Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the cheapest chameleon I can keep?

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a 'cheap' chameleon. By the time the cage, the lighting, the vitamin/calcium, food and other necessary equipment is purchased any chameleon will cost a fair amount of money. Veiled chameleons cost less than most others because they are bred in large numbers but that does not mean that they are either the cheapest to keep or the best.

Ask yourself why you have raised the question, carefully check the conditions required and then decide whether a chameleon is the right animal for you at this time.

2. What UV light should I provide?

Natural sun light is the best but not always practical on the Highveld. When keeping your chameleon indoors a 5.0 UV is the best - 2.0 are virtually useless for most chameleons and a 10.0 risks eye damage. Check the care sheets for details - brookesias actually do well under 2.0. Remember that the netting on a flexarium will reduce the UV by as much as 40% and that the light falls off the further away it is - at 30cm from the tube the UV has been reduced dramatically.

3. What size food can I use for my chameleon?

The rule of thumb is that the cricket should not be longer than the width of the head. This is only a guideline as large chameleons can be seen taking large cockroaches or locusts many times longer than the width of the mouth. The risk is that a small chameleon will try to grab food that is too big for it and, when small, there is some risk that they may get greedy and choke.

4. What type of food can I use?

Chameleons are primarily insectivores. Some will eat vegetation but this is only a minor supplement to its normal diet. One book suggests that the eating of vegetation is due to some nutritional deficit in its diet. We don’t feed our chameleons any vegetables but we have seen the occasional leaf nibbled; other keepers have told us of their Veileds that eat such food regularly.

The key to a healthy chameleon is a varied diet. Crickets are an ideal staple food but the addition of silkworms, silkmoths, locusts, grasshoppers, butterflies, gaga flies, cockroaches, etc will be of benefit. Make sure that the insects are not affected by insecticides or are rare; also ensure that they are not poisonous - there are types of locust that could prove fatal to your chameleon - or have stings.

5. Can I keep chameleons together?

Typically the answer is ‘no’. Very few chameleons will tolerate another, of either sex, in close proximity. Some of the mountain chameleons, e.g. Jacksons and Werners, will live as pairs in a large enough cage but Veiled and Panther chameleons will not; at some stage you will likely have a damaged animal and it will often be the female that does the attacking. The other risk is early egg laying, especially in Veileds. Some chameleons will mate at an absurdly young age and the female in captivity will not find the correct nutrition, will get stressed by the male and will then die of egg binding. This is often the case with wild caught Carpet chameleons - they are kept together in large numbers and breed while only 5 months or so old. The female arrives in South Africa stressed, riddled with parasites and full of eggs - is it any wonder that people say they are short lived? Captive bred carpets should have none of these problems.

SA Chameleons* Johannesburg* South Africa