How old can you sell baby chameleons?

[Chameleon Mike]

So I have a panther and I'm trying to determine his age. I bought him last year and I didn't document his hatch day. I'm just trying to guess how old he is. I bought him at a reptile show. The pics are of him when I first got him in June of last year and one taken in January.

 

[Andee]

He looks wayyy to young to have been sold by a well meaning breeder. In my opinion in his baby pic he isn't any older than 2 months, more likely younger. I would never ever sell a baby that young.

 

[jannb]

He looks to be around 2 months old in the first picture. He sure is a handsome boy now.

 

[Andee]

Definitely agree with you Jann he is gorgeous <3

 

[Chameleon Mike]

Thanks for your replies. He is awesome. He comes to the door to be held everyday when I get home from work. He does this with the kids as well. I'm hoping to get him a girlfriend this weekend at the reptile show. Hopefully next year I'll be showing you pics of the babies.

Thanks again.

 

[broderp]

I'm not sure you can always tell age accurately by size. My new cham was hatched 10-16-17 and is just over 4 months old when I got him from Canvas Chameleons. (Site sponsor - check them out sometime! - yes, this is a shameless plug , they were great to do business with.)

I know I didn't get the "Pick of the Litter" as my boy was not the Alpha in his clutch and was not nearly as large as the first one Nick offered me. My Cham was maybe a week younger than the the bigger cham I passed on.

My point is that my little guy is 4 months old but doesn't appear that much larger than the baby picture of yours. He's bigger, but not by much. Not all Chams are the same size or develop at the same rate, but they usually fill out nicely and catch up eventually.

Your cham definitely look like he grew up and filled out quite nicely!

 

[Andee]

I do agree with this. But the thing that automatically made me nervous was the fact the OP said reptile show. There are so many horror stories about that. I also know some of our site sponsors sell there and sell perfectly amazing chameleons like always. It just depends of course ^^

 

[broderp]

I do agree with this. But the thing that automatically made me nervous was the fact the OP said reptile show. There are so many horror stories about that. I also know some of our site sponsors sell there and sell perfectly amazing chameleons like always. It just depends of course ^^

I have to ask, why is this such a bad thing? What is the difference between a person who is familiar with basic husbandry and care getting a Cham at 2 months old vs. a breeder who raised them from and egg thru the day they sell them?

Health issues aside (assuming reputable breeders have a vet on call and have all their babies vet checked before selling) what harm can be done in having a younger Cham in it's final home earlier to get use to it's surroundings and owner? We all know that WC adult Chams may never get tame or shy away from people, but wouldn't the opposite be true as well? If all they ever know is you and are handled from day one by an owner, they would not be stressed out. Seems that would be one well adjusted Cham.

What am I missing?

 

[NHenn]

@broderp Thank you for the plug hahaha!

I would assume right around the two month mark as well but as others said it is hard to tell as each baby will grow up differently. Some will be the leaders and some will grow up slower just like us as humans. It doesn't mean our parents didn't feed us or care for us, we just all grow up differently and at our own pace.

For reference, I like to wait till the 3-4 month mark as by that stage they are usually at the correct size for shipping and their new homes. I have let babies go younger (under 3 months) when someone is doing a local pickup and is 100% comfortable with them being younger. So that is most likely why you see at reptile shows the babies being younger because they don't have the overnight shipping to factor in and the customers can see the chameleon and make sure they are comfortable with one being a month or two younger.

 

[Chameleon Mike]

@broderp Thank you for the plug hahaha!

I would assume right around the two month mark as well but as others said it is hard to tell as each baby will grow up differently. Some will be the leaders and some will grow up slower just like us as humans. It doesn't mean our parents didn't feed us or care for us, we just all grow up differently and at our own pace.

For reference, I like to wait till the 3-4 month mark as by that stage they are usually at the correct size for shipping and their new homes. I have let babies go younger (under 3 months) when someone is doing a local pickup and is 100% comfortable with them being younger. So that is most likely why you see at reptile shows the babies being younger because they don't have the overnight shipping to factor in and the customers can see the chameleon and make sure they are comfortable with one being a month or two younger.

Thank you. That is wasn't I figured was that he was probably at least one month old. That makes sense that if it's local and the person can look at a group of chameleons it might be better for some people. That is the biggest reason I got my first one at the show.

 

[Andee]

In my opinion there are a lot of reasons not too sell a baby too young. I agree with Nick not to sell below 3 months for sure unless you are positive the person knows what they are getting into and they are picking up locally. Raising babies that young is not easy. It takes getting the lighting system right. A lot of babies at young ages don't do well with brand new uvb lights, so you have to have older ones on hand. You also need to know the best basking light for you and usually young babies do not do well with a lot of heat. You need to be careful with misting, they do better at that age with shorter mistings more often, they dehydrate easier than adults. At young ages it's hard to switch them from flies to pinheads and dubia nymphs. At 1 months they should be able to eat all three. But whether they do is another question.

 

[EveryGreen]

i bought my cham from LLL and they claimed he was a month old

 

[Chameleon Mike]

Maybe I was just lucky. I know that without this site it would have been a lot harder for me to care for him properly. I really don't think it was hard at all with all the help from here. I've made some mistakes but was able to correct them before it caused a problem. I'll have to let everyone know when I get his girlfriend set up over here.