Chameleons can change color fully in as short as 20 seconds, but it depends on a lot of variables.

Color change due to shedding Crested geckos, like other reptiles, shed their old skin and replace it with new skin. A few days before the shedding starts you’ll notice that your crestie becomes greyer or even turn pale. This is absolutely normal and no reason to become concerned.

For example, many geckos have a base color of yellow. But when they are placed into a brown environment, they may quickly turn a similar color, within 7-20 seconds. Although this is true, geckos are not able to convert to all colors of the rainbow.

Reptiles change skin colour by altering the distribution of natural pigments like melanin inside their skin cells. In some cases reptiles can also change the distribution of crystal formations inside their cells, to change the way light reflects off their skin.

If the pigment cells are large, they obscure a lower level in the skin that reflects green light. When the cells are concentrated, the lizard looks dark brown, mottled brown or even like a bad bruise of blotchy brown and olive-green. Social interactions with other lizards may be responsible in some cases.

About Shedding When your gecko gets ready to shed, his skin will turn almost a whitish-gray color. It will feel papery to you. The skin will begin to feel loose the closer the reptile gets to shedding. Juvenile geckos will shed every three to four weeks as they grow, while adults shed every few months.

Lizards are thought to use data from this parietal eye to influence basking behavior. Interestingly, a 2006 study by King-Wai Yau of John Hopkins Medicine, published in the journal “Science,” demonstrated that the parietal eye of some lizards is even able to see two different colors: green and blue.

Do Lizards Bite? Lizards have a number of defense mechanisms and biting is one of them. To avoid injury from predators, they will bite if necessary and sometimes humans can be the victims. Most garden and house lizard bites are harmless however, so though these bites are not poisonous, they can cause pain.