You know you are an Old Cham Keeper if...

[Chameleons Canada]

Do you remember back in the day, when there were no forums, the internet was just starting and instead we had "mail groups". Where we had a list of emails, and every time someone had a question, an email was sent to all members. Do you remember the name of that group? Even better where you a member of that group? I remember member names like Don Wells, Francois Leberre, Susan Kouchinskas, etc.

I think I am talking easy 15 years ago!!!... those were the days

 

[Chris Anderson]

Yeah, I remember. It was run by a guy in Binghamton, NY if I remember correctly. I can't for the life of me remember what the name was though. That was years and years ago...wow.

Chris

 

[jojackson]

Well I do remember pre-internet when you had to actually read real books, and a trip to the library in town was the highlight of the week! It was a time when an eager young herper, chewed the ear off anyone remotely involved with wildlife!
Rare trips to the zoo saw you in the reptile house the whole time asking a million questions of the ever so patient reptile curator, and time to leave was never easy!
Todays keepers not only have a world of species to choose from, but are spoilt for convenience with information, food, enclosures and equipment you only dreamt of then.!

 

[sandrachameleon]

I still go to the library

 

[jojackson]

Most of our major city librarys have an obscene computer section with free internet access, and guess where all the young folk go while books collect dust on the shelves!

 

[Pure]

Ah yes those were the days. Back in the early 90s I volunteered my time after school at a reptile only shop. I did this to try and learn as much as I could. Seemed like the best place other than a library for info. I was fortunate enough that the shop owner really knew what he was doing.

Even so, he stayed away from Chams.

 

[Kent67]

Yeah, the internet was nothing but a twinkle in Al Gore's eyes when I got my first chameleons. The literature back then were limited to Philippe de Vosjoli's little black and white booklets and scientific journals articles. But, I'd still say more species were available back then, especially before the CITES suspension on most Malagasy species. When's the last time anyone saw Trioceros pfefferi come in? Those were the days....

 

[Eric Adrignola]

My first learning on chameloens was from TFH books, the people at the Bronx Zoo, and trial and error. It was not until I'd lost my first 23Hr chameleon and gotten a pair of WC veileds that I started to find other people who had chameleons. I had owned them a while before I found the prodigy chameleon message board. When I moved to AOL I found even more. Good times.

 

[hallenhe]

The internet was alive and well when I got my first chameleon (in 2003). The big change I see, living in academia as I do, is I remember as a student going to the library and having to spend hours photocopying journal articles. Now, most of them are online, and the big universities all have subscriptions to so many of the journals - specialty as well as more general. I feel that something's been lost from the whole student experience. (On the other hand, you don't see me complaining when it's a choice between losing an hour to hiking across campus and back vs. having the article in my hand quick as thought.)

 

[luevelvet]

I first got into these guys in '93 when the defacto in UV bulbs was Vita-Lite. Armed with those and a couple of good books (Clinical Herp Handbook for Vets and anything by Phillippe De Vosjoli) I think we did pretty good. Was able to breed veileds without an issue and had a jacksons female drop a bunch of babies for me. After many years I'm back into it with the same passion but with an adult income.