Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Pleas help if you have any idea about this.
Lately iv noticed that a few of my animals melanin pigments increases over knight and somewhat disappears daytime, example my yellow uromastyx and moluccans pythons, they become quit dark when the lights are off and very light when basking or wormed up.

I understand this possess well as the dark animals will indeed worm up faster at sun rise, however I am wondering if this is triggered by light or is it heat? I will test it sometime.
Ether way this means that pigmentation can be manipulated somewhat, allowing us to produce lighter or darker animals in time. I am just thinking out laud here, but if any of you have something to say on this, lets hear it.
Rgds

It works both with light and temperature. This is seen easiest with chameleons as they are very good and changing colors. But they also change colors with moods.

But if you look at other reptiles you will also see changes with day and night. A good example of this change would be columbian rainbow boas. At night they lighten up alot and are almost translucent.

Another example of color change would be the male green iguana who seems to get very orange during the breeding months. They also change colors with heat and light intensity.

I have found monitors to be the same but in alot of them it is not such a drastic change. Probly due to them mostly being drab or dark colored. In brighter colored monitors this change is easier to see.

Unless your animal is healthy you will never see these changes.