VEILED CHAMELEON (chamaeleo calypratus)

A Veiled Chameleon that receives proper care is a beautiful and responsive pet, which will dazzle you with its changing colors and intrigue you with its unique behaviors. Everything about the chameleon is different. Chameleons have strange eyes that move independently with the help of specialized eye sockets, and a prehensile tail, and unique claws especially adapted for hanging onto tree branches. While some species of chameleons are extremely difficult to keep at home, the Veiled Chameleon is a relatively hardy species and possibly the easiest species to care for at home. Although Veiled Chameleons are relatively easy to keep compared to other chameleon species, it still requires considerable effort and should not be considered an easy reptile for beginners. Veiled chameleons can grow to a very large size; males can reach up to 25 inches in length including the tail and females are about 15 inches in length. This chameleon is native to mountainous forest in both Yemen and Saudi Arabia. While their habitat tends to be dry year-round, it does receive some sporadic rainfall, so Veiled Chameleon can tolerate a wide range of temperatures and humidity levels.

GENERAL CARE
An important aspect of chameleon care is their psychological well being. Chameleons are visual animals and are highly dependent on their visual sense alone as they do not have ears. Around 85% of the sensory information that chameleons perceive from the environment is apprehended through the sense of sight. If you want your chameleon to be a responsive and rewarding pet you must make sure its psychological needs are met. You must give the chameleon privacy if it is to have a chance to survive. The first requirement is an enclosure with sufficient branches and tree foliage, providing many places to hide from your human presence, which they may perceive as a large predator, at least at the beginning. The chameleon will gradually habituate to your presence, but let the chameleon decide the timing. This kind of enclosure will allow your chameleon to feel both safe and comfortable. The ideal cage should be at least three feet wide and at least six feet tall. If you cannot provide such a large enclosure, the cage should be taller than it is wide. You can use the standard wire mesh, but plastic mesh is softer and less damaging to your chameleon. The second requirement of their psychological care is territorial space. Veiled chameleons are very territorial animals and will become extremely agitated with another chameleon in its enclosure. Another important aspect is to limit handling to a minimum as chameleons experience stress when they are handled, but the severity of the stress depends on how well your chameleon has habituated to your presence. The best human/chameleon relationship is achieved by positive association; the positive association of human presence with the delivery of food. Use plastic forceps to feed your chameleon and after a while your chameleon will actually respond positively to your presence. It usually takes a few months to develop this kind of a relationship with you pet. Give your chameleon privacy but at the same time place it in an area where there is some human presence so that it has the opportunity to habituate with people. Never grab your chameleon roughly to pull it off its branch. Instead, you should gently coax the animal to climb on to your hand by placing your hand in front of the chameleon and gently slide your hand towards its front legs until it is forced to grab your hand. Keep sliding your hand toward the rear legs while lifting the chameleon away from the branch. The chameleon should grab onto your fingers and you are now holding the chameleon with a minimum of stress, as if it were on a branch.

FOOD
The dietary habits of Veiled Chameleons are also unique. Although primarily insectivores, they are also herbivores that readily consume plant matter. The preferred foods are insects, but occasionally a veggie treat will be appreciated. They also like variety in their insect diet, so give them crickets, flies, mealworms, wax worms, etc., but crickets should compose the bulk of the chameleons diet. Daily feedings of about five adult crickets will suffice for an adult chameleon, but for younger animals feed them only as much as they can eat in a ten-minute span. Keep in mind that hatchling chameleons need to be fed pinhead crickets and then only crickets of a suitable size, which can be swallowed easily. Remember not to leave any crickets roaming around the cage because they can seriously injure your chameleon at night when it is sleeping by nibbling on its flesh. Crickets should also be fed nutritious food prior to being fed to your chameleon; usually a piece of orange and carrot will do the trick. Make sure you dust the feed insects with vitamin and mineral supplements once a week. A calcium supplement should be given daily as chameleons, as with most reptiles, require large quantities of calcium. If your chameleon lives outdoors or indoors with considerable opportunity for direct sunlight, you should give a calcium supplement without any vitamin D3 supplement because D3 is automatically synthesized by exposure to ultra violet radiation from the sun. Vitamin D3 promotes the absorption of calcium from the small intestine and is essential for the formation of solid bone mass and the transmission of nerve impulses. If there is a deficiency in D3, chameleons will develop a condition called metabolic bone disease (MBD), comparable to osteoporosis in humans, and if left untreated will seriously deform and eventually kill your chameleon. It is very important that you expose your chameleon either to sunlight or to another source of UVB radiation often. Remember, direct sunlight shining through windows will not expose your chameleon with a significant amount of UVB rays as glass will filter UVB rays. So, if the chameleon does not received unfiltered, direct sunlight, give your chameleon a calcium supplement with vitamin D3.

WATER
Provide your chameleon with water every day a minimum of two times a day via a drip system. Chameleons will not usually drink from a bowl of standing water, but some chameleons will do so, depending on how it is presented to them. Generally only water in motion will be recognized as a water source. Spraying chameleons directly is not recommended because chameleons exhibit a defensive response mechanism when sprays, so they probably don’t enjoy it too much. Remember, Veiled Chameleons come from a relatively dry habitat with seasonal periods of higher humidity, but this species likes it drier than the other species from the tropical rainforests. A Veiled Chameleon that is kept in an environment that is too wet it will likely develop a deadly respiratory infection, so keep your chameleon in a well ventilated cage in a place that is not very humid.