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veiled cham tank ?

S

sakura

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i have always had mine in a hexagon aquarium with soil as substrate, grapevine to climb on and vines growing in it. ive had her for over wo years and never had a problem with her. so why does everyone say when they find this out that im a bad chameleon owner. ive had two other veileds and i had them in screen cages and they both died. but ive never had a problem out of this one. i dont understand how you can have 80% humidity in a screen cage thats why i have her in the aquarium. i wet the soil down once a week and it dries pretty quickly. i have a uvb light and a heat light on her. i just dont understand why so many people i meet want to bash me for how i have her. can someone please maybe explain it to me. she has a screen lid. shes actually going to lay eggs here soon.
 
Because, most ppl are drones that follow along with whatver theyve read. And over and over they read screen cages have to be the enclosure used for a chameleon. Ive used both glass and screen. The glass viv's I used were drilled and had plastic inserts to allow airflow on the sides and front and a screened lid for allowing in the uvb.

I dont have a problem with the glass tank. I do however suggest ditching the soil substrate. Its a potential blockage just waiting to happen. That cham misses a feeder and injests enough soil she can and will get impacted. Its happened to alot of keepers. I use bare bottom or paper towels on my cham cages.

You said she was about to lay. Do you have a laying bin for her? She needs a bucket (3-5 gallon) filled with at least 12-14" of washed playsand. I mix in org topsoil. I use 70% sand 30% topsoil. It should be moist enough to allow her to dig a tunnel without it collapsing. I usually start a shllow hole to check the soil and often they will use your hole and just start digging there. Leave her alone while shes digging. I cover the front of the cage so they arent disturbed and stop digging.
 
most fish tanks are not big enough . a male veiled would need a 90 gal or bigger tank . news paper works well for the bottom. Free range is best.
 
sakura said:
i have always had mine in a hexagon aquarium with soil as substrate, grapevine to climb on and vines growing in it. ive had her for over wo years and never had a problem with her. so why does everyone say when they find this out that im a bad chameleon owner. ive had two other veileds and i had them in screen cages and they both died. but ive never had a problem out of this one. i dont understand how you can have 80% humidity in a screen cage thats why i have her in the aquarium. i wet the soil down once a week and it dries pretty quickly. i have a uvb light and a heat light on her. i just dont understand why so many people i meet want to bash me for how i have her. can someone please maybe explain it to me. she has a screen lid. shes actually going to lay eggs here soon.
Click to expand...

just b/c u keep one alive doens't mean you are providing IDEAL care....


what supplementation are you using ?

you don't need to keep 80% humidity for chameleons; although you need it to be high, chams also need HIGH AIR FLOW because they are very susceptible to respiratory infections, which is why most people use screen cages.

Glass tanks are fine to use if your locale requires it. There is no "one size fits all" option. If your ambient temps are extremely cold or dry, a glass tank may better suit you. In my house, my ambient humiditiy is 40-50%, so its easy to keep my screen tanks well humid with live plants AND the air nice and clean.

As a general rule, glass tanks are frowned upon for 2 main reasons: 1) air flow issues+humidity increases chances of RIs as I said, and 2) because *some* (not all) chameleons get stressed by seeing their own reflection and thinking it is another chameleon.


Killer Chams is on the ball with the other stuff
 
sakura said:
she dug 2 holes in the dirt in her cage.
Click to expand...

Not too sound offensive, but so what. So, she dug two holes. If the substrate isnt deep enough she wont lay. Min depth needs to be 12-14" and thats the real minimum. They really like it deeper than that. At that depth she will dig to the bottom of the container and lay. The depth and the moisture level of the substrate are the most imp factors to consider when dealing with a gravid female and a laying bin. After laying she needs several long oppurtunities to drink and clean her eyes and turrets. They will prob be full od dirt and they can become irritated if not allowed to clean them of the soil. Then feed her the next day after laying. She needs some good feeders like silkworms or hornworms that are full of moisture.
 
i dont know. but like i said ive had her in this cage for years and never had problems. she is not that big and the soil height is not permant. ive been told that she is a perfectly health chameleon by a heprotologist.
 
well she seems happy to me. so whatever. but all my reptiles have realistic setups and real plants none of the fake stuff
 
sakura said:
well she seems happy to me. so whatever. but all my reptiles have realistic setups and real plants none of the fake stuff
Click to expand...

I don't know your experience, but "seeming" happy is meaningless. These are prey animals and will work very hard to "seem" happy even when they are not. Being able to diagnose problems before they start showing obvious signs of it is not that easy.

They won't "seem" unhappy until things are really bad.

Real plants are great, but if the tank is too small for her (and from what you've said it sounds too small, especially with 12"+ of soil) then she is improper housing...regardless of how wonderful the plants are growing. An adult female needs an 18x18x36" tank with a 12" deep laying bin strong enough to support a tunnel into it.

Many creatures CAN be kept in many scenarios. You CAN keep dirt in your tank. The dirt won't attack her and kill her...it is merely a PROBABILITY of her ingesting it and causing impaction, etc. In my opinion, good keepers aim to keep their animals in conditions that MINIMIZE the probability of any such accident occurring.


A human being can be kept alive in a 5'x5' with a small light, a toilet, and food and water dropped in daily....does that mean that is a good condition to keep them in?
 
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