Housing/lighting:
Chameleons do well in a
variety of enclosures but prefer at least two sides of screen for ventilation.
Enclosures should be decorated with a variety of fake or live plants,
vines and sticks for climbing. Veileds need both heat and full spectrum
UV. Temperature gradients can range from ambient 70s to 100 degree basking
zones. We highly recommend active UV/heat bulbs or mercury vapor bulbs
that combine high quality UV and heat into one bulb. Veileds thrive
when kept solo. Males must be isolated from other males and females.
You may opt to house two females together if you have a large enclosure
so that each can establish her own territory.
Water:
Veileds are more dry tolerant
than many chameleons, but still need water. We recommend a dripper bottle
that drips water onto the leaves and branches in the enclosure. Chameleons
will drink off of the leaves. A daily misting is also appreciated.
Food:
Veiled Chameleons are omnivorous
eating insects, plant matter, and pinky mice (if desired). They are
extremely entertaining to watch feed due to the length and speed of
their sticky tongues. Feed your chameleon appropriately sized prey—food
items that are to large can harm your chameleon.
Chameleons will eat numerous
types of insects. When feeding crickets, make sure your source of crickets
is clean. Never feed crickets bought from a store that does not clean
the cricket container. You may gutload your crickets with commercial
cricket diet and/or we suggest offering your crickets fresh fruit, greens,
and water. Remove all old food from your cricket container. Mold can
be toxic to your lizards. We suggest using a moistened paper towel/sponge,
citrus, or carrots to provide water for your crickets.
Whenever possible try and
provide a variety of appropriate sized prey items for your chameleon
including super worms, silk worms, roaches, grasshoppers, and a variety
of other bugs (not fireflies). However, we strongly suggest not using
bugs found outside, as they may have come into contact with pesticides
that can kill your chameleon. Also, use waxworms in limited amounts,
if at all. They contain little nutritional value, and although relished
by lizards, contain high amounts of fat.
You can also feed pinky mice/rats to adult veileds; this is especially
good for females during the breeding season.
Mature veileds will eat
a variety of greens including collard greens, red leaf lettuce, green
leaf lettuce, mustard greens, turnip greens, and dandelion greens. Stay
away from iceberg lettuce, large amounts of kale, cabbage, or spinach.
We also suggest a variety of vegetables such as carrots, squash, sweet
potatoes, peas, corn, and fruits offered in small amounts. Other specialty
additions can include cactus fruit, dandelion flowers, and hibiscus
flowers are especially relished. This salad mix can be offered daily
using different combinations of ingredients. It may be necessary to
"train" your chameleon to eat greens at a younger age.
Supplementation:
There are
many different and often contradictory opinions/views on supplementation.
Calcium, D3, and vitamin supplementation are necessary for your chameleon.
However, supplementation will depend on what you feed your veileds,
the bulbs you use, and how much natural sun they receive. Many sources
recommend supplementing small chameleons daily and decreasing to once
or twice per week for adults. But both too little and too much supplementation
can lead to problems.. We suggest you supplement your young chameleons
daily with a ratio of 1 part Rep-Cal Herptivite to 3 parts Rep-Cal calcium
with vitamin D3.
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