Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys,

Well im interested in setting up a 20 gallon long cage designed for leaf chameleons. After doing some research it seems that they are just what i am looking for in many ways. BUT, are they really as hard to maintain as some people say? I have talked to my local vet and he considers them to be one of the most ANNOYING of captives he has attempted to keep. On the other hand, i have talked to a friend who had some (they died) and he said they are BRILLIANT!

I have the time, experience, and equiptment to properly care for one i think.

Here are some of my main questions though......

1. Are they active (to some degree)

2. Are they a challenge to breed? Egglayers of livebearers?

3. I would like to include a waterfall into there cage...could they drowned?

Id apprecite any of your guys input so fell free to post!
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eric

Hi Eric,

What was the "annoying" part of keeping them that your vet referred to. Just seems like an odd term to use for the care of these little guys.

You will find mixed experience on this forum. Some have been quite successful and others not. I had a 1:20 CB trio in 2003 and they all died within 2 weeks of one another. They were 4 months old when I got them from the Kammer's and they lived another 5. We do not know what happened. May have been supplementation which can be tricky - as with any species. They are tiny animals and even if something is diagnosed they are hard to treat due to size. When Bart (the last to go - named after Bart Simpson b/c he looked like him! lol!) died I had an offer from an out of state vet to do a necropsy and see if he could find anything that would help future brevi keepers. On the way to my vet (to get him into Formulin (sp?) my alternator in my car went and my neighbor was not willing to drive me (45 min each way) - UGH! It was really too bad I could not get him there. May not have gotten any answers, but maybe we would have.

I know of others who seemed to "just lose them" whereas roo, and others here, are quite successful. Be sure to see his articles on chamnews. I do plan on getting more soon as they are curious little creatuers.

1. active? not especially, but funny. Makeda, my larger female was so tolerant as Bart would often climb over her if she was in his way. I'll have to dig up some old pics of them.

2. can't comment from expericne but there are stories of people not even knowing she had laid eggs and suddenly found babies in the tank. I know that R. brevi are egg bearers, not sure about other species.

3. a waterfall is not recommended for any setup due to the chance of bacterial and fungal buildup. In such a humid environment it would be worse. Also, to constantly have to take out and clean you'd be a pain in the butt b/c of the substarte, plants, etc. I would nix the waterfall idea - and yes, they probably could drown if they did not have a rock, branch, etc. to grab onto.

hope that helps and I am sure others will chime in with their experiences.

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

maybe your vet was referring to the fact that you always have to have small feeders available: ff, nymph roaches, nymph mantids, pinhead or 1/4"-1/2" crickets, etc. for them. That can be a pain unless you rear your own.
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

He said that the most annoying thing about them was there tendency to be untreatable due to there small size. He said " it is too easy to persrcibe too much medicine for such little guys." BUT, i read roo's article on leaf chameleons and she stated that it is best to not treat them sometimes?

My friend had similar results to yours. HIs were captive bred 5 month old guys and they died 3 months later.....

Im torn between the 2 ideas. I really want one because of the oppritunity to set up such an attractive viviarium. As for the waterfall idea, i could definately see the risk of molding and bacteria. Drowning was my main concern though...

As for feeders, that'll be no problem since i live near lll reptile and can constantly go and pick up fruit flies or crix...along with the occasional small wax worm. My friend said that he fed his rollie pollies for a while (pesticide free!) and said he had a pretty good feeding response...

Thanks for your post!
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eric

If you are referring to R. brevicaudatus, I've had mixed experiences with them. I had one group of 1.2 brevs for several years. They did well and were very active....and as Lele said, funny. I bought a couple more after they died and they only lasted a few months (like Lele also said happened to her)....and they were not active and everyone I talked to that bought them out of that shipment said that they lost them quickly.

Lele...I can't remember the purchase date of the ones I lost...but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 2003.

Unlike what most people use for a setup, I kept them exactly like I do my veileds except that the brevs' had more plants (no substrate). There were fine/thin branches that reached all over the cage and I would often find them up at the top of the cage. (The cage size was 24" high X 24" wide X 18" deep.) I never used a dripper on their cage...just hand misted the cage a couple of times a day.

Regarding breeding, I never had eggs from them. Don't know why.

Regarding the waterfall, they could drowned if the water dish at the bottom of the waterfall was not very shallow...but I'd be equally concerned about the bacteria and mold that could be built up in the cage if you used one.

Something else to be aware of....they are excellent at playing dead. If you startle one, it will curl slightly and become quite stiff....looking just like a dead leaf. You can pick it up and handle it (gently) and it still won't move. I know of one person who threw out what he thought was a dead one only to go back to retrieve it when I told him about them playing dead (I was coincidentally there just after it happened). It wasn't there...and later turned up none the worse for the experience!

I'd like to have a group of them again someday!

BD: I am new to them. Have had my pair for just over 1 month. While not particularly "active" just finding them is entertaining. I find it calming to just and watch them. I pretty much followed roocats instructions for the tank construction and I use a very small dripper and ultrasonic humidifier on a timer plus mist twice daily. He cautioned me to watch the water levels carefully, but I have never had standing water in the month and half I've had the tank set-up. I would caution you to read his article carefully about purchasing WC specimens. You can purchase CBB specimens from Roo's stock at WER (www.WildEyed Reptile.com) and be pretty certain they aren't infected with parasites. I know LLL has them, but I figured they were WC. Diane

Wildeye Reptile

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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago