job done at first, so he can clearly see the crickets moving around in there.
A few wild caught bugs is a good idea to keep him interested, but of course make sure they are not poisonous and there are no pesticides in the area.

 

[okiroo]

Man i hate to hear that you wern't able to get a good vet either.. that is worriesom that they coulden't even save a Iguana.. Oki is great we love it her been on island for 2 years now and man will we miss this place when we leave also...

yeah its hard to leave. i woke up for weeks dreaming of soba soup. eat as much as you can, try to get sick of it.lol. been 3 years and i still miss it leanred to make curry, rice balls and found decent sushi tho. i'll survive XD.


yeah the iguana was pre bad off. some super bad parasites took over and i tried to get them to treat him. his eyes and mouth starting rotting and they were treating that(fine) but didnt treat the parasites; so he died. i was really mad about that.


goodluck with your chameleon. feel free to PM me if you have any qeustions or anything. i know some places in okinawa that sell them if i can remmeber right. i used to see them from time to time in Monkey mart by that dragon game place. where did you get your guy?