Zed has arrived! Some problems though...

[Casperr]

Zed, the 3-4 month old Veiled Chameleon finally arrived at my doorstep on Thursday I love him already, as does the rest of my family.

I built him a 3-foot tall, 3-foot wide, 2.5-foot long screen cage that is strong and sturdy. I set it up next to a window that I keep open for 12 hours a day-- the top half of the cage is exposed to the sun and the bottom half is protected by the wall below the window, so he can climb/drop to maintain his body temperature the same way lights could (but I'm still going to get some lights asap).
I have his cage packed with several branches that he loves climbing too, of course.

For now, all I have is crickets to feed him. I keep them in a seperate cage (about 2' wide, 1' long, and 6 inches tall with a screen top and a lid). I feed the crickets some apples, oranges, pears, carrots, and mustard greens every day.

I bought him a dripper and fixed it so it drips a drop of water once every 10 seconds onto a bunch of leaves. There's a bowl at the bottom to catch the water that he doesn't drink. On top of that, I mist him and his cage 3 times a day for 2 minutes each session (he doesn't seem to like it, though).

I bought a thermometer that measures humidity as well, and I keep the humidity at around 70%.

I think I have a pretty good setup. Let me know every opinion you have on it and any advice you can give me to improve it.

My main concern is that he doesn't eat as much as I think he should be. He should be eating around 10 crickets worth of food a day, right? But he's only been eating a max of 3 or 4 every day.
His drinking is also pretty low. I would sometimes see him go lick some leaves after I spray them, but starting yesterday I haven't seen him drink at all. I had to spray him lightly on his face to get it wet, and he would lick the water off of his lips-- this is the only water I've seen him get.
He's usually a dark green color with a purple stripe across his belly, except for when he's asleep in which he's a pretty light green color. My concern about the coloring is that the edge of his head is really pale all the way to the tip, practically an off-white color, is this normal? What can it mean?

So, what can I do to get him to eat and drink more?

 

[dacrazycanadian]

They are generally pretty stressed after arrival and don't eat as much as they will when they get comfortable.

As far as the drinking they really like to do that in private so just keep an eye on the poop if it has a white part and isn't orange or brown he's hydrated. Just make sure he has moisture on the leaves to drink off at times. I used a Habba Mister that would actually drip after it finished spraying and he would drink off that.
As far as the color I remember my panther being pretty pale when I got him but over time his colors picked up. Did you originally see a picture of him before you got him and he was more colorful?

Post a picture of him so we can get a better look at Zed! Would love to see that purple stripe.

 

[dacrazycanadian]

Maybe remove the bowl though. Chameleons like to put in water dishes or waterfalls and then if they drink out of it they could get sick.

 

[Casperr]

I don't have the bowl in there for him to drink out of, it's pretty much just there to stop the bottom of the cage from getting too wet. I have a rag in it to absorb the water and everything to make sure he doesn't drink from it.

And about the privacy thing, the window's curtains are pretty long so I'm able to wrap them around the cage to give him privacy

As for pictures, I'll take some as soon as my sister comes back home (she has the good camera).

Thanks for the info and advise guys.

 

[KingJulian]

I would give him time to settle in. Moves are very stressful on chams and it can take them weeks to feel comfortable again. Just keep his cage nice and misted and he will drink, even if you don't see him doing it.