UVB bulbs and Veiled Chameleons

A Family article with View Comments posted 4 February 2008.
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Thanks to a concerned reader of my last post about veiled chameleon light bulbs, we realized that a UVA-only was not sufficient to take care of Ezekiel. Jenni (the reader, not my wife Jennifer) was concerned that we had bought a basking bulb instead of a proper UV bulb, and she’s quite right: there is some evidence that without proper UVB irradiation, veiled chameleons may develop metabolic bone disease and die. There is at least one study that suggests that veileds don’t really need UVB if they are properly supplemented with vitamin powder on their food; nevertheless, we subscribe to the philosophy of “better safe than sorry.”

Thus, we replaced our ordinary UVA bulb with a UVA/B bulb to help encourage healthy vitamin D3 production. The bulbs are more expensive, but it’s definitely worthwhile. And good bulbs like the Reptisun line of bulbs are now available in compact fluorescent, so you can use your old reflector.

Two items to remember: UV bulbs are no substitute for a infrared bulb of some sort to allow for sunning and temperature self-regulation. Also, UVB bulbs will continue emitting visible light for a long time, but they run out of steam in the UV spectrum within 12 months, so replace your bulb(s) yearly.

Zeke’s new cage

A Family article with View Comments posted 27 April 2007.
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Yesterday we came home to find Zeke sprawled helplessly on the floor of the aquarium we keep his crickets (mmm… crickets) in. We don’t normally store that aquarium directly underneath the plant he lives in, but that day it was there. Being the klutz he is, he fell out of the plant 6 feet to the glass aquarium floor, where he was trapped for who-knows-how-many hours in a small box with a few hungry crickets and a lot of dead crickets. Poor guy! As my grandmother says, “Getting older is not for the faint of heart!”

Thus, with a gleeful “I get to play with POWER TOOLS!” gleam in my eye, Jennifer and I hung our new, big, nylon mesh Explorarium cage. This way he can only fall 2 or 3 feet to a soft, spongy nylon floor – much less likely to break fragile Zekes.

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To make this happen, I took a angled aluminum bracket my dad scavenged for me and attached it to the ceiling with two heavy toggle bolts. Then I drilled a hole for the S-hook that holds the cage to the bracket. The plant inside the cage hangs from a plant hanger clipped to a small carabiner. The plant hanger just had hooks at the ends of the ropes, so I drilled holes and routed the ropes through the pot and clipped the hooks into yet more holes drilled in the edge of the saucer. The lamps are too big and hot to put inside the cage (and Zeke would climb on them) so instead they clip to the bracket. The S-hook doubles as a convenient way to route the power cords for the lights. Total cost of hardware (excluding the cage and lights) was about $10.

The finished product looks really good – it just needs some more foliage to give him some cover when he’s feeling shy. The Exo-terra cage was a bit pricey (we found the largest one for about $50 online) but is collapsable and comes with a carrying case and a removable plastic liner. With some modification to the bracket you can see at the top to support the extra weight and some strategically placed holes in the new pot we bought, it works pretty well.

UV Bulbs for Veiled Chameleons

A Family article with View Comments posted 2 January 2006.
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We thought we’d be clever and save a little money in the process. We bought a full-spectrum UVA/UVB plant bulb to give Zeke his daily dose of UV-goodness. It was a cheap-ish light, about $6 from Walmart.

Unfortunately, the stupid things burn out. Like every three weeks or so. At $6/each, this is expensive.

They are also not as good as real reptile bulbs. We had no idea. Our vet even said that he was “the best looking chameleon [she had] ever seen.” He had always been a bit quirky – uncoordinated, a bad shedder (lots of problems there), and occasionally lethargic. We switched to a real reptile bulb (50W ZooMed basking spot-lamp) and the difference was amazing. Within a few days, he started shedding in large healthy pieces, he seems a bit more coordinated, and he’s much more active. He even seems friendlier – well, at least to me [Ted], he still freaks out when he sees Jennifer.

Don’t buy cheap bulbs.

It’s just not worth it. Don’t jeopardize the health of your Veiled Chameleon to save a few bucks. You won’t really save anything – the real bulbs are better quality and will survive the heat of a parabolic reflector much longer. Of course, people don’t own Veileds because they are cheap pets. More importantly, cheap bulbs will hurt your chameleon.

Edit: I’ve written a new article about Veiled Chameleons and UV bulbs in response to your comment. Thanks!