Sambava Baby Development

[chequepoint]

Short version of the story..
Last month I acquired a new baby cham from a local pet store, I'm close with the owner, they're a good store, and I took it on trade for some services that I provided. That said, its not how I'd normally go about acquiring a chameleon.

He ordered a sambava and an ambilobe from his wholesaler, and they arrived unmarked. Now, with full understanding that they could both be one, both be the other, be something completely different entirely, or be hybrids.. assuming some level of honesty from the wholesaler, and complete idiocy from the person packing the box..

I THINK I ended up with the sambava. He's probably approaching 4 months old or so. My baby ambilobe developed his oranges first, then blues, then greens and reds. The other one at the store is starting to show some orange coloration. This guy is only showing greens right now, and its a dark emerald type green. I'm aware that sambavas develop color much slower than ambilobes.

Does anyone have any experience or pictures of how baby sambavas tend to develop?

 

[Fidel]

Look for a "U" bar on the sambava. Post pics of what you have.

 

[chequepoint]

He's shedding today, i'll try and get pics tomorrow.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

I agree with Fidel. A true Sambava should always have a "U" bar, rather than a deep "V" or "Y". I've only seen 1 or 2 photos, out of hundreds, where someone claimed to have a true Sambava that did not have a "U" bar. That should be your determining factor. As for the color- we raise Sambavas, and Ambilobes, from babies. They really do tend to color up in the same way, with very similar coloration, during the first 4 months or so. The only difference being that our Ambilobes color up sooner than our male Sambavas. Of course, later on, you will be able to see truer colors come out. But for now, I'd use the bar pattern.

That is probably why the person who packed them did not label the individual tubs. Although it is always a good idea to do so, if the Sambava had an obvious "U" bar and the Ambilobe had an obvious "V" or "Y", then the person packing may have thought labeling the tubs would not be necessary.

JUVENILE SAMBAVA SHOWING "u" BAR

YOUNGER JUVENILE AMBILOBE WITH "V" BAR