Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im acquiring a pair of sub-adult Graceful Chameleons. They are under 1 year old and are a M and F breeding pair. I cannot find many care sheets for this species and Im wondering if anybody knows specific details regarding the care of this chameleon? Or maybe what chameleon is closely related, care-wise?

Im setting up a 65 gallon screen Reptarium, with a large shallow water dish, a dripper, live plants, fake branches and vines. With a compact UVB light. Sound about right?

What kind of substrate?
What’s the best type of feeders? Dusting?

Any help and/or links to care sheets would be greatly appreciate, THANK YOU!

I found this page doing a google search for "graceful chameleons." I have a veiled chameleon myself, and only for 5 days so far, so I'm not any more help than this!

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/reptiles/lizards_chameleons/GracefulChameleon.php

Good luck!
Diane

Wow. No substrate. And you cant house them together. crickets will be ok for them but I personaly use roaches for my staple feeder. I'm asuming the dish is to collect the water droplets? My first two chameleons were gracefuls. They are cheap and easy to get but are hard to take care since most are wild caught this makes them a bad choice for beginner/nocive keepers. If you have any more questions please ask. here is a link to a care sheet.
Graceful chameleon care sheet

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1.0 Chameleo Chameleo Calyptratus
1.0 Leopard Gecko-Matilda
1.1 Furcifer Pardalis (Nosy Be)-Hooloovoo and Popsicle

Wow what? There is no substrate, just repti-carpet. What is an ideal enclosure size for 1 graceful then? And when do I put them together to breed?

First, you won't be able to keep these two together all the time. In fact, the female may be gravid already if she's been with males. Chams just don't do well kept together due to stress. That cage won't house more than one. Forget the dish...they won't use it, it won't raise air humidity much, and it will drown feeders and be a soup of fecal bacteria. There may not be a lot of specific keeping info for gracefuls, but there are good cham care articles that will get you started. Go to www.chameleonnews.com, www.adcham.com, Chameleon Care and Information Center, plus the sites at the head of this forum for decent information. Gracefuls originate in a wide variety of habitats so it may be hard to set them up just like their wild climate. Almost all gracefuls are wc or possibly captive hatched from a wc female. Don't trust that they understand about the dripper. Many chams just don't use them reliably. Plan on hand spraying the cage a couple of times a day with warm/hot water. Live bushy plants will work better than fakes. They will release humidity, hold droplets of spray water longer, help with air quality, and are safer if a cham decides to chew the leaves. Gracefuls can be very shy, so plan to fill the cage with foliage to give them security. Larger cages offer a better range of temp and humidity. If you have forced air heat and AC in your house you may need to add a humidifier to maintain relative humidity above 40%. Temps should drop at least 10 degrees at night. No lights at night...chams see the full color spectrum and night lights will keep them awake. Plan to have fecals done to check for parasites...not once, but at least 2 times over a month or two. Rapidly growing chams (up to 1 year) need calcium at least 2 times a week and vitamin dust about twice a month. After 1 year reduce the calcium to once a week (unless you have a gravid or egg laying female) and vitamins once a month to 6 weeks. Don't rely on dusts to keep nutrition balanced. Most dusts are easy to overdose. Use a good gutload and only use dusts as a gap filler. A good gutload recipe is given on the ADCHAM site. This is just a quick list of ideas...go to the websites above and feel free to ask questions, OK?

Wow. thanks a lot. Many question:

What do you mean I cant keep them together all the time??? They seem to be doing OK, they lay on each other, and have their own hideouts and basking spots. But whats why I asked, Im not doubting you.

When do I put them together? Im looking to breed. The female doesnt look gravid, but who knows, they are WC. Do these chams bear live young or are they egg-layers? And how will I know if she's gravid and when she will lay? Do they require a nestbox?

a 65 gallon Reptarium is only good for one? How big do these chameleons need??? For a breeding pair.

The Female was drinking from the dripper hose. I mist them at least 2x a day. The humidity is usually 44-50%. I try and get it higher at times.

You will should never keep them together in the same cage. You will need to research the species more and find out the signals, colorations etc that female gracefuls show when able to breed. A 65 gal is still too small but is sufficient for one. I keep my male panther in a 260 gal reptarium and that to me is still to small to house both him and my female. The humidity wont be such a huge factor if you maintain a good habit of watering and misting. No chameleon should be laying on each other....that sounds a bit odd. Housing them together is far too stressful for them, you may not notice any 'signs' of stress or aggresion but its there trust me. Don't attempt to breed them until you have enough experience to do so. Breeding is a huge project and that eats up a lot of time. Gracefuls are egg layers. You will notice if she is gravid she will be stuffed with eggs that you will be able to see once she is ready to lay. Chameleons are a very expensive and difficult lizard to keep. Don't let all of this discourage you though. You may have all these people here telling what not to do and what you are doing wrong but its from experience. We all have been in the same shoes before, I know I have! I owned two gracefuls as my first chameleons too. I was told it was ok to house two, a male and female (which the female ended up being a male) in a 38 Gallon reptarium. I soon learned that this was not a good thing, they died. But I didnt give up the hobby. You just have to be willing to do the research and learn from others mistakes to limit your own. I am attaching a picture of what my female panthers cage looks like.

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1.0 Chameleo Chameleo Calyptratus
1.0 Leopard Gecko-Matilda
1.1 Furcifer Pardalis (Nosy Be)-Hooloovoo and Popsicle

Great! Thank you so much for the information. I've found info on Gracefuls, just not much. Yeah, I'm trying to learn more about the breeding behaviors of these chameleons, because I want to breed. I breed other lizards and take it very seriously.

I seperated the 2. I built a temporary enclosure until I can go bigger, it's about the same size as the 65g Reptarium. But I used aluminum screen because it's all I had. I wanted to seperate the 2 to relieve the stress ASAP. What type of screen is on yours?

But, As long as I monitor her and make sure she's not spending too much time on the screen, this should be Ok temporarily??? I have read about the foot problems.

I ditced the water, and just let the dish catch the dripper. The female ate 2 goliaths when I put her in the new cage by herself. The last 2 days she had a really nice shed, very quick. I got the humidity up higher in the new cage, than it is in the reptarium with the male. Ill get pictures up here tomorrow for more advice.

Thank you tremendously for your help.

-Mike

Just because you don't find very specific info on gracefuls doesn't mean you can't make use of info for other species. Gracefuls haven't been bred in the US much. Did you see the "species profile" information on www.adcham.com? It may give you some climate info you can use to set up your cage and humidity system more closely. If these are wc I would treat the female as if she's already gravid...chances are she is. Separate her to keep her stress to a minimum. If she is healthy you may start seeing signs that she's gravid. Her coloration will change (I'm not a graceful expert so I am not sure what it will be) and she will start gaining weight. If you provide a lot of climbing routes in the temporary cage hopefully they will stay off the screen more of the time. Screen climbing is a sign of stress and that the cage is too small and too low to the ground.