Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have a new juvenile flap-necked chameleon, and are getting
mixed messages about habitat and food. The pet shop attendant,
who owns chameleons of her own recommended the 38 gal. screen
cage, and just primarily crickets. The vet said simple is best--
just a 3-5 gal. glass or plastic terrarium (with screen top, or
side) is easier to maintain and adequate, but that food must be
a variety (crickets plus mealworms, etc). We had already bought
the 38 gal. screened cage with waterfall, foilage and climbing
sticks. We mist her several time a day and have a full spectrum
basking light at the top. We put the crickets in but found some
dead, so weren't sure if she was eating them or they were hiding
and dying. She didn't touch the mealworms we put at the bottom.
We finally got a smaller cage as the vet recommended and put her
in there to feed for an hour so we can see if the crickets are
gone. But sometimes she won't eat, and she hates being cooped
in the smaller cage and tries to climb the slick sides. I'm
worried that she is not eating enough. She seems to sleep alot,
both day and night. Anyone experienced who could give some
suggestions? Thanks.

GC

There are experts here who might chime in with more detailed info, but I can recommend that you NOT use the glass container at all. Pawing at the glass is a red flag, and a sign of stress. Glass is never suitable for Chameleons unless they are neonates. Your Vet saounds rather inexperienced with Chameleons if they recommended a tiny glass tank. So, use the screen cage.

Be SURE that the water in your waterfall is filtered, or it will quickly become a foul sewer, harboring bacteria that will most certainly make things worse.

If you say the Cham is closing it's eyes during the day, that is a bad sign. Chameleons are diurnal and should never sleep for extended periods during the day. It is most likely ill, unfortunately.

From all I've read, Flap-Necks are a rather difficult species to keep. I'm not sure why you chose it. It would have been VERY beneficial for you to have researched the species in depth before buying. Chameleons (especially yours) are not "easy" pets at all.

Your Flap_neck is almost certainly Wild- Caught. Have you had it checked for parasites?

Make sure your temperatures are correct. If I can remember, Flap-necks are a rather warm climate species from East Africa. Here is a little background info:

http://www.adcham.com/html/taxonomy/species/chdilepis.html

I would put it in the shower on a ficus tree and let warm water run over it for serveral minutes. It may be dehydrated. Once it is hydrated, double-check your temps and offer gut-loaded crickets, maybe dusted with a high quality vitamin-mineral supplement once a week at first. Are you familiar with gutloading? I don't know what your general knowledge of Chameleon care is, but here are some good places to get info:

http://www.adcham.com/
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/
http://www.chameleonnews.com/
http://www.herpnutrition.com/
http://www.animalarkshelter.org/cin/

The more research you do the better chance you have of success with this animal. I suggest a different Vet, one that is experienced with Chameleons or at least Herps. Here is a list of Herp Vets across the country:

http://www.arav.org/USMembers.htm

Best of luck.

Thanks for the info. We did some research, but not enough. We bought what our local pet store had. We've been well treated by them and the young lady who sold it to us had chameleons of our own. She even recommended the vet, and the parasite culture came back negative. I think the vet was trying to make it easy to manage when he recommended the glass or plastic. He admited that he wasn't familiar with this species and recommended research. But now that we have her, we are going to do our best. I am going to check out all the websites you suggested. Today she seems more chipper maybe because today we didn't move her to the smaller cage to eat. I think this was stressing her. We just put the crickets in the larger cage. Thanks.

G. Cloud

i have a 5 month old flapneck and got him as CBB. i've had him for a couple months now and this is the third flapneck i have had. the current one i have is kept in a 12x12x24 ALL screen cage and i havea ficus and an umbrella plant in the cage. he has done very well in this set up, even just finished a shed just last night.

the first two i had, like you i got them at a pet store and they were about a month old. cute as buttons, but one died by the third day. the second one SEEMED to do well for the next few weeks, but one afternoon ater i got home i checked my chameleons and my flapneck was dead on the floor of his cage. i'm not sure why. maybe because he was so young and they are so fragile and hard to keep. who knows. like i said though the flapneck i keep now is older and is thriving. he does sleep some during the day. i dust his crickets monday and friday. he does not always eat all his crickets but this doesnt seem to be a problem for my guy. and he is outside on saturdays. i would NOT use a glass or plastic enclosure! and i would change vets! i'll post pictures later tonight(i'm at work) of the cge and him.

dennis

Thanks so much. I'm not sure how old our chameleon is, they just told me she (I think--didn't see any swelling at tail, but he may be too young) was a juvenile. We've had her about 3 weeks now. She is about 3 to 3.5 inches from head to tail when it's curled not extended. She does seem happier in the bigger cage, so if we put her in the little one, it's only for a short while to try to get her to eat. I just worry that she isn't eating enough. Does your chameleon eat mealworms? I can't get mine interested in them. Do you think that the 38 gal. screen cage is too big for her? If I have a waterfall in the bottom and we mist her 4 times a day, do you think that is enough humidity? Her scales seem a bit rough, but the parasite culture came back negative. So that's really positive since parasites are common. I think the vet was trying to make things easier because it's my 10 year old that wanted the chameleon. But of course as her mom, I'm helping her a lot. Cleaning the big cage is quite a chore. But she would definitely not be happy staying in the small plastic cage all the time. We'll use it for taking her to the vet or other occasional travel. I may take your advice and look for another vet, but I'm going to take her for the followup treatment and tell him about the information I've received from this forum and other sources. Thanks again.

G. Cloud

none of my younger chameleons, including the flapneck, will eat mealworms or any worms for that matter. just seems to scare them. go figure. i would find a vet that specializes in exotics. i wouldnt even go back to the one you saw. he if was trying to simplify the care and housing for your 10 yr. old all he did was complitcate things with bad advise. also just because you got one good fecal dosnt mean you chameleon is parasite free. it's my understandign that it takes three clean fecals to "declare" your chameleon parasite free. the cage cleaning (i hate doing it lol)isnt really that hard just takes a bit of time. it usualy takes me about 15-20 minutes for each cage. it's just a "chore" and we all hate chores. lol

dennis

I had two flapnecks. The key here is HAD. They are very cute and can be bought on impulse at a pet store. Research is always the best thing to do before buying any animal.

I did the same thing and bought one without researching it, fortunatly I got the proper info quickly. You need to know if yours is CB or WC. WC have parasites 99.9% of the time that will take over at the first sign of stress. A glass or plastic enclosure would cause this stress and the paristes would cause the loss of appitite.

You have to look hard for info because there is not that much out there on these guys. I am not an expert but as a past keeper of flapnecks I can tell you that a screen cage is the only way to go and the waterfall will become more of a pain when you have to clean it everyday ( been there done that ).

I'm not a complete downer, I had my CB flapneck for over a year and he died of an infection. I also had a female WC that lasted only about two months because of parasites.

Get a second opinion from another vet, yours should never suggest anything but a screen enclosure for a cham, with an exception to the smaller types. Glass or plastic will cause respiratory infections because of the lack of air flow.
-----
Thanks Dawn
1.0 Veiled (Moe)
0.1 Helmeted Iguana (Louie)
0.2 Southern Toads (Tiny and Bubba)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Joker)
3.1 Cats (Buffy, Spike, London, and Lilly)

Thanks for the info. I'm glad we have decided to keep her in the screen mesh cage. We did have her (I think) tested for parasites and it came back negative so it must be the CB type. I think we will not move her to the smaller cage to feed any more. I'll just throw in the crickets and hope she eats some of them. Thanks

1)Glass is VERY bad. Keep it in the screen cage.
2)In glass it will overheat and die.
3)full spectrum bulbs almost never have enough UVB. You need a Reptisun 5.0 for UVB and a plain old incandescent bulb (probably about 60 watts) for basking. Babies need to be kept cooler than adults. I'd recommend a basking temp around 85F, certainly no higher than 90 and the rest of the cage should drop into the 70s. And do NOT use heat at night. The temp drop is important at night. They can easily hand night temps inthe 60s.
4)Get rid of the waterfall. You need to be misting the cham at least 3 times/day for at least 5-10 minues with HOT water in the mister. And give it a dripper. I use a home made 2 gallon dripper on each cage giving about 4-6 hours of dripping/day. In glass, there's no way you can properly hydrate your ccham with that amount of water. See the hydration article in the husbandry section of www.chameleonjournals.com. And read the baby care article at www.adcham.com. Worry less about its eating and more about its hydration.
5)The staple food should be crix or maybe even fruit flies if its still small enough. Maybe the prey you're giving is too large?
Ed

this is the cage i keep my current flapneck in. the shed has been good for him, he is VERY active today! lol

he is about 6 months old

until this photo i had never seen this pattern on him.

he is about 1 month old here. tiny little guy!! we got him at a local retiple shop and he died a few weeks latter.