Are Chameleons like boxes of chocolates ??

[ZippiesPal]

... you never know what (color) your gonna get.

I am happily awaiting bringing home a six month old Panther. Are all panther chams exactly the same? If they are different, can a person predict which colors they will have? Can a person get a green one with red stripes (for instance) or a blue one with green stripes, for example?

OR

Is each Panther chameleon a complete surprise?

I have been to the pet store and my little guy looks kinda green with some red (when excited), but I am wondering if he will have any blue. He is supposed to be six months old, and mostly looks grey with a little green when he is at rest in his cage. I have been told that his color wil brighten as he grows, but I wonder specificaly what colors I should expect to see. I dont mind the surprise either, but I am curious too.

 

[eisentrauti]

Please read a book before buying a chameleon or at least do some research in the internet (best pardalis farb morph pages)

http://www.pantherchameleon.de/?q=madagascar_chameleons/furcifer-pardalis-madagascar
http://pardalis.be/

 

[pssh]

Please do not buy from a pet store. Do your research and wait until you know how to take care of it. They are verydemanding animals. Pet stores usually sell you a bunch of stuff that is not needed or even harmful to the chameleon. If you support a pet store who cannot properly take care of a chameleon you are just killing the next one that comes in. They also usually way over price the animal.

Fill this out and we can help with your husbandry.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[Lancecham]

Knowing the bloodlines are important in knowing how the chameleon will possibly come out.
Most pet stores will buy panther chameleons and not have any idea what the bloodlines are.
So if you are looking for some particular coloration, find out what the bloodlines are.

 

[bradley]

getting from a breeder will make it easier to get a prediction on what colours your cham will have when older because u can see the parent.Dont buy from a petshop

 

[ZippiesPal]

Thankyou for your concern Pssh and others

The pet store I am buying from is a very reputable supplier of reptiles and reptile products. I am confident in them because all the research I have already done checks perfectly with what I am told at the petstore. I am completely confident.

I was only asking about the chams colors in this post.

I am very familiar with dog breeding, particularly German shepherd dogs. there are black shepherds, Sables, black and tans, and even white shepherds, but they are all German shepherds. A dalmation is still a dog, but will look different from a German shepherd, which will not look like a poodle. A couple years ago, I boutht a black shepherd and was surpursed to notice tan coloring on her legs. I love her very much and am in no way disappointed.

NO, she will not have access to Zippy !!

Perhaps I did not ask the question correctly.
A panther is a kind of Chameleon, which is a kind of reptile.

Can Panthers be subclassed according to other characteristics, like color? If so, what are the names of these sub-classes and what colors are expected within these sub-classed groups?
A german Shepherd is a kind of dog, which is a kind of mammal. As I described above there are different types of German shepherd dogs as grouped by color.

I was only trying to be funny with my Forest Gump reference.

 

[eisentrauti]

After the questions you asking here, I'm quite sure that you haven't done enough of research. To compare dogs with chameleons is like comparing apples and oranges

 

[hallenhe]

Panthers are subclassed by "morph" or "locale" - different regions of their native island, Madagascar, have given rise to different colors and/or patterns, due to genetic drift, sexual selection or other reasons. If you look through some of the breeders in our sponsors list, you'll see examples of some different color varieties; Screameleons, for example, works with several morphs and shows a good range. Eisentrauit's links (second post) have a lot of good pictures; the text is in German and French, but the names of the chameleon types will be the same (being named after parts of Madagascar). Ankaramys are known as pink panthers; Nosy Bes are bred for something approaching a solid sky blue (in the wild, they're more likely to show barring, and some more turquoises and greens). Ambilobes tend towards red or blue barring against a green background, and the same individual may display either red or blue in different moods or at different times in his life.
Panthers tend to reach full coloration at around 18 months - a six month old should give you some indication of the adult colors, but will continue to develop. Your description of green with some red puts me in mind of Ambilobes, at least if the red is in vertical bars across the flanks and tail, and on the underside; some Ambilobes display blue, but I'm only making a very rough guess here.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Check this website for some examples of different common panther colour patterns associated with the original local of that "morph"

http://adcham.com/html/taxonomy/pardalismorphs.html

Know that buying from a pet shop, even a good one, often means getting a hybrid, not a "pure" breed. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with a mutt, except perhaps that predicting what it will grow up to look like in terms of colour is difficult if not impossible.

 

[ZippiesPal]

Hallenhe,
I googled Panthers and got a list of about seven types, and recognized "Ambilobe" among them. I remember that from the enclosure Zippy was in when I first saw him.
Zippy is a six month old male Ambilobe Panther Chameleon. And I was wondering what colors I should expect.

Eisentrauti,
I was not comparing behaviors, or size, between dogs and Chameleons, a person would have to be really stupid to assume such a comparison could even be made.
The comparison was to illistrate that all species fall into higher and lower classifications. Dogs, cats, people and giraffs all fall into the catagory of mammal, but there are different types of dogs, and different types of cats, and diffferent races of people. Chameleons are part of the reptile group and within that group there are many types of reptiles. That is what I was trying to get to.

Apples and oranges are both fruits, and are easily compared to one another, depending on what your sorting for.

 

[sandrachameleon]

All panthers are Furcifer pardalis

Kingdom: Animal
Phylum: Chordata
Class: reptile
Order: Squamata
Family: Chamaeloenidae/Chameleon
Genus: Fucifer
Species: Pardalis

As hallenhe said, the colour patterns within Fudifer pardalis relate to the location from which they come. One might refer to these colour group locals as tribes.

There is quite a lot of variation within Ambilobe

 

[GeckoGal]

I was only asking about the chams colors in this post.

The only reason why were bringing up the care of chameleons in this post is because there's many different locale's of chameleons. By asking if "there like a box of chocolate" suggest you didn't do all the research needed. There's no way of guessing what colors are going to be now because you don't know the bloodlines. If you bought from a responsible dealer online you can see the bloodlines and you can make a pretty accurate guess one what your cham will look like, although you never know for sure. I'm guessing it will either be a cross or a ambilobe. The people on here care a lot about there chameleons, and want to make sure they get the best care possible. They're very nice people who will answer your questions happily, Please do you research.

 

[GeckoGal]

I posted that before I saw your post #10.

 

[pssh]

If you want to know what colors to expect without knowing the locale I can only give you this answer. Expect any color.