Preparing for my first chameleon, tips appreciated

IMAG4338.jpg
 
Hello, I'm new here and stumbled upon your thread while researching (again lol) about chams. My wife and I went into Pinellas County Reptiles last week to look around and ran across a young male veiled, probably 6" or 7" from nose to tip of his tail. When we first started down his aisle he was on one of the perches in the condo he was in with a few other young chams. By the time we walked the two condos down he had come to the door almost as if he wanted to say hello. We asked to hold him and it was love at first sight for both my wife and I. He came out no problems, crawled on both of our arms for a bit before settling in on my shoulder. He stayed the same color of green with 3 golden brown patches on his side the whole time so I don't think he was too bothered by us.

Sadly we didn't/don't have any supplies for a cham home, I've mostly done snakes as far as reptile children, and I wanted to brush up on reading on chams again before jumping into it on the spot despite us both wanting him to have a new home with us. Seeing your first two pass had me feeling like this is not something I wanted to venture into. But, seeing V thrive has me thinking maybe we can do this too. I've watched jdog's enclosure vids and think that's the route I'm going to go if we do decide to move forward on getting into chams. I also saw Slik Jim's pdf build and think we want to go that route for a permanent larger home after which ever one we get grows up. I'm still looking at misting systems yet, thinking of going climist since they are in my state but not dead set on that aspect yet. Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for sharing your journey getting started with these beautiful creatures as it gives me hope I too can tackle a new chameleon friend some day :).
 
dshuld said:
Hello, I'm new here and stumbled upon your thread while researching (again lol) about chams. My wife and I went into Pinellas County Reptiles last week to look around and ran across a young male veiled, probably 6" or 7" from nose to tip of his tail. When we first started down his aisle he was on one of the perches in the condo he was in with a few other young chams. By the time we walked the two condos down he had come to the door almost as if he wanted to say hello. We asked to hold him and it was love at first sight for both my wife and I. He came out no problems, crawled on both of our arms for a bit before settling in on my shoulder. He stayed the same color of green with 3 golden brown patches on his side the whole time so I don't think he was too bothered by us.

Sadly we didn't/don't have any supplies for a cham home, I've mostly done snakes as far as reptile children, and I wanted to brush up on reading on chams again before jumping into it on the spot despite us both wanting him to have a new home with us. Seeing your first two pass had me feeling like this is not something I wanted to venture into. But, seeing V thrive has me thinking maybe we can do this too. I've watched jdog's enclosure vids and think that's the route I'm going to go if we do decide to move forward on getting into chams. I also saw Slik Jim's pdf build and think we want to go that route for a permanent larger home after which ever one we get grows up. I'm still looking at misting systems yet, thinking of going climist since they are in my state but not dead set on that aspect yet. Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for sharing your journey getting started with these beautiful creatures as it gives me hope I too can tackle a new chameleon friend some day :).
Click to expand...

I think my main advice I can give is just go all out. Don't skimp, don't cut corners.

Everyone says they are fragile, and I think I truly underestimated how fragile they were.
If I were to do everything again, I would have gotten an automatic mist system before getting my first. While I doubt the mist system would have saved my first two, there's always that guilt that I didn't do enough for them. Having the mist system now is such peace of mind. Yes there are things I could still improve on, but V is pretty set and I love him dearly and he seems very content.

When he upgrades to a larger enclosure, I'm going to truly take my time to make sure he is set for life with proper drainage, lots of real plants, his mist king, and toasty basking areas before even introducing him to it
 
Thanks, I'm like you and want to try and get it as right as possible before even putting one through the stress of shipping. I'm still "recovering" from Irma soaking up most of my back up funds but finally back to normal pay checks now. My plan is to try and hit the usual list of garden centers to go plant shopping and gather stuff for cage making this weekend, assuming my wife doesn't already have a honey do list for me to tackle this weekend. Hoping next week I can pick up a mist system but still haven't decided on which one I want to go with tbh. Then get after letting everything run for a week or two get down to brass tacks on getting a new baby/ies. I should probably go ahead and make my own thread now though because I do have a few questions yet.
 
@dshuld Imo mistking's are worth every penny!! I love my mistking!! I have been known to run my bucket dry because I forgot to fill it, but it is not a problem with a mistking, and it is very easy to re-prime the pump (as long as you can reach the nozzle tubing)
 
That's the way I'm leaning is mistking now instead of climist. Pumps seems the same but I do like the mistking timer better I think. I'm just not sure if I should do the starter or the ultimate really. Working on what is turning out to be a long winded have a few questions thread now too lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
Cats and chameleons
2
Replies
33
Views
1K
Steve A
Steve A
Spikemomma
Spike update!!
Replies
2
Views
130
MissSkittles
MissSkittles
naterowley
T. Hoehnelii Hydration Strategy
Replies
12
Views
352
DeremensisBlue
DeremensisBlue
chamkid
Getting Ready For My First Cham
2
Replies
20
Views
935
Camiezone
Camiezone
R
Just filled out the questionnaire, any tips or help is much appreciate,
Replies
5
Views
246
ElijahCooper
E
Back
Top Bottom