My Vield/Yemen Chameleon Steup

[SirYamalot]

Hey all....

I've now got my much awaited Vield Chameleon, loving his twisty eyes!

I just wanna run past my current set up with you more experienced chameleon keepers.

Chameleon:
Male, 11 weeks old

Housing:
* 2.5ft x 2ft x 1ft (HxWxD) wooden viv, glass sliding doors
* UV tube (on 12-13hrs a day)
* Heat bulb (on 12-13hrs a day, 86f during day - 78f during night)
* Humidity is kept about 50-60%
* Loads of vines, etc to climb over and hide in.
* Basking spot about 5.5inchs under heat bulb.
* Dusted crickets (5-6 a day), 2 tong fed Locusts (so gets used to hand coming into Viv)

At the moment I am misting him about 3 times a day, heavily wetting leaves and side's of viv). I am going to be making a home made drip system tonight at a rate of 1 drip every 2 seconds.

Im also not sure if I should replace one sliding glass door with mesh? at the moment in not fully closing the sliding glass doors and keeping around 30mm gap in either side. The viv also has a 5cm mesh strip at the back of it at the top.

I think that's it!.... any comments more than welcome!

Cheers
SirYamalot

[ch4dg]

congrats on the new buy
sounds good,

but i would change to a full mesh or a wood/mesh viv asap.....
glass can make him very stressful due to his reflection,
theres normally not enough ventilation,
and unless the wood is treated it will get damp and start rotting

also
what % is the u.v???
you've got the bulbs in the viv can he climb on them???

heres a link to my setup if you wanna look...
Veiled/yeman Chameleon viv with fake rock background

[SirYamalot]

Cheers for the response... he's brilliant and I just want him to grow up all healthy, strong and happy!

Just wanna make sure im doing the best I can for the little twisty eye'd guy.
First off... ch4dg your housing looks awesome!, how long did that take to plan and build?

Before getting my chameleon I did a lot of research and came across so many things that just contradict each other, except for the basic's such as heating, etc. Housing seem's to be quite debatable for chameleon's eh? My main fear for him is dehydration, I have a hydrometer on the opposite site if the viv to the heat bulb as the heat buld side of the viv would have the water evaporating faster eh?

I do have the heat bulb in the viv, but I have taken the cage off and not placed any climbing materials near it so he cant get anywhere near it... all he has is the basking spot about 11cm under the heat bulb.

The UV is also at 10%

This weekend I will convert the viv to a wood/mesh as an all glass front has been playing on my mind... il replace one of the sliding glass doors with a mesh screen and also put two hole in either sides of the viv, both at different heights. I plan to build my own viv for him once he get's bigger... at around 6 months old.

One question I do have is what the best humidity for him is?!.. I see a lot of different preferences for this. I've started to mist him to about 70-80% in the mornings and then lightly mist him in evening to about 60% then a light mist again at night to about 60% aswell.

[GAD58Y]

i wouldnt worry to much about the glass at the moment,i keep all my babies in exo-terras and the are doing great,i would just upgrade to a wood/mesh enclosure when he out grows his enclosure.
the humidity should be around 50% but this will go up to about70% after spraying.
what supplements are you dusting with?
hope this helps



graeme

[SirYamalot]

Yeah he seems to have settled in really well from the setup I have at the moment, I just feel maybe making one door mesh will be sufficient for now until he get's bigger as the room he's kept in is a converted loft, it has brilliant air flow through it though. I just wanna be sure that the air is moving around his Viv. I shall try it and see how he get's on, if it's better with the glass I can just swap it back then.

His humidity hovers at an adverage of 50% and on misting it goes upto 70% as you say. In the mornings he's turned on for around 15mins and then given a good misting to bring it upto 70%, then in evening (7pm) he's given a gentle mist to around 60% and same at night (10pm).

Every morning mon-fri he gets a tub of gutloaded (with Romanie leaf and carrot) crickets (5-6) dusted in Komodo cricket dust, I also tong feed him 2 locust's in the evening. On Sat-Sun he get's the same but the crickets dusted in Nutrabal.

[ch4dg]

Originally Posted by SirYamalot

ch4dg your housing looks awesome!, how long did that take to plan and build?
thanks
the viv= no planning just got the wood built the frame then then nail gunned panels on to it (bout 4 hours)

the rock background again no planning....but took bout a week spending bout an 1 hour everyday on it....its the drying/curing time that makes it a long process


Before getting my chameleon I did a lot of research and came across so many things that just contradict each other,
thats with nearly all reps...everyone has theyre own ways of doing thing

Housing seem's to be quite debatable for chameleon's.
This weekend I will convert the viv to a wood/mesh as an all glass front has been playing on my mind
when i said asap, i didnt mean this very second..... i just meant like when you up grade his viv

The UV is also at 10%
a lot of people would recommend a 5%.... i personaly do use a ten but this is due to my tube being out side the viv so the mesh absorbs bout half of the u.v strength

One question I do have is what the best humidity for him is?
50%-60% but when you mist the tank it will go up for a short period

hope that helps