ronnie
New Member
I was away on holiday last weekend and while i was away i visited the local pet shop close to where i was staying to take a look around....while i was there i discovered a small tank at the back of the store about 3 feet of the ground,dark and looked to be empty,after a closer look i seen it contained 2 chameleons,one very,very small thin one,not sure of the breed and one larger one that i think was a flap neck cham,it was very long and thin,both had their eyes closed and all that was in the tank was a water dish,wood chips and a heat mat and nothing else,the larger of the 2 had it's tail and one foot wrapped around the electrical lead for the heat mat,the smaller one was up against the side and seemed to be sleeping....after walking around for a while and waiting for the shop to clear i asked the guy there if he had any information on how to house the chams his reply was....he knew they needed some kind of light(that he had ordered and was waiting on)but bar that he admitted he knew very little else!i asked him if he needed a little bit of help on how to give them water...ect...he then got a little defensive and asked if i was a breeder or if i was some kind of expert on how to keep them,i assured him that i was no expert but knew some basics on how to house a cham...surprisingly he was prepared to listen but explained to me that the animals were only there to sell on and would only be there a matter of days and would be gone again(no reason not to look after them when they are there....me thinks!)i could have picked them up and put them in my pocket at that point!I told him how to make a dripper,or that he could use ice which he decided to use...he also put in a basil plant(i wasn't to sure if that was on the toxic list or not)so i went down the town and brought a fake plant, took it back into the shop,washed it and asked could i put it in under where the water was dripping,he said i could,i gave him the name of a good web site(guess which one!!)he then proceeded to tell me that they weren't on line YET!I told him every thing i knew(the basics)and reluctly left the shop....oh and not before he asked me if i would like to hold them...AHHHHH,i told him they didn't like to be handeld!!!!did he listen!i don't know?but i am glad i said something as there would have been a time i wouldn't have known anything was wrong with the set up.......Sorry about the long post but felt that i had to share this story,thanks
