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just got my chameleon

lizardboy187 Oct 02, 2003 03:54 PM

hey i just got a baby veiled chameeleon she is C.B. i put her in a ten gallon that is on its side arranging it verticly i put a fake tree in with small plants (real and fake)at the bottom sphgnum peat moss on top of newspaper as the substrate an overhead heat lamp and a uv buld along the back i have a driper set up on the side and i mist her twice-three times a day but when i come home from school she is usually a greenish brown with light colored sidee-bars i have only had her about 2 days she has eaten several times however i have read her color displays that she is stressed any ideas?

Replies (5)

chimbakka Oct 02, 2003 04:49 PM

Instead of having the ten gallon on it's side, turn it the right way. It won't be as tall, but if she's 3 months or less it should still be ok. With it on it's side if the UV is on top it won't do any good, b/c glass filters out most UV (ever notice how you never get burned inside a car, unless your arm is sticking out the window?)
Also, how much and what does she eat? What does she do? (sit around, walk around etc). What are her basking temps? One thing you have to be careful of it not to let it get too hot. Aquariums heat up and retain a lot of more heat than a cage.
One of these things might be bugging her a bit causing some stress.
Oh, I almost forgot: How long ago did you get her? It could also just be stress from the move, and her getting used to a new place, and learning to feel safe there.
Hope any of that helped. Keep us posted!
~Lindsay
PS, congrats on your new friend! Baby veileds are SOOO cute!

lizardboy187 Oct 02, 2003 10:46 PM

her baking temp is a little below 100 the uv light runs down the back of the cage and ive only had her 2 days i just wnt to make her as comfortable as possible her activities in clude wake up early around sunrise move from the stick she always sleeps on to the stick she always basks on to catch some rays then start lookin around sometimes go after crickets some times just chil but i have been feeding her crickets and she has eaten at least 3-4 im trying some more tommorow and i have lettuce and edible plants on the bottem what realy bothers me is that i havent seen her drink i have a dripper she just stays to high to find it i also mist 2-3 times a day but she never starts to lap it up this mourning i accidentaly scared her with a piece of lettuce and she puffed out her gular area and got a brown spotted patern it was intresting but i felt sorry for her, her SVL is only about 2-3 inches so a piece of lettuce could be scary thank you for your help!

chimbakka Oct 03, 2003 07:53 AM

Lol if I was that small a piece of lettuce would TERRIFY me. I'm not 100% positive, you'll have to ask others on here with more experience than me, but I wouldn't worry about giving her veggies until she is about six months old.
Is the UV down the back shining through glass or screen? If it's through glass you'll want to change that. It may not bug her now, but veileds are especially prone to mbd, and it is something that is easier to avoid than to fix.
If she is still eating lots then she probably isn't too stressed. You may find that it will take her a few months to show any other colours. My panther didn't start showing her different shades of brown and spots of green/blue until she was about nine months old.
A tip for drinking: Use water as hot as you can get it from the tap. It will cool when you mist it. Spray the whole cage for a few min, and after about 3 min she will probably start to gulp it from the air. Then, spray lightly right onto her lips (be careful of her nose, when they are babies they can get water in there very easily) and she will suck the drops off of her lips. My panther drinks this way. I've never seen her use her dripper. Sometimes she is stubborn, and it takes a few minutes of misting before she will start to drink. You don't have to soak the cage right down... just mist a few times every few seconds, and that should be enough to stimulate her.
Oh, another thing you can try is mist for a few min, then mist directly onto a leaf in front of her, if there is one.
If that still doesn't work, mist until the whole cage is soaked so all the plants and glass are dripping, then hide so she can't see you (you can drape a towel over her cage and peak in). She might go around after you are gone and lick up the drops.
That's all I can think of for now... let me know how it goes!
Oh, one more thing, check her poop. If the white part (urate) is all white, then she is not getting dehydrated. If it is orangy then she needs to drink more. Hope any of that can help you!

lizardboy187 Oct 03, 2003 11:52 PM

hey thanks for all your help and i'll see what i can figure out to do about her light and spraying her thanks agin

micky-kennie Oct 04, 2003 08:41 PM

I don't know how much studying you have done on chameleons, but I did want to state that you will have to move your chameleon into an all screen cage. When they are really little glass is aceptable, but once they get a little bigger, an all screen cage is a must inorder to provide proper ventilation and to prevent stress. There are a ton of care sheets about veilds out there, try an internet search on any search engine, try chameolon care or something like that. Hope this helps! Good luck!

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