Why can’t i hold my cham anymore

[kped]

feedback in bold


Your Chameleon - veiled cham, female, almost 6 months

• How long has it been in your care? 3 months
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? i try to take her out for 5 minutes everyday but she hasn’t came out in a month

dont just try to take her out. lure her out with her favorite snack so she associates you with food/good things.

• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? crickets and calci worms What amount? 5 crickets 2 calci wormsAm 5 crickets pm

Get more of a variety. feed all at once, once in the morning so they have time to digest there food by basking throughout the day.

• Supplements - nothing because i was told only calci worms and if she didn’t eat those to use the calci powder

This is incorrect. They need Calcium with and without D3 and a multivitiam. Calcium without D3 daily except one day a week give multivitiam/ Calcium with D3, alternate week to week.

• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? ZooMed dropper How often and how long to you mist? 3x a day since my humidifier is iffy Do you see your chameleon drinking? yes
• Fecal Description - normal when compared to articles on how it should look
• . Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? i don’t know probably not
• History - i took her out 5 minutes everyday since i got her the only time she hasn’t come out is when i moved her into her new cage after a few months of having her cus i heard the net cages are better

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - screen i don’t know the dimensions off the top of my head

min should be 2x2x4

• Lighting - 2 morning bulbs idk the names of brands got them at petco and a night bulb

This is very important, you need a T5HO 5.0 UVB that goes from one end of the top of the cage to the other. Basking bulb should be fine with a 60 watt. No night bulb.

• Temperature - i have a small temp thing with a microphone thing that sticks into the dirt reads from 70-75

What is your basking temp?

• Humidity - i was using the stick on ones that go in the tank but since i switched cages it doesn’t read accurately so i jus mist 3 times in the day

You need a digital one. Make sure that when you’re missing it dries out between each one.

• Plants - no real plants, 5-6 fake vines and a stand up fake plant

All plants should be real. This species likes to eat there plants and can become impacted if they eat the fake plants.

• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? i have a ceiling fan she’s a good 6ft from my bedroom door but my rooms small so that’s unavoidable At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? idk enough for other animals not to reach

i have the 60 watt zoo med daylight bulb so get just a normal 60 watt incesendant ?

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

so only two bulbs and they stay on 24:7? and should i put her back into the 40 gal fish tank or keep her in this one till i get a bigger one..

No. You need 3 kinds of light: All can be 12 hrs on/12 hrs off. No lights at night whatsoever.

• UVB—linear T5HO, either 5.0 or 6%
• Basking—an old-style household incandescent is best. If not available, then household flood (not spot) or halogen flood (not spot).
• Plant lighting: LED full-spectrum is best.

I would keep her in the one you have until you can get a 24x24x48H

i’m out of work so i have literally no money to get it rn

This is a problem. Some of the husbandry issues could adversely affect the health of this chameleon, e.g. improper UVB & supplements can result in Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD).

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."she’s never ate them atleast in front of me".. .they won't seem bad until she eats some...either accidentally or on purpose....and then when you have an impacted chameleon and have to solve the problem it's going to cost you way more than a few real plants.
Every mature female veiled chameleon I owned ate the plant leaves once she was mature....that's all I can say.

 

[kped]

You said..."...they won't seem bad until she eats some...either accidentally or on purpose....and then when you have an impacted chameleon and have to solve the problem it's going to cost you way more than a few real plants.
Every mature female veiled chameleon I owned ate the plant leaves once she was mature....that's all I can say.

sounds good i’ll work on the plants lighting and supplements asap thanks for the help

 

[kped]

No. You need 3 kinds of light: All can be 12 hrs on/12 hrs off. No lights at night whatsoever.

• UVB—linear T5HO, either 5.0 or 6%
• Basking—an old-style household incandescent is best. If not available, then household flood (not spot) or halogen flood (not spot).
• Plant lighting: LED full-spectrum is best.

I would keep her in the one you have until you can get a 24x24x48H


This is a problem. Some of the husbandry issues could adversely affect the health of this chameleon, e.g. improper UVB & supplements can result in Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD).

is this good?

 

[Haley Hendrix]

Depending on the plants you get this may not be strong enough. Jungle Dawn Bar is great and keeps most plants alive better than other. She is almost mature as well so you’ll need a lay bin in there. @MissSkittles can help you get all the correct things and it all set up for her.
Check out Neptune the Chameleon on Youtube. @Gingero has tons of videos regarding proper care.
As for an enclosure her is mine:

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

is this good?

No. As can be seen in the pic, that light is intended for a single (or maybe 2) plants on a table or desktop at very close range.

Without getting too technical, we all need something with enough oomph (power) in a 48" tall enclosure to reach lower parts of plants and plants on the bottom. I usually recommend the Sansi brand because I have several different ones (so I know how well they work), certain ones have the oomph, they have a 5 yr warranty, and coupons are usually available.

The best one I've seen for a 24"x24"x48" enclosure is this one. Next is two of this one. They can be gotten through Amazon as well, but IDK if Amazon takes coupons.

I'm also not a fan of multi-colored LEDs. If a single—or few—LEDs go out in a mono-colored light, you lose a little power, but the spectrum & color of the light remains the same—you can still use the light. However, if you lose a few LEDs in a mult-colored light, it could change the overall color (temperature) of the light, which could affect plant growth and possibly the reptile's ability to see (they need full spectrum + UV).

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi! I’m so sorry that Petco misled you. Unfortunately you aren’t the first and won’t be the last that this happens to. While it may be overwhelming with so many things to change, the most important things for you to change right now are your lights and supplements. You need to get the correct uvb light - a T5 with a 5.0 or 6% uvb bulb. A plant light can wait. Then you need the correct supplements. If you haven’t already bought some, it may be easier and more economical for you to get Reptivite WITH D3, which is your multivitamin and D3 combined. You’d use calcium without D3 for every feeding except one every other week, in which you’d use the Reptivite. Your beautiful little girl is rapidly approaching sexual maturity and both correct uvb and supplements are essential for egg production and laying. I just posted the equivalent of laying 101 in this thread https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/new-female-veiled-advice-and-feedback-please.182403/ I pretty much went over everything from start to finish. I’ll @kinyonga has basically taught it all to me.
While live plants can be pricey, you may want to ask around to your friends and family if they have any pothos, philodendron or wandering Jew that they’d be willing to give you clippings from. Spider plants are ok too. As I similarly had to make tons of changes ASAP when I got my little girl, I found a mass cane plant surrounded by lots of thick pothos at Walmart for only like $12-15. I bought some cheap plastic pots and organic soil, separated the pothos into a couple of plants and this was a good start. I have all those fake plants I wasted money on stuck to the outside of my chameleon enclosures to give them extra privacy. I used this as my first plant light and for basic plants it worked fine. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KXBY2YH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For a larger enclosure, I like https://www.diycages.com/collection...umbo-vertical-screen-cage?variant=35995105933 Right now they’re sold out but they should be getting more soon. It’s similar, but slightly nicer than ReptiBreeze.
I’m attaching several graphics I think may help you. Including a pic of my outside enclosure to show you how I attached dowels to the frame to create a support to hang branches from. You can also see what I did at the top to hang a pothos. I am a fan of Dragon Ledges, but didn’t want the cost for this particular enclosure.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Hi! I’m so sorry that Petco misled you. Unfortunately you aren’t the first and won’t be the last that this happens to. While it may be overwhelming with so many things to change, the most important things for you to change right now are your lights and supplements. You need to get the correct uvb light - a T5 with a 5.0 or 6% uvb bulb. A plant light can wait. Then you need the correct supplements. If you haven’t already bought some, it may be easier and more economical for you to get Reptivite WITH D3, which is your multivitamin and D3 combined. You’d use calcium without D3 for every feeding except one every other week, in which you’d use the Reptivite. Your beautiful little girl is rapidly approaching sexual maturity and both correct uvb and supplements are essential for egg production and laying. I just posted the equivalent of laying 101 in this thread https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/new-female-veiled-advice-and-feedback-please.182403/ I pretty much went over everything from start to finish. I’ll @kinyonga has basically taught it all to me.
While live plants can be pricey, you may want to ask around to your friends and family if they have any pothos, philodendron or wandering Jew that they’d be willing to give you clippings from. Spider plants are ok too. As I similarly had to make tons of changes ASAP when I got my little girl, I found a mass cane plant surrounded by lots of thick pothos at Walmart for only like $12-15. I bought some cheap plastic pots and organic soil, separated the pothos into a couple of plants and this was a good start. I have all those fake plants I wasted money on stuck to the outside of my chameleon enclosures to give them extra privacy. I used this as my first plant light and for basic plants it worked fine. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KXBY2YH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For a larger enclosure, I like https://www.diycages.com/collection...umbo-vertical-screen-cage?variant=35995105933 Right now they’re sold out but they should be getting more soon. It’s similar, but slightly nicer than ReptiBreeze.
I’m attaching several graphics I think may help you. Including a pic of my outside enclosure to show you how I attached dowels to the frame to create a support to hang branches from. You can also see what I did at the top to hang a pothos. I am a fan of Dragon Ledges, but didn’t want the cost for this particular enclosure.
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Yea petco does sadly misled people when I went to petco to get a chameleon (just the chameleon it any other stuff) they said okay know do you want to go get a 5 gallon glass fish tank (had a lid) for him!!!!! I was trying to be nice and said no thanks I aready have one but I wanted to yell at them bc they kept a lot of chams in these tiny tiny horizontal cages and I was so sad

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Yea petco does sadly misled people when I went to petco to get a chameleon (just the chameleon it any other stuff) they said okay know do you want to go get a 5 gallon glass fish tank (had a lid) for him!!!!! I was trying to be nice and said no thanks I aready have one but I wanted to yell at them bc they kept a lot of chams in these tiny tiny horizontal cages and I was so sad

Luckily I kinda in a way saved him atleast I think so

 

[MissSkittles]

Luckily I kinda in a way saved him atleast I think so

You most likely did. Who knows that the person after you wouldn’t have taken the clerk’s crappy advice and got a 5 gal fish tank for the poor little guy.
The chain pet stores are so very short-sighted. They could make so very much more profit if they were honest and actually sold the correct stuff for the animals they sell.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

You most likely did. Who knows that the person after you wouldn’t have taken the clerk’s crappy advice and got a 5 gal fish tank for the poor little guy.
The chain pet stores are so very short-sighted. They could make so very much more profit if they were honest and actually sold the correct stuff for the animals they sell.

Yea the correct stuff is way more pricey

 

[Lindasjackson]

That’s why they won’t tell you the correct way to care for the animals because if they did a lot of people wouldn’t buy and they’d loose sales!

 

[Mountain Dragon]

That’s why they won’t tell you the correct way to care for the animals because if they did a lot of people wouldn’t buy and they’d loose sales!

Yea! I didn’t buy him from petco tho bc they only had piebald and IMO I like the reg better so we went to petsmart and he was in a small cage tho. And a lady walks over(employee) and says are you looking to buy a chameleon. I said yea and she said nerveously did you get that Cham set and I said no way and she said good and asked a few questions and she whispered to me that she hates that petsmart has chameleons because they mistreat them and I’ve been having a lot of people buying chams and killing them and blaming me but finally someone who knows how the heck to take care off them ( I don’t know everything btw that’s why I’m on here ) and that honestly made my day and later that week I went back to get some supplements and I meet her bf and he was so happy to meet me and he said his gf told him all about me and that I’m a good owner and he said most of the people who buy from petsmart kill or get their Cham sick and come running to me to fix it and he said He recommends Cham forums for q

 

[MissSkittles]

That’s why they won’t tell you the correct way to care for the animals because if they did a lot of people wouldn’t buy and they’d loose sales!

It’s very short-sighted of them in the long run. When we need T5s, XL ReptiBreeze’s, proper vines and such, we can’t just pop in to the local chain pet store for them. We end up having to order most of our stuff on line and at other sellers. Not to mention that I don’t think I’m alone in that if an animal I bought from a specific pet store dies, I will not be buying anything further from them in the future and be telling my friends and family not to shop there either. For the sake of selling a $10 water bowl they are missing out on selling a $70 light and return customers. Ok, better stop my rant now.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Yea! I didn’t buy him from petco tho bc they only had piebald and IMO I like the reg better so we went to petsmart and he was in a small cage tho. And a lady walks over(employee) and says are you looking to buy a chameleon. I said yea and she said nerveously did you get that Cham set and I said no way and she said good and asked a few questions and she whispered to me that she hates that petsmart has chameleons because they mistreat them and I’ve been having a lot of people buying chams and killing them and blaming me but finally someone who knows how the heck to take care off them ( I don’t know everything btw that’s why I’m on here ) and that honestly made my day and later that week I went back to get some supplements and I meet her bf and he was so happy to meet me and he said his gf told him all about me and that I’m a good owner and he said most of the people who buy from petsmart kill or get their Cham sick and come running to me to fix it and he said He recommends Cham forums for q

Sorry if that didn’t make sense I’m a bad Typer

It’s very short-sighted of them in the long run. When we need T5s, XL ReptiBreeze’s, proper vines and such, we can’t just pop in to the local chain pet store for them. We end up having to order most of our stuff on line and at other sellers. Not to mention that I don’t think I’m alone in that if an animal I bought from a specific pet store dies, I will not be buying anything further from them in the future and be telling my friends and family not to shop there either. For the sake of selling a $10 water bowl they are missing out on selling a $70 light and return customers. Ok, better stop my rant now.

Lol I agree. I had to order my stuff from so many different websites bc a local store didn’t have anything really

 

[Lindasjackson]

The pet stores are in it for the quick buck, most of them anyway, and they don’t care if the chams or other pets die once the customers get them home! If they did care they would have them set up in the stores the way they should be kept and they would have knowledgeable staff taking care of them and teaching any interested customers how to care for them properly to but they cant make a lot of money that way so they don’t. That’s the bottom line. My niece used to work at petco.

 

[Lindasjackson]

It should be illegal in my opinion.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

It should be illegal in my opinion.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

It should be illegal in my opinion.

Agree