CauseNAffect
Member
Hello keepers,
I'd like start by saying thank you to all of you for being part of something truly amazing, and lending your advice and knowledge to others, who wish to join our little world of chameleon husbandry. The act of replicating an environment in such great detail, facilitating a peaceful and healthy life for a wild animal is something I have grown to appreciate more with time.
Something happened to me 2 weeks ago and that I would like to share with you all. Keep in mind that my intentions have always been to do what is best for my animal, as well as educate and at times amuse myself with the behavior and lifestyle of such a wonderful creature.
To begin, my name is Kirk, and I live in Manhattan, New York City. I have a melleri chameleon who is about 3 years old now and has been in my care since very early on in his life. He has a freerange setup with multiple basking spots, a highway to travel and look out the window, and enough space to make multiple chameleons quite comfortable. Misters running, frequent showers, a variety of insects....quite the life.
About a month ago I decided that I wanted another chameleon. I was nervous knowing how delicate these chameleons are and I didn't want to upset the current Successful and stable environment that I had created. I was planning on getting a meller, but considering how territorial / difficult they are to sex, I didn't want to risk introducing a large potential problem by getting an animal shipped in the mail, which wouldn't work out, put stress on 2 animals... etc. I know that many people on this forum have more than one chameleon, some live together, some separate, but it didn't seem like an out of the question idea. I made the decision when buying crickets from petco to try out a medium sized beautifullllllllll veiled with gorgeous coloring that I had seen when waiting to get crickets at petco many times. It's typical look of desparity and climbing on that plastic ceiling grate in it's miserable GLASS cage made me want to save him as well. I also had a 10 day return in case it didn't work out... PERFECT. I could see how my chameleon reacted and monitor the new change closely, with insurance, seemed like a good idea.
After 4 days of this new relationship, all seemed great. Separate spots in my freerange, separate food, out of direct sight. The veiled of about 5-6 inch length (base- no tail incl.) was following the big guy around, sleeping where he slept, basking with him, I was worried about finding the little guy at first, then I became aware I would just have to find the big one and sure enough the lil tike would be right there. It was interesting seeing the slight and subtle personality changes, as if the new visitor was simply an inconvenience, a scoughable new house guest, as if my meller didn't care to waste his time with the spoils of companionship. I woke up on the 5th day, and walked over to see my cham as I do first thing every morning to see where he could be and that he is allright. I noticed a tail and set of feet hanging out of his mouth, twitching slightly. My first reaction was to yell, YOU ATE HIM, you ******* ate him, how could you! Instantly I grabbed the tail and had about a 3-5 minute tug of war to pull the lifeless, crushed body of the veiled out of his mouth, fearing any type of parasites or illnesses the veiled might have had complicating my meller's health, or bones / other complications from eating him. I had to get that chameleon out of his mouth. I finally pulled out the dead veiled, really a pathetic waste, a dead body to mark a bad decision, quickly ran over and flushed it's body down the toilet. And got back to checking on my own chameleon and making sure he was Ok. Such an unsanctimonious saddening death for the beautiful veiled, I wish I could've buried it but considering the only fresh soil was in central park, frozen in winter, I didn't have much other choice.
The interesting part of this experience came during the days after. The pondering, learning the lessons from this experience. Analyzing my own psychology, my ideas for a "companion" for the chameleon to have or a possible captive mating to happen. Was I irresponsible in not being able to forsee this attack, was it my interest in placing a human story / emotion / feelings onto an animal? Was it reckless or wrong of me to simply want to experiment with the behavior of my pet when introducing a slight change to it's environment on a scientific level?
After seeing my chameleon after the attack / kill, he was radiant for days after, displaying colors I haven't seen him display in some time. There was something about him that reeked of pride, and territorial dominance. But there was a very noticeable change in personality after this occurrence. I found it hard to not share that sense of pride with him, and respect him even more. Considering the fact that my own agenda, was very different from the agenda my meller had. His agenda, WAS SURVIVAL.
The punchline to this cruel joke or story, is that I set up a wild environment, for what I thought was a captive animal. I thought I could control things. But the truth of the matter is that HE IS VERY MUCH, a wild animal whom simply happens to tolerate my caring for. I was reminded of the very reasons I got him in the first place, that the very beauty of this animal doesn't lie in it's bright colors, but in it's very existence. That something could evolve, and live, and behave, in such a unique and subtle way. In the same way that people find plants beautiful, to watch them blossom, and change subtly with time, like a good wine. It is the finer things that enrich us. And my chameleon certainly enriches my life.
I guess the moral of the story is that in my case, my chameleon is a wild and solitary animal. My attempts at observing change for scientific reasons were met with reasons that science could not calculate or explain, that animals who are surviving will do WHATEVER it takes to live, and feed, even if we might not understand. All of your chameleons are built with this DNA, and all have this potential. Perhaps it's this unpredictability that makes them so interesting after all. That we can track, and montior beaviors and temperatures, but will never be able to predict what is truly WILD.
Hopefully there is something to be taken away by some of you keepers from this or to share in my experience. I don't condone, nor defend my own behavior, us humans are quite complicated as well, but this isn't a psychology forum now is it. I apologize to any of whom might find me irresponsible, hopefully keepers can take away something from this.
Thank you all for your continued exploration into such an awesome hobby.
Cheers - K
I'd like start by saying thank you to all of you for being part of something truly amazing, and lending your advice and knowledge to others, who wish to join our little world of chameleon husbandry. The act of replicating an environment in such great detail, facilitating a peaceful and healthy life for a wild animal is something I have grown to appreciate more with time.
Something happened to me 2 weeks ago and that I would like to share with you all. Keep in mind that my intentions have always been to do what is best for my animal, as well as educate and at times amuse myself with the behavior and lifestyle of such a wonderful creature.
To begin, my name is Kirk, and I live in Manhattan, New York City. I have a melleri chameleon who is about 3 years old now and has been in my care since very early on in his life. He has a freerange setup with multiple basking spots, a highway to travel and look out the window, and enough space to make multiple chameleons quite comfortable. Misters running, frequent showers, a variety of insects....quite the life.
About a month ago I decided that I wanted another chameleon. I was nervous knowing how delicate these chameleons are and I didn't want to upset the current Successful and stable environment that I had created. I was planning on getting a meller, but considering how territorial / difficult they are to sex, I didn't want to risk introducing a large potential problem by getting an animal shipped in the mail, which wouldn't work out, put stress on 2 animals... etc. I know that many people on this forum have more than one chameleon, some live together, some separate, but it didn't seem like an out of the question idea. I made the decision when buying crickets from petco to try out a medium sized beautifullllllllll veiled with gorgeous coloring that I had seen when waiting to get crickets at petco many times. It's typical look of desparity and climbing on that plastic ceiling grate in it's miserable GLASS cage made me want to save him as well. I also had a 10 day return in case it didn't work out... PERFECT. I could see how my chameleon reacted and monitor the new change closely, with insurance, seemed like a good idea.
After 4 days of this new relationship, all seemed great. Separate spots in my freerange, separate food, out of direct sight. The veiled of about 5-6 inch length (base- no tail incl.) was following the big guy around, sleeping where he slept, basking with him, I was worried about finding the little guy at first, then I became aware I would just have to find the big one and sure enough the lil tike would be right there. It was interesting seeing the slight and subtle personality changes, as if the new visitor was simply an inconvenience, a scoughable new house guest, as if my meller didn't care to waste his time with the spoils of companionship. I woke up on the 5th day, and walked over to see my cham as I do first thing every morning to see where he could be and that he is allright. I noticed a tail and set of feet hanging out of his mouth, twitching slightly. My first reaction was to yell, YOU ATE HIM, you ******* ate him, how could you! Instantly I grabbed the tail and had about a 3-5 minute tug of war to pull the lifeless, crushed body of the veiled out of his mouth, fearing any type of parasites or illnesses the veiled might have had complicating my meller's health, or bones / other complications from eating him. I had to get that chameleon out of his mouth. I finally pulled out the dead veiled, really a pathetic waste, a dead body to mark a bad decision, quickly ran over and flushed it's body down the toilet. And got back to checking on my own chameleon and making sure he was Ok. Such an unsanctimonious saddening death for the beautiful veiled, I wish I could've buried it but considering the only fresh soil was in central park, frozen in winter, I didn't have much other choice.
The interesting part of this experience came during the days after. The pondering, learning the lessons from this experience. Analyzing my own psychology, my ideas for a "companion" for the chameleon to have or a possible captive mating to happen. Was I irresponsible in not being able to forsee this attack, was it my interest in placing a human story / emotion / feelings onto an animal? Was it reckless or wrong of me to simply want to experiment with the behavior of my pet when introducing a slight change to it's environment on a scientific level?
After seeing my chameleon after the attack / kill, he was radiant for days after, displaying colors I haven't seen him display in some time. There was something about him that reeked of pride, and territorial dominance. But there was a very noticeable change in personality after this occurrence. I found it hard to not share that sense of pride with him, and respect him even more. Considering the fact that my own agenda, was very different from the agenda my meller had. His agenda, WAS SURVIVAL.
The punchline to this cruel joke or story, is that I set up a wild environment, for what I thought was a captive animal. I thought I could control things. But the truth of the matter is that HE IS VERY MUCH, a wild animal whom simply happens to tolerate my caring for. I was reminded of the very reasons I got him in the first place, that the very beauty of this animal doesn't lie in it's bright colors, but in it's very existence. That something could evolve, and live, and behave, in such a unique and subtle way. In the same way that people find plants beautiful, to watch them blossom, and change subtly with time, like a good wine. It is the finer things that enrich us. And my chameleon certainly enriches my life.
I guess the moral of the story is that in my case, my chameleon is a wild and solitary animal. My attempts at observing change for scientific reasons were met with reasons that science could not calculate or explain, that animals who are surviving will do WHATEVER it takes to live, and feed, even if we might not understand. All of your chameleons are built with this DNA, and all have this potential. Perhaps it's this unpredictability that makes them so interesting after all. That we can track, and montior beaviors and temperatures, but will never be able to predict what is truly WILD.
Hopefully there is something to be taken away by some of you keepers from this or to share in my experience. I don't condone, nor defend my own behavior, us humans are quite complicated as well, but this isn't a psychology forum now is it. I apologize to any of whom might find me irresponsible, hopefully keepers can take away something from this.
Thank you all for your continued exploration into such an awesome hobby.
Cheers - K