The last reptile expo I went to in November (in white plains NY) is when I bought my ambliobe YBBB panther he was $500 and before I chose him I had my eye on a blurple that was $1,100 and there were a couple other beautiful options within the $800-$1000 range. females they had I think were $200-$300. The breeder was Busy Bs exotics and their chams all looked extremely healthy, bright eyed and active. It feels more worth it to spend the money when you can see them right in front of you and meet the breeder to know they are well bred and healthy. I’d be more weary to order chams online… not before reading plenty of good reviews at least. But at least at the expo I went to it was slim pickings for chams. Busy Bs was the only breeder that strictly has chameleons. There was one or two other tables that had maybe one Cham and they didn’t look nearly as healthy.
FramsChams has amazing babies and I think they offer great prices especially since they have a built reputation. Also a site sponsor! AND they are going to be breeding Nosy Boraha! Which is literally my, oh my god I want it so bad locale.
The reason you are seeing “ambanja” blurples listed at that price top dollar everywhere is because people think a cross or colormorph panther is valued at more but the market doesn’t seem to agree. As far as I know we are the only breeder in the USA breeding Ambanja from wild stock and proving them out. The so called “ambanja” blue ambanja aka blurples on the market these days look nothing like what is found in the wilds of Madagascar so imo mistakes were made and people just kept going along with it. But with the up tick in people visiting and documenting Ambanja panther chameleons in Madagascar and still with consistent looks and patterns in the wild. the color morphs are loosing desirability because they are not a Ambanja they are a color morph panther chameleon and with unpredictable outcomes from the pairings not knowing if you are getting a blue panther chameleon or one that looks more like a different locale or a blend of different locales in one chameleon. Just my 2 cents on the Ambanja’s most people see on the market these days. They are drab and lack luster and poor reception of the beautiful locale it is. Here is a few Ambanja’s that are wc or proven F1’s we have produced. Probably a much better looking Ambanja then what you saw at the expo labled as so called Ambanja.
True Ambanjas are so much nicer than the Blurples anyway! Really nice animals you’ve got.
Ipardalis started his project recently because of some captive hatched babies turned out to be Ambanja. I have been talking to Jonathan for a few years now about ambanjas and after we all saw his captive hatch were showing traits of Ambanja I asked if he would be interested in any of my lines and he was very excited to get them and start to help with producing quality Ambanja locales. His new sire Bowie is from us from our Alamo ambanja line. I am glad to see him start the project. that helps when it has only been us for a long while. We (Ready’s rainforest)have been producing ambanjas for over decade.
This is true there is actually a locale naturally blue called a nosy be. if those breeders were being truthful and not misrepresenting the chameleons as a locale and just call them panther chameleons. But in most cases what I have seen is people getting really upset when they end up doing the research and look at wild examples of locales and realize they have been mislead and the chameleon they have looks nothing like the locale they were told it was and it turns out it’s a color morph/cross locale. Then breeders will throw out selective bred which makes no since because 80 million years of isolation and selective breeding in the wild has never produced a chameleon that looks like that chameleon they claim to be a locale or they will try the Appel to authority because they are upset there chameleon isn’t a wild form locale and even when the documentation is out there and proven. Here are some interesting articles you maybe interested in. https://www.chameleons.info/en/copy-of-furcifer-pardalis-klimt/
Yes, buyers should be educated on what is out there and most people look at the sire to decide if that is the baby they want. The original topic of this thread is "Panther prices". We are straying off the topic. As this is not a thread speaking to the specifics of an Ambanja. I appreciate your input that you have shared but if you would like to discuss morph, pure, cross, etc of Ambanja perhaps starting a thread about this, titled appropriately would be better. Then when people search for it they are able to actually find the information to make an informed decision.
