Does anyone know anything about veiled chameleons? My girlfriend has recently acquired one and doesn’t know what the following means:
Chameleon keeps pawing at the glass of the tank and her (the lizards) skin has been really dark or black, from no provocation from my girlfriend. She walked into the room with the chameleon and her skin was already really dark, didn’t stick her hand in the habitat or do anything to her beforehand.
I’ve tried some searched on Google but apparently I suck and can’t find anything even resembling an almost decent response.
Also, there has been a build-up of water at the bottom of the terrarium from a humidifier my girlfriend recently acquired for the chameleon to keep the humidity up. Might this be a problem?
I had a couple of lizards. But I don’t know what the color signifies for a chameleon. My guess is he wants to get out. Have you cleaned the terrarium? Maybe you need to add more hiding places, and add some vegetation. I don’t know what they eat, but diet is very important. For an iguana calcium and potassium were important, and everything had to guaranteed organic and well washed because they are sensitive to pesticides and other chemicals. Most lizards need a heated rock to bask on in order to properly digest their food.
I see HerpNET is still out there. They were a great resource way back when.
Umm… well, black is not happy, that’s all I can say without looking at the setup. Has he got enough stuff to climb on? They’re pretty arboreal, and a puddle of water probably won’t be helping. You don’t have any pics of the set-up?
They need a hot-spot from a light on a branch, not a rock!
I’ve not kept them myself, but my Mum’s had them for years, and I used to help look after them.
By the way, my Mum’s doesn’t have very high humidity at all- it’s actually in a pretty dry large greenhouse, though it does get daily misting with a plant sprayer- they often will only drink dripping water, not standing, and can actually dehydrate while sitting in a puddle.
Is it eating? They need regular supplies of live food, (we always held small crickets out for them, as they’re a bit crap at aiming sometimes, and that way we had a definite count of what they were getting) ideally several times a day.
Yeah, that’s a good possibility too. All of my chams have always been in screened enclosures. It may be seeing it’s own reflection—I’ve read about that. You wanna see something awesome? Point a camera at a cham. They think the lens is an eye. Freaks 'em out big time.
Veiled, or Yemeni Chameleons need a screen cage set up, lots of climbing materials, a basking light, and will normally only drink from dripping, or running water. Black is a color displayed for fear, agitation or anger. Give me some more info on your current set-up and I’ll try my best to help you out.
It’s a female with no other animals in the household. She’s had the chameleon for about and a half.
As for eating, it is getting a regular supply of crickets. Drinking I don’t know about. It has a small waterfall type dealy set up but no standing water. When the humidifier is running water droplets will accumulate on the mesh type ceiling and she supposedly likes to drink that.
first of all, for the most part, no chameleons other then pygmie chameleons should be kept in anything glass. They require tall screen cages. Standing water is definatly asking for respritory illnessess. I beg you to join Chameleonforums.com and post under health concerns.
I am at work but email me at bpulley@gmail.com and I will help you best I can. I am an experienced chameleon keeper and herpetoculturist