New male veiled cham - not quite right yet.

[bearhart]

My wife and I are a proud owner of a small male veiled chameleon. When we got him he had no crest (which is how he got named "Kermit") and his body was only about 1" long. By now, he's shed once, his head is starting to change shape, and he's about 1.5" long.

When we first got him he was very easy going but as time has progressed he's gotten more and more tempermental. I've been told this is to be expected. In some ways its good because at least you know when you're not doing things right. So, we've been watching him, adjusting things, watching some more, and so on:

1) We started him in a 20g tank with a screen top. We put some bendy vine in there for him and a PowerSun over top for light, heat, etc. This went well for a few weeks and he just cruised around and ate crickets all the time.

2) He stopped eating for a while (which we later found was right before shed). We were concerned about reflections from the glass so we turned the tank on its side so the screen was in the front and then blocked off all of the sides with white construction paper. The top is also blocked off except for a hole to let the light come in.

3) He was still not very happy so we started misting alot more. He seemed to like this and his mood improved alot.

4) We also found that he's sensitive to the number of crickets in his cage. He doesn't like them on his vines and he doesn't like it when there are enough to start congregating in groups. So, we've been more careful to feed the crickets in at 4-8 at a time. He seems to appreciate that.

5) We also found that his cage was too sparse so we got more bendy vine and garland and really filled the thing out. He seemed to appreciate that too.

Everything is looking up and he's eating and a good color green and nice and plump. However, he still seems to have these little temper tantrums where he goes down to the floor and paws at the walls trying to get out. Then he'll get over it and go back to bask.

I hate to see him stress out but I'm having a hard time figuring out what's ticking him off.

Any suggestions?

[Purrrfect9]

I'm not sure about veiled chams, but I know that for panther chams that glass enclosures really arn't that great for them. They need a completely screened cage to allow enough airflow. I bought a "Chameleon kit" from LLL reptile a while back, and it wasn't too expensive. If you already have all of the lights and junk, I think that you can buy a nice 36 gal reptarium for $30
Here's a link to their catalog:
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...-explorariums/
But I also have to manually spray his enclosure a minimun of 3 times a day to make sure that he gets enough water. I've found that during the summer, I can set him (in his reptarium) outside in the early mornings and evenings, bringing him in during the heat of the day, and he really enjoyed that a lot. I guess that it was because the climate here these past two summers has been really humid, and not too hot.

[bearhart]

yea I've been told to lose the glass tank.

I've also been told that glass blocks the UVB from my light and that if I'm using UVB I need to keep the light 12" away (its about 5 or 6). So I have no idea if he's getting too much or not enough.

What kind of plants / garland do you use?

[bearhart]

I just ordered a 36 gal from that site. I'm sure Kermit will be thrilled when he gets it!

thanks!

[Purrrfect9]

haha np. Right now I just have the small and medium sized jungle vines, and 18ft of the leafy plant vines of different 'colors' in there. My next project for him is to buy the 68gal reptarrium and to get 1 or 2 ficus trees to put in there, along with both small and medium jungle vines. This will probably have to wait until this summer/next yearsince I'm living in the dorms right now, and really wouldn't have much space left in my little 8x12 (or so) room.

[littleindiangirl]

My friend bought a veiled from a show from a really great reputable breeder. She set him up in a 10 gallon tank with sand on the bottom a heat lamp and some twigs. She also put the crickets in there full time with nothing to eat, and I'm really sad to say that she did not take very good care of him in my book.
I tried to be nice about it, but she didnt care that he had no UV light source at all, and i know the health problems that can arise from no light, to a poor diet of bad crickets, to not offering veggies early in life for them, just alot of things she could have done better.

So i bought her a screen cage with a small cricket tub with a HUGE jug of cricket juice and some powder for the feeding and most importantly, A LIGHT! This was months later, and the little guy was almost 5 inches long.
Not long after I bought all this, his spine fused together and he was paralyzed and was put down. She never really thanked me, or cared that he died. Yea, sorta pissed.

[bearhart]

We've made a big discovery over the last two days: He is nuts about flies! He'll choke down his crickets but if you put a housefly in there he practically runs it down! He'll take as many shots as it takes to get them and he even pulled one right out of the air today.

[bearhart]

My friend bought a veiled from a show from a really great reputable breeder. She set him up in a 10 gallon tank with sand on the bottom a heat lamp and some twigs. She also put the crickets in there full time with nothing to eat, and I'm really sad to say that she did not take very good care of him in my book.
I tried to be nice about it, but she didnt care that he had no UV light source at all, and i know the health problems that can arise from no light, to a poor diet of bad crickets, to not offering veggies early in life for them, just alot of things she could have done better.

So i bought her a screen cage with a small cricket tub with a HUGE jug of cricket juice and some powder for the feeding and most importantly, A LIGHT! This was months later, and the little guy was almost 5 inches long.
Not long after I bought all this, his spine fused together and he was paralyzed and was put down. She never really thanked me, or cared that he died. Yea, sorta pissed.

That's sad. Kudos to you for trying though!

Was his paralysis due to the poor care or was it something else you think?

Did/are you going to get one?

[littleindiangirl]

I would love to have a chameleon! and I would have taken that one if his conditions didn't improve [which would have been tough with a best friend like she was] But i dont have the room to quarantine properly or just to let him occupy for very long.
Unfortunately he did end up paralyzed because he did not get the proper UVB lighting to prevent MBD. Metabolic bone disease. He just lost the use of his back legs, and I'm sorta glad I wasnt around to see this, as I would have FLIPPED out on her for being so irresponsible. I spent hours researching all kinds of different sites finding out all I could to help the little guy. I eventually knew exactly what he needed to thrive, I've forgotten most of it now though lol. But yea, he wasn't even mine, but I really cared for the thing. Maybe I'm just a softy.
http://webhome.idirect.com/~chameleo...ure/index.html
That's a good description of what MBD is, and how sad it is for chameleons that get it.

[bearhart]

well we have been giving him d3 supplement and he got his first good dose of sunlight today so hopefully we can get past any lapses of UVB exposure from having the light behind glass....