Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my boyfriend and I just bought 2 3month old veiled chameleons (followed by a panther he could not resist) we've read cham books and talked a breeder so it was not an impulse buy. but I still have so many problems and questions with everything. please help
1. the male veiled is eating like a horse but I've never seen him drink, his eyes look like they have a litte extra skin around them today could this be sinking in eyes?
2. should I still mist them if I have a dripper set up?
3. is it bad to keep the panthers cage next to the veileds?
4. at what age should I separate the veileds? the breeder told me by 6 months, another told me within the next month.
5. in the bottom of my cricket container there were tons of little white maggots, could this be cricket larve?
6. I just got some mealworms, the petstore told me to refrigerate them, my book tells me not to. . what do I do? what do they eat?
7. how long should I leave the uv and the heat lamp on?
8. waxworms. . . what do they eat? how long before feeding should I take them out of the fridge?
9. my male veiled also has 2 small bumps on the side of his neck that look like warts. . . any advice?

Hi-

1. the male veiled is eating like a horse but I've never seen him drink, his eyes look like they have a litte extra skin around them today could this be sinking in eyes?

Yes they could be a sign of sunken in eyes. How long of a time period is his drip, and is it dripping on to plant leafs? You can try dripping some water on his nose and see if he starts to drink. The drip should last for a few hours every day.

2. should I still mist them if I have a dripper set up?

Yes you still need to mist them to provide humidity. Mist 3 times per day every day.

3. is it bad to keep the panthers cage next to the veileds?

You can keep the two cages side by side, just make sure there is a visual barrier between the two cages, and neither can see each other or any other chameleon or animal.

4. at what age should I separate the veileds? the breeder told me by 6 months, another told me within the next month.

The sooner the better! If you have two cages for them do it now. You will cause allot of stress on the chameleon housing them together, 3 months is about the time they need there own cages, veiled chameleons grow fast!

5. in the bottom of my cricket container there were tons of little white maggots, could this be cricket larve?

Crickets will lay small long clear eggs at 5 weeks. It could be cricket eggs, or some other kind of insect.

6. I just got some mealworms, the petstore told me to refrigerate them, my book tells me not to. . what do I do? what do they eat?

How many did you buy? You can refrigerate mealworms to slow the growth down, if you buy large amounts, you don't have to refrigerate them. I would not if you only have 50 or so. Put some fresh apple/carrots/romaine lettuce in there cup to gut load them, they wont eat much if any in the frig. They are not a good staple diet, and should be feed only as treats. Crickets and silkworms are what you should feed as a staple diet. Don't forget to dust your food!

7. how long should I leave the uv and the heat lamp on?

They will need a 12hrs cycle, the best thing is to get a $5 timer @ homedepot and set the lights up to the timer.

8. waxworms. . . what do they eat? how long before feeding should I take them out of the fridge?

They are a pest to bee hives and feed off honey and bee wax. You can mix up some with oatmeal and feed that to them. You should let the worm warm up before you feed. They have the most fat out of any other food item, and should be feed only as treats a few times per week at the most.

9. my male veiled also has 2 small bumps on the side of his neck that look like warts. . . any advice?

Hi with out seeing it, I don't know where to begin. I may just be wounds from being bit by a brother or sister, or it could be nothing, or it could be something to worry about. If you are concerned about it a vet would be your best bet.

Hope I answered all your questions! Visit my site by clicking on the banner below for allot more info, links and picks. I have allot of good info. Hope this helps!
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John
1.1 Ambilobe Panthers
1.1 Nosy Be Panthers
1.1 Sambava Panthers
1.2 Rhampholeon uluguruensis

Thank you very much, that was alot of help, seems like I'm on the right track, I only feed the mealworms and waxworms as treats. I have the drip going pretty much all day and it hits a nice patch of leaves.
I had a cage to separate the veileds till my boyfriend bought the panther now I gotta waite for him to build aother one
I tried to drip some water on the veiled nose but he was not happy about that at all. when I misted them with the squirt bottle he opened and closed his mouth a few times. . . so maybe thats drinking? if he looks bad tomarrow I'm gonna call a vet. thank you again

Sometimes they don't even open their mouth much when drinking but you can see that thing under their throat moving up and down in a swallowing motion. Another way to check for dehydration is to pinch a bit of skin (not too hard) and when you release it should go back down (a little bit slower than human skin does) but it should not stay pinched or tented up for long at all.
I do not like to do this if the chameleon is too small for fear of hurting them.

Long beach towels hung between cages helps provide a visual barrier and when you mist they get damp and hold in some humidity.

A good way to hydrate a dehydrated animal is to put them on a plastic plant in your shower and give them a light shower for about a half hour. Make sure you do not have the water on too hard or too hot or cold, lukewarm is good. Also no soap, just a light misting rain. They can spend some time drinking all they want.

ok a question about the shower. . . do you just turn it on and close the curtain and leave them alone? I put them directly under it? they dont seem to like big drops at all.

Point the shower head at the wall and let it bounce onto the cham. That way it is only a fint mist and not heavy drops.

>>ok a question about the shower. . . do you just turn it on and close the curtain and leave them alone? I put them directly under it? they dont seem to like big drops at all.
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Jamie whitehouse

Yeah mine hate it too but I put my shower head on a fine mist (it has settings) or bounce it off the wall. Maybe it's too cold try a bit warmer mine act like they hate it and then after a few minutes they start drinking. Warm water triggers them to drink after a few minutes. Try a plant with slightly big leaves where they can hide under the leaves to get away from the rain but where water is constantly dripping around and on them from the leaves. A golden pothos or an Ivy that has larger leaves works great. Those big long leafy swags like at Walmart work great you can hang them in the shower where the drips are pinging off the wall. If it's warm out where you are you can do it outside with a misting nozzle on your hose but you have to watch them carefully. They tend to wander off and can also get picked off by a swooping bird. You can mist them in an old birdcage if you have one.

Another very attractive barrier idea is to get one of the large plastic Fluroscent Light Fixture Covers at your local Home Depot (these are designed usually for overhead kitchen lights). They are fairly rigid plastic and come in a variety of styles and are 4' x 2'. They are translucent so they let light through but they are absolutely not "see-through." They are fairly easy to cut to size and they look great between the cages of my two Panthers.

By the way, on the separation issue, I was told that I had until six months to searate my two malle baby Panthers. But they basiaclly brawled every day and it became very stressful for both of them. So at the ripe old age of three and a half months old, I separated them and am happy to report that they are both doing great "alone." I would recommend that the sooner you separate them, the better.
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4 Month Old Ambanja Male I - LESTER
4 Month Old Ambanja Male II - SHOGO

I personaly wouldnt put to much stock in shower boys opinon. Tap water contains lots of chlorine and other chemicals that arent realy good for you let alone a tiny little chameleon I house several chamelions and either use bottled spring water or I go to the local fish store and get r/o water and then mist them by hand. Its a little extra time and effort but everything you put into your projects you WILL get back out of them. If you cant really aford buying good water I would atleast get a
5 gallon bucket fill it with tap water and let it stand for 24 hours before using it that will give the most the chlorine and other chemicals time to evaporate. LOL.

who the heck is shower boy?
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Kim

Let me clarify I usually use water treated with repti safe for my chams but due to the fact that they are dealing with a dehydrated cham the shower method for a day or two can do wonders for a dehydrated chameleon. Reptiles are also not as affected by chlorine as amphibians and fish. Also I think not all areas chlorinate their water (but I am not so sure of that)
I have noticed, that some people on here rarely post to try and answer a question for someone. Instead they only post when they can criticize someone else's answer to a question. I let it roll of my back like the drops in a shower.
Showerboy, I mean showergirl, oops I mean Soina

I didn't try to be mean I think sometimes I just come off as a smart ass.Either way I was merely suggesting the fact that municipal water is not good for anything but flushing the crapper. Go find any clean window in your house(or clean one off if necesary) and spray it down with water from your tap. Let it dry for a while and then come back and look at that nice clean window.Chances are it will have white deposits and marks all over it. Those are dried up chemicals and there the same thing thats going to be stuck all over your poor chameleon, but hey better yours than mine.

As Sonia pointed out it really depends where you live. Florida water is awful - even the r/o (reverse osmosis). Many municipalities do treat their water with chlorine. Then there are those of us who live in the country and have either dug or artesian wells. Sometimes the water from a dug well is fine depending on the depth, gw contamination, etc. Artesian wells can go down hundreds of feet and get about the purest water to be found. So, my point is you cannot make a blanket statement like that. Also, keep in mind that there are folks from Canada, UK and probabaly other countries and we have no idea about their water situations.

Oh, BTW, smart ass doesn't go over too well on public forums.

lele

>>I didn't try to be mean I think sometimes I just come off as a smart ass.Either way I was merely suggesting the fact that municipal water is not good for anything but flushing the crapper. Go find any clean window in your house(or clean one off if necesary) and spray it down with water from your tap. Let it dry for a while and then come back and look at that nice clean window.Chances are it will have white deposits and marks all over it. Those are dried up chemicals and there the same thing thats going to be stuck all over your poor chameleon, but hey better yours than mine.

From all that calcium and lime build up from my crappy water supply!!!

I'd better go dip him in some CLR!!

and by the way critisismboy....even if you didn't mean to be MEAN in your first post...it seemed as though you achieved it again in your SECOND post.
Different things work for different people, and all anyone was doing was offering a SUGGESTION.
You can be hypercritical if you choose to be, but it's really not necessary...Sonia never said that showering the cham was the ONLY way...just that it is ONE way to help a dehydrated cham.

(by the way...I was kidding about dipping my cham in decalcifying chemicals...AND about him crunching when he walks!)
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Kim

Well I was not going to say anything, but it looks like I need to put my 2 cents in. I live in SoCal, the water is very hard ph high and there is a ton of minerals in the water. We get our water from the Colorado River, and I think they started adding fluorite to the water along with as usual chlorine. It is true that most chlorine will evaporate after 24hrs, but then chloramines will not (chlorine and ammonia). If you use tap water you will notice that your chameleon will have salt crystals on there nose, they excrete excess minerals and all the junk in the tap. If you use bottle water you will notice this will not happen. Bottle water is just tap water put through a large RO/DI filter, unless it says mountain spring on it then it is actual mountain spring water that is filtered through a large RO/DI filter. My tap water PH is about 7.8-8.2 when not filtered. When put through a RO/DI it comes out to around 5.0. I use this water in my automatic mister, to provide water for all my chameleons like rain fall. Now if you are using the shower to rehydrate a chameleon, there is no harm in doing so, just as long as you are not using the tap water as there everyday water source. More harm will be done if you do not rehydrate the chameleon then from tap water. Hope this helps!
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John
1.1 Ambilobe Panthers
1.1 Nosy Be Panthers
1.1 Sambava Panthers
1.2 Rhampholeon uluguruensis

There's nothing wrong with agreeing or disagreeing with anyone,Cirticism brings out people's competitive nature. Everbody wants to be right and if you look at the chain we've created there are definitly some things that every responsible herper now needs to look into as they continue caring for their animals. i.e. the location they're living in, and how that muncipality treats its water. It should be everyones goal on this site to provide their animals with as much of natures purity as possible. Anything less could possibly stress your animals and reduce both their production an the length of their life . So go on and question everything thats said on this site because god only knows whose saying it. The truth will come out

That was a well thought out argument, I respect that. Good luck in all your projects.

If you think all tapwater is the same, you ain't been around much buddy.

Joel Fish

Actually, the white deposits you are seeing after evaporation are naturally occuring trace minerals like calcium, magnesium, and zinc. Chlorine evaporates out so it would not leave a residue(basic high school chemistry). Lele is correct all areas do have different water quality so you should check with your local water department for it's contents. The information is readily avaliable.

Well so far I have only been using ro/di water for their misting and dripping. (boyfriend owns a saltwater fish busness LOTS of ro/di water around) I took a oral syringe and gave him about .4 cc of water when he hissed at me and after that he's been drinking much better. I've also started using warm water instead of cold, that seems to help alot too.