identifying my chameleon

Doxy

New Member
i found this beautiful creature and now want to care for him/her, but i dont know the gender or the species. i need to know, so i can look after him or her properly.

i live in South Africa, Port Elizabeth, the temperatures here range from 18 degrees celsius to 30 degrees celsius, he or she is in a cage of 60 cm length, by 40 cm height with a glass panel and lots of ventilation. the lady at the pet shop gave me a red globe for when it is cold to keep the cage warm.

the chameleon is about 7cm in length.
there are rocks in the cage taken from its natural environment, lots of live foliage and branches to climb on.
he or she doesnt want the silkworms we got and as ive read only feed him or her crickets that are the size between its eyes. ive had him or her for 2 das now in which in total he or she has only eaten about 4 or 5 all together. he or she is very docile, and always light in colour.
i cleaned the cage yesterday and there was faeces in the cage.
i introduced a dripper and mist the cage lightly twice a day.

he or she os very still tho most of the day and sleeps alot.

any and all help is hugely appreciated.

two mommies of a chameleon.
 

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Hello,
this is a male bradypodion thamnobates.
Your cage is to small and those guys are really difficult to care for if you´re unexperienced.
Please release him where you found him.
They need temperatures of 15-18°C at night in summer and even less in winter.
Also they need day-temperatures of about 20°C in the winter.
The red bulb is useless in some aspects. It´s a infrared bulb, which nearly only produces warmth but nearly no light. As chameleons need a lot of light, a simple spot from any shop does a better job. Your chameleon is most probably dehydrated, sleeping during the day is a clear sign of either dehydration or serious illness.
You will need to have a vet search his poo for paracites and you need to find a way to make him drink asap. Chameleons only drink moving water, any bowl or similar are useless and will make hin sick if not cleaned properly.
You may try to give him water through the fly-screen at the top of his cage with a pipette or something similar and get a dripper as fast as possible. Also you need to spray the entire cage 2-3 times per day.
I would definitely recommend you to release him back into the wild, otherwise he will most probably die.
If you still want to keep him, give him an outside-cage somewhere he is not hit by the sun directly. Sun in the morning or evening is best, also he ALWAYS needs some shadow to cool down if necessary.
How are the temperatures at your place at winter and summer?
Did you find him close to your house?
Kind redards,
Robin
 
First of all it's very very illegal to keep them this way in SA ! You can get massive problems !
And its definitly no thamnobates
 
Which is it then? Damaranum?
I´m not an expert for bradypodion sepecies, to me it looks like thamnobates.
Eitherway it doesn´t make much of a difference, they are not something you may call a "beginner-cham" and as you already said, it´s illegal to take them from the wild so please, for your sake as well as for the chameleons sake, release him.
Regards,
Robin
 
:(
Taking him back tonight.
Found him on the side of the road. There bushes nearby, so will put him there.
Just wanted to take care of it :(
 
I would have to agree with the other posters, since it's illegal to take them from the wild, I would just go ahead and return him.
 
Which is it then? Damaranum?
I´m not an expert for bradypodion sepecies, to me it looks like thamnobates.
Eitherway it doesn´t make much of a difference, they are not something you may call a "beginner-cham" and as you already said, it´s illegal to take them from the wild so please, for your sake as well as for the chameleons sake, release him.
Regards,
Robin

No its probably a very nice specimen of gutturale or occidentale...
If you can keep them in their natural environment I dont know why it should be difficult to keep them wheather its illegal or not
 
Good decision :)
I can definitely understand you taking him with you but it´s the best for him to live in his
natural environment.
If possible, don´t release him next to the road but in some bush/tree with some distance.
You should take him in a small, dark box with a fixed branch for him to sit on and try to not make the box shake.
Regards,
Robin
 
No its probably a very nice specimen of gutturale or occidentale...
If you can keep them in their natural environment I dont know why it should be difficult to keep them wheather its illegal or not
He indeed is beautiful.
I didn´t know wheter he found him next to where he lives or somewhere else.
Still do not keep him please, it´s a serious act of crime and in the bad state he´s in right now, it´s best for him to be left alone.
Regards,
Robin
 
He was on his way into the road and we saw him.
I'll take pics of him when we put him into a tree.

Thank you and I'm sorry if I offended anyone. :(
 
No problem, you just didn´t know it´s illegal and wanted to help.
How about reading a lot about the species, building a cage, optimize the parameters and then buy one?
Regards,
Robin
 
He indeed is beautiful.
I didn´t know wheter he found him next to where he lives or somewhere else.
Still do not keep him please, it´s a serious act of crime and in the bad state he´s in right now, it´s best for him to be left alone.
Regards,
Robin

lol you said it will probally die an that its in bad shape? i havent seen these before maybe your an expert but it doesnt look like its on deaths door to me looks pretty healthy to me yea he should let it go bk where he found it cause its against the law.. if he is in bad shape it sure doesnt show it from the picture..
 
Well,
he said that the chameleon is sleeping a lot didn´t he?
He may be in good shape from what you can see, but if he sleeps during the day,
it means he´s either sick or dehydrated.
I said he would most probably die because i didn´t know he lives in the area these specimen live in and wanted to say that the chameleon will most probably die if he continues to keep it in inproper circumstances.
Regards,
Robin
 
The USA and Europe are probably "consuming" over 70 or more % of all WC chameleons, with little or no effort. So in my opinion we have definitly not any single reason to judge over somebody who can care probably much better for such an chameleon in it's natural habitat then we can ever do in our houses or gardens, wheather its illegal or not.
The only reason why states like Tanzania or Cameroon are allowing mass exports are the bribs for persons in their wildlife ministries. Humanity has way more serious problems than persons catching single chameleons... :rolleyes:
Edit: Yes, some guys in this hobby have an ethic horizon of a child. One the one hand everybody knows how corrupt the whole political circus is and on the other hand, even person knowing this, put themself on a higher level of self-righteousness because they have animals which are "farm raised" or whatever those animals are called. In the end it makes NO difference for the animal if its caught with the permisson of a buyed local authoritity or if its caught illegal. The effect is the same. The only difference exists in the pocket of some persons and self-righteousness of the buyer. Yeah, there are exceptional cases where authorities really focus on population densities and future development of species but those cases didnt even make a single percent in the global wildlife trade

@Robin: Your small parsonii is with 99% percentage an illegal caught one. The only difference between this parsonii and this Bradypodion is a single white sheet called "certificate of origin". Not more, not less
 
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Hello,
yes my parson´s is most probably WC, the difference is that i did not know that when i bought it and that i´ve been asured it´s a CB. And only because a lot of people buy WCs doesn´t mean it´s okay to take any chameleon you want from the wild.
Using the mistakes of others as an excuse is just ridiculous, sorry.
 
Hello,
yes my parson´s is most probably WC, the difference is that i did not know that when i bought it and that i´ve been asured it´s a CB. And only because a lot of people buy WCs doesn´t mean it´s okay to take any chameleon you want from the wild.
Using the mistakes of others as an excuse is just ridiculous, sorry.

you dont understand my point... I dont judge over anybody with a WC chameleon
 
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