NitroRoo
New Member
I've always loved lizards, ever since I was a kid. I find them very fascinating, both in their behaviour, and in their wild and crazy appearances.
Knowing this, my wife decided she would surprise me with a chameleon for Christmas this year. Now so far, I have actually only ever kept 1 other lizard, a 5 lined blue tailed skink that we named Link. We caught him in the back yard and kept him well fed for a full summer. The kids enjoyed that, but we eventually let him go back into the wild.
So a week ago my wife decided to check craigslist, and someone in our area was selling a female veiled chameleon, about 6 months old, with everything (enclosure, lights, timer, etc etc).
The price was right, but she wanted to 1) make sure I really wanted a chameleon, and 2) didn't want to go alone to a random craigslist person's house by herself.
So she decided to let me in on her plan before Christmas, since it would be kind of hard to keep a chameleon hidden for 2 weeks. I have a few books about lizards, and knew that chameleons have a reputation for being harder to keep. So I was very surprised and excited, but also a bit apprehensious--since I've heard they don't make a great 1st reptile.
We did some reading that evening and decided to go check her out on Saturday. She turned out to be very sweet, was ok with being picked up and handled a bit. She looked healthy from what I could tell--so we brought her home!
Here I am with her, after we got her some live plants for her cage (she only had a fake ivy in there before. Now she has a couple real plants to live with, along with some more sticks to climb around on (I think I'm going to add a few more as she seems to like going up there a lot, and a few times has had a hard time getting turned back around).
The enclosure is 18x18x36 screen, which from what I've read should be large enough for an adult female. The humidity meter and thermometer are the cheaper ones from petsmart, and a second thermometer is at the bottom of the enclosure. The lighting has 1 basking bulb and one compact flourescent UVB--eventually I'll change that to a larger regular tube.
Water comes from a little dripper that was included, and a misting bottle. Eventually I'd like to set her up with an automatic mister, and figure out a good drainage solution for the enclosure.
Food for now has been crickets from petsmart, I need to do a lot more reading on other good foods, gutloading, etc, etc.... it's all a bit overwhelming still, but we're figuring it out and taking the best care of her that we can with what we know for now.
Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and my new to me chameleon. I named her Aurora. This is also when I discovered she does NOT like my cell phone She usually doesn't have the darker spots, that was a reaction to the phone. When she sleeps she turns a very bright lime green, almost tennis ball color. During the day she seems to mostly stay a darker green.
Knowing this, my wife decided she would surprise me with a chameleon for Christmas this year. Now so far, I have actually only ever kept 1 other lizard, a 5 lined blue tailed skink that we named Link. We caught him in the back yard and kept him well fed for a full summer. The kids enjoyed that, but we eventually let him go back into the wild.
So a week ago my wife decided to check craigslist, and someone in our area was selling a female veiled chameleon, about 6 months old, with everything (enclosure, lights, timer, etc etc).
The price was right, but she wanted to 1) make sure I really wanted a chameleon, and 2) didn't want to go alone to a random craigslist person's house by herself.
So she decided to let me in on her plan before Christmas, since it would be kind of hard to keep a chameleon hidden for 2 weeks. I have a few books about lizards, and knew that chameleons have a reputation for being harder to keep. So I was very surprised and excited, but also a bit apprehensious--since I've heard they don't make a great 1st reptile.
We did some reading that evening and decided to go check her out on Saturday. She turned out to be very sweet, was ok with being picked up and handled a bit. She looked healthy from what I could tell--so we brought her home!
Here I am with her, after we got her some live plants for her cage (she only had a fake ivy in there before. Now she has a couple real plants to live with, along with some more sticks to climb around on (I think I'm going to add a few more as she seems to like going up there a lot, and a few times has had a hard time getting turned back around).
The enclosure is 18x18x36 screen, which from what I've read should be large enough for an adult female. The humidity meter and thermometer are the cheaper ones from petsmart, and a second thermometer is at the bottom of the enclosure. The lighting has 1 basking bulb and one compact flourescent UVB--eventually I'll change that to a larger regular tube.
Water comes from a little dripper that was included, and a misting bottle. Eventually I'd like to set her up with an automatic mister, and figure out a good drainage solution for the enclosure.
Food for now has been crickets from petsmart, I need to do a lot more reading on other good foods, gutloading, etc, etc.... it's all a bit overwhelming still, but we're figuring it out and taking the best care of her that we can with what we know for now.
Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and my new to me chameleon. I named her Aurora. This is also when I discovered she does NOT like my cell phone
She usually doesn't have the darker spots, that was a reaction to the phone. When she sleeps she turns a very bright lime green, almost tennis ball color. During the day she seems to mostly stay a darker green.
