OVERHEATING OF THE YEMEN CHAMELEON

[PetNcs]

DO NOT OVERHEAT THE YEMEN CHAMELEON!



WE ARE OVERHEATING

More than 90% of the mighty Yemen chameleons are facing heavy overheating in captivity. I do not understand it, because nowadays, it is so easy to get reliable information about their country of origin, where they inhabit high mountain slopes and valleys at the elevation of above 4000 feet above sea level. Most of the populations, from which the breeding stock is originating, is residing at around 8000 feet, where they live in specific montane climate which is mild and is in accordance with the inhabited high altitude. I have no clue why the most people think they need to be overheated up to 100°F and they need to sleep at 75 to 80°F at night. This is a complete nonsense. In the wild, they never face temps over 93°F (34°C) and the maximum night temperature is 64°F (18°C). The daytime is usually rather dry with humidity is below 30% and mild in temperatures, while the nights are cold to freezing cold with heavy fog and humidity around

100%



The overheating is absolutely:



ABSURD:

It does not make sense to expose cold blooded animals to temperatures which are more than 10, sometimes 20 degrees higher than in their home country (and we do not talk about climatic extremes that can be lethal). It is of no benefit to overheat them, it does not make their lives better!



UNETHICAL:

What gives us the right to expose the animal to completely different conditions which lay even far beyond the upper limit of their tolerance in the wild! They would occupy regions with warmer climate if they would want to (there are no barriers to drop even 2-3.000 feet lower if they would prefer to) but they do not do so! In some countries it is even ILLEGAL, means against the law.



HARMFUL

The overheating speeds up their metabolism and has many negative consequences:



- they live quicker and die sooner

- they die young, the longevity record is 16 years but most caltive Yemen chameleons die at 5, aximum 7years of age.

- they need to eat and drink more

- they need process more food, metabolize it and exspell more toxins

- the level of reproduction-related hormones gets boosted, as they believe they are in reproductive season

- the females lay unnecessary clutches of eggs which exhaust them

- males can show aggression and restlessness

- males can perform masturbation on diverse objects incl. human hands etc.

- they can not sleep well and regenerate, therefore, they get chronically tired and exhausted

- their immunity gets weaker and they are more prone to diseases and parasites

- at high nighttime temperatures (above 18C/65F), it is impossible to use the most naturalistic hydration method - fogging, otherwise they get RI

- they desiccate and need to drink more to compensate the dry hot nighttime loss of body liquids

- unnaturally high amounts of drinking of liquid water cause osmotic damage of their intestine cells which leads to digestion problems and chronic inflammation of the digestive tract

- over-hydration leads to inefficient metabolism due to lower concentration of enzymes in body/cell liquids and to edemas, edematic organ failures, nausea, vomiting - even death.

- etc.



SO, WHAT TO DO?

There are several strategies how to keep the Yemen Chameleon correctly: the main difference is whether you want to breed them or not. But for longevity and wellness, the following regime is recommended:



Daytime: low 70s / 20-23 °C

Nighttime: 50s °F - low 60s °F / under 15°C

Basking: 78-80°F / 25-28°C, max. 2 times a day for 30minutes



Look at the climatic forecast from their homecountry for this week!



For further climatic data you can get everyday’s climate parameters at:



https://www.chameleons.info/en/chameleo-calyptratus/



And lots of additional info at:

https://www.chameleons.info

 

[kinyonga]

You said…”they need to eat and drink more”…what about the females? That feeding makes them produce larger clutches..doesn’t it? Please explain.

 

[GrannyK]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, we are very lucky! Wondering if you could share the one you posted about urates recently, possibly today. I cannot locate where I saw it earlier.

 

[GrannyK]

Wondering if you could share the one you posted about urates recently, possibly today. I cannot locate where I saw it earlier.

Nevermind, I found it!

 

[PetNcs]

You said…”they need to eat and drink more”…what about the females? That feeding makes them produce larger clutches..doesn’t it? Please explain.

I did not want to go so deep in detail, almost all statements and paragraphs can be deciphered in detail of course.

Here, the meaning is “they need to eat and drink more in same time period to maintain homeiostasis” (replace with to stay at same weight, to maintain same metabolic ballance)

Allow me to use a metaphore: their life is like a chewing gum. Either it will be stretched over longer period of time and they will eat less daily, or they will eat more daily and the chewing gum stretches over shorter period of time. But the total volume of the chewing gum representing the total sum of food will remain same. In the final and under ideal conditions not destructed by disease, predation or accident, in the entire life, they will eat approximately the same amount of food but live 3-5 or 16 years.
So dar fir males and partly for females. For them, one more mechanism comes as a superposition to the above.

In females, additional food above maintaining metabolism is needed to produce the eggs.
So, by increased temperatures, they will not only need to eat more but their hormonal system will be triggered to believe, the reproduction period is there and they will want to eat even more to saturate the coming clutch of eggs with energy and nutrients.
To be concrete, on average and as an example, to maintain same final metabolic ballance:
Female kept at 72/60F day/night will need 1 cricket pre day
Female kept at 85/72F day/night will need 3 crickets pre day
And if the same female starts producing eggs (the first one will not due to low temps), then she will need additional 5 crickets per day added to the previous 3, it means in total she will need 8 crickets per day
If you provide only 3 crickets, the clutch will be small (eg 15-25 eggs) and even the female can loose weight in gravidity if compared to the weigt before
If you provide 15-20 crickets per day, then the clutch may be as large as 60-70 eggs, as the female will invest the extra energy into increased size of the clutch
If you provide only 2 crickets per day, the female can either lose lots of its weight or can prolong the gravidity period by several weeks or can mummify the follicles or the developing eggs…
The female needs to be fed the given amounts even prior to the onset of gravidity and build fat reserves, as they define the number of eggs at once and they can not add more…
It means, if you provide before onset of gravidity just 2 crickets and after onset you increase to 20, the result will be low number of eggs and forming of fat body and increased weight even after egg deposition (there might be complications in the egg laying process, as the fat body (and full guts) can block the eggs to find their ways out.
To make it even more complicated, actially the number of eggs is not in fact dependent on the food amount but on the reserves that the female builds in her body prior to the onset of gravidity (and very likely even before - in the number of follicles prepared for fertilization and further egg development) in the form of stored fat. It means, if a fat/overweight female is fed almost whatever amount she will have large clutch of eggs.
On contrary, if the female will be extremely skinny, she might not produce follicles and then eggs at all and utilize whatever amount of food just to survive herself, not risking the life in the demanding and risky process of gravidity and egg laying.

So, getting to the rule: “to prevent the unwanted clutches of eggs, do not overfeed and do not overheat”,
The temperature is the ultimate trigger to start (or not) the follicle forming, ovulation and egg forming process
the amount of food (stored as a fat reserve in the fat body mainly) is the trigger of the same above (will not start if no reserves and no food and/or can stop the process for same reason) and triggers the number of follicles/eggs in this process

 

[kinyonga]

I did not want to go so deep in detail, almost all statements and paragraphs can be deciphered in detail of course.

Here, the meaning is “they need to eat and drink more in same time period to maintain homeiostasis” (replace with to stay at same weight, to maintain same metabolic ballance)

Allow me to use a metaphore: their life is like a chewing gum. Either it will be stretched over longer period of time and they will eat less daily, or they will eat more daily and the chewing gum stretches over shorter period of time. But the total volume of the chewing gum representing the total sum of food will remain same. In the final and under ideal conditions not destructed by disease, predation or accident, in the entire life, they will eat approximately the same amount of food but live 3-5 or 16 years.
So dar fir males and partly for females. For them, one more mechanism comes as a superposition to the above.

In females, additional food above maintaining metabolism is needed to produce the eggs.
So, by increased temperatures, they will not only need to eat more but their hormonal system will be triggered to believe, the reproduction period is there and they will want to eat even more to saturate the coming clutch of eggs with energy and nutrients.
To be concrete, on average and as an example, to maintain same final metabolic ballance:
Female kept at 72/60F day/night will need 1 cricket pre day
Female kept at 85/72F day/night will need 3 crickets pre day
And if the same female starts producing eggs (the first one will not due to low temps), then she will need additional 5 crickets per day added to the previous 3, it means in total she will need 8 crickets per day
If you provide only 3 crickets, the clutch will be small (eg 15-25 eggs) and even the female can loose weight in gravidity if compared to the weigt before
If you provide 15-20 crickets per day, then the clutch may be as large as 60-70 eggs, as the female will invest the extra energy into increased size of the clutch
If you provide only 2 crickets per day, the female can either lose lots of its weight or can prolong the gravidity period by several weeks or can mummify the follicles or the developing eggs…
The female needs to be fed the given amounts even prior to the onset of gravidity and build fat reserves, as they define the number of eggs at once and they can not add more…
It means, if you provide before onset of gravidity just 2 crickets and after onset you increase to 20, the result will be low number of eggs and forming of fat body and increased weight even after egg deposition (there might be complications in the egg laying process, as the fat body (and full guts) can block the eggs to find their ways out.
To make it even more complicated, actially the number of eggs is not in fact dependent on the food amount but on the reserves that the female builds in her body prior to the onset of gravidity (and very likely even before - in the number of follicles prepared for fertilization and further egg development) in the form of stored fat. It means, if a fat/overweight female is fed almost whatever amount she will have large clutch of eggs.
On contrary, if the female will be extremely skinny, she might not produce follicles and then eggs at all and utilize whatever amount of food just to survive herself, not risking the life in the demanding and risky process of gravidity and egg laying.

So, getting to the rule: “to prevent the unwanted clutches of eggs, do not overfeed and do not overheat”,
The temperature is the ultimate trigger to start (or not) the follicle forming, ovulation and egg forming process
the amount of food (stored as a fat reserve in the fat body mainly) is the trigger of the same above (will not start if no reserves and no food and/or can stop the process for same reason) and triggers the number of follicles/eggs in this process

I love the comparison to chewing gum!

Thanks for taking the time to give such a detailed answer. I think it will help a lot of people on here to understand the whole issue of reproduction, and your explanation clarifies this… ”they need to eat and drink more“…so that people will not start to change the husbandry in such a way that the females will produce large batches of follicles and thus large clutches of eggs. I’d rather that they understand so they continue to control the females’ diet and temperature, to control the reproduction. Sometimes the detail is important.
Thanks again!