This is why people kill chameleons!

[ChloeChameleon]

I work at a pet store and I have seen the reptile rep turn down a sale because the customer didn't think certain items were "necessary". I honestly think ppl should prove a basic knowledge on the animal before they are able to purchase it. It would save so many lives.

 

[brownie64]

I work at a pet store and I have seen the reptile rep turn down a sale because the customer didn't think certain items were "necessary". I honestly think ppl should prove a basic knowledge on the animal before they are able to purchase it. It would save so many lives.

So glad to here you say that, went into a Pet Smart the other day, and there was a Veiled in this tiny class enclosure. Now I understand they probably wasn't planning on keeping it for long but come on. Oh yeah there was a water dish in the bottom of the tank. I asked what was that for, the guy said for him to drink. I shook my head and walked off. The big chain pet stores just hire people to sell the animals, they don't care if they know what they're doing.

 

[Juliaf3]

Do you know how I found this forum? I bought a jackson right......did everything the pet store told me. A month after having him I stumbled across panthers. I had to have one. Was obsessed. Found this one site, and on there main page they had a link to the forums. Where people had posted panthers bought from them. I clicked it. Started bouncing around, found some jackson info and BOOM hit me like a ton of bricks. My poor jackson. I will say right now, I am hundred percent guilty of buying without researching. Just talked with the pet store people when I bought the jackson. Never have I felt so ashamed in my life. This poor poor creature. I instantly stopped looking at panthers and dedicated all my attention to my jackson. I'm amazed he survived such poor care. Absolutely amazed. That being said, my jackson is living like the queen (but he's a king) of England now. Still..... What I would t give to go back and not be an idiot. I joined the forums in January after reading on it for two months. I'm just glad that those panther breeders had this forum in there main page. I wish I could stand at that pet store all day and tell people to go to this site before they buy a Cham from them. I will never again buy a Cham from that store, as it just feeds the problem. I went back once and commented on the set up. Asked why there was a bowl of water in the cage. They said for the Cham to drink from. I said chams don't recognize standing water. They said, "they can be trained to drink from a bowl" to which I replied, "oh did you train the little guy?" And they said, "well no." And I said, "then it can't drink from the bowl." I mean how hard is it to make a drip system? It's not. EVERYTHING is on you tube step by step, and quite frankly, it's cheaper then the "bowl" they sell you. But then again, why would they tell you that? They just want money money money. And that "bowl" is even more expensive then the little dropper they sell RIGHT in that store. Granted, they aren't a hundred percent to blame. Lack of research before purchase is as well. So I want point the finger get at them, but man that's just wrong.

 

[Juliaf3]

She on me, and shame on places like that. More so me.

 

[Cami2013]

I am fairly new to this forum (I have to say I love it and am addicted to the wealth of knowledge I have gained and will continue to gain here) and this is actually the first I've ever posted, but I could not resist responding to this thread for several reasons. Myself and my 12 year old son are new to the chameleon world. He had his heart set on a chameleon for about a year (since Winter 2012), but I was hesitant/reluctant because of my/our lack of knowledge, although the idea of owning a chameleon was intriguing. I also wanted to make sure he would be willing and able to be mostly responsible for our cham if we got one. Don't cringe when I say this, but my son found a juvenile veiled at PetsMart a couple weeks before Christmas 2013, begged for her, and after willingly forfeiting the majority of the Christmas presents I had already purchased for him, I bought the beautiful girl for him/us. The salesman at PetsMart sold me (the sucker) just under $500 of all the wrong stuff for her, but I didn't know any different at the time. We excitedly brought her home and set up her 18" x 18" x 36" glass habitat w/screen lid. I spent hours researching chameleon care on the internet (you'll be happy to know I found your site quickly). I learned that our chameleons light green color, her size, the appearance of her skin, eyes, and nostrils were fairly good indicators of her being in good health. We were going through crickets quickly; she started eating about 6/day + greens/vegetables and increased pretty rapidly to 10/day + greens/vegetables + mealworms occasionally. There is a Petco just a few blocks from my house (much closer than the PetsMart about 5 miles from me), where we went to replenish our gut loaded crickets. Fortunately, Petco's manager has an extensive personal history of rescuing chameleons. She does all the purchasing for her store and informed me that they never order chameleons because they aren't able to properly care for them and would never recommend buying one from a "pet store". I began visiting her store regularly to pick her brain since she had years of experience with chameleon care. I asked her for a vet recommendation and she provided me with the name and number of a fantastic vet. We just wanted to be sure everything I had learned and everything we were doing for her, and everything we were planning on changing based on information I'd learned were all the right things to do. She had her 1st vet visit, including stool analysis, about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks after we bought her. The vet was quite surprised that she looked so great (buying her from PetsMart); he described her as a "robust girl". He estimated her to be about 6 months of age. He said he can't remember the last chameleon he's seen that someone purchased from a pet store/chain that wasn't "near death". Her exam was all great except her stool analysis; she had 4 different parasites in her stool. After a hefty vet bill, the realization of having to DEEP CLEAN AND SANITIZE her enclosure every week until parasite free, and 3 different medications for Cami to be on over the next 2 weeks, my son and I were trying to figure out the best way to administer her medication (we both were broken hearted watching the vet show us how to open her mouth and seeing how much she despised it - I am a pediatric critical care nurse, but for some reason I was having trouble having to do this to our precious chameleon). We developed a great routine and after she completed all her meds, I took her stool to be rechecked. She was clear of all but 1 of the parasites, so it was another 2 week course of medication for Cami and continued, labor intensive weekly sanitizing of her enclosure. 1 week ago Monday, after completing her 2nd round of meds, her stool was parasite free! WOO HOO! This past weekend, my son and I spent THE ENTIRE 3-DAY WEEKEND setting up her new 24" x 24" x 48" screen enclosure with all live, non-toxic plants, automatic mister, automatic timer for heat/uvb lamps, drainage system, etc. We have already experienced our first oopsy mini flood - I set the auto mister to come on at 0800 for 5 mins, but the off time was scheduled for 0805 on Saturday only. It was Sunday, so the mister turned on at 0800 and ran until dry around 0930. My son noticed water dripping into the living room from upstairs. He diligently placed cups to catch the water, but didn't bother telling me there was an issue until I played 20 questions after walking into my living room with furniture rearranged and cups on the floor catching water. We cleaned up the mess, dried everything out, corrected the issue and have been problem free ever since.

To make a very long story even longer:
Owning a chameleon/chameleon care is EXTREMELY TIME CONSUMING and LABOR INTENSIVE and EXPENSIVE.

We have had Cami for about 10 or so weeks and I have spent in excess of $2000.00 for all the supplies needed to maintain the appropriate habitat for her.

We were spending about $3 every 2 days on crickets alone. We now buy 1000 crickets at a time, built cricket bins, and maintain and gut load our own crickets. We also now have a mealworm farm. It has been fascinating learning about these processes too and watching the metamorphosis of the meal worms.

We absolutely adore our beautiful girl and would not change a thing, despite my spontaneous purchase, and all the time and expense of caring for her. I love learning knew things about her and her care every day. We cannot wait to go to the reptile conventions/expos.

Cami enjoys being handled by both my son and I, but is especially trusting of my son. One of the funny things is that she does actually like to sort of perch on my son's shoulder (no, she is not a parrot). And will sit there for 30 mins to an hour at a time. Her other favorite place is on the top of my son's head. She likes to scale his glasses and ears to get to the top. He makes a ladder with his hand on the side of his head to give her places to grab to make it all the way up.

I'm posting a few pictures of her color transformations since we've had her. She currently is consistently bright green and blue striped with bright yellow spots. Her tail is bright green and yellow striped with yellow polka-dots on her green stripes. SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!

 

[Juliaf3]

I am fairly new to this forum (I have to say I love it and am addicted to the wealth of knowledge I have gained and will continue to gain here) and this is actually the first I've ever posted, but I could not resist responding to this thread for several reasons. Myself and my 12 year old son are new to the chameleon world. He had his heart set on a chameleon for about a year (since Winter 2012), but I was hesitant/reluctant because of my/our lack of knowledge, although the idea of owning a chameleon was intriguing. I also wanted to make sure he would be willing and able to be mostly responsible for our cham if we got one. Don't cringe when I say this, but my son found a juvenile veiled at PetsMart a couple weeks before Christmas 2013, begged for her, and after willingly forfeiting the majority of the Christmas presents I had already purchased for him, I bought the beautiful girl for him/us. The salesman at PetsMart sold me (the sucker) just under $500 of all the wrong stuff for her, but I didn't know any different at the time. We excitedly brought her home and set up her 18" x 18" x 36" glass habitat w/screen lid. I spent hours researching chameleon care on the internet (you'll be happy to know I found your site quickly). I learned that our chameleons light green color, her size, the appearance of her skin, eyes, and nostrils were fairly good indicators of her being in good health. We were going through crickets quickly; she started eating about 6/day + greens/vegetables and increased pretty rapidly to 10/day + greens/vegetables + mealworms occasionally. There is a Petco just a few blocks from my house (much closer than the PetsMart about 5 miles from me), where we went to replenish our gut loaded crickets. Fortunately, Petco's manager has an extensive personal history of rescuing chameleons. She does all the purchasing for her store and informed me that they never order chameleons because they aren't able to properly care for them and would never recommend buying one from a "pet store". I began visiting her store regularly to pick her brain since she had years of experience with chameleon care. I asked her for a vet recommendation and she provided me with the name and number of a fantastic vet. We just wanted to be sure everything I had learned and everything we were doing for her, and everything we were planning on changing based on information I'd learned were all the right things to do. She had her 1st vet visit, including stool analysis, about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks after we bought her. The vet was quite surprised that she looked so great (buying her from PetsMart); he described her as a "robust girl". He estimated her to be about 6 months of age. He said he can't remember the last chameleon he's seen that someone purchased from a pet store/chain that wasn't "near death". Her exam was all great except her stool analysis; she had 4 different parasites in her stool. After a hefty vet bill, the realization of having to DEEP CLEAN AND SANITIZE her enclosure every week until parasite free, and 3 different medications for Cami to be on over the next 2 weeks, my son and I were trying to figure out the best way to administer her medication (we both were broken hearted watching the vet show us how to open her mouth and seeing how much she despised it - I am a pediatric critical care nurse, but for some reason I was having trouble having to do this to our precious chameleon). We developed a great routine and after she completed all her meds, I took her stool to be rechecked. She was clear of all but 1 of the parasites, so it was another 2 week course of medication for Cami and continued, labor intensive weekly sanitizing of her enclosure. 1 week ago Monday, after completing her 2nd round of meds, her stool was parasite free! WOO HOO! This past weekend, my son and I spent THE ENTIRE 3-DAY WEEKEND setting up her new 24" x 24" x 48" screen enclosure with all live, non-toxic plants, automatic mister, automatic timer for heat/uvb lamps, drainage system, etc. We have already experienced our first oopsy mini flood - I set the auto mister to come on at 0800 for 5 mins, but the off time was scheduled for 0805 on Saturday only. It was Sunday, so the mister turned on at 0800 and ran until dry around 0930. My son noticed water dripping into the living room from upstairs. He diligently placed cups to catch the water, but didn't bother telling me there was an issue until I played 20 questions after walking into my living room with furniture rearranged and cups on the floor catching water. We cleaned up the mess, dried everything out, corrected the issue and have been problem free ever since.

To make a very long story even longer:
Owning a chameleon/chameleon care is EXTREMELY TIME CONSUMING and LABOR INTENSIVE and EXPENSIVE.

We have had Cami for about 10 or so weeks and I have spent in excess of $2000.00 for all the supplies needed to maintain the appropriate habitat for her.

We were spending about $3 every 2 days on crickets alone. We now buy 1000 crickets at a time, built cricket bins, and maintain and gut load our own crickets. We also now have a mealworm farm. It has been fascinating learning about these processes too and watching the metamorphosis of the meal worms.

We absolutely adore our beautiful girl and would not change a thing, despite my spontaneous purchase, and all the time and expense of caring for her. I love learning knew things about her and her care every day. We cannot wait to go to the reptile conventions/expos.

Cami enjoys being handled by both my son and I, but is especially trusting of my son. One of the funny things is that she does actually like to sort of perch on my son's shoulder (no, she is not a parrot). And will sit there for 30 mins to an hour at a time. Her other favorite place is on the top of my son's head. She likes to scale his glasses and ears to get to the top. He makes a ladder with his hand on the side of his head to give her places to grab to make it all the way up.

I'm posting a few pictures of her color transformations since we've had her. She currently is consistently bright green and blue striped with bright yellow spots. Her tail is bright green and yellow striped with yellow polka-dots on her green stripes. SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!

Great story and first post! I didn't cringe at all because I have been there and done that! What a beautiful Cham! I'm glad not the only one who made the dreaded "pets mart purchase" I mean I knew I wasn't, but it's always good to read where someone else has done the same. I agree about the meal worm metamorphosis. My kids LOVE watching them change! I'm glad the lady at petsmart was so helpful! It's so easy to do it so wrong!

 

[Juliaf3]

I mean petco lol not petsmart. Glad the lady at PETCO was so helpful!

 

[little leaf]

" Once your chameleon is used to you and the environment, you can begin to take it out and let it sit on your shoulder. "



They're not freaking parrots....

awwwww - to bad Olive is a Jackson, or else I could teach her say "Olive want a cracker "

I agree, its sad that such BS is even up there for others who try to do the right thing, and see this - and then there ya go - dead cham

 

[xcrystalx]

The sad part is we have no way to get that crap off the web. How many people see and believe that crap?

i couldnt agree more

 

[brownie64]

I am fairly new to this forum (I have to say I love it and am addicted to the wealth of knowledge I have gained and will continue to gain here) and this is actually the first I've ever posted, but I could not resist responding to this thread for several reasons. Myself and my 12 year old son are new to the chameleon world. He had his heart set on a chameleon for about a year (since Winter 2012), but I was hesitant/reluctant because of my/our lack of knowledge, although the idea of owning a chameleon was intriguing. I also wanted to make sure he would be willing and able to be mostly responsible for our cham if we got one. Don't cringe when I say this, but my son found a juvenile veiled at PetsMart a couple weeks before Christmas 2013, begged for her, and after willingly forfeiting the majority of the Christmas presents I had already purchased for him, I bought the beautiful girl for him/us. The salesman at PetsMart sold me (the sucker) just under $500 of all the wrong stuff for her, but I didn't know any different at the time. We excitedly brought her home and set up her 18" x 18" x 36" glass habitat w/screen lid. I spent hours researching chameleon care on the internet (you'll be happy to know I found your site quickly). I learned that our chameleons light green color, her size, the appearance of her skin, eyes, and nostrils were fairly good indicators of her being in good health. We were going through crickets quickly; she started eating about 6/day + greens/vegetables and increased pretty rapidly to 10/day + greens/vegetables + mealworms occasionally. There is a Petco just a few blocks from my house (much closer than the PetsMart about 5 miles from me), where we went to replenish our gut loaded crickets. Fortunately, Petco's manager has an extensive personal history of rescuing chameleons. She does all the purchasing for her store and informed me that they never order chameleons because they aren't able to properly care for them and would never recommend buying one from a "pet store". I began visiting her store regularly to pick her brain since she had years of experience with chameleon care. I asked her for a vet recommendation and she provided me with the name and number of a fantastic vet. We just wanted to be sure everything I had learned and everything we were doing for her, and everything we were planning on changing based on information I'd learned were all the right things to do. She had her 1st vet visit, including stool analysis, about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks after we bought her. The vet was quite surprised that she looked so great (buying her from PetsMart); he described her as a "robust girl". He estimated her to be about 6 months of age. He said he can't remember the last chameleon he's seen that someone purchased from a pet store/chain that wasn't "near death". Her exam was all great except her stool analysis; she had 4 different parasites in her stool. After a hefty vet bill, the realization of having to DEEP CLEAN AND SANITIZE her enclosure every week until parasite free, and 3 different medications for Cami to be on over the next 2 weeks, my son and I were trying to figure out the best way to administer her medication (we both were broken hearted watching the vet show us how to open her mouth and seeing how much she despised it - I am a pediatric critical care nurse, but for some reason I was having trouble having to do this to our precious chameleon). We developed a great routine and after she completed all her meds, I took her stool to be rechecked. She was clear of all but 1 of the parasites, so it was another 2 week course of medication for Cami and continued, labor intensive weekly sanitizing of her enclosure. 1 week ago Monday, after completing her 2nd round of meds, her stool was parasite free! WOO HOO! This past weekend, my son and I spent THE ENTIRE 3-DAY WEEKEND setting up her new 24" x 24" x 48" screen enclosure with all live, non-toxic plants, automatic mister, automatic timer for heat/uvb lamps, drainage system, etc. We have already experienced our first oopsy mini flood - I set the auto mister to come on at 0800 for 5 mins, but the off time was scheduled for 0805 on Saturday only. It was Sunday, so the mister turned on at 0800 and ran until dry around 0930. My son noticed water dripping into the living room from upstairs. He diligently placed cups to catch the water, but didn't bother telling me there was an issue until I played 20 questions after walking into my living room with furniture rearranged and cups on the floor catching water. We cleaned up the mess, dried everything out, corrected the issue and have been problem free ever since.

To make a very long story even longer:
Owning a chameleon/chameleon care is EXTREMELY TIME CONSUMING and LABOR INTENSIVE and EXPENSIVE.

We have had Cami for about 10 or so weeks and I have spent in excess of $2000.00 for all the supplies needed to maintain the appropriate habitat for her.

We were spending about $3 every 2 days on crickets alone. We now buy 1000 crickets at a time, built cricket bins, and maintain and gut load our own crickets. We also now have a mealworm farm. It has been fascinating learning about these processes too and watching the metamorphosis of the meal worms.

We absolutely adore our beautiful girl and would not change a thing, despite my spontaneous purchase, and all the time and expense of caring for her. I love learning knew things about her and her care every day. We cannot wait to go to the reptile conventions/expos.

Cami enjoys being handled by both my son and I, but is especially trusting of my son. One of the funny things is that she does actually like to sort of perch on my son's shoulder (no, she is not a parrot). And will sit there for 30 mins to an hour at a time. Her other favorite place is on the top of my son's head. She likes to scale his glasses and ears to get to the top. He makes a ladder with his hand on the side of his head to give her places to grab to make it all the way up.

I'm posting a few pictures of her color transformations since we've had her. She currently is consistently bright green and blue striped with bright yellow spots. Her tail is bright green and yellow striped with yellow polka-dots on her green stripes. SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!

She is a very beautiful Cham. You are doing a great job, she looks very hydrated so what ever you are doing for her watering need keep it up. She's one of the healthiest I've seen

 

[Carlton]

So glad to here you say that, went into a Pet Smart the other day, and there was a Veiled in this tiny class enclosure. Now I understand they probably wasn't planning on keeping it for long but come on. Oh yeah there was a water dish in the bottom of the tank. I asked what was that for, the guy said for him to drink. I shook my head and walked off. The big chain pet stores just hire people to sell the animals, they don't care if they know what they're doing.

Just a little reminder about those water dishes. Whether they know a cham won't drink out of one or not, usually pet shops are required to have a water source in the cage...and the regulation doesn't know or care about chams specifically. The more important thing is whether the shop sprays the cham's cage and any foliage or not.

 

[Hakai]

The sad part is we have no way to get that crap off the web. How many people see and believe that crap?

Sad thing is, people believe what they wanna believe. For instance, the "fact" that "a smaller cage is better because its easier to keep heated". That sounds sooo appealing. The average person thinks to themself "smaller or larger cage?" SMALLER DUH. and thats why chameleons die...

 

[Olimpia]

Carlton is right about the water bowls. When I worked at an independent pet store we had water bowls with everything except the chameleons. The beardies didn't need them, for example, but if we didn't have one in the cage I'd get 5 customers ask me why that animal/cage didn't have access to water.

With the chameleons it would have been the same way except we had a dripper going, so they didn't get as alarmed. But the general public assumes everything needs a water dish, and if you don't have one customers will come up to express concern.