New Owner in Ontario

I've been lurking for awhile, then joined but didn't post anything. Now that I've had my chameleon for about a week, I thought I'd pop in and say hi.

I've wanted a chameleon for quite a few years. When I lived at home, we had a no lizards rule, then I moved for college and was intimidated by the care and everything that I read about them - they stress easily, are extremely hard to care for and crazy expensive. That was almost 10 years ago. I put my desire to have a chameleon of my own on the backburner and moved on with my life. My last semester in college, I got a puppy. I also started fostering for a dog rescue, eventually adding another two dogs and various cats to my furry family (and my SO at some point in there, lol). We still have the three dogs and two of the cats.

A few years ago I started working at a vet clinic that treats reptiles, my interest was piqued again, however my SO was terrified of any reptile and kept saying no. About 6 months ago, the clinic I work for took in a leopard gecko from an owner that could no longer care for her. I immediately said I would take her and give her a good home. After I had convinced the SO that she could not possibly escape he warmed up to the idea. Fast forward to today and we have 3 leopard geckos, 2 crested geckos and the chameleon. The SO is still afraid of them, but I have caught him watching them and occasionally dropping crickets in for the leos so he can watch them eat. He will not open the crested or chameleon enclosures but really enjoys viewing them from afar.

We were going to wait until September to get our chameleon at the expo in Toronto, we had decided that we wanted a panther chameleon because of the size and colouring. I was at one of our local pet stores that sells reptiles (one of the few good ones, everything is well cared for and they know what they are talking about). As usual, when I go by myself to get the feeders, I start looking around at everything they have. I noticed that they seemed to have a lot of panther chameleons, so I asked about it. Apprently, they had taken them in from an owner that was keeping 14 together in a small enclosure. The person was trying to breed them, the majority of them were males. Many of them, including the little guy I fell in love with, were missing parts of their tails and were in bad shape when they first came in. They were all very shy to begin with and would hiss and puff up if you even went near their enclosures. The guy I got was apparently the worst. He has come around very quickly since bringing him home. I let him come out on his own terms, I put my hand in and if he wants to come out he'll crawl onto it, if not he just stays put and gives me stink eye. 8 out of 10 times he wants to come out.

Yesterday he had his first outside adventure (and first poop). He seemed to really enjoy it - absolutely no hissing, no opening his mouth to bite, no "firing up", he was content. I just sat on the front lawn with him for about 2 hours while he climbed around on a potted olive tree we have and sunbathed. Of course I looked like a crazy person sitting there talking to a tree, but I don't mind. A couple of people looked a bit closer and saw him there, a few took pictures and a few asked questions about him. Some neighbours came over to see him too, he took everything in stride and showed no signs of stress. He's such a wonderful boy.

He is currently in a temporary enclosure that is on the smaller side of what I would like but he's doing well. The enclosure is about 12x12x36 but is getting upgraded in September or sooner if I find a good deal. He likes it and is content, he eats well and moves about. I open the door for him and place a fake tree beside so he can come out on his own if he wants to, mostly he chooses to stay in the enclosure unless it's my hand he's crawling onto.

Now that I've babbled on about him so much I'll share some pictures. The one on my arm was the night I brought him home, it was stressful for him and he wasn't happy. I had just picked him up to put him in the enclosure and he ran up my arm and puffed up. The others are from yesterday's outdoor adventure.
 

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While outdoors, careful of the birds. He's a big boy, so should be okay. A lot of attacks this summer on here. Be weary. :)
 
While outdoors, careful of the birds. He's a big boy, so should be okay. A lot of attacks this summer on here. Be weary. :)

We're lucky in that regard that we live right downtown so not very many large birds here. A few smaller ones stopped a few feet away from us to see what was going on but nothing came close. I was sitting on the ground right beside the little tree and watching him like a hawk (bad pun! lol). Don't worry, he will NEVER be outside without me right there watching him.

The SO already wants to get another one.
 
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