Chameleon: content and care
If you are a passionate lover of exotics, thenfor sure, ordinary cats, dogs or hamsters are not those pets that will suit you. But surely exotic pets, which are now offered in abundance by various pet stores, will not leave you indifferent.
Chameleon - one of the most popular exotic pets. They love chameleons for their unusual behavior, easy taming and, of course, the ability to change color. However, before you have a chameleon in your house, you should carefully weigh all the pros and cons.
To successfully keep the chameleon at home, you need to create for him as close to the natural habitat as possible. This means that you will not get by with a small aquarium.
Chameleon needs a spacious vertical terrarium, with a volume of at least 200 liters. In the terrarium it is necessary to maintain a constant (but different at different levels of the terrarium) temperature (28-30 ° C) and humidity (at least 70%), and, therefore, you will need additional equipment: heaters, humidifiers, etc. In addition, chameleons need dosed ultraviolet radiation, so you should equip the terrarium with a UV lamp.
In the terrarium for the chameleon also should beartificial pond or fountain, living plants, branches, on which the chameleon could climb. The terrarium should be well ventilated, so it is better if one of its walls is not made of glass or plastic, but is tightened with a nonmetallic mesh.
The most popular kinds of chameleons for home keeping are Yemeni, leopard and ordinary chameleons. On average, the chameleon length is 25-30 cm,the largest species can grow up to 50-60 cm, and the smallest - up to 4-5 cm. Males are usually larger than females and painted more brightly, the horn-like outgrowths in males are more pronounced.
Feed chameleons should crickets, flour worms, flies, locusts,zoophobes. Large species of chameleons can eat small mammals, lizards. Also chameleons can eat pieces of fruit, for example, citrus fruits, bananas, grapes.
Young individuals should be fed twice a day, offering them quite large portions -the chameleon will adjust the necessary amount of food. Adults should be fed 3-4 times a week. Feed can be given to animal tweezers or in a feeder that is easy to make from any plastic or glass jar.
Chameleons can not drink from a drinker or pond, in nature they drink water, dropping down overleaves of trees. Therefore, in order to provide the pet with drinking water, it is necessary several times a day to spray the plants in the terrarium. You can also teach the home chameleon to drink from the pipette.
The terrarium must be kept clean, forIt is worth it to clean it completely about once every two weeks. At the same time during the harvesting it is not necessary to remove the chameleon from the terrarium - this frightens it. Plants should be watered outside the terrarium and put them back only after the water runs off.
Chameleons are territorial animals and several individuals can fight among themselves,if the territory for them is too small. Therefore it is better to contain chameleons one by one. Otherwise, choose a larger terrarium and separate the "territories" of each individual with dense thickets.
Despite its very formidable appearance, chameleons are easily attached to a person. They can eat with hands, allow themselves to iron, recognize the owner.
