Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok heres what Ive got:
My screen terrarium filled with fake plants and vines, a waterfall, a 100 watt basking light and a Repti Glo 8.0 floresent tube.....and ofcoarse some crickets.....am I ready to buy my chameleon yet or is there anything Ive missed?
thanks

What species of chameleon do you plan to purchase? What size screen cage do you have? Can you return the waterfall? They get pooped in and your cham will be drinking his own filth. Daily removal and cleaning just means more stress for your cham. Try and return it and invest in an automatic mister or dripper. You will have to set up some kind of water collection system for the runoff. Organic live plants are better than fake because they keep the humidity up. Just put large pebbles over the dirt in the pot to prevent accidental injestion of the dirt. A thermometer and humidity gauge is good to have too. Crickets will get you started, but variety is appreciated. You'll also need calcium and vitamin supplements. If you need details on anything mentioned just ask. Enjoy your new pet!

I agree with all this. How big is your cage? You are going to need ways to keep it humid, and the waterfall won't do much at all. The cham probably won't use it for drinking either. Get a good quality hand pump pressure sprayer instead. You'll be using it twice or more every day. You will need to measure humidity, but don't get the little cheap analog gauges from the pet shop. They are unreliable. Invest in a quality electronic humidity gauge (AKA hygrometer). I don't know about the ReptiGlo light...The best UVB emitting fluorescent bulb on the market is the ReptiSun 5.0, so see if you can find that instead. Get a infrared temp gun...you can check the temps all over the cage in just a minute or two at any time. They are now down to about $40! Get some insects set up with good gutloads on hand before the cham comes home...most pet shops don't feed their insects at all. For basking, you can use a regular light bulb rather than the fancy ones. The wattage will depend so much on your setup and room temps. Be ready to reduce the watts. The temp gun will make it easy to measure the basking perch temp before your cham will need it. Set the cage, lights, timers, and misting routines up. Experiment with the climate and you will probably find you need to do some tweaking to get cycles right. Good luck!