Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone

I have been reading everything I could find on chameleons for the last few months. When we bought him I asked the shop owner if he needed the heating light on at night. The guy told me to leave it on always, and that the light would not disturb him at night.

Now I have been reading that it is important for their metabolic rate to reduce at night, and the way to achieve this is to lower the temperature. The author even goes as far as to suggest that the chameleon will live longer if the heating is switched of at night and he is left at normal room temperature (The Guide to Owning a Chameleon - Schmidt, Tamm & Wallikewitz 1994).

Any advice and experience of this matter would be appreciated.

Sandy Duca

Wolfgang Schmidt is a world renound author hes had an awful lot of experience with chameleons of all forms shapes and sizes i personally have 2 of his books, i would reccomend having the light off at night to keep it all as natural as possible.
Bare in mind most of the time the environment they are living in will go below freezing point at night which is why u find most chameleons hidden in crevices cracks and dense vegetation to try and keep as warm as possible from the harsh cold.

my chameleons always have there lights off at 9pm my time when the sun goes down i think this is very important as it could well do increase the life expectency of the chams, good luck with it all

Regards Chamellio.