chameleons

[Levi the Leopard]

I've started researching chameleons. Any of you have them? @wellington

I read that they need humidity but also a screen cage. Is that accurate?
**I also read that leopard tortoises need a dry, open, table top/non aquarium enclosure..so I find myself doubting the traditional pet caresheets. **

Are any of you able to give me advice from first hand experience?
@Tom

Or can you point me to a site with proper chameleon care?

Thanks!

 

[Millerlite]

I don't have any now. But use to have a few of them a few years back. Depending on the species care is different slightly. But yes they need humidity and a open screen enclosure. They can get RI pretty easy if they don't have a fresh air supply. They also drink off of droplettes so need a mister or a drip system. Some have had luck with water bowls but I never did. They of course need uvb and basking light. They stress very easily and housing 2 toghether is a no no. You also don't wanna put your chem in a high traffic area of the house. I used a big screen cafe and built a bottom base and lined it with plastic. I put a drain that went into a bucket. This helped save time since I had a misting system that ran 2 times a day. I put 2 plants in the screen cage, fake vines. Over all the car isn't tough. The maintance is what takes time.

Kyle

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I've kept Jackson's before. They even bred!
I had them in screen cages with a water drip system.
They don't drink still water.
In the warmer months, they lived in my back patio on Pathos vines and a only tossed a few crickets every week or so. They caught the bulk of their own food.
After about 4 years and two generations, I gathered them up and sold them back to the reptile shop because I was getting back into tortoises.

 

[wellington]

I don't have any now either. I agree with all above.
I would recommend a panther chameleon over a veiled. I had veiled and they can be meaner and seems harder to train then panthers.
Check out the chameleonforums.com

 

[ZEROPILOT]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-a-Chameleon&usg=AOvVaw365a7qOKAqkYbvlCGl7fC_

 

[Tom]

I agree with most of the above, except for the screen cages and RI info. I found that info to be false.

They do need humidity, but how do you provide humidity in an open screen cage in a dry room? Its lust like a tortoise table. You can't. And also just like a tortoise table, spraying all day long does very little except keep them wet all the time. There was a well-known and experienced chameleon keeper at a SoCal reptile show. This company was Florida based, and the guy was telling the CA customer all about how screen cages are so important. When it was my turn to talk to him, I asked him if he'd ever lived in a dry climate or kept chams in a dry climate like ours. No. No he hadn't. I asked him how a new keeper would maintain the needed high humidity for a cham in a dry room with very low humidity, or an outdoor cage in a dry climate if a screen cage was used. Blank stare. The thought had never occurred to him.

I kept mine in large, tall, glass enclosures and kept the tops mostly covered. It worked great. My animals thrived. I kept veiled, panthers and Meller's this way.

I've seen tropical tortoise species get RIs from cold, damp conditions. I've never seen a cham get an RI. I had a buddy who lived in Whittier and kept panthers, veiled and two species of Brookesia outside all year and they all thrived. He used large open aviaries and had an auto-sprinkler set up going on them. Prior to that, he lived right on the beach in Hermosa and kept Jackson's outside full time in the cold clammy beach weather. He literally would build cages around a large potted ficus and had no heat and no shade other than what the plant offered. Those things were squirting babies out all over the place all the time.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

So true. And I keep taking our tropical environment for granted.
I've even heard of, but not seen some wild populations of released chameleons here in south Florida. And they ARE in Hawaii and Islands in the Caribbean.
My cousin, in fact, reported seeing a very large chameleon walking across a powerline in Miami and said some children shot at it with a BB gun. Another person. A co-worker of mine saw one on a bird of paradise plant in his yard. (It was gone when I got there)
It's also possible that some of my Jacksons wondered off. But with so many predators..........

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Thanks for chiming in everyone.

Barb, what happened to yours? Did they pass away or did you rehome them?

Zero, that summer time patio sounds great!

Tom you hit my question like a nail on the head. I kept thinking, how can I maintain the heat and humidity in a screen cage? It sounded like the tort debate all over again.

I plan to keep the enclosure in my back office. A bedroom in my house that has the lowest traffic.
I've been reading anything and everything I can on them. (Thanks barb, I saw that cham forum) But I kept circling back to the "screen terrarium" confusion.

Tom, to hear that you've had success with them in a tall glass terrarium is comforting.

My research continues...

Thanks again everyone

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Keep in mind that they are mostly arboreal.
They will want to climb and be higher than you are.

 

[Tom]

Thanks for chiming in everyone.

Barb, what happened to yours? Did they pass away or did you rehome them?

Zero, that summer time patio sounds great!

Tom you hit my question like a nail on the head. I kept thinking, how can I maintain the heat and humidity in a screen cage? It sounded like the tort debate all over again.

I plan to keep the enclosure in my back office. A bedroom in my house that has the lowest traffic.
I've been reading anything and everything I can on them. (Thanks barb, I saw that cham forum) But I kept circling back to the "screen terrarium" confusion.

Tom, to hear that you've had success with them in a tall glass terrarium is comforting.

My research continues...

Thanks again everyone

I liked to keep mine in high traffic ares to desensitize them. It worked for me.

And I never tried to tame or handle any of mine any more than was necessary to move them in and out for sun. I view these more as a pet you look at and feed, than a pet you interact with and handle.

One problem I encountered was terrible stress if they could even see another cham across the room. Even a different species. THis won't be an issue if you have just one, but I had to make some serious visual barriers.

 

[Tropics]

Any recommendations for some pre made glass cages? Glad I saw this, I was planning start setting up with a screen cage

 

[Tom]

Any recommendations for some pre made glass cages? Glad I saw this, I was planning start setting up with a screen cage

I had these tall cages that were 24x24x48". You might have to have something custom made, or special ordered. Adults of larger species really need something larger, but the humidity problem is always an issue for me. This is one reason why I don't keep chams any more, even though I really like them and really want one.

 

[richosullivan]

Dragon Strand does a cage that combines a screen front with a clear plexi style sides in order to help contain humidity:

http://dragonstrand.com/clear-side-enclosures/

May be worth taking a look at.

I'm in Florida, so humidity isn't really an issue for me, so I use a screen cage.