Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there!

My name is Sam and let me just say this forum was a well of information when I was purchasing my Cham, thank you all!
Now I just wanted to introduce my cham Yoshi I am not positive of his age (he is about an inch thick and is aprox. 3-4 in long, not counting his tail). I also had a few questions:

How old do you think he is?

He is getting natural sunlight about 3 or 4 hours a day from the window is this enough?

I feed him calcium powdered crickets (he eats 3 or 4 daily) and will start gut-loading them soon but for now I leave pieces of apple and lettuce in their cage which they seem to like but this isn't enough for Yoshi is it?

I have a heating lamp and a natural lighting lamp on top of his 10-gallon cage with mesh lid but the sunlight lamp has plastic over the lense does this filter out the vitamins?

Yoshi won't eat any lettuce or vegies I put in there for him is this a problem?

The cage highs and lows are:
Extreme Low: 55-60 middle of night on a really cold night
Average low: 65-70
Average: 70-80 Morning/Evening when sun is not coming through window
Extreme High: 120+ Middle of bright sunny days when light is coming through window
High: 100-110 normal fairly clear day

Are any of these to high? to low?

Yoshi spends a lot of time clawing at the side of his cage, is this a sign that he needs a bigger cage or is he just trying to escape (lol)?

He never drinks from his dripping water system so I mist the cage with water about twice a day, is this enough?

I have several branches in his cage (Natural and Fake) which vary in size from about the size of his leg to thicker than him. When I gathered the natural branches I put them in the freezer for about 24 hours is this enough to kill any insects that might have been within?

Well thats about it, thank you very much for all of your information!

Its hard to say how old he is...some people grow them faster than others...but likely several months old.

You said..."He is getting natural sunlight about 3 or 4 hours a day from the window?"...if the window is shut then the light he's been getting won't have much UVB in it. The sunlight has to be direct...no glass, no plastic between it and the chameleon.

You said..."I feed him calcium powdered crickets (he eats 3 or 4 daily) and will start gut-loading them soon but for now I leave pieces of apple and lettuce in their cage which they seem to like but this isn't enough for Yoshi is it?"...its good that you are dusting with calcium...but IMHO he should have vitamins/minerals a couple of times a month and if he isn't getting DIRECT sunlight, you should dust with a calcium/D3 compound a couple of times a month. There is a well-known gutload on ADCHAM (see link below)...apple and lettuce just don't do enough. Romaine lettuce is better than head lettuce, but the insects still need a much better gutload than what you are using. You need to be careful of vitamins D3 and A because they can build up in the system and cause overdoses. Beta carotene forms of vitamin A can't build up...so they are safe.

You said..."natural lighting lamp on top of his 10-gallon cage with mesh lid but the sunlight lamp has plastic over the lense does this filter out the vitamins?"...I don't know what you mean by natural lighting lamp or sunlight lamp....but I assume you mean full spectrum including UVB? And you are right...plastic or glass between the light and the chameleon filter out the useful UVB rays that let the chameleon produce vitamin D3 and thus use the calcium.

You said..."Yoshi won't eat any lettuce or vegies I put in there for him is this a problem?"...its not really a problem....some do and some don't. I usually start my veileds off with apple wedges and then go to greens and veggies. Red pepper is something that they all seem to like...so I start with it.

The plants in your cage should be non-toxic and wellwashed before putting them in there.

With my young chameleons I don't let the cages go below 65F...but that's just what works for me.
Its okay to be a little hot in the basking area as long as the chameleon can move to a cooler area.

Many chameleons won't drink in front of you. The more misting and dripping you can do the better (as long as the cage has times when it can dry out)...hydration is important.

Here are some sites that you might like to read especially the ones on vitamins, etc.
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/
http://adcham.com/
http://www.chameleonnews.com/index.html