Why Chameleons??

[ZiggyStardust]

I'm curious as to why people decide to keep chameleons... is it something that you have always wanted to do, or started keeping other reptiles or was it by accident, i.e. you adopted one at short notice??

Stories please!!!

 

[laurahlove]

I've always always thought chameleons were weird, but in an amazing way! I was too young to take care of any reptile yet, (im only 16 ) but eventually I got my first reptile: a gecko I fell in love with geckos, and currently have 5. And then one day I was at the reptile store, and I saw baby veileds for sale. I got one of course, and fell in love with their weird eyes and cute little claw hands!! Unfortunately, she didn't make it, but soon after I got little man, Earl! Chameleons are amazing to keep, we also have a panther chameleon, and I love them so much. I think geckos will always be my main love interest ( ) but chameleons definitely take close second in my heart c:

 

[haylezcham]

We recently lost our Mexican corn snake who was 15 he was my husbands and when we got together 6 years ago I just started to handle him almost everyday and he always curled up in my hood , I've always wanted a chameleon as I have been Curious about how they live and how they can do such amazing things, we now have a viv that's empty so I thought this was the best opportunity as there is always someone home so the little guy would be well cared for, I go and get him in 2 weeks

 

[RyU]

My buddy up and had to move with very little notice. I agreed to take in some chams until he got settled in his new place. I started breeding them and refused to give them back..lol so my collection is technically "half his" (Ya right!)

 

[ZiggyStardust]

Great!! Lets hear some more!

 

[kplatvoet]

Back in the early 70's my father got a job with AID teaching physics at HSU in Addis Abeba Ethiopia - One of the missionaries kids brought back a bunch of chameleon's from their station when he came back to the boarding school that I attended as a day student. I got the last one and I had him for almost 3 years- I always wanted another one I researched getting one back in the 90's but didn't think I would be able to keep one alive.
When a girl at work husband's jackson had unexpected babies they gave me one as they were having no luck keeping them alive....
I still have my little girl it took me 3 months to finally figure that her little bumps weren't growing so Sherlock became Sherley

 

[Cait0420]

My first Cham was a female veild when I was 17, I went into the pet shop and saw her and instantly fell in love! I had owned many iguanas, gecko's and snakes as a child (my dad loved iguanas so I had one when I was 5) but that first time I saw a real live chameleon I just knew I had to have one! She was super friendly, had a awesome home made cage and loved people, all of my little sisters friends loved when I picked her up at the bus stop with my Cham on my shoulder!

 

[eat2muchrice]

I had reptiles all my life, but the only one my wife ever liked was chameleons. When we saw Petco had a half price sale she wanted one. Can't say no to the wife , but how do I get stuck taking care of it .

 

[Surfergrom2]

I had a friend that got one and I thought it was the coolest thing. Now we are trying to breed them

 

[reptilesxxx]

When I first saw a panther chameleon I thought it was the coolest creature in the world. Then Surfergrom2 got a female and the two of us breed them. We are trying to get red bars,

 

[vgaines]

Aprox. 3 years ago a friend called and asked if I wanted a female Jackson Chameleon with 18X18X36 screen cage with all the decorations and lights. I went and picked her up that day. Noticed a couple of areas that looked infected and made a vet apt. for Wednesday. Joined the forum She passed away Wednesday morning before I could get her to the vet. I then purchased a young female veiled and when I was told that I needed to change a few things I did but she got an eye infection and never recovered even tho I took her to the vet and got eye drops. The stress was too much and she stopped eating. A few months later I purchased Rebel, my male veiled. He was a little under a year old and had a bad attitude but he has done great. Just "rescued" a tiny female veiled from Petco last Saturday. Penelope is doing great and started her first shed with me today. She has been eating and drinking from day 1 and is a little stinker too. I have always loved lizards but chameleons have stolen my heart..

 

[Trace]

I suffer from chamasochism: gratification gained from being a servant to ungrateful zygodactyl footed creatures.

 

[jannb]

I laid eyes on my first chameleon in the summer of 2004 when my daughter came home from college for the summer with one. At first I thought what does she want with that thing? Then I quickly fell in love with her. By the next summer she came home with several Chameleons and the summer after so many they wouldn’t all fit in the house. My daughter has always traveled allot and I was always the cham-sitter. She had mostly panthers and Melleri. I just adored these little animals and loved everyone of them. I didn't get my very own chameleon until 2007 when my husband surprised me with Luie. I got Camille a year later in 2008. Camille laid a fertile clutches of eggs in 2009 and I raised a clutch of 27 babies in 2010. When Camille's 6 month retained clutch hatched I had my precious little preemie Elly. I got my first Parsonii in 2010 and then my daughter decided she no longer wanted to keep chameleons and left me with 7 panthers. I wasn't sure how I'd manage with so many chameleons since I only free range but somehow I did. I only have one of the panthers left, Hendershot but I'll never regret taking them all in and even thought it was allot of hard work, I enjoyed every minute of it.

 

[Galaxy]

I had always thought chameleons were neat as a kid, but my dad always told the horror story of his family owning a chameleon when he was young, and then later finding it trampled into the carpet after it had"changed" to match the carpet (Yeah. I know. I'm guessing it was just a house full of boys that didn't look where they were stepping. He had five brothers after all).
So, with him believing that any chameleon we got would just die because it would ninja it's way into the house, I wasn't even allowed to consider having one as a pet.
WELL. Fast forward to last May, we had gone to a reptile expo in Prince William county to look for a blue tongue skink for my husband. As we perused the tables, I came across Dragon Fortress's table, and caught sight of a bright red lizard that took me a moment to realize it was a chameleon. I didn't know they came in something other than green! I was mesmerized, but my husband said it would be too difficult to care for (truth: He didn't want one because they're too delicate for his man-handling everything like a toy.) But, his friend who was with him called him out on it and pointed out that I'm clever enough to figure it out.
Three days later, I had a chameleon saved for shipping out in a few days and I was binge-learning(something I have a knack for when I'm interested in something...which is rarely) about their care as I set everything up.
Upon my information seeking, I realized how odd my dad's story was and asked him what they kept the ill-fated chameleon in before it had become carpet-fodder. "Oh, it just lived in the planter by the door." ....the 60's /70's were not kind to these lizards....

 

[azrael]

My husband had wanted chameleons since childhood. He asked his mother for one but got him an anole instead so his dream was never realized. So now 25 years later, this year I wanted to help realize his childhood dream. I researched for months and in June we got our first panther chameleon and july we got our second. I was apprehensive at first, having never had reptiles, but little did I know how much i'd come to love them too! Now we're a happy family of 5 with our two little ones and our 10 year old pooch. We're trying very hard to not let our lives be taken over by chameleons.

 

[OwenPowell]

This all goes back to childhood for me.
When I was really young I had a fascination with dinosaurs (as I'm sure a lot of kids do) and even wanted to be a paleontologist. I distinctly remember one day going to a pet store and seeing a Jackson's Chameleon there. The three horns it had instantly made me think of a triceratops and had me infatuated. After a short while someone who worked there came over and started talking to me about it. He explained about their tongue and color changing abilities and even likened it to a dinosaur!
From that day on, owning a chameleon has been in the back of my mind. Now that I'm "all grown up" I actually can!
Though I didn't decide to go with a Jackson's, I couldn't be happier with my choice to raise a beautiful Panther Chameleon.

 

[LovitaVelvet]

Shortly after seeing the Meller's chameleons in David Attenborough's 'Life in Cold Blood' I got my first chameleon. I had never even considered keeping any sort of pet, let alone a cham prior....and now its what I do full-time essentially. They are amazing.

-Nicole

 

[chevycham]

I'm curious as to why people decide to keep chameleons... is it something that you have always wanted to do, or started keeping other reptiles or was it by accident, i.e. you adopted one at short notice??

Stories please!!!

Good question! It’s a little long, but you asked for it

Here is our story, little interesting to some people I have told so far.
In April of this year my daughter approached me and told me that for her 12th birthday in May she wanted a Chameleon. I laughed it off and said "Um NO WAY", we have animals and I would have to take care of it. The subject died for a few days until I found a letter on my desk from my daughter. She typed up a complete essay in a business type way explaining why she wanted a Chameleon, what type of reptile they are, where they came from, what they eat, and what is needed to have one. I was so blown away and didn’t know what to do as how in the world could I say no to an 11 year old girl who took time to type up a 2 page essay with really great information being the fact that it came from a child.

I took the letter to school to share with my fellow classmates and everyone of them said if you say no you can pretty much label yourself as worse mother of the year, you have to get her one now, there is no way you can say no!

So on her birthday we went to Pets Mart and purchased our little dude. In the beginning we were sold ALL of the wrong equipment from the cage to food and never told he needed supplements. I got a one page paper card that had very little info on it just basically explaining what a Cham was and the temps he will need.

Few months later, I just had a feeling something was wrong, and at this point I still hadn’t warmed up to having a reptile. I found this web site on 08/22/2014 and joined. I asked that some of the people check out our Cham and boy was I shocked! He had MBD and was not well at all, we weren’t caring for him the way we should have, and at that point I took him to a vet and now “I” have a Chameleon named Chevy Yes I said “I”!! I stole him from my daughter, LOL. It is so crazy for me to think that I love a Lizard basically, but, when I found out he was sick, it just killed me to think that I almost killed a living and breathing beautiful creature and I was not having that.

So much work to get him back up, MBD had not progressed at all. Chevy does not appear to have any broken bones through x-rays at the vet; he sheds now all the time. His colors are getting more and more vibrant too. His poor little crown was bent due to the MBD, but, it has grown and barely has any bends in it with stripes going up through it. He can book his little butt quickly! He hisses at me when I disturb him He is just so darn cool.

My husband built a 7ft by 3ft cage for him that takes up a large corner in our dining room and he loves it. My husband laughs at me because I talk to Chevy all the time.
I am no expert by any means, but, wow I have learned so much about these guys/girls and it’s been a great learning experience and the people on here are just amazing! I wrote to the person that oversees this site and told them what happened and how everyone on here reached out and helped me save Chevy and I was so grateful

Long story, but you said share so that is our story with a wonderful happy ending. I am sure that Chevy will be around for a long time

 

[Olimpia]

I don't know exactly how it happened. I'd always known about chameleons but I didn't think anyone kept them as pets until at some point in college while looking for pet geckos I stumbled on the Scremealeons website and saw panthers for sale. I was intrigued and researched them a bit but at the time I had just gotten my first puppy and I thought a gecko or two was a better choice as far as ease and space.

I gave in less than a year later when I bought a Jackson's at a Daytona expo and then a panther about 3 months after that. The rest is history. Now I keep a very small handful of Meller's and hope to get more in the next year or so, when I can move and get a nice set-up put together.

 

[LilBlue]

I always liked reptiles as a kid, and of course dinosaurs. My favorite movie was Land Before Time(Petrie was my fav hehe). I was not allowed to have reptiles, only "normal" pets like cats, dogs, fish. Had a hamster when I was 4(my first pet) and that was about as exotic as it could get.

My first interaction with a Chameleon was when we were visiting friends(10-11 yrs ago, I was 16).Casanova was a big handsome male veiled, and he was just the coolest guy. I'd wake up in the morning, get him, and we'd have breakfast together, walk around the yard, look in the fish pond, all the while perched on my head. Our friends even wanted to sell him, but there was no way we were getting his 200g terrarium into our hatchback car, and we lived in another province.

Fast forward a few years, I managed an independent pet store for 3 years. Best time of my life I tell ya. I came to learn so much about reptiles. My first chameleon was a female panther named Juliet. And then a couple years after her a female veiled name Roma(a spin on Romeo).

Went a few years without a chameleon, and just this last June I adopted 3 male panthers from a breeder(RIP Wild Guy, he was an old wild caught, and had a female grasp his manhood and pinch it off, he was in rough shape when I got him). And two weeks ago I adopted an 8 month old Giant Spiny(F.Verrucosus), who is doing very well, he's a shy feller.

I love chameleons over any other reptile. Each and every one of them so unique. My hope is to one day import(looks like it will be less then 2 years away) a few different species to Canada, and just work my hardest to bring up the numbers of captive bred species.