Seeking research based sources!

[Xeikeness]

I work at a veterinary clinic, and my doctor and I are butting heads regularly about appropriate veiled chameleon care.

For example, my dr thinks they need to have substrate to maintain humidity, and should never be in a set up without it. My dr also believes they need to have water dishes at all times in addition to drippers and misting.

My dr also believes that even baby chameleons signs only ever be fed a couple times a week.

Could anyone provide me research based articles (bonus points for veterinary research) that I can show my dr so I can help her help the chams we see without arguing about it all the time?

Thank you all!!

 

[MissSkittles]

https://chameleonacademy.com/ Is full of the husbandry standards and many of the podcasts include interviews with specialists in various fields. Bill Strand, who has created the site and so much more has accumulated the husbandry standards that we follow thru information from all of these specialists and years of experience of himself and others.
@DeremensisBlue do you have anything to add?

 

[kinyonga]

As @MissSkittles has indicated Chameleon Academy is an excellent source of great information on every aspect of chameleon keeping. This might help. Bill has been studying them and working on husbandry, etc for many years!
You said…”My dr also believes that even baby chameleons signs only ever be fed a couple times a week.”…this might help…


You said…”my dr thinks they need to have substrate to maintain humidity, and should never be in a set up without it. My dr also believes they need to have water dishes at all times in addition to drippers and misting”…I kept chameleons, bred and hatched and raised hatchlings for over 30 years and never used water dishes as a rule…they drink from beads of water on the leaves, cage walls, etc…and even get moisture from proper fogging at night.
These might help…

 

[kinyonga]

I forgot to mention…the cage floors were left bare so the chameleons didn’t accidentally ingest soil or other things that might be used in a substrate on the floor of the cage. Misting the cages, using real plants, etc. kept the humidity in the right range. (Back then, fogging was not used to help with humidity or hydration.)

For example, my veiled females usually lived to be 6 or 7 years of age and the males even older.

 

[GrannyK]

Look up Dr Michael Nash he has worked with bill strand on many things. He may even be on the forum here but I don’t know his name on it. He is very intelligent and extremely knowledgeable on chams. I’m sure he has articles out there somewhere.
Found something
https://chameleonacademy.com/s7-ep27-intro-to-chameleon-bioactive-with-michael-nash/