Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been interested in furcifer oustaleti for a while now. I cannot seem to find a very good source on breeding them. I found information on incubation, but only very little (only it takes 210-300 days at about 74 degrees. But I can't find anything in gestation. Does anyone know how long the females hold their eggs before they lay?

Hardly anyone breeds Oustaleti. Possibly Kamerflage Kreations might have info they would share, or you could check the species profile on adcham.com. I'd also suggest investing in Petr Necas' book "Chameleons, Nature's Hidden Jewels". Seeing as how you are planning to go away to school next year and you have other species with issues already I would hold off. They are not established in captivity and a lot less is known about their needs.

I had a pair of Oustaleti and let me tell you. They get BIG! You need a great deal of room for each one. The female I had was about 14", while the male topped out at 21". They are not nearly as flighty as F. verrucosus or Ch. melleri, almost dog tame. But they still need a great deal of room. Cages that would be 4x4 and floor to ceiling(about8-10ft.) would be good. I never got eggs from them, but I did get eggs from the F. verrucosus and gestation period was just over 30 days, and the incubation time took a long time(about 9mos). I think you need to have a cooling period to trigger embryro development.

I am starting to work with larger chams. I keep my melleri in a free range thats about 8 feet tall and 12 feet long. I would keep these guys freerange too. I keep all my chams in a large a cage as possible. I keep my quads and carpets in 4x2x2 cages, and they are only 8-10 inches.

There seems ot be an abundance of CB oustaleti lately. I don't think I would be able to breed them in a year and a half (Its possible, but I dont want to leave behind 50 eggs in the incubator), but I think they would be great to have around.

They are one of my favorite chameleons and if I ever do get back into chams I would go after them. They are so more personable then other chams. Not all that colorful, but cool in there own right and their size is impressive