Good idea to buy pet store Veiled who's been eating silk?

[MonoNatural]

First time poster, so plz move this to the appropriate forum if this is the wrong one!

Hello,
I am looking for a male veiled, and they are hard to buy in my area, except through the mail. The local pet reptile expert in my area has no access to Veiled's at the moment. One pet store that I can find has this little guy (pictured), but the first time I saw him he was gnawing on one of those silk plants. As you can see, that silk vine is completely chewed up on every one of it's leaves. I don't know if he did that or if they are not feeding or watering all of their past chams. enough and they all contributed to it.

Also, I noticed he has some black dots/lines on his side (visible in picture), are those normal? Do they go away with age? Could someone provide an estimate of his age?
The pet store workers don't know very much about chameleons, they originally told me it was a female, but I pointed out that he has visible heel spurs (not pictured), so I am weary to start asking detailed questions from them.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[MonoNatural]

Sorry to bump but I'm really worried about this little guy. I know its not a good idea to feel like you're 'rescuing' a pet from poor treatment at a store...but I don't know what else to do.
Does anyone know anything about those black dots/line?

 

[blazake68]

I'm no expert but those vertical shadow looking lines/dots look like his patterning coming in, him just beginning to get his colors. Also trying to eat leaves is pretty normal for veiled chameleons and if they mist he's probably trying to drink from those silk leaves.. I think it's good to rescue them from companies that don't know how to care for chameleons but hate to endorse them to go do the same to more. It's a double edged sword.

 

[MonoNatural]

Thanks for your response.
I really meant the horizontal black line, visible behind his front knee....I have found 1 or 2 pictures of that on baby chams online, but I don't know how usual it is.

 

[blazake68]

I see that now, I'm not real sure about that weird black mark..