(New) Pics of my Veiled Chameleon

[parabuthus]

Charlie has grown quite a bit since I last posted about him (he is over a foot long now!)...

These pictures were taken by a friend of mine for a brief on his photography course (people and their pets). As follows...

A little angry in this next picture, but on the whole, he was great for the shoot!

 

[Midnightrdr456]

what great pics, ive always wanted a Chameleon, but for now, no more pets till I get my own place so ill have to wait till after law school lol

 

[Socrates]

Absolutely GORGEOUS animal! WOW! I had no idea these guys get so large. :worship: :clap:

How difficult is it to properly care for them?

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Wendy
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[parabuthus]

Yeah, Veiled Chameleons can get very big, up to 2ft in length. Charlie is not yet fully grown, though I imagine that he is almost done.

They are (alot) more work than most lizards (my brother has kept Water Dragons, Sand Agamas, Leopard Geckons, Palm Geckos e.t.c., so I have a small idea of keeping herps). He eats a ton of feeders everyday (thus he craps ALOT) and needs alot of water, but they can't drink from a dish, so instead I have to mist the set-up several times a day/night and I also let him drink directly from the misting can (which is kinda cool). They also need atleast 12 hours of UV a day and a heatlamp to bask underneath. Live plants are required for the best set-up, since they help keep humidity up and also since Veils are herbivores as well as insectivores. I have Pothos in my setup.

Locusts are great prey items since they are aboreal, whereas crickets tend to hide or scurry around the bottom of the enclosure. So yeah, feeders which climb the enclosure are much preferred, since he will pick them off the side of the set-up or from the leaves/plant stems.

They also need a calcium supplement, since locusts/crickets are calcium defficient. Although this is the case with other large lizards too.

Although I am so glad I bought him, I never quite knew how much work he'd end up being. If I never had family to help look after him while I am working or away with the band, he'd be neglected, because they need attention everyday, in terms of husbandry, whereas with scorps (which is what I am used to keeping) you don't need to attend to them on a daily basis.

 

[parabuthus]

To give an idea of how fast they grow, this following pic was taken in April this year...

 

[Socrates]

Rich,

Thanks so much for the detailed information on how to care for these beauties. Yowser - they ARE high maintenance, but looking at your specimen, you must be doing everything right, as I'm sure he wouldn't have thrived as nicely as he did otherwise.

I think I'll pass on these - instead I'll admire your pictures, and each time I get the urge to buy one, I re-read about what you said about maintaining them properly.

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Wendy
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[bugmankeith]

WOW, you werent kidding when you said he grew fast! That's an amazing transformation he went through, from a slender,smooth chameleon, to a big,rough, rugged looking chameleon.

 

[juggernaut]

cool

where do you live;climate? is your set up cost u some real cheese$$ are you using uvb bulbs or floecents?

hey everone please if you wil check out my post on the informative speech!:razz:

 

[parabuthus]

Hi, I am from Scotland.
The house has good central heating.

His enclosure is an Exo Terra flexarium, but it's not big enough for his current size. For his happiness I want it bigger. I let him roam in a bath tub -full of plants- for a couple of hours per day, then put him back in his enclosure for his UV/basking lamp. I use a UV exo-terra tube. You can see part of the set-up behind me in the picture.

I feed him several extra large hoppers per day. Sometimes the odd fully grown locust too.

I am getting him a new, bigger set-up for the end of October. He is almost a year old approx. So he doesn't have too much more to grow, though I am hoping he will get slightly longer and even more robust for the next few months.

So, in short, my set-up for him is pretty humble. Never cost much at all. I just make sure he is fed well everyday and watered well. And he gets to roam free(ish) for a couple of hours everyday.