Spectral Pygmy Chameleon (Rhampholeon spectrum)
- Thread starter Justyn
- Start date
Yeah, they normally come in poorly (like all pygmies). R. spectrum (and most Cameroon species) really come in bad because they all come in through one importer primarily (LA Reptiles) and change hands from the collecter, to the trader, to the exporter, to the importer, to the wholesaler, to the retailer, and then FINALLY to the individual. Most of this time they are withheld from water, kept to hot and very crowded conditions with little food.
It doesn't help that it's always breeding season and the females have little body fat left because theya re full of eggs. Lesson, in most circumstances, do not buy WC gravid females. If you lucky she will lay, the eggs will be duds (or result in weak babies), and she will die after laying (or never fully recover and die months later). Most of the time, she dies eggbound and the eggs can not be saved. Rarely will the female survive longterm and lay a productive clutch of eggs, but it does happen.
I'm at least lucky to take a few people out of this mix when I get them, and I cherry pick from imported shipments. That helps a lot when I acquire this species. Although I have just resold this species in the past (and not kept it long term), I'm starting to get back into chameleons of all types and this is one of the species I'll be keeping a small group of.
Hopefully directly managed importations will increase and if the animals are transported correctly we'll see chameleons that thrive under captive care. The problem with wild caught chameleons is not that they are WC, but the conditions that they are exposed to along the way. I personally think most WC chameleons would be in better health then captive bred animals if the process of getting them here was corrected.
It doesn't help that it's always breeding season and the females have little body fat left because theya re full of eggs. Lesson, in most circumstances, do not buy WC gravid females. If you lucky she will lay, the eggs will be duds (or result in weak babies), and she will die after laying (or never fully recover and die months later). Most of the time, she dies eggbound and the eggs can not be saved. Rarely will the female survive longterm and lay a productive clutch of eggs, but it does happen.
I'm at least lucky to take a few people out of this mix when I get them, and I cherry pick from imported shipments. That helps a lot when I acquire this species. Although I have just resold this species in the past (and not kept it long term), I'm starting to get back into chameleons of all types and this is one of the species I'll be keeping a small group of.
Hopefully directly managed importations will increase and if the animals are transported correctly we'll see chameleons that thrive under captive care. The problem with wild caught chameleons is not that they are WC, but the conditions that they are exposed to along the way. I personally think most WC chameleons would be in better health then captive bred animals if the process of getting them here was corrected.
