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1. Don't use any substrate at all. Chams have a tendency to ingest substrate, so it's best to use none. I suppose if you really wanted you could use paper towels or newspaper, but you want the water from the dripper to be able to flow out of the cage and into a catch bin.
2. Don't bother. If you ever find your cham on the bottom of the cage, figure he might be sick and get him in to a vet. Chameleons are built for living in trees and rarely, if ever, leave the safety of the branches.
3. It won't hurt to mist, too, and will help keep the humidity up. I used an ultrasonic humidifier combined with a dripper for my panther chameleon, and it worked well to keep humidity up and provide drinking water.
4. As long as the cage is pretty full of plants, he won't need anything else. Live plants work well to help keep humidity up, too. I like Hibiscus or schefflera (sometimes called umbrella plants).
5. At least at first, he's probably prefer to stay hidden, so fill the cage with as much foliage as you can.
6. One basking spot should be enough, and with a fairly small cage like a 38 gallon reptarium, it would be hard to provide two without overheating the cage. Having both heat and UV in the same spot is good- I actually prefer using a mercury vapor bulb that provides both in one bulb.
7. Put him in the tree- he'll feel safer there.
Just a word of advice- I suggest you ask the breeder to hold on to the sham until you get your reptarium set up. He'll be less stressed and more likely to eat well in a screen cage, and he'll only have to be moved once (from the breeder to you) instead of twice. Every move, whether it's from one home to another or just to a different cage, os stressful, and because chameleons are so delicate, you want to keep him as stress-free as possible.
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