Veiled Chameleons are one of the larger species of chameleon, reaching up to 2 feet. As such a large enclosure is required, often requiring something be custom built.

Enclosure Size:

Being Arboreal, a tall enclosure of at least 48” is required to provide a top to bottom gradient. A width of 48” is recommended to provide ample enrichment at the height they choose to frequent. A depth of 24” or larger is best to provide room for lighting, misters and areas to hide.

While on the small side, this may be the largest screen terrarium you can source that isnt custom.

Exoterra Large X-Tall Screen Terrarium

Enclosure Construction:

A screen type enclosure is recommended to provide ample airflow. This may be entirely screened or partially screened but it is important that at least the top and two opposite sides be screened in so that air can flow freely. It is also important that the enclosure be bug escape proof so that the various bugs you feed do not escape into your home.

Enclosure Features:

Your enclosure should have a rich assortment of vines, leaves, and sticks assembled in such a manner as to provide a sort of ladder from top to bottom. It is best to keep the top most vines/branches 8-10 inches from the top so that a basking chameleon cannot get too close to your lighting both for burn protection and to ensure you UVB is not too strong (refer to the Ferguson zone provided by your lighting).

Enclosure Humidity:

Veiled Chameleons like to drink water droplets off of leaves so it is important to provide their water in this manner.  There are elegant solutions like leaf fountains for chameleons that work well for this. Dripper systems can work well but they require quite a bit of management to keep running. A misting system like The Mist King works great to provide tune and tailor your humidity and water droplet availability with very little maintenance needed on your part.

The Mist King has many features that make it the best solution. While there are cheaper solutions they tend to not have as fine of mist and leaking nozzles can result in a real mess compared to this solution.

MistKing Starter Misting System v5.0

Enclosure Lighting:

Veiled Chameleons like strong full spectrum light.  It is recommended to run a T5 UVB light like the Arcadia 6% shade dweller series across the full width of your enclosure. For UVA and Infrared we recommend running Arcadia’s 100w Halogen lights, one for each two feet of enclosure width. Always run these on a dimmer switch so that you can fine tune the basking spot temperatures.  You may also want to run LED grow lights if you have live plants in your enclosure.

Enclosure Heating:

Arcadia’s Deep Heat Projector is a good night time infrared heat source to be run on a thermostat to supplement an area of minimum night time temperature. These are usually set to 65-68 degrees as a safety net should your house temperatures drop to sharply at any time.  Deep Heat Projectors are superior to Ceramic Heat Emitters as they project the down into the enclosure rather than flow the height out the top.

Arcadia Heat Projector 80 watts