Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking of getting a chameleon, as my name indicates I do have a caiman already. Living in colorado I think it would be more wise to shoot for something a lil more hardy. I have been thinking oustalet's so far. I dont want something as common as a veiled or as structurally ugly as a panther. Other possibilities I was considering are rudis or carpet's chams. Any other suggestions and any fav setups for any of these? Thanks for the time.

I lived in CO for years and had 4 species of chameleons there. I found as long as I thought out their enclosures carefully the low humidity wasn't a huge problem even for fischeri and deremensis. I had automatic misters, used ultrasonic humidifiers, and just stuffed their enclosures with large bushy live plants. Plan to make their cages large so you can use more live plants. Also draped clear shower curtains on the back and sides of cages to help maintain humidity. The biggest issue will most likely be heat in summer. Depending on where you live the hot days mean using an AC to provide cool night temps and that will dry out the chams. Also, if you get very cold temps in winter using forced air heat will also dry them out. Another species I kept that did well was F. verrucosus. Maybe a little easier to find than oustaleti and quite beautiful IMHO. They are similar to panthers and oustaleti in size but have dorsal and gular spiny processes and a beautiful beaded skin pattern (the so called warts). When fired up they can show almost an irridescent green, turquoise, and pure white. Shyer than panthers but so are oustaleti.