Furcifer Verrucosus Care Sheet

Introduction: The Verrucosus Chameleon is a very underrated species. Most on the market today are WC, with the exception of the occaisional CH/CB juviniles that are available due to the captive breeding attempts made to create a captive collection in the US. The species is quite beautiful, with males showing a light blue and green color, with females showing brownish red colors, with rusty red coloration while gravid.
Acclimation Process: Depending on the condition of your specimen, you may need to take different courses of action, to acclimate them to captive life. When you first receive your specimen, it is best to make sure they are hydrated. The best thing to do is give it a nice long shower, to make sure it has its fill of water. After this, you need to make sure it has the appropriate enclosure setup, and once you have it in its enclosure, offer some food. Most will most likely eat as soon as you offer the food, as they are eating machines. I suggest maybe 5-7 appropriate sized food items for this feeding. During the acclimation process, it is essential to make sure your specimen is well hydrated; many times this can cause issues down the road. Once it is starting to acclimate, you should treat for parasites. Being WC, it is likely they have some in their system. It is better to treat once they have started acclimating, just because it isn’t as hard on their system to try and get rid of the parasites, and the stress from being shipped to another country, and then to your house.
Enclosure: In my observations, Verrucosus do well in either screen or glass terrariums. They both have their pros and cons. I suggest a 16X16X30 or 18X18X30 for a female, with a male in an 18X18X36 or 24X24X36. This species is very skiddish and does love to hide in the cover of their plants. Escpecially in the glass enclosures, you are able to create a very natural enclosure that your specimen will love.
General Care: I keep this species the same way I keep my Veiled. I keep it right around 87-90 at the basking spot, with the ambient temperature being right around 80-83 in the rest of the enclosure. They generally like to bask, but when they get watered, generally will go into hide mode, and will stay there until they drink their fill and go back to the basking spot after getting hydrated and needing to warm up. One thing I have noticed about this species is they LOVE to drink. I generally spray with a hand mister, for about two minutes, soaking the plants, and making sure to spray the chameleon a little to trigger a response to a “rain”. They usually will drink for about five minutes after, then go around and slowly make their way to their perch again. Depending on where the perch is, I’d recommend different size bulbs. I use two sizes, 60W and 75W; both sizes keep the temperature perfect for them at the lengths from perch to lamp distance. I also keep a Reptisun 10.0 on my Verrucosus, they are a little older, and so it is more like a 5.0.
Feeding: Boy does this species love to eat. It seems like they never stop. I feed mine 10-15 appropriate sized food items every other day, except during the acclimation process. I lightly dust them with Calcium without Vitamin D3 once or twice every week, with the Calcium with Vitamin D3 once every two weeks, as well as the multivitamin once a month.
Breeding: I had a tough time getting this species to breed. But, doing some research, I have found a method that triggered breeding processes. If your guys aren’t breeding for you, I have found that changing the “season” is a good way to trigger their lost love. Meaning, if you are giving them ample water, you slowly increase temps a little, and slightly decreasing water. After about a week of the “drier season”, I brought it back to normal. The whole process took about one month. The next day, I introduced the pair, and in about five minutes, they began copulation. Gestation is about 1-2 months, while going into 3 months is ok. Incubation is the same temperature as Veileds, room temperature is just fine (70-76 degrees). The length of time is anywhere between 6-9 months, most of the time between 6-7 ½ months.
Other Info: The worse characteristic of this species is their timidness. They are very difficult to take pictures of, because they like to hide. They also turn defensive when you are near their enclosure to feed/water/clean, which results in hissing and puffing up. But, this is the only bad characteristic.
Conclusion: This species is very rewarding, as well as underrated. Captive breeding attempts are coming together right now, to produce Captive Hatched specimens to have Captive animals on the market. By doing so, more people are most likely willing to try them, resulting more people breeding them.