How big do veiled chameleons grow ?

[jack77772010]

Hi ,
I bought my chameleon a few weeks ago its a female and she is 5 months old , the guy at the reptile store said she will grow 14-16 inches , is this true ?

 

[PrairieLandChameleon]

Most of the females I have owned have hit 12 inches or less, but I have a male that is 18 inches so I guess it could be pissible, I myself have not seen one hit 16 however.

 

[jack77772010]

Most of the females I have owned have hit 12 inches or less, but I have a male that is 18 inches so I guess it could be pissible, I myself have not seen one hit 16 however.

thanks !

 

[torizazu]

My monster veiled is about 18"! Totally possible, dude!

 

[fluxlizard]

back in the early 90s there were more males that were larger- I don't know why they don't seem to come as large any more.

A friend once had a female that he never bred who grew really huge- I don't know the exact size, but she was larger than most males I see nowadays...

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Most males are what I call dinner plate sized, when grown. Biggest I've ever had was in the two foot range with tail and a WC. His body was as long as my forearm. But most males I have are in the 8" body range, females around 6"

 

[pssh]

Wild ones can be huge. I think they have shrank in size from captive breeding. 16 sounds very large for a cb female.

 

[Sawa Cham]

I have a female Veiled, I hope her body without tail can reach at least 8 inch. I did see one last week at the Fort Worth zoo.. MASSIVE. I couldnt believe how big it was. The body was about the size of a football. The name started with a P, could have been a parsons but not sure.

 

[pssh]

Don't get your hopes up. 8" is not very realistic.

 

[Sawa Cham]

Don't get your hopes up. 8" is not very realistic.

really? so my femail is about 5" from head to butt, no tail. She is about half a yr. I figured a couple more inches.

 

[pssh]

She will probably still get bigger, but 8" is very very large. Most males are that size.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

I have a female Veiled, I hope her body without tail can reach at least 8 inch. I did see one last week at the Fort Worth zoo.. MASSIVE. I couldnt believe how big it was. The body was about the size of a football. The name started with a P, could have been a parsons but not sure.

Yes, that would be a parson's Think they have had them on display at that zoo for years..

 

[sdheli420]

ya i think somthing may have caused our cb's to lose size cause i had a few wc males and they were really large males..( ive noticed the same with panthers too)..

 

[jojackson]

Wild ones can be huge. I think they have shrank in size from captive breeding. 16 sounds very large for a cb female.

Mine shrunk in the clothes dryer My wife's white blouse ended up green with darker spots too!

 

[ChamOh]

i wonder what could account for this alleged shrinking of CB animals?

 

[Jakama]

Hrm... I wouldn't think evolution would do anything at all over a period of a hundred years. If it did, though, maybe the breeders found smaller chameleons easier to feed, so they had a higher survival rate?

 

[jojackson]

Jakama, physical evolution to such degree, can and does occur, though Im not saying this is the case. I dont think evolution is really related to captive breeding.
Id be more inclined to think that captive husbandry being what it is, larger clutches more common, hence, smaller lizards. Pollution of the gene pool is another issue entirely.

 

[Jamelon]

It could just be the fact that they are being kept in cages for their entire lives from birth. Its like that with sharks, they will grow to fit the size of their environment/aquarium. So this might be the same case, since theres so much more room available to WC chameleons they are able to grow much larger. CB chameleons probably dont put as much resources into growth as WC ones because there in a confined area, thats what i think at least

 

[Maurer3D]

Wild caught usually get bigger cause they have stronger genetics, only the biggest and strongest survive to adulthood and breed.

The natural diet also contributes to bigger size of wild animals a bit.

 

[jojackson]

Its like that with sharks, they will grow to fit the size of their environment/aquarium.

Myth

CB chameleons probably dont put as much resources into growth as WC ones because there in a confined area...

Might simply be a much more varied diet, natural sunlight, and a requirement to grow as fast as possible to avoid becoming a meal for a predator.
All things balance out though, not many wild ones live long enough to get very large

Maurer buddy, beat me by seconds, score 1/1