Releasing chams into the wild.

I had a thought and am wondering what your opinions are. I have about 50 veiled eggs incubating and thought what if I released them when they are born? There is literally a forest in my backyard where they can live. However the summer is pretty hot and the winters are sometimes freezing cold at night. Could they survive and continue to breed on their own? I have no plans on doing this but it does sound awesome. What are your thoughts?

Harry said:

I had a thought and am wondering what your opinions are. I have about 50 veiled eggs incubating and thought what if I released them when they are born? There is literally a forest in my backyard where they can live. However the summer is pretty hot and the winters are sometimes freezing cold at night. Could they survive and continue to breed on their own? I have no plans on doing this but it does sound awesome. What are your thoughts?

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Where do you live? And what kind of temps are you talking about? I've heard of people having little cham sanctuaries on their properties but honestly unless your in Cali or FL I would be cautious. Plus you have to consider the local wildlife and insects. If the chams aren't native they also can become invasive. You don't wanna upset the natural order of a certain ecosystem.

It wouldn't surprise me if there are laws against it. Not that such laws stop people from doing it (there are "wild" communities of both parrots and veiled chameleons in San Diego county). But I think you need to think through what you are doing. If there are laws against it and it's tracked back to you, it could be a major problem.

I didn't consider laws but I do own the land if that makes any difference.

I do live in Cali and the hottest it can be is a little over 100 degrees but there are many trees for shade. Im not sure about the cold. I sometimes wake up to ice on my car if that gives you any idea.

Like I said, no plans to do this I just thought it would be pretty cool.

And I forgot to mention the ice is only sometimes during the winter. This winter it's been pretty warm during the day.

If your being serious no that is not allowed and no its not a good idea. That is why our rights to own exotic pets are at risk and animals are being banned for very reasons like this.

Jack's right. The more people who do this sort of thing, the more the laws tighten up on what animals we can own.

Harry, you'd never be able to confine them to your land.

Dammit my dream of my own exotic rain forest will never be realized. I really did have a dream about that haha

But don't worry guys, I'd hate to put any of my babies in danger as well as ruining it for everyone else

Do a quick search on florida wild chameleons and you'll see the many problems this brings.

Where in Cali are you? lol?

It's a lovely dream, Harry! In a perfect world, you could make it happen. Alas, the word is far from perfect.

Harry said:

I had a thought and am wondering what your opinions are. I have about 50 veiled eggs incubating and thought what if I released them when they are born? There is literally a forest in my backyard where they can live. However the summer is pretty hot and the winters are sometimes freezing cold at night. Could they survive and continue to breed on their own? I have no plans on doing this but it does sound awesome. What are your thoughts?

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NO.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

THIS IS WHY THE PYTHON BAN IS HAPPENING. People have no understanding of ecology....You can't just introduce random species to other environments. There will be long-standing environmental impacts.

DONT DO THIS. It does not matter whether or not the chameleons can survive.


EDIT: It does not matter if you own the land. If you are KEEPING the animals on your land, it is fine. But if you are RELEASING non-native wildlife it is punishable by both state and federal crimes with QUITE hefty (appropriately) fines and penalties.

Its definitely not a good idea. It can upset the balance with the animals that are already there and could wipe out some other species eventually...it can spread disease, etc. I don't know the laws there...but I'm betting they say you can't do it either.

Even if you were seriously planning on doing this - I would not be wanting to release animals from the same clutch so that they mate with each other. Recipe for disaster in my eyes.

Doesn't sound like a good idea to me too.. For all the reasons listed above.. It will have a huge (negative) impact on the ecosystem.. It would be cool all right

VeiledChams said:

Do a quick search on florida wild chameleons and you'll see the many problems this brings.

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I did I still haven't seen the problems As you can see where I stand on the situation from my first post. That is the only problem. Laws, Bans, Governmental Regulations. They just can't seem to let this country be free like its promoted. What a bunch of crooks.

JackP308 said:

I did I still haven't seen the problems As you can see where I stand on the situation from my first post. That is the only problem. Laws, Bans, Governmental Regulations. They just can't seem to let this country be free like its promoted. What a bunch of crooks.

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Well there are certain things that need to be protected so that we can live in this free country, no???

IMHO I don't understand why you would breed an animal that is known to produce 50+ babies, and then think that an acceptable solution to what you were going to do with them would be to release them into the wild? I realize you say you are kidding, however there WILL be people who read this thread, and start thinking that it's actually a good idea.

Michelle

EvilLost said:

NO.



THIS IS WHY THE PYTHON BAN IS HAPPENING. [/U][/B]

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They use the is against us when It makes absolutely no sense. They have an issue with ONLY SOUTH FLORIDA but The whole country pays for it. Cats dogs and everything else should be banned to then.They actually invade the whole continent not just the everglades.

While the ecosystem has been severely impacted by the transfer of plants and animals to places that they would not have normally been able to get to by humans, and the whole planet is on the downhill anyhow with unatural polution and such. It would still be a good idea to try to keep these "incidents" to a minimum. You never know how much of an impact it may have. The new population may survive and flurish for 5 years, then grow to big, eat all the available food, and starve to death, the the spiders they were eating are now gone, the spiders dont keep the grasshoppers and masquitos in check, and then your covered in grasshoppers and mesquitos, you cant eat your pizza when your covered in mesquitos and grasshoppers, so you dont buy pizza, papa johns goes out of business, then the pepperoni farm they get pepperoni from in siberia goes out of business, they lay everyone off, and so the entire population of siberia dies of starvation and heartburn, because all they have is an exccess of pepperonis to eat, so you wind up killing off all of siberia because you released a gravid veiled chameleon in your backyard.
Thats why its not a good idea...