Chamera
New Member
This post is dedicated to my very first chameleon lala, whom even though she died about 12 years ago, i still remember her as the best pet I've ever had 
.
When i was 10 years old, i was one of those people who spontaneously bought a chameleon from a pet store, without the knowledge of proper husbandry and care requirements needed for the well-being of these amazing and beautiful creatures. To my (current) amazement, i had a really good first experience with chameleons, i got really lucky. With my mother being a biologist i knew about the basic need for direct sunlight all diurnal reptiles need for thermoregulation and calcium processing and i was extremely lucky that my first chameleon, lala, had a really tolerant attitude towards handling (now, 12 years later, i find out about the dangers of stress!). Basically i took her out to the sun everyday, she spent most of the time out of her cage (which was glass, thanks to the pet store ) since i live in the caribbean. She always ate healthily and was very active during day. She never gaped her mouth at me and it was only until recently that i found out that chameleons bite.
Something that surprised me when i started reading about chameleon husbandry is that they don't change color to match their surroundings, while i remember (quite vividly) that when i put her on my red couch she would go red and even when i put her on a patterned surface she would copy it as best she could as well (even fooling my cat during one escape attempt!), but she could not do all colors (like blue for example).
Unfortunately she died one day while i was at school by suffocating with a too big wild insect . I cried a lot that day being a little kid, and i still miss her. Shortly thereafter chameleons were made illegal here (or so i thought, until just recently) since they could possibly thrive in this tropical climate. I only had 2 others who died shortly after i got them since they didn't have the same social disposition and got very sick with being handled . Now, with all the things that I've recently learned in the past months about the care of chams i think I'm ready to make another little guy happy with the proper care they need to thrive and hope my experience is an enhanced one to the previous. Im really glad i found this community and hope that at least someone enjoys the tiny bit of experience i had to share .
.When i was 10 years old, i was one of those people who spontaneously bought a chameleon from a pet store, without the knowledge of proper husbandry and care requirements needed for the well-being of these amazing and beautiful creatures. To my (current) amazement, i had a really good first experience with chameleons, i got really lucky. With my mother being a biologist i knew about the basic need for direct sunlight all diurnal reptiles need for thermoregulation and calcium processing and i was extremely lucky that my first chameleon, lala, had a really tolerant attitude towards handling (now, 12 years later, i find out about the dangers of stress!). Basically i took her out to the sun everyday, she spent most of the time out of her cage (which was glass, thanks to the pet store
) since i live in the caribbean. She always ate healthily and was very active during day. She never gaped her mouth at me and it was only until recently that i found out that chameleons bite. Something that surprised me when i started reading about chameleon husbandry is that they don't change color to match their surroundings, while i remember (quite vividly) that when i put her on my red couch she would go red and even when i put her on a patterned surface she would copy it as best she could as well (even fooling my cat during one escape attempt!), but she could not do all colors (like blue for example).
Unfortunately she died one day while i was at school by suffocating with a too big wild insect
. I cried a lot that day being a little kid, and i still miss her. Shortly thereafter chameleons were made illegal here (or so i thought, until just recently) since they could possibly thrive in this tropical climate. I only had 2 others who died shortly after i got them since they didn't have the same social disposition and got very sick with being handled . Now, with all the things that I've recently learned in the past months about the care of chams i think I'm ready to make another little guy happy with the proper care they need to thrive and hope my experience is an enhanced one to the previous. Im really glad i found this community and hope that at least someone enjoys the tiny bit of experience i had to share .
