How do your significant others like you chams?

I have had chameleons for almost a year now and my husband has never shown any interest in them at all - That is until recently. I first told him that I wanted to start a new business endevour. Money interests him - so he listened. I was going to invest a couple hundred dollars in a couple of chameleons and raise babies to sell. Okay he says, so my first 2 rudis chameleons came. Needless to say the next 2 rudis came, then the 3 pygmys, then the male panther, then the female panther. He never said a word. When others came over and fussed over the chams - he would roll his eyes - like big deal. In the past 2 months all 3 of my rudis females have given birth - 3 clutches in 2 months - WOW! I think my husband was impressed. My first clutch just turned 1 month Friday the 20th and have had their first shed. There were 11 in the last clutch born last Thursday, and all are doing well thus far. At first my husband would not pay much attention to them, but I have caught him taking peeks at the babies every now and then. I think he has become most fascinated with my Male Sambava, Sambatra. I caught him misting him the other day and when I asked him abouth it, he said he looked thirsty. This is funny to me because we have 15 cats and dogs and he has never feed or watered any of them. I am the sole caretaker. I even caught him taking him out of the cage to hold him the other day. I guess he has realized that Sambatra is an ole softy, even though he looks intimidating. The other day he asked me if the "lizard" had a name. I told him Sambatra. He told me he looked more like an Artimus. I told him he could name one of the rudis babies Artimus if he wanted to. I think that made him happy!

Tell me what you significant other thinks about your chams!!

I love your story. Sounds like your husband is catching Cham fever.

Although we are new to this, my wife and I are both really enjoying it. I have taken on the caretaker roll for our Cham "Raul Duke" but she does help every once in a while. She is just as fascinated with Chameleons as I am, just not as involved. We are going to the San Diego Super Show this week to get our next Cham. We can't wait. We are planning to breed our English Bulldog soon and she will be taking a bigger roll in that.

Sounds like you are up to your ears in animals (What Fun) I love animals and cannot wait for our new house to open up some more room.

she rolls here eyes at me....

seriously...

Artimus is a nice name.
I'll steal it for my future chams jk

My significant other was the one that got Arnie, my adult. He works for a pet supply wholesaler and everyone keeps pets in the office there. I stopped by one day and saw little Arnie in a cricket keeper and was enthralled. I took it home. Poor Arnie, he made it through all my noob efforts. Once he outgrew the cricket keeper he got a respectable mesh cage. He only got supplemented calcium D3. He had a lot of white power around his nose holes almost all the time, but he's here and healthy. I only misted him 1x/day, poor thing.

Anyway, the long and short of my story is that we both enjoy the chams, however I am the one at home so I take care of them and read the forum.

Hee hee .. this is a fun question.

I am the lizard boy. It would never even cross Frank's mind to keep chameleons.
He has become interested in them and knows how much they mean to me, but that's about as far as it goes.
He does like telling people about it ... it makes us that much more interesting in social situations.
My real support and help is going to come from these two boys we are adopting!
The 4 year old is very interested in reptiles and dinosaurs!

-Brad

My significant other got into chameleons at the same time I did. We'd actually turn away from the TV in the early evening, just to watch our first cham. He nursed my first melleri back to health when it was an imported baby. Over the years, he got bored with them, I wholly "inherited" that melleri from him, and there was no going back for me. Now, he just resents them as obstacles to spontaneous travel. And he HATES the bugs they need.

The only chams he likes now are neonates. I catch him peeking at them and baby-talking to them, every so often. Sometimes, he drags visitors through to show off the adults. He is more an "exhibit interpreter" than a keeper.

Brad Ramsey said:

Hee hee .. this is a fun question.

I am the lizard boy. It would never even cross Frank's mind to keep chameleons.
He has become interested in them and knows how much they mean to me, but that's about as far as it goes.
He does like telling people about it ... it makes us that much more interesting in social situations.
My real support and help is going to come from these two boys we are adopting!
The 4 year old is very interested in reptiles and dinosaurs!

-Brad

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It's funny, from what I have noticed with my chameleons, most adults think that they are cool or neat, but it's always the kids that ask me the most questions and really seem fascinated by them! I actually saw and held my first chameleon when I was about 10 years old, but it wasn't until I was 45 that I actually owned one. I am glad your children will get to experience them at such a young age and become great cham owners when they are older!

reptimom said:

It's funny, from what I have noticed with my chameleons, most adults think that they are cool or neat, but it's always the kids that ask me the most questions and really seem fascinated by them! I actually saw and held my first chameleon when I was about 10 years old, but it wasn't until I was 45 that I actually owned one. I am glad your children will get to experience them at such a young age and become great cham owners when they are older!

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My hope is that they will put me to shame with their knowledge and ability to understand these animals.
The other exciting piece of this is that these boys did not have the best start and were not engaged in a very language rich environment.
Their excitement with the animals in our home will (I think) encourage them to improve their vocabulary and communication skills.

-Brad

My husband is the one that got me into keeping chameleons. But I'm the one that really caught the cham virus. He likes designing and building the enclosures and free ranges, but daily maintenance etc falls 100% in my lap - he just doesn't think about it. There was a time when this bothered me, because he was often the one to talk us into buying another cham (or reptile in general).
But I'm over that now; As long as he cleans up after the cat and the iguana, I'm happy to take care of the chams and their bugs.

studiocham said:

Sometimes, he drags visitors through to show off the adults. He is more an "exhibit interpreter" than a keeper.

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And yes, that too. Jim loves showing off the melleri to anyone who enters our house - he even gave the UPS guy a tour!

Hehe,

Well when I met Julia I had years of herping experience but hadn't kept any animals due to my living situation for over a year. When we babysat my Bosses beardie... I caught the bug again. Ever since Chameleo (a veiled I raised as a kid) I had loved Chams and had always wanted to start with them again. Well first was the pair of Beardies... And she loved those... Then came our snakes that were rescues and she loved them... but told me ... No More Animals! I had to say... "But what about Chameleons?"... And I convinced her into our little veiled girl Caddie. She was our first Cham, and she continued to reiterate..."No More Animals!" Well as some of you know... It can get addicting... And when I found that in the evening I had done everything I could for all of my animals ... I would tell myself..."Too little to do... and too much time to do it... ", So I would jump on KingSnake and start looking for new buddies. When She had drawn the line on no more... I was online showing her pics of available Panthers... She saw a pic of a Nosy/Ambilobe cross and splurged "I want that one!!!" ... Well needless to say... we got him and his female... and Julia named him McLovin. Now she is just as taken with them as I am... and Is actually picking up on a lot of what I ahve been trying to teach her. She helps me with the daily chores... and Loves talking about them and showing them off as much as I do. She does complain that I spend ALL of my time with the reptiles... And the rest of it on here with you guys. I catch a lot of Flak when they are heading out.. and I stay in cause I have "Animal work" to do.

The chameleons are the only reptiles I own that my wife actually likes and will interact with.

SoCaliSon said:

Hehe,

Well when I met Julia I had years of herping experience but hadn't kept any animals due to my living situation for over a year. When we babysat my Bosses beardie... I caught the bug again. Ever since Chameleo (a veiled I raised as a kid) I had loved Chams and had always wanted to start with them again. Well first was the pair of Beardies... And she loved those... Then came our snakes that were rescues and she loved them... but told me ... No More Animals! I had to say... "But what about Chameleons?"... And I convinced her into our little veiled girl Caddie. She was our first Cham, and she continued to reiterate..."No More Animals!" Well as some of you know... It can get addicting... And when I found that in the evening I had done everything I could for all of my animals ... I would tell myself..."Too little to do... and too much time to do it... ", So I would jump on KingSnake and start looking for new buddies. When She had drawn the line on no more... I was online showing her pics of available Panthers... She saw a pic of a Nosy/Ambilobe cross and splurged "I want that one!!!" ... Well needless to say... we got him and his female... and Julia named him McLovin. Now she is just as taken with them as I am... and Is actually picking up on a lot of what I ahve been trying to teach her. She helps me with the daily chores... and Loves talking about them and showing them off as much as I do. She does complain that I spend ALL of my time with the reptiles... And the rest of it on here with you guys. I catch a lot of Flak when they are heading out.. and I stay in cause I have "Animal work" to do.

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Socalison, If I had a dollar for everytime my husband said "NO MORE ANIMALS" , I could retire to a Tropical Sunny Island somewhere. With 11 cats, 4 dogs, 5 aquariums and 9 adult chams and 22 babies - I say we have a fulllllll house. Whenever he starts with the "We have too many animals", I ask him which one he wants to get rid of and I will find it another home, he won't bring it up again for awhile. Plus - he brought the last kitten home - NOT ME - he is really a softy at heart - thats why I love him.

No significant other here.
Single life is where it's at....

haha.. My girlfriend used to roll her eyes seeing me so enamored with my chameleon stuffs.
Until one time, she told me that she wants a pet.
I suggest her a fish.
But, she said she always wanted a tortoise. But, it was too expensive for her.

and out of nowhere, a tiny turtle come to her house area on the middle of the street (I am NOT KIDDING! it almost sound ridiculous).
she is confused and decided to rescue it since he can be squashed by cars if he's there. So, my GF called me that day.

We found out that it was a desert tortoise (one of the protected turtle in north US). So, we report it to the Desert tortoise association. They found out that the turtle has no owner (apparently they track this turtle species).
They speculate it might used to be owned illegally by someone.

We also hand out flyer around her neighborhood to check if this turtle escape from somebody else's house. But, no luck.

Since she rescue him, the association offers her a free permit if she wants to care for this poor little guy.
So, she came to the meeting and get a good lesson on how to care for the tortoise.
That day she went home as a proud rare reptile owner with her official permit.

Now, she can't stop talking about her turtle, off course.
You should see us.. what a weird couple. When we are dating, we talked about chameleon and turtle
I told her the next time she wished for a pet, she should wish for a parsonii

My wife doesn't mind the chameleon...


It's the dubia colony that we've had pretty escalated fights over.

We actually have a deal; if she ever, ever catches an escapee roach, the roaches and the chameleon are gone, no questions asked.

I've found two escaped roaches in the last year that she doesn't know about. Now the roaches are in a heated rubbermaid box in the backyard shed.

royden said:

My wife doesn't mind the chameleon...


It's the dubia colony that we've had pretty escalated fights over.

We actually have a deal; if she ever, ever catches an escapee roach, the roaches and the chameleon are gone, no questions asked.

I've found two escaped roaches in the last year that she doesn't know about. Now the roaches are in a heated rubbermaid box in the backyard shed.

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That's a risky deal ... I would try to re-negotiate!

-Brad

Well there's not much risk anymore. The roaches are in a box with a lid inside a box with a lid, they come out, go into a feeding cup, get eaten, end of story.

my laci wont even get close to my two chams. Zuse my young veild was sitting on her finger one night when i put a cricket on her wrist because she wanted to see him eat. she now wont even get near the cages. shes scared of them and says she dosent want to be attacked ! thats ok because there all mine now. Achilies my panther puffs up at her when he sees her walk by, i think he actually has fun screwing with her mind. or hes flirting i dont really know!

lol, chameleon attack. the ferocity of a tiger in a small package.

It was my boyfriend's idea to get a reptile, but at first we thought we were going to get a snake. Then, we decided that we should wait, but we'd look at snakes at all the pet stores we went to. Christmas before last we went to Petco and we saw baby veiled chameleons for the first time. We had no idea that chameleons were pets, but we thought they were the most awesome reptiles we had ever seen. We learned a few things about their special needs from an associate at the store, so we decided that we should look into it more before we bought one. I did a lot of research and ended up buying a panther chameleon around last Christmas, but my boyfriend didn't take much interest until Walter started getting adjusted to him. We still want a snake, but not until we have room for more chameleons lol.