So today I woke up to see the side of my room empty with no terrarium in site and it just felt sad because that's something we all love to wake up to a chameleon and seeing them I'm looking at getting a new one but thanks to this forums the guilt as faded but I don't know if its to early and thank you every body for helping me not beat myself up about this yesterday I felt like it was my fault ge died and now I know i was an accident love every one of you on this website
I struggled with this too. In fact, I was really close to just not even trying again after Max passed away. I was given advice about it on here, I took it, and made the decision pretty quickly to keep going. Plus, my son said he wanted to try again. That helped push me.
The second time around, I did everything completely different. I got rid of the "well we can probably get away with -this- mentality". I wouldn't even settle for the min recommended 2x2x4 enclosure. I told myself if I am gonna do it, I am going all out as much as I possibly can.
I still needed time to kinda grieve over Max. So, I decided to build my own enclosure, which I knew would take time. I made a 3x2x4 enclosure, which was the biggest I could possibly make for the space I had. Once it was time to treat the wood, I put a deposit down with Frams Chams (well I paid for the entire thing in advance). I got everything ready... all live plants. All real branches. Made sure I had all the right supplements, etc. and a good process. I had the enclosure being sustained a week before he even arrived.
I spent a LOT more (like double) on Spike than I was planning to. We don't have much money, and I'm back in school working on a degree, so budgeting has been tough lately, and so has time. And I can't be happier that I put all of that time, and money into Spike. I don't regret it at all. It was the right decision.
I've had Spike for about 4 months now. And being successful for him was a huge part of what helped me get over what happened with Max.
No one can tell you when you will be ready. You are gonna have to figure that out for yourself. But learning from the past and doing better (not saying anything was your fault, but usually it seems we can do things to prevent things from happening to our chameleons!) can certainly help. It helped me. Best of luck!
