how hard is veiled chameleons to care for?

DeesBalls · 07-23-09, 12:44 AM

just wondering how hard these are to keep and maintain. i have a ball python and kenyan sand boa and those are awesome, but over the last few weeks, ive been wanting a chameleon of some sort. this isnt an impulse buy ive been wanting one for a while.

so just how hard are they to keep? any insight is greatly appriciated. thanks

siz · 07-23-09, 08:27 AM

I love chameleons but they can be fairly difficult to care fpr. Well, maybe specialized is a better word..
First thing first, I recommend getting a male. Females lay eggs whether or not they have been bred, and this can lead to many complications including death by egg binding.
Mesh or screen cages are important, or a custom cages with a lot of ventilation. They live high in trees in the wild so ventilation and air flow is important. No glass tanks. The enclosure should be high and you should have lots of foliage (preferably live) for them to climb, and vines. Keep the cage in a low traffic area to keep stress down, they can be very easily stressed. Substrate is usually not recommended to have, I use paper towle. It can be a bit harder to keep up humidity but chams can get easily impacted.
You need a UV light, tubes are the best. Use Reptisun 5.0 tubes, NOT compacts! They have been known to cause blindness and death in chams.
Temps. They do not need super high temps. About 90f in the basking spot and mid 70s in the coolest areas. Temps can drop into the 60s at night.
Water. This is one of the most important aspects of cham keeping. They won't drink from a dish. You need to have a dripper going for a few hours every day. You can buy drippers or make them yourself for super cheap. Chams drink a lot so this is key. You also need to mist a couple times a day. Many people recommend misting for 5 mins or so, this isn't always necessary but you do need to mist a pretty good amount. You want your humidity round 70% but not constant. Many people I know do not even measure their cham's humidity. If the urates are white then your cham is hydrated.
Variety of feeders is also important, I feed my cham lots of worms (silks, horns, butters, supers, etc) along with a staple of crickets.
Keep handling to a minimum as most chams don't tolerate it very well. Mine gets very pissy when you try to take him out so I normally leave him alone to prevent stress.
That is all I can think of right now. Go read as much about chams as you can before buying one as they are not for everybody. These are the absolute basics of keeping veiled chameleons. Hope it helps!

DeesBalls · 07-23-09, 10:36 AM

wow dude, that was absolutly amazing! could you show me a pic of a tank i should use? i have a spare 10 gal tank i was going to use, but since you said no glass that wouldnt be good. um.. it sort of sucks that i cant hold it but oh well, my two snakes will take up that time lol. but it was very good info i will ask questions if i can think of any.

any one else want to add some stuff in this?

siz · 07-23-09, 11:59 AM

You CAN hold them, and some actually don't seem to mind being held but I find this is more typical of panthers than veileds. Mine is a little fireball, he puffs and hisses and gapes at me when I try to pick him up, so I just prefer to watch him tour his cage than take him out and stress him. (although his 'i hate you' colours are my favourite LOL)

I just googled 'veiled chmeleon cages" and got a few good pics of enclosures
veiled chameleon cages - Google Images

Will0W783 · 07-23-09, 12:43 PM

Lol...I have a pair of Jackson's chams and they are pretty good about being handled. We feed them cockroaches and crickets dusted with calcium in the bathtub so they don't get any dirt in them. I have a tank liner in their cage. I used a 20-long tank with a large tank topper. The tank bottom helps hold humidity for the potted banana tree, but the chams spend all their time up in the screen part. I mist them 3-4 times a day and they have a dripper constantly going- the girl drinks A LOT. I don't handle them except to transport them for feeding, and they are ok with that. Chams are great- the color change and those little turret eyes are just sooo awesome. Good luck!

siz · 07-24-09, 07:50 AM

I love their googley eyes!

carciady · 08-02-09, 12:26 PM

I had a male yemens veiled cham and he loved to be out of his vivarium, I do agree that the males are the best to have as I have also lost two females due to being egg bound. My male died of old age and he was great to get out and show my friends, he would gladly walk from person to person. They are the easyest to keep due to them living in diferent climates.