caring for chameleons in garden

When we were young we always had chameleons in our garden. Unfortunately we also had chickens and I once witnessed a cock eating on of the chameleon offspring. I wanted to kill the thing.

The chameleon population decreased and due to lack of interrest we didn't really look for them much.

Recently upon returning to my parents place I noticed that there is still a few chameleons left. I found one in a prune tree and took it through the garden for a few meals. It ate 4 flies and then I returned it to the tree. I now noticed that it stays in that tree. I would really like to see the population increase to high numbers again.

What ways are there to care for and boost the population of chameleons found in the garden without capturing them. I am trying to think of things I can add. I suppose adding a water bottle which drips water to its tree will help?

Is there any ways to attract edible insects to the tree?

Any suggestions/ideas will be very welcome.

Where is this garden at ?

And do you know what kind of Chams they are? Can you provide Pics? Sounds cool.

are you referring to anoles?

These chameleons are in Cape Town, South Africa,

I don't carry enough knowledge to identify them but I took a few pictures with a cellphone.

Please advise on how I can help them survive. I again took this one today for a lunch of 4 flies. I noticed it doesn't eat bees or I did not give it long enough. Does chameleons eat bees? There is quite a lot in the garden.

How much will it eat? I suppose it will stop eating when its done or is it possible to overfeed them?

I put a bottle with a very small hole in the tree so that water drips on the branches. It is winter and there are no leaves in the tree at the moment. Will this do as a water supply?

I'm pretty sure these are bradypodion pumilum, see http://www.adcham.com/html/taxonomy/species/bpumilum.html.

Also a nice video I found http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf0nJ0Wzeig.

johan said:

These chameleons are in Cape Town, South Africa,

Please advise on how I can help them survive. I again took this one today for a lunch of 4 flies. I noticed it doesn't eat bees or I did not give it long enough. Does chameleons eat bees? There is quite a lot in the garden.

How much will it eat? I suppose it will stop eating when its done or is it possible to overfeed them?

I put a bottle with a very small hole in the tree so that water drips on the branches. It is winter and there are no leaves in the tree at the moment. Will this do as a water supply?

Click to expand...

How fortunate! I always want some chameleons pay a visit to my garden. not possible though
I never have any experience like this before; but, I'm guessing that they probably won't overfeed and simply took no interest in food after they are full.

Yes, they can eat bees. But, they probably wouldn't if they are street wise
I know some people here feed their chameleon bees after they remove the stingers.
the dripper should work or you can purchase a fake tree with leaves and let it drip on the leaves.

It looks like B. pumilum to me too.

A dripper or a mister would be quite helpful. Encuoraging insects to live in your yard would help....but the neighbors might not like it.

If you can buy insects at a pet store you could feed them to the chameleons.
There is a lady doing this in Hawaii for the Jackson's in her yard.

Concerning bees...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOOBq6Cm0e4

http://www.allcreaturesveterinary.com/chameleons.html
"bees with stingers removed"

dang i wish chameleons came to my garden ... plant more trees they would like try setting fruit peels that flys would like they would probably munch on them

Ok so the chameleons can eat bees? What if they get stung? There is only one that I know of and I don't want to risk its life. There is an almond tree here that is blossoming. Lots of bees in it. Would it be a good idea to move the chameleon here? Lots of food but I have this feeling that one should never move a chameleon to a different place. Any thoughts?

We don't really have much neighbors around so I can attract insects. How do I do that? With some horse or pig crap?

Hey Johan. That's a nice chameleon you found there. As mentioned before, it is Bradypodion pumilum, the Cape Dwarf chameleon. People often find them in gardens and on golf courses in Cape Town. You're lucky - in Jo'burg it was common to find flapneck chameleons in the garden, but with all the townhouse and mall developments that have occurred over the past decade, you only find them out in the bush nowadays.

I don't think you really need to supply extra water, nor extra insects for those chams to survive. They're perfectly adapted to living off what is available in their local territories.
However, to ensure that they have an environment in which they can thrive you should make sure that your garden (and if possible, all the gardens in your neighbourhood) are set up to encourage not only chameleons, but also the insects that they feed on, to live there.
To do that you need to do the following:
- plant mostly indigenous plants in your garden: in Cape Town you should be using fynbos vegetation - that makes up the Cape Dwarf's natural habitat
- don't use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Try to use organic substitutes for fertilizers, and don't use pesticides at all: if you're killing off the insects, there'll be none for the chameleons to eat, and at worst if they do eat insects that have been exposed to pesticides they might poison the cham.
- this is a tough one: try to discourage the keeping of regular domestic pets. You mentioned the cocks that attacked the chams: well, dogs and cats are even worse. Domestic cats are probably responsible for more predation of local herpetofauna in South Africa than their natural predators (like snakes and birds). As long as we keep domestic pets in our gardens, we continue to discourage the indigenous small animals from living in them.

If you're interested in learning more about these chameleons, I suggest you try the following book: Chameleons of Southern Africa, by Krystal Tolley and Marius Burger. It has some beautiful photographs and interesting information about the chameleons found in South Africa, particularly the Bradypodions like the ones you found.

Krystal Tolley is a chamelon researcher based at the University of Stellenbosch who is at the forefront of classifying all the Bradypodion species. Here is an article I found that she wrote some time back: http://www.paarlpost.com/archive/181104/letters.html

Keep those photographs coming - it's always great to see pictures of chameleons in their natural environment.