Tardis-engineer-Xan
I found a mature veiled chameleon in my fenced in yard in October. She was receptive, extremely skinny but not unhealthy, and completely unexplained. I named her Circuit, as a reference to my long time love of the show Doctor Who.
Imagine you are me- an adult still living at home because of the insane cost of living in CA. You have wanted a reptile for over 20 years, specifically a snake; a ball python or a sweet little corn. Your parents nearly gave you one for your 15th birthday 11 years ago, but decided against it because Mom couldn’t stomach the idea of keeping frozen mice in her freezer. You’ve never owned a reptile.
It’s October 16th, 2022, a Sunday, and approximately 12:45 pm when your younger but equally adult brother yells up the stairs “guys there’s this weird huge lizard outside!”
There, meandering in the empty dirt vegetable beds in the side yard, is a literal chameleon. Just walking through the dirt.
You run to Petsmart to get temporary housing and food until the owner is found. You live on a busy street where many a cat or squirrel has met their end; even at top speed, this lizard is slow as molasses, so it couldn’t have come from across the street. The chameleon isn’t dehydrated despite the lack of rain, so she couldn’t have been out in the wild for long. You ask all nearby neighbors and post on several neighborhood Facebook pages about a lost reptile. There’s nothing.
You research. It is a female veiled chameleon, fully mature. Chameleons are notoriously difficult to keep alive and healthy, and don’t live very long, but within a week it’s too late for you; you’ve bonded with the antisocial dinosaur. And you’re not religious and don’t believe in “destiny”, not really, but this certainly feels like it and it’d be wrong to refuse, right? Months, dozens of hours of research, oodles of stress and nearly $2000 later, the rest is history.
I’ve been lurking on these forums for months before making an account, but I’m obviously still incredibly inexperienced. Her enclosure is still not fully set up (don’t have mistking set up, enclosure backgrounds, or enough branches & plants) but it’s getting there. Research online and a single trip to a vet can only do so much, and I want to do everything to give Circuit the quality of life she deserves.
Imagine you are me- an adult still living at home because of the insane cost of living in CA. You have wanted a reptile for over 20 years, specifically a snake; a ball python or a sweet little corn. Your parents nearly gave you one for your 15th birthday 11 years ago, but decided against it because Mom couldn’t stomach the idea of keeping frozen mice in her freezer. You’ve never owned a reptile.
It’s October 16th, 2022, a Sunday, and approximately 12:45 pm when your younger but equally adult brother yells up the stairs “guys there’s this weird huge lizard outside!”
There, meandering in the empty dirt vegetable beds in the side yard, is a literal chameleon. Just walking through the dirt.
You run to Petsmart to get temporary housing and food until the owner is found. You live on a busy street where many a cat or squirrel has met their end; even at top speed, this lizard is slow as molasses, so it couldn’t have come from across the street. The chameleon isn’t dehydrated despite the lack of rain, so she couldn’t have been out in the wild for long. You ask all nearby neighbors and post on several neighborhood Facebook pages about a lost reptile. There’s nothing.
You research. It is a female veiled chameleon, fully mature. Chameleons are notoriously difficult to keep alive and healthy, and don’t live very long, but within a week it’s too late for you; you’ve bonded with the antisocial dinosaur. And you’re not religious and don’t believe in “destiny”, not really, but this certainly feels like it and it’d be wrong to refuse, right? Months, dozens of hours of research, oodles of stress and nearly $2000 later, the rest is history.
I’ve been lurking on these forums for months before making an account, but I’m obviously still incredibly inexperienced. Her enclosure is still not fully set up (don’t have mistking set up, enclosure backgrounds, or enough branches & plants) but it’s getting there. Research online and a single trip to a vet can only do so much, and I want to do everything to give Circuit the quality of life she deserves.
