Who has the oldest Veil out there?

chrisandpugs

chrisandpugs

New Member
Hi!
Out of curiosity, who has a long-lived Veil and how big is it?

Right now, my 9 month old male Veil is now 18 inches long and weighs 170 gm. Hard to believe that he was only 3 inches(N-S length) at 3 months when I got him.

The most biggest and longest Veil that I saw was at a Reptile Store was huge and had to be way over 2 ft. in length and the person there said he was around 6 years old.

Love to hear from those Veil owners who have older Veils and what their measurements are!!

Christine
 
Mine is just under 7, and is 17.5" long. He's usually about 150 grams, now he;s less cause he's recovering from a stressful experience outdoors - though t I was going to lose him.

Some just get bigger. My first was a WC that was only 12".
 
Howdy,

Grandpa, my older Veiled, made it to ~7 years. I had to have the vet put him down just a couple of weeks ago :(. A loooong story short, health problems were compounding... He certainly had a good personality right up to the end. This photo was taken about 2 years ago. (245 grams)
4-5YrOldVeiled.jpg
 
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This is Niji; my oldest Veiled Chameleon. I got him at around 4 months old. He had been with me for about 2 years and 3 months now. He is about 20 inch in length. He will not hesitate to take me down!!!:mad:

NijiI.jpg


:pSorry! have to use a cooking matt to handle him now. He have a 5mm sharp claw and I need protection. He have a very strong grip and will always causes me to bleed like crazy. If he ever bite.... it will leaves a mark for a week.

DSC02356.jpg


This is the next picture where he is getting really angry and turn around nearly bit off my ears. Fiesty little Devil.:eek:
 
The last two veiled males died at 8+ and 7+ and the last three females that died were over 6...one was over 7. I have one female now that is over 6 and another that is over 4.
 
They seem to peeter out after 5 years. They can live over 10 sometimes, but they just become delicate after abotu the 5 year mark.

My male has had two very rough times the past year. I was in traiing this winter, and the temp drops at night took a toll on him. I was gone for 2 weeks at a time, and was not there to see how he was losing weight and looking miserable. Bounced back quickly.

Just a month or so ago, I kept him outside 24/7. He ate well, looked fine... but then , I realized he was getting thin. I took him in, and it continued for a week or so.

he's got injuries from the past, to his rear legs (they do not work too well, ever since I treated a burn with baytril - don't know if it's kindey damage from the medicine, or nerve nerve damage from the burn.), and now, they were totally weak - even his tail was limp. this guy was climbing around the cage with his arms.

Still, he never lost his hunger. Right now, he's gaining weight, got all his strength back in his lower legs and tail, and his tongue is getting stronger, too.

They are amazingly tough animals, but when they get old, they become more succeptible to illness. My male seems to require much more food to keep his weight normal now. Which isn't surprising, really.

I would expect 5-7 years out of a well taken care of veiled, male or female. Especially if the female is kept from having large clutches.

Really, my male has been through 4 moves, and total changes in his environment and caging - plus a few burns as well. I bet he'd be much healthier if I had been more careful in the past.

The thing's still going strong, and producing nice babies though...

About half his latest clutch was eating 1/4" crickets for their first meal. They were huge.
 
Although it's been maybe two years since I last spoke with her, a friend had a globifer, willsii, and some parsonii that were imported as adults prior to the export restriction. That would have made them at least 10-11+ years old.
 
I love the responses!!

Hi again,
Thanks for all who contributed to this thread!! Extremely fun to read!!

To Pohehuayee: Excellent photo with you and Niji!! Hey, hope Niji gets even more feistier over time!!....It will mean that he comes from a real strong healthy line and he'll be the one to hit the 8 year plus mark!!

To Will Hayward: I think the lifespans that you quoted are for those Chameleons living in the wild. In the Chameleon books that I own, they state that male Veils can live up to 6-7 years and females 4-5 years(due to the stress of egg-laying). Of course, as one person stated, the higher in age a Veil(or Panther) gets, they tend to lose a lot of their energy and are more suspectable to illness and probably much slower recovery(Just like any other geriatric canididate).

Christine
 
chrisandpugs said:
To Will Hayward: I think the lifespans that you quoted are for those Chameleons living in the wild. In the Chameleon books that I own, they state that male Veils can live up to 6-7 years and females 4-5 years(due to the stress of egg-laying). Of course, as one person stated, the higher in age a Veil(or Panther) gets, they tend to lose a lot of their energy and are more suspectable to illness and probably much slower recovery(Just like any other geriatric canididate).

Christine
Click to expand...
No Christine, these are just dated literature. They were not referring to the wild.
 
Hi All!!! My Veiled Chameleon is 13 today!!! I bought him spur of the moment at a little pet shop in Arlington WA for my now husband. I knew NOTHING about chameleon care and have pretty much "winged" it for the past thirteen years...he's amazing. Diet...Good quality gut loaded crickets. I also give him salad mix to eat. He loves it. I dust the crickets with calcium powder for supplementation. He lives in a glass aquarium with lots of branches for climbing. I have an uv light and a heat lamp on top. I mist his cage with water every other day and put ice cubes on top of his cage that drip onto leaves into a bowl for water. I rarely handle him~it stresses him out. He also enjoys the occasional spider and grasshopper. He's had some bouts with lethargy over the years but I usually give him extra greens water and crickets and he bounces right back. He has had one problem with not being able to stick out his tongue so I hand fed him crickets and he was fine the next day(calcium def?). So there! My advice...don't over do it. They are pets...but they are not "pets" ;)
 

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