What got you into chameleons?

[pssh]

I'm sure this has been started somewhere else, but I figured I'd make it anyways. How did you get into chameleons?


I was and still am a nerd when it comes to animals. When I was seven or so I asked my uncle for a chameleon because I wanted something that not many other people had, but knew about. He got me a male veiled for Christmas and I went to a book store with my mom and bought a couple chameleon books. I read them all and told my mom what to buy so our chameleon would be perfectly healthy and comfortable. I had to look up quite a few words and it took forever, but I didn't want my chameleon to die so it was worth the hours it took to read the books.

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

Ok me and my friend caught a brown anole and almost kept it as a pet LOL then we said oh let him go and lets catch an green anole and we turn around to see one on his patio. We put him in a crickets keeper and then i kept him in my room in a 10 gallon anole setup tank for 3 months. One day we went to Petco not Petsmart and were looking to buy crickets and i see on the corner a Veiled chameleon. I was like Dad i want one and it took a month or 2 of convincing. Then my dad got me Clea. Now that i know better im happy i didn't get him from Petco but i did go back and told the employee the proper care for chameleons as obviously 2 out of 7 listened to me. Unbelievable but that's how i got into the hobby and now want to be an animal biologist and work with chameleons like Chris

 

[Miss Lily]

I have always liked 'odd' but fascinating critters, which led me to buy my sugar gliders. One day I went to a fairly new exotics pet shop (specialising in reptiles) to buy more supplement powder for them. I had seen in the advert that they had chams there as well as loads of other lizrads and snakes. I went in hoping to see a chameleon and the shop owner actually had her female out and was showing two little boys how chams catch their food. I was totally smitten from that moment on - I found that cham totally mesmerising! When the owner asked if anyone wanted to hold the cham, I said yes straight away and held my arm out. The cham promptly walked onto my hand and up my arm! I knew then that I HAD to have one of my own! From that day I did a huge amount of research and when I went back to the shop there was a 6 month old female veiled that had been reserved but not collected and she was up for sale again. Well, that cham was my precious Lily, and the rest is history!!

 

[gary1621]

What a great story Tiff

I was house sitting for my brother who has a Beardie and a snake of some kind. I had my dad take me to the rep shop to get some food in for them. We had a good look around, probably spent a good hour or two looking at all the different sections in this shop. On leaving my dad told me how much he liked the Chams.
We visited the shop a few more times, and my dad always said how impressed he was of them.
His birthday was coming up so my family and i decided to order him one

Peanut is great! I've totally fallen for her. I have to say i do all the hard work, but the rest do pitch in when required.

 

[Miss Lily]

What a great story Tiff

I was house sitting for my brother who has a Beardie and a snake of some kind. I had my dad take me to the rep shop to get some food in for them. We had a good look around, probably spent a good hour or two looking at all the different sections in this shop. On leaving my dad told me how much he liked the Chams.
We visited the shop a few more times, and my dad always said how impressed he was of them.
His birthday was coming up so my family and i decided to order him one

Peanut is great! I've totally fallen for her. I have to say i do all the hard work, but the rest do pitch in when required.

Lol! You know she's yours really!

 

[Redeye]

Was born in hawaii in the early 80's, spent most my childhood surfing and catching anoles till I found out there were "wild" chameleons in downtown (Oahu) so at 6 I talked my mom into taking me downtown to find one, after hours of searching (I know, probably not the best place to look) I saw one in a tree! Mom would'nt let me catch it and I never got to keep one. Fast forward 20 years, I run a Aquarium Maintenance company of my own and work PT at a local Pet shop specializing in Fish and Reptiles mainly. So now with access to numerous different species and supplies...there was no stopping me!!!

 

[ronnie]

My 12 year old son absolutely loves anything to do with any kind of animal (sign of a person with a good heart) i mean his bedroom is a library of wildlife books of every kind!!so with having access to the Internet at home (for my sins)he stumbled across a Chameleon and i think we both fell in love!

 

[hallenhe]

I got an anole for my twelfth birthday; had it for a couple years. Fast forward twenty years, I'd finished grad school and was living in a house again, where I could have pets. Thought a bit about an iguana, and promptly decided I would need a dedicated iguana room; remembered the chameleon I had seen years ago in a pet store, in a floor-to-ceiling screen cage. Started looking on the web. My fiancee (now husband) bought me the Chameleon Condo and a couple chameleon books for Christmas, I decided Jackson's was what I wanted, and got my first cham January, 2003.

 

[wilfred]

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

 

[Travis2008]

Dicovery channel!!!!:d

 

[ChromaChameleons]

My pursuit of chameleons was launched by a little boy, many years ago. That was my nephew, Brandon, who asked me on more than just a few occasions, if maybe a chameleon would be a good pet for me in my office. I didn’t give any of this much thought, for quite some time, until I finally visited my local reptile store. There she was. The most beautiful Kinyongia multituberculata I’d ever seen. Within an hour I had purchased my first chameleon, cage, lights, vines, plants, …etc.

I named my new friend Isabelle. She was with me for years. She was a great pet.

 

[chameleonman57]

It first started when I was 2 ,with fish. Then for my 4th birthday I got hermit crabs. Then lizards caught my eye and I got green anoles. Then a jeweled tail lizard and finally a leopard gecko. For 9 years I kept those as pets. I started to read info. on chameleons and watched YouTube videos so I could learn as much as I could. For 6 months I bought supplies and worked on the setup for a chameleon. Finally after 3 months went by, I got Athena. So I can say I loved Squamatas (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenids) since I was 4. OH YEAH.

 

[pssh]

These stories are very cool. It seems little anoles are gateway lizards

I had a few before I got my first chameleon too. My mom hated the things... They escaped quite a few times, but always came back to the cage (thank goodness.)

 

[eisentrauti]

I've catched and care since I can imagine lizards, fish, newts etc. .... With the age of 9 I started then with tropical freshwater fish. 5 years later I start to keep Phelsumas and a half year later I get my first stumptailed chams (until now I don't know the exact species they were )
The fish tanks and geckos become less and the number of chameleons raise since that