Graceful Chameleon Simple Guide
The Graceful chameleon is one of the most shared and popular chameleon species in the world. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa occupying forest regions. Sometimes they live in Savannas and farming areas across the south of the Sahara desert.
These pets are the common species it is the most exploited chameleon species with over 50,000 transported to the US alone over the past 40 years. They reproduce twice a year laying about 30 eggs. The males are very territorial, and they are known to fight even to death to defend their space. These chameleons live for between 8-10 years. They are often yellow, green, or brown in color with stripes.
The fact that they are arboreal (live in trees) makes caring for pet chameleons tough. Graceful lizards are only and very sensitive reptiles which need a lot of foliage for a habitat. And what is more importantly for their exclusivity.
Graceful Chameleon Care
These chameleons tend to be very sensitive and easily irritable. It is sometimes known to bite when it is stressed out. The graceful chameleons are also known to be susceptible to dehydration because of the poor transportation and care are taken by the pet traders. These chameleon need large cages which should be about 3 feet long by 3 feet width by 4 feet high. The cage should preferably y sealed on three sides with some form of vinyl coated material to reduce the possibility of injury.
It is important that the foliage in the cage be either edible or harmless since most graceful chameleons will at some point try to feed on it. Because chameleons need to thermo-regulate, you need to structure the cage in such a way that it has spaces with varying heat and light intensity for them to shift when they need to manage their body temperatures.
You can aid the natural lighting by adding your artificial light like the Incandescent lights and full spectrum (UV) lighting. Occasionally you ought to take the pet chameleon out so that it can access as much natural light as possible within a day.
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How are they as pets
These chameleons rarely take water from a bowl or a dish, so the best way to provide drinking water is too moist the cage at least twice a day. They are comfortable getting the water as droplets from the leaves. You can also put ice cubes in the cage and let them melt and drip through the roof onto the foliage in the cage. You have to be careful with the humidity because when it gets too high, they can easily get sickly. Therefore, any excess water has to be frequently removed.
Graceful pet chameleons as pets feed well on insects and worms so provide as much as possible of these. Their diet should be supplemented with greens, and occasionally an addition of Vitamin C, calcium and Vitamin D is necessary.