As someone’s already mentioned, veiled chameleons make excellent first time lizards, about the same level of care as a beardie...just do your research & read as many different care sheets as you can find on the net first.
Not all info will be correct though, just use your common sense & apply the tactics that will work best for you & your cham.
There is a good book on chams I would certainly recommend you buy....this one..
http://www.avsbooks.com/avs/essenchameleon.asp
If I were you I’d get a male, females will still produce eggs & can become egg bound (even when not mated) if she cant find a suitable place to lay, so getting the male will eradicate this issue. Males also live slightly longer, but just remember most chams are solitary animals & wont tolorate the company of other chams, although some females will live together you should never keep a male with them, even side by side in separate enclosures can cause problems, they shouldn’t be able to see each other.
Make sure you keep him in a well ventilated cage, I keep some of mine in the Hagen Flexarium's ...these:
http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/flexarium.php with some potted plants & a few sturdy branches inside they are perfect for the job. (Be warned..chams love to climb & using wire cages can lead to burnt feet from heat of the light!)
Just be careful what you spray around the room too !! i.e. polish...air freshener !! Big no no!!
Use a decent UV light above it with a good reflector (reflects light & heat down & prevents you from getting any UV damage to your eyes!), I use the zoomed repti-suns, both 100w & 160w lights are excellent & emit decent true levels of uv (unlike naff fluro tubes) I've also found that the 160w bulbs somehow last longer, I have one here that’s over 2 years old & still emits decent levels of UV. They aren’t cheap bulbs either...but well worth the money & outlast/out perform fluro tubes by miles ..considering most fluro tubes only emit minimal UV for 6-9 months depending on usage, even though they still emit light after this time 99% will emit hardly any UV.
If your house has central heating then you wont need any other form of heat for him....it gets cold in Yemen at night & as long as it doesn’t drop too low then he'll be fine (they are quite sturdy lizards & can take quite a wide range of temps) During the day, It needs to be around 90-95f in the main basking area with a 10-15 degree drop in the cooler parts, which is usually easy to obtain using the hagen cages.
Don’t rush into handling him, it takes time to earn a chams trust, eventually with patience you’ll have it taking food from the palm of you hand, use a wax worm to entice him & then move on to a cricket held gently in between fingers...after a while (perhaps a couple of weeks/ 1 month...or 2) it will gain confidence & perhaps walk onto your hand, but don’t force this, let the cham make the move, don’t try to hold him or grab him, just let him walk over you & guide him. Dont make sudden movments that could startle him & dont touch his back, dont know why but for some reason most of mine arent too keen on it.
Chams don’t usually drink from water bowls, they need to see either running water or a drop sparkling in the light, you could try and train him to drink from a rodent/rabbit water bottle, as your mastering the art of hand feeding you should be able to offer him water from a pipette Hold it slightly above his mouth & approach slowley, if you draw him in the direction of the water bottle you should eventually be able to get him to drink from that instead (the ones that hang upside down & make sure he can reach it from a branch!!) all of mine drink from them now, makes life a bit easier! just make sure he can see the drip of water on the end & only use the bottles that don’t have ball bearings in the end. Boiled water left to cool down or bottled water is best, don’t use tap or cold water to spray or feed, try and get the water temp around 80f +.
Spray at least once a day for Yemen’s & at least twice a day for panthers.
Yemen’s are without doubt, probably the easiest to keep of all the chams, panthers are easy too, just a bit more delicate on temps & need more water than Yemen’s (slightly higher humidity levels too) but they don’t require the higher levels of UV (unlike Yemen’s).
If you think you’d be better of starting with a Yemen, (I’ve sold out) then make sure you pick a nice healthy one with good coloration, darker colours usually indicate stressed animals & avoid dark sunken eyes (usually an indication of a problem) You shouldn’t have any trouble finding a young male for about £35-50ish there’s usually plenty of CB ones around.
But if you’re interested in trying a pardalis then I do have ambanja panthers hatching at the moment.
Feel free to PM me with any other info you need or questions you might have, advice is free
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