Reptile & Amphibian Forums

to take care of properly. Toxic ivy? Does this look like the toxic kind? I can easily switch to another pothos plant that I hvae (okay, not so easily, but I will do it).

This little critter is only about two inches-and while I cannot know how old, it must be very young. By making the picture so big, I am noticing all sorts of spots on it that I don't notice in "real" life- like by the eye, and on the mouth. It was asleep, and the flash disturbed it.

including curled up tail.

yup, that's the ivy. he/she may not begin eating vegetation right away but I wouldn't risk it. Use just pothos for now (ficus and schefflera are good standing plants).

He is obviously VERY young - too young to be sold in a "normal" situation. how/where did you get him? His story might help in determining any issues you may run into. If he is wild caught (wc) rather than captive bred (cb) he probably has parasites. Do you have a good local herp vet? You may just want to get him checked out and definitely get a fecal sample checked.

You may actually want to get him into a glass tank for now in order to maintain some humidity. Dehydration can be a real problem and in a free range setup you willhave a hard time keeping humidity up. Being regularly dehydrated can lead to even more serious organ problems. Do you see him actually drink from the dripper or off leaves? His eyes need to be well bulged out and not flat or sunken in any way (sign of de/hydration).

You said he was eating crickets? The rule of thumb is no feeder wider than its head so you really need little pinheads for him. Fruit flies are another option.

As for spots and color changes the marking on its side and around the mouth are fine.

Please read the article I linked below. It is about baby cham care up to 4 months. It discusses supplements, humidity, temps, cage setups, etc.

lele
baby care

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

n/p
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

I like that baby care article. I will probably answer most of your care questions. The main thing with babies is "no extremes", either in temps, humidity fluctuations, size of food, type of food, amount of disturbance. They are tiny and just don't have the reserves an older cham would. One hard reality of buying very tiny babies...sometimes they just die of natural causes. There is often a percentage of any clutch that is not destined to survive because of internal problems, metabolic deficiencies, etc. that you can't detect. There is no way to know which hatchlings are going to survive, and if you buy them too young this natural selection hasn't occurred yet. I don't mean to freak you, but it can happen. The ivy won't be a hazard until she starts trying to nibble on it. Chams don't usually start eating veggies until they are older, but just to be safe I'd switch it. Be careful with your southern window and make sure there is always a shady spot as the sun moves during the day. Good luck!

First off, I'm no expert. What I'm posting here are my own personal observations.
I have a batch of young veiled chameleons that started hatching late march/early april. I've kept my chameleons in a small screen enclosure with a solid bottom. Although I reccommend using live plants with your chameleons, I have not followed my own advise in setting up their environment. I've set them up with very small leafed plastic vines. The weather here in Perris, CA has been VERY warm (about 95 today), so I've been keeping them outside from day one, giving them plenty of shade and misting them at least twice a day. Because they're gettin PLENTY of sunshine, we only dust the crickets about once a week. I followed someone's (Lele I think) advice and I've kept a small bowl of shredded vegies for the crix in the cage. Gives the crix something to eat, makes them concentrate in one spot, and keeps the crix off the babies.
Seems we're always misting these guys. Whenever possible I put all my chameleons on the front lawn and run the sprinklers for them. Out of 46 eggs laid, 36 hatched. We lost 4 babies altogether, but these had issues from the very beginning.
Forgot what my point was in posting this. Maybe to stress the importance of giving them exposure to UVB. Umm... ya, that's it!
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

Hi-
The setup that I created for this one (female, I think) is in a southern exposure window-and has sun coming through it for approximately five hours a day, the sunlight is filtered only through the screen. I have found that the baby will climb down and sit in the window-on the screen or on one of the vines for about three of the five hours.
I also have a fullspectrum light fixture above the plants-however, I have not turned that on for two days because of the window/sun.
I live in Michigan, so I will have to set up a better exposure in the winter.
I have a question on temperature. What is a good night time temperature range? I currently leave the red heat lamp on for warmth if needed, but it doesnt drop below 66 degrees in my house ever-should i keep the heatlamp on at night? How often should I be dusting my crickets?

>>The setup that I created for this one (female, I think) is in a southern exposure window-and has sun coming through it for approximately five hours a day, the sunlight is filtered only through the screen. I have found that the baby will climb down and sit in the window-on the screen or on one of the vines for about three of the five hours.
>>I also have a fullspectrum light fixture above the plants-however, I have not turned that on for two days because of the window/sun.
Question here. Are you saying your chameleon is getting its UVB exposure via sunlight coming in from a window? I'm asking because UVB rays will not come through the glass, you'll have to keep the window open.
>>I live in Michigan, so I will have to set up a better exposure in the winter.
>>I have a question on temperature. What is a good night time temperature range? I currently leave the red heat lamp on for warmth if needed, but it doesnt drop below 66 degrees in my house ever-should i keep the heatlamp on at night? How often should I be dusting my crickets?
I wouldn't leave give a night light for chameleons kept indoors. Chameleons need a certain drop in temp at night, and most people keep their homes warm enough at night so the chameleon wouldn't be uncomfortable. Just for reference, I keep my chameleons outside as much as possible. The lowest nighttime lows I've subjected my panthers to is about mid 50's. Veileds I've kept as low as low 50's. Jacksons I've kept as low as mid 40's. Do I reccommend habitually keeping chameleons this low? No. These are brief exposures I'm talking about. Wouldn't reccommend keeping ANY chameleon with anything lower than about high 50's (there I go, contradicting myself again!).
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com