Parsons Chameleon

[JoeMills]

Hello all,

I am very seriously considering getting a Parsons chameleon in a few months when my house move is complete.
I have come to this forum as I have been informed its one of the few places I can talk directly to people who have successfully kept Parsons. I am finding it hard to gather info on them, although I have been reading articles for some time, but as we all know the Internet if a minefield of C##P.
I am by no means an inexperienced keeper, I have kept and bread both Yemen's and Panthers. I don't take the responsibility of taking one on lightly, thus why I am here to gather and assess how I can best look after them.

I am based in southern England, the chameleons will be kept in a converted garage on the side of my house.
From what I have read so far I am aware they need a lot of water, so am going to set up a misting system and also a sprinkler. I would like to know what style of cages people have had the best success with so I can design one. I am thinking of a wooden enclosure as in the UK winter a screen enclosure even in a heated garage could be too much of a fluctuation. I would cut large vents both in the roof and sides with a possible mesh or glass front. I will treat with epoxy resin (any advise on this appreciated as I haven't done before) as a lot of moisture will be in the viv. Probably with a drainage pipe at the bottom

I have also good information that babies are quite successfully raised with a limited UV expose. This was news to me as my Veilds and Panthers obviously benefited from high exposure. I was told that a light of I think 5% for around 2 hours a day if they are in full exposure is fine.

What temp ranges have people had success with?

If anyone has anything they would like to throw in, tips, known problems etc or good articles please feel free to send me link etc as if I haven't already read I will go through everything I can as i haven not found one care sheet only pockets of info here and there.

Thanks in advance

 

[OldChamKeeper]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/after-19-years-of-waiting-the-real-thread.140174/

I strongly suggest you reach out to Garrett here on these forums. He lives in Washington state and that environment is close to yours. His Parsons are outdoors in a greenhouse so he could help you with some of the environmental needs.

Yes, they need more water than any other type of chameleon you have ever owned. They inhale it.

 

[Lathis]

Hey Instagram buddy - glad you made it to the Forums! Welcome!

We several members with much experience with keeping Parsons, a few members with a little experience (like myself), and at least two maybe three or four members with active successful Parsonii breeding projects, mostly in the US. It is a little "hunt and peck" to find care information since there is not a formal caresheet assembled for Parsons, but there is a wealth of great information here and very friendly members. I'm still learning and adapting to give Bucky the the specifics he needs, but I can share my current set up.

The water needs will definitely be a big change. Bucky, my 1-yr Parsons, is extremely slow to decide if he wants to drink or not. I have a large cage with efficient drainage, so I offer two (sometimes three) 20 minute misting sessions - one in the morning and one in late afternoon. During mid-day, I have a dripper running for a few hours. (Even with all that, just now, he wasn't done drinking when his mister turned off, so I ran it for 20 more minutes before he was done and wandered out of the mist.) I have my cage set up to try to provide a warm/dry and a cool/wet side of the cage, with one side with heavy foliage.

Lights are on a 12 hour on/off schedule, but his cage is near a large window, so he will have some seasonal variation in ambient light. I have a 6% Arcadia UVB lamp and a 6500K grow light. Te ambient temperature is about 75F (23C), and cooler temps don't seem to bother him at all. I also recently set up a small basking area in the low 80sF (about 28C). My cage is about 60%/40% screen to opaque surface, which holds my RH at about 60% ambient and 80% high with good air flow. In the winter, I will need to add a humidifier and may retrofit the side panels to hold humidity more efficiently.

He really enjoys direct morning sun, but I haven't seen him use the basking spot significantly. It's not that he avoids the area, he just doesn't flatten out and lounge in the heat like my Jacksons did every morning.

 

[JoeMills]

Thanks for the replies so far.
Hello lathis, Bucky is going to be a heart breaker for the females!

What sort of night drop do people give them? Mine would be in a room with my Indian star tortoises and their temp does not drop below 20 degrees even at night. Would this be too warm?

People seem to feed them Dubai roaches which are not a problem in the uk but horn worms we can't get. Do they enjoy locust?

What sort of supplements do you provide. I have pure calcium and also neutrobal but I know some chams are sensitive to D3.

Thanks again all

 

[Lathis]

@JoeMills Lost track of this thread, sorry! I was going to link to another active thread on this topic:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/parsonii-supplements.149427/

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Parsons Chameleons love hunting and eating locusts. You are going to want to make certain you have a good variety of feeder insects as Parsonii can be especially fast to go on hunger strikes.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[Chachi]

Hello all,

I am very seriously considering getting a Parsons chameleon in a few months when my house move is complete.
I have come to this forum as I have been informed its one of the few places I can talk directly to people who have successfully kept Parsons. I am finding it hard to gather info on them, although I have been reading articles for some time, but as we all know the Internet if a minefield of C##P.
I am by no means an inexperienced keeper, I have kept and bread both Yemen's and Panthers. I don't take the responsibility of taking one on lightly, thus why I am here to gather and assess how I can best look after them.

I am based in southern England, the chameleons will be kept in a converted garage on the side of my house.
From what I have read so far I am aware they need a lot of water, so am going to set up a misting system and also a sprinkler. I would like to know what style of cages people have had the best success with so I can design one. I am thinking of a wooden enclosure as in the UK winter a screen enclosure even in a heated garage could be too much of a fluctuation. I would cut large vents both in the roof and sides with a possible mesh or glass front. I will treat with epoxy resin (any advise on this appreciated as I haven't done before) as a lot of moisture will be in the viv. Probably with a drainage pipe at the bottom

I have also good information that babies are quite successfully raised with a limited UV expose. This was news to me as my Veilds and Panthers obviously benefited from high exposure. I was told that a light of I think 5% for around 2 hours a day if they are in full exposure is fine.

What temp ranges have people had success with?

If anyone has anything they would like to throw in, tips, known problems etc or good articles please feel free to send me link etc as if I haven't already read I will go through everything I can as i haven not found one care sheet only pockets of info here and there.

Thanks in advance

SPLINTERS IN THEIR TONGUE.I lost my first little cham from a splinter

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

SPLINTERS IN THEIR TONGUE.I lost my first little cham from a splinter

You are going to have to take precautions for any consideration that involves your chameleon, especially for feeder insect that you feed to your chameleon. For locust you just pinch off the back legs before feeding.

LOL though you were talking about locust back legs not an actual wood splinter.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[Chachi]

You are going to have to take precautions for any consideration that involves your chameleon, especially for feeder insect that you feed to your chameleon. For locust you just pinch off the back legs before feeding.

LOL though you were talking about locust back legs not an actual wood splinter.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

Jeremy, can their back legs actually poke a chameleon tongue hard enough to incapacitate it? I have never heard that but I will remember if I ever get any locusts (where do you get them) I will remove their legs before their sacrifice! lol.

 

[Chachi]

Jeremy, can their back legs actually poke a chameleon tongue hard enough to incapacitate it? I have never heard that but I will remember if I ever get any locusts (where do you get them) I will remove their legs before their sacrifice! lol.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Jeremy, can their back legs actually poke a chameleon tongue hard enough to incapacitate it? I have never heard that but I will remember if I ever get any locusts (where do you get them) I will remove their legs before their sacrifice! lol.

I have never heard of a report of a locust hind leg injuring a chameleons tongue. However locust hind legs are exceptionally formidable to the point that they are a concern to injure a chameleons eyes (I have had a case where a crickets hind legs permanently injured one of my chameleons eyes) or a concern to cause internal blockages. Large locusts legs are that formidable enough that they could injure a chameleons tongue theoretically. Due to these concerns with how formidable the hind legs of locust are I just pinch the hind legs off when feeding to solve the problem.

At the moment you have to catch your own.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[Carlton]

Jeremy, can their back legs actually poke a chameleon tongue hard enough to incapacitate it? I have never heard that but I will remember if I ever get any locusts (where do you get them) I will remove their legs before their sacrifice! lol.

Probably not the tongue that might get punctured, but the leg could get lodged in the intestinal tract.

 

[JoeMills]

Thanks for the replies all, I think Locust will be the Staple and although I have never had any problems such as your have described I have had hungry locust bite reptiles before if left in the cage.