What attracts you...

[ZippiesPal]

... to Chameleon husbandry?

First, it was the color changing (he is young still, but he does change a little). This is more of an anticipated benifit really.
Second, it was the way they move, so careful and cautious. They have amazing dextarity and flexability. I was surprised at both how fast and how slowly they move.
Third, was actually holding one the first time. He seemed like such a gentle little creature. He just stood there, so still, looking around. Then he climbed to my shoulder and then to the top of my hat.
Fourth, The way he looks around with those eyes each moving in separate directions.
Finaly, he took a cricket with his tongue. ZIP !!!! CRUNCH CRUNCH!!!

Also, there is a challenge to getting his environment jsut right. There is the pleasure of knowing that its set up nicely.

I love to just sit by his cage and watch him move around.

If his skin were (for example) somehow deadly for me to touch, so that I could never ever handle him, I would have thought he was interesting and then passed him by without a second thought. Fortunatly, that is not the case.

What do YOU love about your Chameleon?

 

[Miss Lily]

EVERYTHING!! Lol! When I first got Lily, I found everything about her totally captivating. I loved the way she licked her lips after eating and how she could be facing away from me but still be looking at me! The feeding never fails to amuse me! Amy is light and delicate with her tongue and Tommy gives a 'thwack' when he takes food from me. I even love the smell of their skin, although Amy gives me the evils if I try and get too close, lol!

 

[skully23]

I was attracted just because the fact I love animals and love raising reptiles.
I like when Charlie sees his crickets in his container and takes off like lighting towards them. Never thought they could move so fast.
I also like when he looks at me with both eyes, he looks so strange that way.

 

[nick barta]

I like owning Dinosaurs.

Nick

 

[pssh]

I don't really remember as I was young, but I want to say because I saw one on animal planet and asked my uncle if I could get one for Christmas. That was back when veileds weren't 40 bucks a pop.

 

[jessica]

I seen my first Chameleon in person about 15 years ago. He was a Veild and was Majestic. The cascade the brilliant greens his curled tail and bobbled eyes. Honestly what got me was the instant I seen his feet!

I LOVE their feet!

 

[Zen Reptiles]

Jessica's story is the same as mine. Saw one in a pet store about 10-12 years ago, and I had been the type of boy who loved watching the nature channel and subscribed to National Geographic.

I didn't know you could keep chameleons as pets, and so when I saw one in a pet store, it was an instant attraction.

The same thing happened several years ago for me with arrow frogs. Something I loved to read about and look at pictures of, but never knew you could keep them as pets!

And I honestly find chameleons and dart frogs to be the easiest reptiles I've ever kept; easier than anoles. But maybe it's just because I am truly in love with these creatures and enjoy watching them so much.

Nothing like waking up and seeing dart frogs hop around their viv in the morning.

The bottom line is, they are just so interesting, it's hard not to become addicted to them.

 

[jojackson]

Zippiespal, you summed it up nicely. I admired them for years in zoo's for much the same reasons, Then just over a year ago, I chanced on a 'once in a lifetime' kind of opportunity to actually own one. (veiled), naturally, when such opportunity knocks, you answer or regret not doing so ever after.
Im so glad I did. The husbandry involved has been a challenge but not nearly as difficult as I might've imagined.

 

[hallenhe]

I, too, saw one in a pet store years ago (mid-nineties, in what I remember as a floor-to-ceiling screen enclosure) and was impressed. After grad school, when I was living where I could have a pet, I considered an iguana but decided I didn't have enough space to house one properly, and remembered the vertical chameleon housing. The color change is cool; I was probably more taken in by the eyes, tail, feet - and horns (my first was a Jackson's, and I grew up going to the Science Museum of Minnesota and seeing their Triceratops skeleton).

 

[thealissa]

I also saw one in a pet store for the first time. I was instantly in love with the lime green coloration, their tiny bodies (they were babies, of course), and their feet. I LOVED their innocent little faces, and the grandpa-looking mouth line.