# might be getting a chameleon!



## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

i finally pursuaded my mum to let me have a large lizard in my bedroom, and a shop near me is selling baby yellow chameleons for £85 and helmeted chameleons which are a little larger for £35, ive been doing some research on the net and cant find anything on the yellows and found a pic of the helmets but they are actually helmeted iguanas, the tank im looking at is either going to be 3 or 4 feet (probably 4) would this be ok for these species, if so which one would be the best option and what am i going to hav to make sure i have to keep it healthy?, i already know that im going to need another heatmat and special lighting and all the other basic stuff, the store sells a complete kit for them but i want to make sure it has everything i need in it first

thanks


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## 00nothing (Mar 26, 2004)

wow i dont even know where to begin with this one









yellow chameleons ???? try and get me the latin name for it 
http://www.adcham.com/html/taxonomy/specie....html#Chamaeleo

start by looking thru all teh species on those links

next when u say tank please dont tell me u mean an aquarium while a chameleon will survive in an aquarium it is less than ideal conditions for one chameleons require high humidity with lots of ventilation this is next to impossible to achieve in an aquarium u should be looking into a reptarium

HEAT MAT







dont even try it chameleons are climbers they should not have heat lams or heat rocks anywhere near there enclosures they should have a high quality UV bulb and also a heat lamp i use an ordinary 40 watt bulb on my reptariums for heat. chameleons can be really picky when it comes to heating requirements most do best at jsut above room temperature as most come from arid mountain regions where suprisingly enuff it is very kewl especially at night an overheated chameleon will stress and die much faster than one that was subjected to a slightly cooler than normal condition

i admire ure desire to be sure u have the right conditions to bring a chameleon home to but u want to be sure that the chameleon u are buying suits what conditions u are supplying

while typing this the only chameleon i could find that was reffered to as a yellow was the yellow crested jacksons which is definitley not a beginners species but there are other chameleons that will turn yellow especially veileds mine is constantly gettign bright yellow stripes

here are some cham links i suggest u do some reading and if u have any questions feel free to ask me

http://www.chameleonnews.com/
http://www.chamresearch.com/
http://www.chameleonsonline.com/ (this is one of my favs)

oh yeah just so ya know i am not shooting book knowledge i am currently breeding veiled and fischers chameleons and plan to get many mroe species so i speak from hands on knowledge


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

thanxs 00nothing, sorry i did mean vivarium and not tank, i read somewhere that for most chameleons you should have half the side as meshing and nt glass to improve ventilation, is this essential?

The two tanks in the shop both had heat lamps, not heat mats so im guessing that will come with the package, sorry the heat mat coment was my mistake!

I coudnt find an exact match for the yellows, the ones in the shop werent actually yelow they were green, with the slightly bigger ones having abit of black pattern on them. the closest i could find were chamaeles deremensis and chamaeles rudis.

im going to go back to the shop tomorrow to have another look, hopefully the manager will be in this time and he will be able to give me some more information on them.
thanx for your help is much appreciated


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## 00nothing (Mar 26, 2004)

did it have horns ? and did u look at the veiled chameleons these tend to be the most common chameleons in the pet trade at least here in north america and it jsut occured to me perhaps the pet store mistook yemen for yellow and named them as such

http://www.adcham.com/html/taxonomy/specie...alyptratus.html


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

yeh, it looks like it could be the yemen, this is what i no (or think i no) so far-

vivarium- 24"x24"x48" tall , can it be 48 length or is that a silly question?

temp- basking area 80-90F with opposite end atleast 10 degrees lower

water- get a drip or mist the vivarium

food- insects like crickets, locusts etc


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## 00nothing (Mar 26, 2004)

piranhasrule said:


> yeh, it looks like it could be the yemen, this is what i no (or think i no) so far-
> 
> vivarium- 24"x24"x48" tall , can it be 48 length or is that a silly question?
> 
> ...


everything seems to be dead on as far as the vivarium goes when it comes to chameleons height is the more important factor as well daily sprayings are a must as well as a good drip sytem i have used i.v. feeding bags from the hospital they werk perfect a friend of mine gets them for me but it is also very easy to make ure own using a pop bottle and some aquarium hose

also one of the things to consider is the basking area most people think okay one end needs to be kewler than the other but usually when u think this with most reptiles u think length of the tank not the height when chameleons get to warm they climb down there tree so think top should be 10 degrees warmer than bottom also the addition of lives plants is extremely benificial some will say its not necessary i find that it is especially with veiled/yemen chameleons my male chomps on his tree daily

there is a list of safe plants on chameleons online


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## syd (Nov 6, 2004)

cant you keep them on an indoor tree inside a pot since they cant jump. i dont see how you set up the proper lights/heat/humidity though.

and you obviously would hand feed


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## 00nothing (Mar 26, 2004)

syd said:


> cant you keep them on an indoor tree inside a pot since they cant jump. i dont see how you set up the proper lights/heat/humidity though.
> 
> and you obviously would hand feed
> [snapback]810709[/snapback]​


chameleon condo as pretty as they are dont make the best enclosure specifically for the reasons u mentioned hard to light and keep humidity up, while chameleons cant jump they can fall while trying to reach things if the condo is anywhere near anything the cham will eventually try to reach it and could result in a fall and chams are very fragile


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## Mr. Hannibal (Feb 21, 2003)

You should visit this sites Bro: 
http://www.animalarkshelter.org/cin/
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

well i didnt get a chance to go back to the shop i saw the chamelions at, but i went to a shop nearer to me to get some food for my gecko and they told me somemore info about them. I also saw a big vivarium, about 4/5 ft long, 2ft wide and it was probably about 5/6 feet tall which im giving some thought into buying, my moms actually getting into the idea abit more so i'l probably be getting it in afew days, might wait to see if the tanks cheaper in the january sales tho.
If i do get this vivarium i really want to but a little stream type thing in it which will run from one end to the other, and maybe form a little pool (not very deep). would this be ok for the chameleon to drink from or would i still have to fit a dripper?


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## 00nothing (Mar 26, 2004)

its not normal for chameleons to drink from standing or running water they will usually only drink droplets but it is not unheard of wow sounds like a very nice sized enclosure


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