Costs of Owning a Veiled Chameleon

Video Transcript

"NICOLE BRAGG: On behalf of Expert Village, I'm Nicole and I'm here to tell you about Veiled Chameleons. Now, as far as reptile goes, the chameleon is fairly inexpensive. The Veiled Chameleons tend to range around $75. There are more expensive ones out there. But what we do need to be aware of is it's not the animal that's expensive; it's the setup that's expensive. Since chameleons are very sensitive animals, they do require very strict attention to their humidity and temperature and lighting. So, the lighting setup can cost quite a bit of money. I purchased these dome lamps for probably about--they're about 12 bucks each. But the lights themselves--the bulbs themselves run about 10 bucks. The strip lights that provide the UVB can be around $30 or $40. The cage itself runs about the same price as the chameleon, so around $75. And then you have the substrate and the water source to think about. If you buy a fountain such as this one, they'll run about 30 or 40 bucks. And as far as general upkeep goes, you need to make sure that you have food readily available for your chameleon. The cost of its vegetarian plants would range about 10 bucks or so for a live plant and that will probably last a couple of weeks depending on what chameleon you have. Now, as far as other food goes, the only thing I need to keep around on a daily basis is the mealworm. She loves the mealworms so--and this is what her diet basically consists of. They're fairly inexpensive but as your chameleon grows, they will eat more. You'll find yourself buying a tub of mealworms probably two or three times a week. Now, I have a lot of reptiles and I think I probably got at least $2000 worth of setup and reptiles here. And it is a little bit addicting. So, if it's something--if you're looking for an animal that's inexpensive to keep, then I would not go with a reptile just because of the fact that they do require such strict heating and lighting and humidity and just the general environment itself is a little hard to keep up. It will raise your electric bill a little bit. I probably--on a weekly basis put in about $150 into all my animals as far as food, electricity, the amount of light bulbs I go through, the amount of bedding and supplements and I mean, everything that goes along with owning the animal, it's pretty expensive. I have--I haven't exactly counted but I do have a pair of breeding Ball Pythons and I have a Corn Snake, I have a Box Turtle and a Leopard Gecko and an iguana and of course, the Veiled Chameleon and a euromastics."