Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i know before people take pictures of their chameleons (panthers at least), they get them excited to show the beautiful colors they have.....

i dont quite understand the process of exciting a chameleon??? someone please explain it to me??? thx

The best way to get a male chameleon excited is to let him get close to another female (same species). He'll start by bobbing his head a little to get a reaction from the girl, and if she doesn't turn dark and open her mouth, he'll usually get bright colors and try to get to her. Alot of the time they'll change colors even if the girl turns dark. It's kinda hard to hold the male and keep him and the female separated while trying to hold a camera and get the right shot. A few times I've held up a flourescent light to get better lighting (regular bulbs make the cham look yellow) and I had a light in one hand, camera in the other and I was trying to keep him from getting to her. It seems like if you let him think he's gonna get to her, then take her away, he'll turn even brighter for a short second. It's kinda tricky, you gotta be ready when the right time comes. Sometimes it only lasts literally a second, then fades away. Showing a male to another male will also work, even if they're different species, but can be stressful for both of them, so I wouldn't do that very often. It can lead to your chameleon being afraid of everything (if he was the less dominant one) and becoming agressive in the long haul. Give it a shot lemmie know if any more questions.
-----
Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

what if i dont have a female veiled or another chameleon??

can he still get excited over seeing me or when he is outside??

Hi-

Pardalis and other chameleons (males) use color displays to defend territory. To get a male to show off his best colors, you need to show him another male of the same species. You can also show them to females, but you will not get a full display, only the eyes and part of the dewlap. Another option is to show the male his own reflection, this sometimes gets them to fire up. Lastly just being outside in the sun will also brighten colors. But hands down the best colors come when two males are in a color display. Hope this helps!
-----
John W. Lucas

CHAMELEON PARADISE

CHAMELEONS ONLINE E-ZINE AUTHOR

Feeding Baby Chameleons
Caging Baby Chameleons

F. pardalis

Ambilobe Locale
Nosy Be Locale
Sambava Locale

Rhampholeon uluguruensis

Eggs Incubating-

F. pardalis - Ambilobe Locale

got SILKWORMS!

Photo © Chameleon Paradise 2003

I find that veilds usually have different displays. My older veilds, when content, had really bright color. When they would see a female, they would increase the contrast, brightening the blue spots, and outlineing every thing in black--they looked cool, but their normal coloration was far nicer on the eyes.
This line of veilds did the same display with females and males alike--the difference was in behavior. Mating attemp vs. killing attempt.

My current veild, below, has a different set of colors. He shows nice colors when content. When he sees a female, he simply brightens up, especially his orange and blue spots. Really really nice.

I never put him in front of a male, or showed him a mirror...until last week. I bought a mirror for my deremensis(I'll explain in a post up top) last week.

I put it in front of my veild. Well, his territorial defense color was SCARY. He brightened his orange, turned his yellow to orangeish, and everything else turned dark--almost totally black. He looked like a giant hornet! Really unique. Usually when veilds tunr really dark, I think they look kinds ugly, but he has a lot of color to contrast the dark.

Veilds eem to resent contrasting coloration. They don't like shirts with contrasting colors. They'll try to mate with a female of any species. My ambanja, lucifer, was all blue at one point, and my veild tried to mate with him. After a few months, he decided to have bright red stripes. After this, my veild wanted to kill him.

funny thing was, the ambanja never so much as puffed up at the veilds, only female pardalis.