Chameleon Price?

[chamowleon]

Hi,
I've been wanting a chameleon for quite some time now, but I am unable to get one because I will be heading off to college in a little of a year.
I was wondering, what have you all paid for your chameleon? I want to get an idea of what a common price to pay would be and why you decided to pay as much or as little as you did. I have looked around and I am just curious as to whether I should pay high, or look low.
Thanks!!

 

[reptilover]

Find wat you want and pay a reputable breeder wat he asks.. simply put
Are we talkin chams or the whole setup?
I got a male veiled for 90 bucks.
All said and done with I'm near a 1000 into it

 

[dcooley08]

^^^^^well said

all reputable breeders have nice healthy chams. you cant beat that. anything low on price should seem suspiciouse as to an unhealthy improperly cared for cham. you dont want that. check out our classified section!!! there are plenty of members on here selling offspring.

 

[Wykd]

You get what you pay for.

Seriously though avoid the petsmart, petco reptiles. They usually cause heart break because of the poor condition they are kept in at the store, and they usually are over charging in the 1st place.

Cost depends on the kind of cham you want, there are more common ones and less common/more desirable color combinations, etc... but as they said its not the cost of the cham itself but the cost for enclosure, equipment to monitor temp/humidity, plants, misting equipment, etc... then comes the feeders and a container for them.

I am not trying to discourage but it can nickel and dime its way up to a 1k easy for a cham if starting from 0.

 

[Olimpia]

I've gotten chameleons from reputable people/breeders from $125 to $450 the animal, so it really depends on what you're looking for.

I've gotten pure panther locale males for $150 and others for $250-300 so there is a chameleon for every budget if you know where to look. So far I haven't gotten one I wasn't completely happy with! But researching the people's reputation is vital, otherwise you can't know if the person/breeder is someone worth doing business with or not.

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

You need to figure out which type of chameleon works best for you and then determine how much you have to spend. You also need to set aside several hundred dollars for vets and emergencies.

It is also a very time consuming process, settign up the enclosure and making sure all the parameters are correct and dialed in. These are all things that need to be done before the chameleon arrives.

 

[bluewuta]

I agree Price isnt the factor when looking. Look for quality. When you look for a cheap one you end up paying more for vet bills and trying to get them in shape then you would have if you bought a good quality one from a breeder and paid a little more. When i first started I was dumb and looked for the deals and ended up paying for cheap ones and after they didnt make it do to health problems, parasites and such, I ended up in the long run paying three times or more then what I would have if I only had gone to a good breeder.

 

[JonRich]

like Olympia stated. There are reputable (small scale) breeders that have quality Chams at lower prices!

If you just want a pet, there are tonss of well-priced Chams in the 4/S section right now. Between $150-$200.

I recently spent the most i have spent for a Cham , which was $450. I went with this because i have plans of breeding and this line is a bit more high-profile and the breeders keep amazing records of their bloodlines!! This is a usefull tool for me because i can dig back 2-3, sometimes 4 generations of both the mother and father side to see potential GOODs or BADs!! This i will gladly pay more for!!

I have not yet been dissapoined with a cham purched for a bit more from a repotable breeder.

 

[JonRich]

You need to figure out which type of chameleon works best for you and then determine how much you have to spend. You also need to set aside several hundred dollars for vets and emergencies. .

I have found in my personal experience that buying from a reputable breeder (do your own research on the many out there) gives you a lessor chance of needing a vet if your husbandry is on point. All of my Chams till this day never needed a vet visit. But i did it as a precaution anyway.

It is also a very time consuming process, settign up the enclosure and making sure all the parameters are correct and dialed in. These are all things that need to be done before the chameleon arrives.

This is the fun part for me!

 

[Rodger]

I don't disagree with the above advice , but I bought a male veiled from PetSmart . $99 regilar price on sale for $69 . 7 or 10 day health gaurantee . If any trouble , they take it back & " supposedly " have a vet attend to it . If it gets better , they offer it to you again . I had bought a female veiled off of Craigslist several months ago & everything was fine until it ingested some substrate . I got alot of supplies etc with the 1rst cham , but still have spent about $500 since .

 

[Olimpia]

I don't disagree with the above advice , but I bought a male veiled from PetSmart . $99 regilar price on sale for $69 . 7 or 10 day health gaurantee . If any trouble , they take it back & " supposedly " have a vet attend to it . If it gets better , they offer it to you again . I had bought a female veiled off of Craigslist several months ago & everything was fine until it ingested some substrate . I got alot of supplies etc with the 1rst cham , but still have spent about $500 since .

But this doesn't have anything to do with the person/place you got her from? What happens while in your cage is out of their control. If she arrived with an infection or something that's different, but unless I'm reading this wrong, it just sounds like bad luck?

 

[chamowleon]

I am willing to pay decent money. I have looked at different breeders and some of their chameleons just stand out more than with other sites. I want a panther chameleon, and I want a very beautiful, healthy cham. If I need to spend the extra money for it, I'm prepared, but if not..I don't want to be "scammed" also, is it a better deal to buy a cham with a setup kit, or buy it all separately??

 

[maxttu]

I find myself shopping for the Cham more than I do for myself! Always looking for plants, decor, etc...IT. NEVER. ENDS!!!

Research what you want, budget accordingly and then multiply that tenfold!

 

[hpc1979]

Chameleon Price

Well... All I have to say is do your home work. When I was a kid I had Chameleons. They didn't really cost me a lot. I raise them on a teenagers salary. I basically bought my Veiled Chameleons and put them in a glass enclosures, and they did vine. Now.... We have the internet, and it can be a wonderful tool. So being a know-it-all in lizard care, one thing I remembered from having other reptiles was that I always wished I bought the biggest cage I could find right from the start. I went through so many cages. So... about a year ago I bought a Jackson Chameleon for my kids. I bought the biggest Exo-Terra XXL Tall Cage I could afford. Then I started researching more about enclosures for Chameleon. I never really realized how much wrong equipment I bought until it was too late. The cage I bought was about $300. I could have spent $200 less just to get the right type of cage, and it would have been just as good. READ! READ! READ! ASK! ASK! ASK! That hobby can be VERY EXPENSIVE. So don't make the same mistakes I made. At least the mistake I made only gave me more reason to buy other types of reptiles. You might not want to make those same mistakes.

 

[pssh]

It really depends on the species and what you are looking for. With most chameleons, the majority of what you will be using the money on is the equipment/caging. A sponsor is always a good place to get one. A lot of the time you get what you pay for (with the sponsors.) There are also some great hobby breeders who sell them for cheaper. With small breeders, they generally can't ask for the same prices as a big breeder who has been in the business for 20 years can, so you can still get great quality for a more cheaply priced animal.

 

[Rodger]

But this doesn't have anything to do with the person/place you got her from? What happens while in your cage is out of their control. If she arrived with an infection or something that's different, but unless I'm reading this wrong, it just sounds like bad luck?

The 1rst part is in direct reply to the original OP's question . The part about the bad luck does not have anything to do with that , i mentioned that in reference to the expense mentioned in previous posts ... even though i got alot of supplies , fixtures , bulbs etc ( hundreds of dollars worth of stuff ) I have spent alot more as previous posters also mentioned .

 

[Rodger]

I am willing to pay decent money. I have looked at different breeders and some of their chameleons just stand out more than with other sites. I want a panther chameleon, and I want a very beautiful, healthy cham. If I need to spend the extra money for it, I'm prepared, but if not..I don't want to be "scammed" also, is it a better deal to buy a cham with a setup kit, or buy it all separately??

I take " a better deal " as getting the best value on what money you are going to spend . I bought a 12x12x24 exto set-up with a young female cham for $100 with a bunch of stuff that would have cost hundres more bought seperate . A few months later , I bought a 18x18x24 ecto set-up with lots of extras from a gal who had a chameleon for 5 years . I assume it passed . She did not want to get another & sold me the set-up for $75 ( Craigslist ) . The advice about buying 1 time on an enclosure is very accurate . While I like & will continue to use what I have , i need & will get a screen enclosure . The advice about constantly buying more is extremely accurate . Much depends on how how much time you want to wait vs how much you want to spend .