Heres an interesting addition:



Deremensis don't seem to care. I've kept them for years without a significant drop. then they die. I've had 7 of them over the years die, strangely, after a few weeks of doing nothing. Over and over, this has happened. I had misting systems installed, I lowered food intake (even more), regardless, they died after 2-3 years in captivity, with grossly fattened fat stores and marbled livers. All females were swollen full with developing eggs.



After speaking with Josh Mease on this matter, I learned that the same problems were happening in Tanzania, at MBT farms. They brought deremensis down from the mountains, to the lower elevations of their Arusha farm. the animals were ok for a while, but without nightly drops, and without a winter cool down, they just don't live long. If what Josh said was true, Joe Beraducci has several 10 year old deremensis up there, in the mountains.



My females, in the past, always had died with 30-40 eggs developing, massive fat pads, and marbled livers - despite starving for around a month prior to death.



Now that I'm living in the mountains, my animals get a 10-30 degree drop at night. This spring, I had to feed some very ravenous animals to keep their weight up. My female laid 20 eggs. And I have NO fat deremensis. In the past, I coudln't keep them lean. Suckers just gained weight on the bare minimum.



I think they're burning calories in the thermoregulatory process (if thats' even a word), sorta like partially-endothermic animals.



My deremensis used to go on these hunger strikes - for weeks at a time. It'd drive me nuts. Now, since moving here, I've not had one refuse food, and not had one get fat.



Eric A



It's a generalization, but in my experience, chameleons live longer with a temp drop.

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