Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I remember that I heard someone say something about a substance that one gets in health stores that increases color in a chameleon... Can anyone tel me what it is?

Anthony

I haven't heard this one. It would probably depend on what color you are talking about, but as the cham would have to get any such additive 2nd hand from prey gutloading I can't think of what would really affect them. Carotenes can intensify orange/red/yellow colors in bird feathers, but feather colors are completely different than cham skin colors. Sprinkling fresh paprika on food can help birds keep their brighter red/orange hues. Blue/green colors tend to be "structural" colors, meaning simply that they are a function of feather surface reflecting certain wavelengths of visible light (think of the irridescence of a mallard duck). White/reds/oranges tend to be actual pigment of feathers themselves. But there are exceptions to both these. Cham colors are not created by a permanent pigment on the skin nor by the skin's texture in the same sense.

are you thinking of spirulina or blue/green algae (aka Klamath Lake Algae)? Personally I wouldn't try to feed my cham anything for more vibrant colors, you may get carried away and either give him/her too much which might affect him directly or it may interfere with abosrbtion of other nutrients. I vaguely remember someone mentioning this a LONG time ago and thought it was a bad idea then, too. Just because something is natural does not always mean it is safe.

Just accept him and his colors - like you would any friend

lele & my friend, Luna

>>I haven't heard this one. It would probably depend on what color you are talking about, but as the cham would have to get any such additive 2nd hand from prey gutloading I can't think of what would really affect them. Carotenes can intensify orange/red/yellow colors in bird feathers, but feather colors are completely different than cham skin colors. Sprinkling fresh paprika on food can help birds keep their brighter red/orange hues. Blue/green colors tend to be "structural" colors, meaning simply that they are a function of feather surface reflecting certain wavelengths of visible light (think of the irridescence of a mallard duck). White/reds/oranges tend to be actual pigment of feathers themselves. But there are exceptions to both these. Cham colors are not created by a permanent pigment on the skin nor by the skin's texture in the same sense.

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles (Jaida, no name)
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - (still no names)

Paprika works for most (well, I'd assume all) amphibians, too. From what I read about chameleon pigments I'd think it would work for them as well, although I'm not the one to know. My general understanding of it is that they do have permanent pigmentation and it's just the various layers of the skin allowing the one under it to be seen or not.

There could be problems with paprika because of additives in the powder, but you would have to put it with your gutload, anyway, so I don't know if that would affect the cham or not. I've used it with frogs and leopard geckos on various occasions with much success, but, to be safe, you can just feed red bell peppers to your crickets. It's the same darn thing and bell peppers are very high in vitamin C, anyway.
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Got hips like Cinderella / Must be having a good shame / Talking sweet about nothing / Cookie I think you're Tame

Very interesting! Thanks. I have a rescue toucan who gets paprika on his daily fruit. His red/yellow plumage was fading. Its nice because it has hardly any taste and as toucans are very sensitive to iron I can't add any citrus, peppers, tomatos, vitamin C, ascorbic acid etc. to his diet (vit C assists uptake of iron). The other concern I would have with adding carotenes to the diet is a potential overdose of vit. A. You'd probably have to really overdo it as the vit A. in beta carotene is not as potent as the "preformed" stuff, but more isn't necessarily better.

Yeah, it's much better to use beta carotene than many other forms of vitamin A, as you said, because not all of it is converted. This is a huge advantage to paprika

However, paprika comes from pimentos... which are just red bell peppers, so I'd check the iron levels of them to be safe with your birds.
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Got hips like Cinderella / Must be having a good shame / Talking sweet about nothing / Cookie I think you're Tame