Jakedn
New Member
I haven't been on the forum for around a year, and I have been testing how my veiled chameleon withstands being placed outdoors year round in a part of southern California where it has reached over 100 degrees quite a few times this summer.
From what I see, this species is far more resilient than given credit for on these forums.
Around a year ago, as some of you may remember I purchased a baby veiled chameleon who was pretty sickly. After a couple months, he got better but still had some irregular problems, like a deformed eye, that he has trouble seeing out of. I'm not sure if this was a problem from birth, or damage that didn't heal properly when he had an eye infection.
But anyways, this sickly small chameleon has been kept in an outdoor enclosure for a year now, through the heat of the summer, and the cold of the winter nights. He has been fed some wild insects such as house flies when he was younger, grasshoppers of all sizes, and moths.
He isn't fed daily or in massive quantities like some people here say you should do. He isn't misted constantly if the temperature is too high, or not misted when it is too cool. However, if he shows signs of heat stress I do take the neccessary actions to cool his enclosure down, though it isn't often needed.
Instead, I watch him for what he needs as his enclosure is outside my window next to my desk where he gets full sun.
Before I did this he would refuse to eat any sort of greens, now with the hot summers he has adapted; he will now eat leaves and flowers from his enclosure when he is thirsty or hungry and I take that as a sign for me to feed and mist him.
When I do mist him, I will mist him for a long time to ensure he can drink as much as he wants, and to clean his eyes etc.
When I notice signs of dehydration, I order him some horn worms and those take care of that problem pretty quickly haha.
Under this care, he has not fallen ill, he has not shown any irregular symptoms. He is as active as ever, and will sure as hell let me know I'm not wanted if I am not bringing him food haha. Just as any healthy veiled chameleon should act.
I see him going to the bottom of the enclosure to eat some sand/dirt on occasion, but that is not abnormal for him, as he did this when I provided him with all the recommended care provided on this forum. I don't know why he has always done this, but it has never been a problem, nor has there been a way for me to keep him from it. There is no large pieces like bark for him to eat either.
All around though, from my limited experience, with just this average veiled chameleon, he is thriving in my outdoor enclosure with much less effort needed from when I kept him indoors.
With this chameleon I have tried an indoor enclosure, an indoor free range, and now this outdoor enclosure. Each set up has had its own problems though.
With the indoor enclosure it took up alot of space in my room, he wasn't very active, and it required special lights for the plants and himself, and special nutrients on his food (like vitamin D), and misting him indoors caused other problems that needed special solutions like drainage etc. Also, indoors I ran into other problems like bugs etc which I didn't want inside the house.
After he showed alot of inactivity (even for a chameleon) in this enclosure, I decided to try out a free range so that I could use that same cage that I kept him in for an outdoot enclosure I could bring him out to occasionally.
In the free range I ran in to problems where he would climb on top of the set up and kind of lean up against his lights as they were warm rather than basking in them, and it was a pretty abnormal behaviour and I suspected he wasn't getting the UV rays he needed etc because of all the time he spent up there.
And so after that problem, I decided to try a more permanant solution in an outdoor enclosure, where he has been for atleast a year now.
The only problem I have encountered with him in his outdoor enclosure so far, wasn't caused by him, or by the environment, it was caused by my dogs who before the problem never showed him any attention.
One day though while the dogs were unsupervised near his cage they must have attacked his cage somehow and they damaged the screen leaving huge holes in it (Waldo was unharmed thankfully), though he escaped his cage through those holes.
He didn't wander far though and I found him about 10 feet from his enclosure.
I solved this problem by moving the enclosure to an area my dogs never have access to, where it is positioned now (right outside of the window by my desk). I have had zero problems in this location so far.
So, in my opinion, I strongly prefer this outdoor set up, where he has been thriving for a year under relatively minimal care.
With some knowledge of chameleon behaviour, and a close enough eye, a veiled chameleon can thrive under minimal care in a year round outdoor enclosure here in southern California near the Los Angeles area.
I am excited to see how he continues to do in this upcoming winter after this long and hot summer.
I haven't been on these forums in quite some time, and I just wanted to give an update on how well Waldo is doing and share my experiences with his enclosure set up. If anyone else is keeping a veiled chameleon outdoors year round I would be interested in seeing how you have it set up and what problems and/or solutions you have encountered.
From what I see, this species is far more resilient than given credit for on these forums.
Around a year ago, as some of you may remember I purchased a baby veiled chameleon who was pretty sickly. After a couple months, he got better but still had some irregular problems, like a deformed eye, that he has trouble seeing out of. I'm not sure if this was a problem from birth, or damage that didn't heal properly when he had an eye infection.
But anyways, this sickly small chameleon has been kept in an outdoor enclosure for a year now, through the heat of the summer, and the cold of the winter nights. He has been fed some wild insects such as house flies when he was younger, grasshoppers of all sizes, and moths.
He isn't fed daily or in massive quantities like some people here say you should do. He isn't misted constantly if the temperature is too high, or not misted when it is too cool. However, if he shows signs of heat stress I do take the neccessary actions to cool his enclosure down, though it isn't often needed.
Instead, I watch him for what he needs as his enclosure is outside my window next to my desk where he gets full sun.
Before I did this he would refuse to eat any sort of greens, now with the hot summers he has adapted; he will now eat leaves and flowers from his enclosure when he is thirsty or hungry and I take that as a sign for me to feed and mist him.
When I do mist him, I will mist him for a long time to ensure he can drink as much as he wants, and to clean his eyes etc.
When I notice signs of dehydration, I order him some horn worms and those take care of that problem pretty quickly haha.
Under this care, he has not fallen ill, he has not shown any irregular symptoms. He is as active as ever, and will sure as hell let me know I'm not wanted if I am not bringing him food haha. Just as any healthy veiled chameleon should act.
I see him going to the bottom of the enclosure to eat some sand/dirt on occasion, but that is not abnormal for him, as he did this when I provided him with all the recommended care provided on this forum. I don't know why he has always done this, but it has never been a problem, nor has there been a way for me to keep him from it. There is no large pieces like bark for him to eat either.
All around though, from my limited experience, with just this average veiled chameleon, he is thriving in my outdoor enclosure with much less effort needed from when I kept him indoors.
With this chameleon I have tried an indoor enclosure, an indoor free range, and now this outdoor enclosure. Each set up has had its own problems though.
With the indoor enclosure it took up alot of space in my room, he wasn't very active, and it required special lights for the plants and himself, and special nutrients on his food (like vitamin D), and misting him indoors caused other problems that needed special solutions like drainage etc. Also, indoors I ran into other problems like bugs etc which I didn't want inside the house.
After he showed alot of inactivity (even for a chameleon) in this enclosure, I decided to try out a free range so that I could use that same cage that I kept him in for an outdoot enclosure I could bring him out to occasionally.
In the free range I ran in to problems where he would climb on top of the set up and kind of lean up against his lights as they were warm rather than basking in them, and it was a pretty abnormal behaviour and I suspected he wasn't getting the UV rays he needed etc because of all the time he spent up there.
And so after that problem, I decided to try a more permanant solution in an outdoor enclosure, where he has been for atleast a year now.
The only problem I have encountered with him in his outdoor enclosure so far, wasn't caused by him, or by the environment, it was caused by my dogs who before the problem never showed him any attention.
One day though while the dogs were unsupervised near his cage they must have attacked his cage somehow and they damaged the screen leaving huge holes in it (Waldo was unharmed thankfully), though he escaped his cage through those holes.
He didn't wander far though and I found him about 10 feet from his enclosure.
I solved this problem by moving the enclosure to an area my dogs never have access to, where it is positioned now (right outside of the window by my desk). I have had zero problems in this location so far.
So, in my opinion, I strongly prefer this outdoor set up, where he has been thriving for a year under relatively minimal care.
With some knowledge of chameleon behaviour, and a close enough eye, a veiled chameleon can thrive under minimal care in a year round outdoor enclosure here in southern California near the Los Angeles area.
I am excited to see how he continues to do in this upcoming winter after this long and hot summer.
I haven't been on these forums in quite some time, and I just wanted to give an update on how well Waldo is doing and share my experiences with his enclosure set up. If anyone else is keeping a veiled chameleon outdoors year round I would be interested in seeing how you have it set up and what problems and/or solutions you have encountered.
