Importing chameleons into South Africa.... quarantine!

chameleonneeds

chameleonneeds

Avid Member
Hey all I have been trying very hard to import chameleons into south africa.

But I get stuck behind something everytime thanks to department of agriculture.

This is the storry:

If you want to import an animal (even small chameleon) WC or CB it has to go through quarantine of not a day or a few hours, nooo 30 days.

The worst thing is that during quarantine the temperature are not allowed to go below 26c which is around 80f, even at night, and if it does go below for a few hours the quarantine process has to be started allllll ove again from day 1, so how is a chameleon suppose to survive those constant temps for 30 days?? someone please tell me?

This whole quarantine thing seems to me to be doing more harm than anything good to the animals!

Any one have any thoughts on this?
 
chameleonneeds said:
Hey all I have been trying very hard to import chameleons into south africa.

But I get stuck behind something everytime thanks to department of agriculture.

This is the storry:

If you want to import an animal (even small chameleon) WC or CB it has to go through quarantine of not a day or a few hours, nooo 30 days.

The worst thing is that during quarantine the temperature are not allowed to go below 26c which is around 80f, even at night, and if it does go below for a few hours the quarantine process has to be started allllll ove again from day 1, so how is a chameleon suppose to survive those constant temps for 30 days?? someone please tell me?

This whole quarantine thing seems to me to be doing more harm than anything good to the animals!

Any one have any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

Maybe you should consider another animals. Why go through the trouble?
 
honestly i think this is part of the reason why chameleons that are imported come in such bad shape.

Unfortunately i don't think there is a way around this, and alot of importers do bulk orders and take their chances on loosing a few.
 
Ya that is really weird. Maybe you could look around for breeders or importers in your area who could give you some tips.

I believe the reason he doesn't want a different animal is because chameleons are thebest :p
 
Minihuey said:
Maybe you should consider another animals. Why go through the trouble?
Click to expand...

I have 5 veileds, and some bradypodions.

Any panthers in S.A are inbred, spastic ambanjas, so I am not buying those.

Why go through the trouble, because I am huge enthusiast, no one else is bothered to try and import, and the only species we have available are melleri, those inbred panthers, inbred carpets, theres maybe 1 pair of oustalets, some lethargic brookesia thieli, some parsons (who got that right I dont know) and thats about it, anything else, I either do not know about or everyone is too scared to sell their babies from breeding stock.

I live in South Africa right... thats in africa... where all of some of the best chameleons come from right..... BUT.... you have seen more chameleon species than me!
 
Rocky said:
Ya that is really weird. Maybe you could look around for breeders or importers in your area who could give you some tips.

I believe the reason he doesn't want a different animal is because chameleons are thebest :p
Click to expand...

Thats exactly why, I know an importer in the western cape that imports panthers (lots) but they never reach the market, because they are to scared to sell anythin! And I have spoken to him about all of this and he told me the last time he imported he lost 60% of the animals in quarantine, and 40% afterwards, they were CB.
 
Sang said:
honestly i think this is part of the reason why chameleons that are imported come in such bad shape.

Unfortunately i don't think there is a way around this, and alot of importers do bulk orders and take their chances on loosing a few.
Click to expand...

Right now I am not in the financial place to take a risk loosing a few, how ever if I can get a few jacksons to make it that would be great, because then if a female drops I can sell the babies and make back the money I lost to the whole process, plus my parents woukd kill me if what they thought would be maybe 3000 rands worth of chams turns out to maybe 30 000 rands worth of chameleons aaand to top it off, nearly all of them die.
 
that tragically is the struggles in this, and has horrible it is, that is a common practice.

also i was under the impression that certain species of chams were illegal in JB, but i could totally be wrong.


which jacksons species are you trying to bring in. 30 days of tuff conditions are hard, BUT in the US i am told you are able to go to the quarintine grounds everyday. dunno how it is out there
 
chameleonneeds said:
I have 5 veileds, and some bradypodions.

Any panthers in S.A are inbred, spastic ambanjas, so I am not buying those.

Why go through the trouble, because I am huge enthusiast, no one else is bothered to try and import, and the only species we have available are melleri, those inbred panthers, inbred carpets, theres maybe 1 pair of oustalets, some lethargic brookesia thieli, some parsons (who got that right I dont know) and thats about it, anything else, I either do not know about or everyone is too scared to sell their babies from breeding stock.

I live in South Africa right... thats in africa... where all of some of the best chameleons come from right..... BUT.... you have seen more chameleon species than me!
Click to expand...


Maybe we should all move to madagascar. :D
 
@ Sang: I am waiting for my first veiled clutch to hatch so I can use the money to perhaps put into importing the chameleons (However I do have an uncle with lots of money that would help me out in a click, but I will probably never ask him to because I dont want him to feel used, go figure)
You are right saying some species are illegal, but once they are in S.A and as long as they are exotic, they become legal to keep, its just not legal to import without permits (pretty stupid I know).
The parsons I believe were illegaly brought in because I saw like 10 in one cage all the same size juveniles, it was wierd because it looked like they were CB, maybe someone bred them in madagascar, someone went over bought them, and smuggled them back.

I am trying to get any species from tanzania because they are rare in S.A, but my main is Jacksons, the species I can get in merumontanus, I am not sure about if I am allowed at the quarantine station because I havnt spoken directly to those people yet, and apparently they do not even have a quarantine station in Gauteng (the province (to you that would be like state) I live in) so it might be in some place not even accesible to me everyday.
 
Kind of ironic. We are jealous of you because you get to see all the a
amazing wildlife and you are jealous of us because of our pets :p

unfortunately, unless you can goto the quarantine grounds like sang said, it seemslike you are sol
 
Yeah sure you can look at the chameleons....you cant touch though, unless you have a permit, which are hard to get btw.

And like I said you live so far from the chameleons compared to me, yet you have seen more chameleons specie from there and everywhere than what I have ever seen.

the only native S.A species I have seen are flap neck, and bradypodion pumilum, I am on the look out for more bradypodions though.
 
Sang said:
...BUT in the US i am told you are able to go to the quarintine grounds everyday. dunno how it is out there
Click to expand...

Huh? What animals are quarantined when they are brought into the US? From personal experience I know for a fact that wild caught or captive bred reptile & amphibian shipments definitely aren't, nor are dogs, cats, sugar gliders, chinchillas, etc.

Chris
 
It sucks but the bigger picture is our local species are a lot less likely to be wiped out by a foreign bred virus or parasite.

South African wildlife experts are arguably the best in the world so you can imagine there was quite a bit of foresight that went into these decisions.
 
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