Ep 85: Taming Your Chameleon

February 22, 2018 by admin

One of the first questions people ask about chameleons is how to tame them. Generally speaking, chameleons are not designed to be interacted with. But being in a human world there is great value in their being comfortable with us and our hands. Today we talk a bit about how to do a slow progression to your chameleon being comfortable with you.

This is my little Ambanja Panther Chameleon. We are to the taming point where when he sees me come home from lunch he goes to his food bowl! He does not like my hand in the cage, but already he is starting to equate me with food.

Here’s my little guy showing his blues coming in. He is also showing that we have a ways to go in our taming process!

Today we are talking about taming your chameleon. This is a controversial topic as one side of the argument ask why you would want to get a chameleon and impose your mammalian herd culture on this reptilian being. The other side insists that chameleons have this inner capacity to love and bond to their humans.

My position on this is pragmatic. Our value of love, long term bonding, and the elevating of people who selflessly give of themselves to benefit others is a result of our dependence on our herd for survival. Humans need each other and our brains have certain feel-good chemicals that reward us when we establish bonds. Serotonin and oxytocin are secreted to reinforce our group cohesion. These chemicals build communities which take care of each other and bond couples during that long child rearing stage. In fact, we humans grow depressed without others. So much of our songs, movies, and culture revolves around relationships. So we have a very hard time understanding the foreign concept of loose social structures.

Putting aside the topic of how chameleons interact with each other, one thing that is very clear is that chameleons will be very happy having nothing to do with you. But we have trouble having nothing to do with them. We want to interact. We can go on with a spirited debate as to the emotional capabilities of chameleons or how much interaction is appropriate in our chameleon hobby. But the common component in all of our philosophies is that our chameleons will have to have some level of comfort being in a human world. There are some species that are so high strung that they do well only if they never see a human. These are not found in the pet trade and chameleon enthusiasts must work hard to get a hold of them. So they know what they are doing and are excited about the challenge of keeping an animal where the measure of success is that the animal never sees the keeper. For the other 99% of chameleon keepers we want to at least see them and would love to have them not run in fear of us. And, unless you are an expert keeper working on keeping Trioceros owenii, your chameleon will need to be able to deal with exposure to you and the other humans walking around the house on a daily basis. So regardless of your handling philosophies, it is useful to implement at least basic taming strategies.

(And as a side note, it will be interesting to see if there is a difference between wild caught and captive hatched T. owenii. It would be nice to find that out one day. And to those unaware of what is possibly the most elusive of the six three horned species, Trioceros owenii is reported to be one of the most high strung and human hating chameleons.)

Expectations

To start off with, we need to set expectations. This podcast will lead you through lessening the fear your chameleon has for you. The ideal chameleon student of this course will graduate feeling comfortable stepping onto your hand and being carried away from his branch. We will not be touching on helping him to step on your hand without a compelling reason or enticing him to want to spend quality time with you. This episode will cover taming down to allow standard chameleon maintenance and a little bit of recreational handling with as little stress as possible.

Strategies

We will approach our taming challenge from two simultaneous directions. When we are first introduced to our chameleon we are a big thing that will potentially eat them. We will work to first communicate that we are not a danger and second, have us associated with food. That is pretty much the basis of all relationships! If you want to make friends, share your peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We all know how this works!

We are going to go over a basic progression that starts with your chameleon distrustful of you and ends with him walking on your arm of his own choice.

Before we start here are some basics

Move Slowly

To start off, move slowly and smoothly around your chameleon. No quick jerky moves. Be predictable and calming. You can do sessions where you come into the room and move about without looking him in the eye. That gives him the security of feeling like he is hidden and not having to worry about what you are thinking. Then glance at him slowly and relaxed. Have this demeanor when you clean his cage. Time and patience is your friend. Get your chameleon used to normal every day activity done at a low energy level. Walking in the room, walking out of the room. Cleaning the cage and feeding. It is a good thing that he equates you opening the cage with getting food. Chameleons are pretty smart and will figure out you mean good things. If you are an expressive talker take your phone calls outside the chameleon room. Your pet will not know what to do with the wild and quick hand motions that accompany effectively explaining the latest drama in your life.

Careful with what you wear

A fascinating thing about chameleons is that they can identify us and they know their keeper. Just realize that they select certain markers to identify us by and if these change we may appear to be a stranger. Hats, glasses, or any other change may make your tame chameleon treat you like he doesn’t know you. Also, certain colors or shapes, such as a baseball cap, may make them feel threatened or get them riled up. You’ll have to be sensitive to how your chameleon sees and identifies you. And each chameleon has their own way. If your chameleon one day reacts negatively to you in an uncharacteristic way, consider what has changed about your appearance.

Chameleons watch where you are looking. You looking away is a tool if you need to diffuse a situation. Getting them comfortable with you looking at them is a necessary step in our program.

Note that each chameleon will proceed through these steps at their own pace. Some lucky keepers will get a chameleon that crawls out of the importation bag onto your arm, eats a roach from your other hand and then looks at you as if they are trying to figure out what kind of strange tree you are. Some will panic at the opening of their cage, drop to the floor, and act like you are a deranged vampire here to steal their soul. Most will have some combination of fear and annoyance. You can’t control what they will be beyond trying to make the best selection from a writhing mass of babies at the reptile show so just accept what you get and we will go from there.

Our goal is going to be to use food to get them comfortable eating around you and walking on you. We will take small steps to get there and have four major milestones.

Our first milestone is to get them comfortable enough around you that they will eat while you are around. This shows a comfort with your presence

Milestone 2 is them eating from your hand while they are in their cage and on their branch

Milestone 3 is them being baited to crawl onto your hand

And, finally, milestone 4 is eating from your hand while perched on your other hand.

These milestones were selected for a purpose. They are a progression of deeper and deeper comfort. Eating is a milestone not only because we humans just can’t get enough of the process, but because eating in your presence is a huge sign of trust on the chameleons part. Eating is the one time that those constantly roaming eyes stop their job watching for danger and switch to fully focus on eating. It is a vulnerable time for your chameleon. In chameleon language, eating in front of you is a sign of trust – especially if the food is in the other direction from you and they can’t see you in their peripheral vision.

So our first milestone has them trusting us when the cage door is closed. This should be pretty simple. Most chameleons get here without too much trouble. The second milestone is a pretty big one. You are in their cage and can, at any time, grab them. For them to eat from your hand means they are not concerned with this possibility. The third step is pretty big as well. This is where they step onto your hand. This is significant because their branch and the ability to swivel behind it is an ingrained defense mechanism that they can employ at a moment’s notice when a predatory drops out of the sky. By stepping onto your hand they lose this option. So they are giving up a bit of security. By time we get to the fourth milestone we have a chameleon that is giving up security in a number of ways to get a treat from their moving tree.

So let’s get started.

Our first milestone was to get your chameleon to eat while you are in the room. This is a challenge for chameleons that are getting used to cages and humans. You will probably spend a little bit of time at this level if you have a wild caught chameleon. If you have a captive bred, your baby grew up being fed by humans and this milestone will be an easy gold star. Your key to passing this milestone is just time. The more time you spend around your chameleon without being a threat and occasionally feeding your chameleon the more comfortable he’ll get with you. Here is where you can use the fact that chameleons watch your eyes and know when you are looking at them. Spend much of the time deliberately not looking at them. Then when it is time to feed them, calmly make eye contact and bring the food to their cage. Doing this on a regular basis gets them familiar with you. You may find that they will wait until you are not looking before they eat. But this is all about baby steps. First they eat while you are in the room, then they eventually think it is stupid to wait because you are harmless! Usually when training or taming we think of restricting food to entice them to do what we want. This is hardly an exact science so do what you please in this regard. When I am doing this stage in taming I actually give food regularly. My goal at this stage is to have them familiar with me and to connect me with food appearing. I want normal life to happen and them to settle in. If they seem particularly stubborn after time you can always skip a feeding or two in order to properly motivate them.

Before we go on I would like to directly address the withholding of food for taming purposes. A healthy chameleon can easily go a week without food and not suffer. So you have that time period to play with. But I caution you to make sure your chameleon is healthy before you start playing these games. A wild caught chameleon must be fully acclimated and over the rigorous importation process. This doesn’t mean you can’t go through some of the taming process with a wild caught. It just means you be careful when using hunger as a motivator. The absolute prerequisite to anything you do with your chameleon is get the health up first.

Milestone 2 is your chameleon eating from your hand while perched on their branch. You can work up to this by putting feeders in the feeder bowl and leaving the door open while they eat. Chameleons see their door as protection. So eating while the door is closed is much different than when it is open. Once they are comfortable eating while you have left the door open you can reduce your feeding frequency to give them some twinges of hunger. Then just give them one feeder per feeding by putting your hand in the cage with the feeder and offering it to them well within tongue range. You’ll probably get your chameleon feeling very nervous about this situation. After a bit of time where it is obvious nothing will happen just release the feeder into the feeder dish or so it can crawl up the side of the cage. If you reduce the amount you feed and start every feeding like this eventually your chameleon should be less and less patient for you to release the food item and will tag it out of your fingers.

Big hint time. You make it easier for your chameleon to feel comfortable doing this if you place the feeder between you and the chameleon so the chameleon does not have to take their eyes off you to focus on the feeder.

Second big hint. Look at the feeder, not your chameleon. I know we want to watch our chameleon eat. But you watching the cricket or whatever feeder it is means you are not watching him and he knows it. If you stare at the feeder then your chameleon will feel safer taking his eyes off of you and concentrating on the feeder too. In some cases, I have actually closed my eyes to make a chameleon feel better at eating from my fingers.

This stage may take a while. Once again, be patient. Remember, there is no race and no one is timing you.

And, there is actually a third big hint…You can do these exercises with crickets or any food item, but it is more effective if the training sessions with you use a special treat feeder. Special treats may be hornworms, silkworms, wax worms, walking sticks, green grasshoppers, or anything else that is not a main food staple and your chameleon has shown they get excited about. Each chameleon has their special passion. Find it and you have a valuable tool in your relationship building!

Our next milestone requires some movement. We want to train the chameleon to come after the food and eventually have your chameleon willingly use your arm to get closer to its food. I suggest hand feeding until it becomes routine for your chameleon. When your chameleon is so trained to eat from your fingers than he will zap anything you hold you know you are there. I had my panthers so tamed that it really didn’t matter what I had in my fingers. They would rush over and eat it. These were wild caught, by the way. I had a big cricket that I grabbed wrong and I stunned it so it wasn’t moving. Not even a hesitation from my panther. They were so enthusiastic that I had to be careful what I had in my hand when I opened the cage. At this point I could easily have them slither through the branches towards anywhere my hand was. After all this time they knew whatever was in my fingers was worth some effort. Yeah, that was fun. I miss those guys! Once you can get them to move towards the food you can place the food so stepping onto your hand or arm is the only way to the food. Honestly, this step will be the hardest of all these steps. If you can achieve arm walking you are in the top tier of chameleon taming! The way to do this is to place your arm near and under your chameleon and hold the feeder so your chameleon has to step on your hand just one step to get at the feeder. Use what you know about being behind the feeder or starring at the feeder. It is interesting, but you looking at the feeder actually gives a sense of urgency in some chameleons. I have noticed that some chameleons have a competitive streak in them and forget all about what big, scary me will do to them when I shift my eyes to the feeder. All of a sudden they scramble to get the treat before I do. Yes, we and chameleons are very different creatures, but there certainly are some basic similarities! I am sure at this point you know what comes next. You start with one step onto your hand and then you let them retreat on their own so they do not feel like stepping on your hand is a loss of options for them. You are giving them free agency to step on or off your hand at their convenience. Once they get to the point where they step all the way onto your hand you can move you hand closer to the feeder to communicate that if they step onto your hand it may be to take them to a treat. If you can get the to the point where they will step onto your hand merely on the hope that you will be taking them to some unseen treat you will have completed this university with honors and need to get into graduate studies!

In reality, most chameleons will not be able to make it to the end of this taming regimen. And that is okay. I know you may have had the goal of doing a “Me and my Chameleon” reality show where you and your buddy travel the world getting into misadventures, but I will be very happy if, by following these steps, you end up with a chameleon that is comfortable with you being in the room, doing basic maintenance, and maybe even getting excited when you walk in because of the treats that they will soon get. And I am actually serious about that. Especially panther chameleons, they are smart cookies. I once had a large scale breeding facility and the best part of the day was the panther feeding. Each male panther had a six foot tall, heavily planted cage so there was this row of just cages and jungle. You didn’t always see the inhabitant. But when the feeding bin showed up at the end of the aisle you saw all these brightly colored males appear out of the bushes and place themselves as close to the door as possible anticipating their food. Honestly, they were breeders so I really was not doing any taming program on them. They just did this on their own! So you do have some pretty good intelligence to work with in some species. We just have to motivate them.

The basic goal of this podcast episode, and all of these exercises, is to get the chameleon to the point where it does not fear you. You may only get as far as that. You may live your life with a chameleon that wants nothing to do with you and is annoyed that you exist. Although this end may be disappointing, it is a reasonable result for what we are working with.

Final thoughts on handling

In conclusion, your chameleon will go at his own pace and have a certain limit. I had a female Jackson’s Chameleon that would be content to sit on my hand and take walks around the garden. She knew we were going to pick off all sorts of butterflies and garden pests. And I had a Crested Chameleon (Trioceros cristatus) that would not pass the first stage in chameleon taming kindergarten in her lifetime.

As for me, I am happy with any level of tameness. My fascination with chameleons is in what they are. I am very happy with observing their interactions in their cages. I am more focused on creating environments that allow them to fully realize themselves as a chameleon than trying to force them into my human world. I say let Tarzan be Tarzan in the jungle. Dressing him up in clothes and putting him in the middle of London is…well…in my opinion, that just isn’t what Tarzan is. I have chameleons in my life to connect me with nature and expand my awareness of this world. I can only do that by keeping chameleons as chameleon as possible. But I do want them to be okay with being in a human world so I do the basic taming on my chameleons. I have a gorgeous new pair of Furcifer pardalis, Ambilobe Panther Chameleons, that I am keeping as pets and these are an exception. I am slowly working on taming them. I am slightly put out that they have taken a liking to my wife first, but I’ll just have to suck it up and carry on! How far will these go? They are multi-generational captive bred from Kammerflage Kreations so I will not find a more genetically adapted for captivity chameleon out there. But still, it took 100 million years to develop a dislike for things large enough to eat them. There is only so much that can be done in 20! But we will see and I’ll share my progress here!

How far will yours go? If you are starting with a panther or veiled you have a pretty good chance of getting somewhere. Just go slow. If your chameleon hobby teaches you anything it will be patience!

As long as you learn your chameleon’s body language and you go at your chameleon’s pace you should be fine. And, of course, accept whatever limitations your chameleon places on the relationship.

Thank you for joining me here. Until next week, spend at least once per day marveling at the incredible mini-tree dragon you share your life with.

Ep 84: Carpet Chameleon Roundtable

February 15, 2018 by admin

Today we are talking about Furcifer lateralis, the carpet chameleon, and its status in captivity. I’d like to give a big welcome to Kevin Stanford, Frank Payne, and Tim Marks for making up our chameleon round table discussion.

If you are interested to learn more about Carpet Chameleons and these breeders then the following links will help out!

Kevin Stanford’s Facebook Page

Frank Payne’s Facebook Page

The first Carpet Chameleon Podcast Episode with Kevin Stanford

And it is time to vote for the Chameleon Breeder Podcast as Radio Show of the Year!! Click here and vote once per day! They send me a very nice trophy for my audio recording studio! Thank you! 🙂

Ep 83: Kenyan Xantholophus Jackson’s Chameleons

February 8, 2018 by admin

In the United States, the Large xantholophus Jackson’s Chameleons we see are almost all from a feral population on Hawaii. But this magnificent chameleon originated in Kenya, Africa. The newly started Kenyan Xanth Project is spearheading the effort to bring back the founder genetics. In this episode we learn about the natural environment of Trioceros jacksonii xantholophus, the yellow-crested Jackson’s Chameleon, from world renown chameleon expert and author, Petr Necas who is, at the moment of this episode release, in Kenya studying them in the wild.

The Kenyan Xanth Project

Dear Chameleon Community,

I, like many people, have long had a passion for the Yellow Crested Jackson’s Chameleon (Trioceros jacksonii xantholophus) – the largest of the three recognized subspecies. As most of you know, almost all (if not all) of our xantholophus in captivity is from a feral population on Hawaii. This population is, unfortunately, entirely from a handful of individuals that escaped in 1972. Beautiful as they are, the resulting inbreeding situation has resulted in smaller animals and thinner/shorter/directionally challenged horns. The inexpensive Hawaiian animals ensure that a more expensive import from Kenya will not happen under normal conditions. Thus a whole generation of chameleon keepers do not know what original Jackson’s Chameleons are like and our captive breeding efforts are with 46 years of inbred animals. I would like to change that.

Steve McNary of Chameleons International has the right contacts in Kenya to make this happen. Bringing in relatively expensive Xanths is not really a sound business move for anyone, but Steve has committed to me that if I could generate enough interest he would use his contacts and facilities to make this happen.

Thus I would like to propose a community project. I would like to gather enough interest to bring in between 100 to 200 individuals. This brings in enough diversity that it can be a meaningful project. I come to you like this because this is not a financial investment. This is a passion project. Anyone joining me in this will run into the same “I can buy it for half as much over here!” response from the general reptile public. You will NOT make money by being part of this project. We will be doing this because we know that the health of the Jackson’s Chameleon in captivity is at stake and we are doing this out of love for our chameleons.

The Vision.

Our intention is that healthy Kenyan Xanth blood becomes the expected standard for people searching for a Jackson’s Chameleon. More and more, keepers are asking where they can find a captive born baby. I would like to educate the community so that they seek out Kenyan blood and are willing to pay the higher price it takes to offer healthy captive bred specimens. Kenyan Xanths are genetically diverse, will grow larger, and have more impressive horns. There is a visible difference in these animals and it is worth replacing our view of what a Jackson’s Chameleon is with the true Kenyan specimens.

Who can join?

Anyone who understands the value of bringing in fresh genetics and wants a meaningful project within the chameleon community can join. Of course, there is no interview process so you can come in with any motivation you choose, but the ones that will be happy with this project are lovers of the Jackson’s Chameleon and those who enjoy having a close knit community of fellow breeders.

How do we do this?

I will need to get enough people on board to justify a shipment. I have about two to three weeks to accomplish this. Each animal will be $100. The import would happen mid to late March if we make our numbers.

Next Steps?

If you are interested and would like to learn more, please respond here and I’ll answer all questions. I have started a Facebook Group “Kenyan Xanth Project” where I will be posting updates and answering questions.

Transcript (more or less)

Good morning chameleon wranglers. Today we are discussing the Yellow-crested Jackson’s Chameleon, Trioceros jacksonii xantholophus, and its interesting history. If you started in chameleons in the 90s or later, the probability is high that you started with a Veiled Chameleon. But if you started in the 70s chances are you started with a Jackson’s Chameleon from Kenya. As a boy in the 70s I remember it being a nugget of treasure everything I learned in a book or magazine about the existence of another species of chameleon. And, no, anoles did not count! (That’s a joke for the old timers). The prevalence of Jackson’s chameleons in the formative years is significant because it helps to understand what a great deal of our captive husbandry, in the US at least, was based. If the predominantly imported chameleon in the 70s was Furcifer lateralis, the carpet chameleon, and the epicenter of the dissipation of US chameleon knowledge was in New York instead of Southern California do you think we would have had a couple decades of strict adherence to screen cages? It is interesting how much makes sense when the history is known. Today’s historical journey makes a stop on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in 1972 where a pet store owner, happy with how quickly his first 12 Jackson’s Chameleons sold out, obtained legal permits to bring in another several dozen Jackson’s Chameleons from Kenya. One source uses the number 36. I cannot find official records, but, for this story, only the magnitude is important. As the chameleons were weak and dehydrated he decided to let them recover on the trees in his backyard. On one hand, the natural sun, shade, and water from rain or sprinklers was the absolute best way to allow them to recoup their strength. On the other hand, as any of you who have turned your back on a chameleon in a tree know, chameleons tend to wander. The pet store owner reportedly returned to collect his chameleons to find that the party was over and everyone had gone home – to their new home in the wilds of Oahu. The Jackson’s Chameleon firmly established itself in Oahu and then through natural means and human help spread to other islands. You can hear about the Jackson’s chameleons in Hawaii in episode 33 where I speak with Mary Lovein who lives in Hawaii amongst these tree dragons.

It is illegal to transport Jackson’s Chameleons to the mainland for the pet trade. This is because we do not want to encourage enterprising individuals to intentionally release any other commercially attractive species to the Hawaiian environment for easy collection and sale later. It is also illegal to bring in any more chameleons into Hawaii. So we have this sizeable population that descended from a handful of chameleons. And thus, over the last 46 years we have had an isolated population and a genetic bottleneck. Though import from Hawaii is illegal, Jackson’s Chameleons have poured into the States and have provided a relatively cheap chameleon for the pet trade. Unfortunately, this has relegated captive breeding to unexpected female pregnancies and one time off experiences. There is no way a breeding program could be sustained for what the general reptile public monetarily values this chameleon. The end result is a flow of inbred Jackson’s Chameleons into our captive collections.

Today I have the honor of speaking with Petr Necas who is a field herpetologist with an extensive background in captive keeping of chameleons. For us this is a gold mine as he is able to speak directly to those of us working to recreate natural conditions. He is the author of a number of books including Chameleons: Nature’s Hidden Jewels which is a cornerstone book in many of our personal libraries. He has observed both the Kenyan and the Hawaiian populations and shares his experiences.

This is extra relevant at the time of this recording as I have started a program to revitalize the captive bloodlines. The Kenyan Xanth Project has been established for passionate chameleon keepers and breeders to bring Kenyan bloodlines back into US captive collections. If you are interested in being part of this project please stick around after the interview and I will give details.

Closing

This episode is especially relevant as I, through the Chameleon Breeder Podcast, have started the Kenyan Xanth Project which is aimed towards bringing the Kenyan genetics of the xantholophus subspecies back into our captive collections. Ideally, we would no longer breeder the Hawaiian locality as that bloodline is weak and there is no way to revitalize it. Bringing in strong bloodlines from the founder population in Kenya is the only way. To this end, I have arranged with Steve McNary of Chameleons International to bring in a shipment from Kenya and am looking to community support for this movement. To be clear, this is a passion project. There is no money to be made here and we are fighting an uphill battle. To replace the cheap Hawaiian imports with more expensive Kenyan animals we will have to build awareness in the community of the value of the fresh genetics enough that the public searches for it and is willing to pay for Captive born babies. I believe with the first round of captive born babies raised up under optimal captive conditions and nutrition we will be able to create that awareness.

There are three ways you can help.

First, If you are listening to this podcast the first week after release in February of 2018 then consider joining this project as a breeder to help make it a success. If you are looking for a worthy community project with chameleons and are not needing there to be a financial component then the Kenyan Xanth Project might be for you. We need breeders and enough of an order to make the very expensive import process worth it. Because of the cheap Hawaiian imports, the general reptile community will not pay the higher prices that Kenyan Xanths require. Chameleon’s International is not doing this as a solid business move. They are doing this because they see the value to the chameleon community. But this means I have to generate enough initial sales to bring in at least 100 chameleons. That is okay with me because it would take about that many to kick start this movement in the US. If you are able to help us reach our initial founder stock goal, please go to the show notes at Chameleonbreeder.com for all the details as to how you can get in on the shipment that is being put together now. The price is $100 per chameleon and the Kenyan Xanth Project Facebook group will provide community support for acclimating, maintaining, breeding of these chameleons.

Second, if you are not comfortable with the acclimation process or with your skills just yet then join the Kenyan Xanth Project on Facebook. The link is in the shownotes. You can go and read all the information shared as the founder breeders discuss everything they are going through, give advice, and work through problems. Very soon there will be captive born babies needing homes and this second wave of breeders is just as important as the first wave. It is the second wave that proves that this project can go beyond just an import. Please note that the captive born babies will be more expensive than imports. They are a result of a breeder acclimating and deparasitizing the adults and implementing a solid husbandry and nutritional regimen. Although no chameleon should be sold before three months of age you can cut corners on some species. Jackson’s are not one of those species. We will have to hold on to them for at least three months. But a captive born born baby will be a joy to raise and it is worth it.

Third, if you are not able to be an initial breeder or even a second wave breeder, you can help with community awareness. Bringing these in and going through all the trouble to set them up to provide fresh bloodlines to the community will fall flat on its face if the community does not see the value in these Kenyan animals. If the price is the ultimate deciding factor and the attitude is that a Jackson’s is a Jackson’s then the community will continue to work with the inbred Hawaiian blood. I am not encouraging any shaming or finger wagging towards anyone! Anytime you want to change something in this world it is more effective to build a better alternative than to spend your energies tearing something else down. The best way to raise awareness is to understand the situation with the bloodlines, share it when people mention breeding, and encourage people newly interested in getting involved with Jackson’s to insist on finding Kenyan captive born babies to work with. We will be keeping records on a special section of the chameleonbreeder.com website as to the breeders we know to be working with Kenyan bloodlines and so there will be a whole support system for those interested in working with Kenyan babies. We will need people who understand the value of what we are doing to be evangelists and explain that value to the steady stream of people who discover chameleons for the first time and show up on social media.

Thank you very much for your support of this podcast and of the chameleon community. Let’s see our community as something we all are building. We can make it what we want. Let’s build something strong.

The Kenyan Xanth Project is a worthy project. We have the full support from the contacts and import structure put in place by Chameleon’s International. We have the advice and experience of Petr Necas to help make this a success. Prominent Facebook groups have helped spread the word. So, if you decide to join us you will be in good company. The shownotes at chameleonbreeder.com will give you all the information you need. So, whether you can participate actively or maybe in the future come on by and watch it happen.

Ep 82: Holding Angry Chameleons

February 2, 2018 by admin

How to hold a chameleon that is going to want to bite you.

Good morning Chameleon wranglers! Today we are going to talk about a special handling case and that is when the chameleon is scared – or angry- enough to bite you. The only time you should ever handle a chameleon who is scared enough to want to bite you is if it is required for medicating them for their health. There may come a time when you will have to deal with a chameleon who has gone way beyond annoyance with your antics. Should that time come, you’ll need to know how to handle this fiery tree dragon.

See the companion video! A huge thanks to Luis Wiedemann and Nicole Paddock for helping demonstrate holding a chameleon that needs medication attention.

So you are now having to carry out your veterinarian’s medication instructions. Your patient is a chameleon that wants nothing to do with your and your accomplice’s nefarious plans. Many chameleons will shy away from your hand and be nervous. We want to respect these creatures and their fear. No one ever tamed down through force. But you do not have the time for months of taming sessions because you need to deparitisize your chameleon. If you don’t need to medicate your chameleon or perform an exam for medical reasons then there really is not a good reason for holding a chameleon that is trying to bite you. I suppose one exception is when you are trying taming sessions, but then only if you are getting the chameleon on your hand to show to your chameleon that he won’t be hurt by your hand. But if your chameleon insists on biting you will have to be the type that can take a bite calmly to let your chameleon get all that aggression out and you showing him that you are not phased by his worst. Even when he is giving you his worst you will not hurt him. We will go into taming later. Today is all about dealing with the handling of a chameleon that is in a biting mood.

There are a number of medical procedures you may be called upon to perform at home. These include giving oral medication, wiping ointment on skin, and injecting fluids subcutaneously. Sub is “under” and “cutis” is skin so these would be injections under the surface of the skin. All of these will involve a chameleon that very well may be – will probably be – resisting. Now, before we get into this I want to set the limits of what we will go over in this episode. I am going to go over the handling techniques and strategies that are necessary to safely deal with a chameleon that is actively protesting. We want this done quick, effectively, and with no damage to the chameleon. Every second you are restraining him is taking you backwards as far as your relationship. Medication is necessary, yes, but the process is not without cost. Chameleons remember and they are not quick to forgive traumatic events. I am not going into detail on how to administer medication. That is definitely something you need to be shown by your vet. I have done all sorts of administrations, injections, and other procedures, but I am not a vet and if you are doing those things it will be under the supervision of a vet with medicine you got from the office. I know it is easy to work around this, get your advice from the internet and the medicine from across some border or from a friend. This is not a reliable method to follow. These procedures are not necessarily hard to perform, but doing it wrong can kill your chameleon. Rely on your vet for hands-on instruction, but on this podcast I can certainly deal with the handling aspect!

When faced with your hand or branch, your chameleon’s reaction will be some mixture of fear, indifference, and aggression. This will change depending on size, age, acclimation, and species. So let’s just take it to the limit and go directly to the far extreme. Let’s talk about those firebrands that just want you dead. They have no trouble showing you their intention to bite and it is not a bluff. Chameleons can and do bite. They have true teeth and have beetle crushing jaw strength. You will not lose a finger to an irate chameleon bite, but it can certainly break skin. I have had a number of bloody marks in the shape of a chameleon jaw in my lifetime. The surprise of it is usually more shocking than the pain of it, but there can be some blood. Lucky for us chameleon keepers, when chameleons are planning to bite us they give us advanced warning. They puff up the body, flash their brightest colors, and can even give warning lunges that have an unmistakable message of intent. A chameleon bite is rarely given without ample warning. So if you learn their language and are respectful of it you should be able to live your life without a chameleon bite.

But, say we have to medicate this rage beast. How do we do this? If you are lucky, the rage beast will puff up and gape at you and you will be able to squirt his medication in his mouth without even having to pick him up. Once the chameleon figures out what you are up to this option may close, though. Chameleons learn quick and I was able to pull it off on one chameleon a couple of times and then my trick was over with. She learned not to open her mouth around me. So I got all the aggression and sass, but with no open mouth. If you are faced with a chameleon that needs to be medicated and it is not having it then we are going to have to literally hold our chameleon which is what I previously said to avoid if at all possible. But it is now required – so here we go.

To hold a chameleon that wants you dead you are going to have to hold it behind the head. But this is NOT a pinch. You are not squeezing your chameleon. You are providing a firm structure that allows your chameleon space to breath normally and unrestricted, but prevents the head from being able to come around and bite you. Now, some of you who have gone through this before are raising your hand to point out that there is a step that I just glossed over. We have to get the chameleon into your grip to begin with… And this is not straight forward… Your chameleon is already wise to what you are up to and instinctually protects his backside. Having the ability to see in two directions at once doesn’t make things easy for you. You will have to capture him. I would like to remind you, once again, that if your chameleon is fighting like this then this is not the time for having a bonding session. I am offering this method to be used only when it is necessary to give them medication and the stress spike of being captured for that moment is less harmful than the constant stress exerted by, say, a parasite load or a deadly infection.

You’ll have to use two hands. Position one hand behind him and then one hand in front of him. He will react to the one behind and then to the one in front. When he goes for the one in front, your hand behind has to move quickly to encircle the body with thumb and forefinger behind the skull. What follows is either a flopping around where the feet and tail will release and you have a madly squirming chameleon or else the chameleon will double down on his grip on his branch with feet and that muscular tail. If he doubles down then you will have to use your other hand to VERY GENTLY pry his forefeet off the branch and replace them with a finger so he has something to hold on to. You then move to the back feet and do the same thing. Lastly the tail. Start with the tip and slowly unwind. This is in no way easy and you may have to begin again if any of his appendages slip out and grab the branch again. This is the longest part of the process and one you cannot rush.

Easy or hard, once you get his grip off the branch and are pulling him out of the cage be very aware of where that tail and feet are. Your chameleon’s instinct is to reach out and grab anything that might save him. This means that in the middle of you pulling him out of the cage his tail may wrap around something else and you could easily break it if you keep pulling him out without realizing his tail grabbed something on the way out. When you have five appendages, including a long tail wildly slithering everywhere, it is hard to keep track of it all. The slower you go the more likely they’ll find something to grab onto. Move quick and you could easily break the tail bones. You’ll have to find an acceptable middle ground that depends solely on your unique situation.

Medicate quickly and then gently release your chameleon in a safe place. Most of the time your chameleon will be more than happy to use his cage branch as a get away. Just release them onto the branch and life is good. There are more dramatic sorts where this may be difficult. One chameleon defense is to drop to the forest floor. Your chameleon may want to drop to the ground when you release them so when you put them back, if they seem the dropping sort, I suggest letting him go on the floor of the cage or in a potted plant where he will not damage himself if he refuses to hold onto anything. His only thought may be to bite you and drop to the forest floor. He does not have his own safety in mind because in his chameleon brain he is already as good as dead. How you put a chameleon back is as important as how you pick him up. Before you get too concerned I want to reiterate that I am talking about an extreme case here. Most chameleons will quickly scamper off your hand onto their branches and life is good. A standard captive bred panther chameleon will consider your handling as an insult to their dignity and give you the stink eye before they calmly crawl into their plant. So this is dealing with that chameleon that just hates you. People that deal with wild caught animals are more likely to run into these animals. I apologize to the ones that have heard this story before, but I love telling it. This is my very foul tempered captive bred female panther who hated me more than any wild caught ever did. She did not bite because she was scared. She bit to punish me for existing. I had her on my hand and she looked at me with distain with that little lip curl they do. Keeping her eye on me she gently tested certain areas on my hand to see where she could get a good grip. I pretty much knew what she was up to (indeed, she earned the name “Bad Girl” long before this) but I watched in fascination because I had never seen a chameleon be so methodical in carrying out an attack. Once she found the perfect spot she latched on with all her ferocity and was tearing so passionately that her back legs came up off my hand and her body was flopping about as she tried to take a chunk out of me. Luckily, this kind of aggression is not common! I survived that attack with only a chameleon mouth shaped ring of blood, but every time I would walk by her cage she would give me that look that was inviting me to a rematch. She was in a six foot tall heavily planted cage so she didn’t have to be right there at the front waiting for me… There are exceptional chameleons out there. Some of them are exceptional in the way they transcend their chameleon nature and do not fear humans. These rare individuals seem friendly and have no problem walking on us and going for walks. Some, like Bad Girl, use their lack of fear for humans to plot the overthrow of humanity and win Earth back for the reptiles. And, me? I was just ground zero.

Now, this is the perfect time to take a break from handling and discuss reactions to biting. Biting is a chameleon’s defense of last resort (unless you are Bad Girl). It is when they are trapped and scared for their lives. You truly have no business being bitten by a chameleon because it means you should have stopped what ever you were doing long before that step. If you are bitten it better be because you are doing something you absolutely have to do for your chameleon’s health and you know the risk. If you at any time take this personally and decide to punish your chameleon for the fight or flight attitude or biting you then you are not fit for chameleon ownership. I really hardly ever talk like that. But it truly applies here. Your chameleon did not ask to be placed in your care. They owe you nothing. You NEVER flick, drop, or fling your chameleon. You are NOT entitled to their everlasting love, affection, and respect. They will literally die before being everything you demand of them. Even our multi-generation bred panther chameleons are just a couple decades out of the wild. Yes, some adjust to being pets quite well – happily ever after – , but they are still wild animals. Yes, we control every aspect of their lives and have made their life decisions for them, but we only own them by the sense of human law. By nature’s law we must come to them as guardians. They are what they are. We can try and acclimate them to our world, but we cannot be arrogant enough to demand they become something different then what they are. They owe us nothing. We owe them the absolute best life we can give them. It is our job to accommodate them, physically AND emotionally, with whatever they need.

Just about all the time, a bite is a quick attack and retreat. Rarely, though, a chameleon will bite and hang on. I have had them bite and then try to work their way deeper. It is quite disconcerting to realize there is some crocodile in the lower recesses of our beloved chameleon’s brain. If you are bitten, consider that a warning that another bite is imminent unless conditions change. And by conditions I mean how close you are to your chameleon. This can be difficult if the chameleon is crawling on your arm and biting at your other hand that is trying to keep said rage beast away from your ear and face that are in the direction the chameleon is running. This is where we start losing control and start feeling that fight or flight coming up in ourselves! Please try and keep yourself in your higher brain functions and realize that your chameleon will not be seeing your ear or face as a place to attack you. Well, probably. I wouldn’t put anything past Bad Girl, but, most likely, this chameleon is just trying to get to the top of your head which is security in their brains. They are not looking for your weak spots. The best way for you to reset the situation and get you both back in your corners is to lean up against curtains or anything else that your chameleon can climb on to get away from you. Once there you can try and move him by getting him on a branch or, if all else fails, just turn off the lights and wait until your little angel falls asleep. Take out your flashlight and find your chameleon. You may need a ladder or step stool. You then use the safety grip with one hand enveloping the body and preventing the head from turning back on you. The other hand will gently pry the feet an d tail off the perch with the job of making sure the thrashing tail does not end up in the aimlessly chomping mouth. Gently place your chameleon back into his cage by placing one foot at a time on the perch until all four are grabbing the branch. You can then let go. Sometimes you chameleon will complicate things by grabbing their own body parts. It is comical, but frustrating when you can’t pry a foot off of a leg without hurting the leg. Often the situation will right itself when the other feet are firmly grasping a branch. But if you do this while they are asleep they may still have their eyes closed and you’ll have to help them regain their footing. Just put the other two feet on the perching branch and support the chameleon only as much as is necessary to keep them from falling. As the adrenaline dissipates the normal brain functions will engage and the chameleon will revert back to normal branch perching. You can then slowly step back and say good night to your friend.

There are cases where your chameleon will bite and not let go. This is a very frightened chameleon or one working solely off instinct. I had a female quadricornis in one of these six foot tall outdoor heavily planted cages. It was a late night and I was doing my night check to make sure no chameleon was sleeping on a wall part of the cage that could be accessible by opossums. Sure enough, she was on the far back screen wall. So I leaned far into the cage and could reach her only by hanging on the front cage frame. I was teetering, but I could just reach her. I got her first two feet off the screen with my fully outstretched hand when she, in her sleep, rounded about and sunk her teeth into the fleshy part between my thumb and index finger. It hurt to high heaven. But here I was teetering on one foot, leaning towards the back of the cage and my entire weight supported by my grip on the cage frame. I could not pull towards me without hurting her back two legs and there was nothing substantial enough to support my weight if I moved forward into the cage. Nobody could hear me to come and help and I sure was not going to start yelling for help. Can you imagine how I would explain to my neighbors what I had gotten myself into? Well, I had time to think as I was this living sculpture frozen in place attached by a sleeping chameleon with her mouth painfully chomped on my hand. And she was grinding in her sleep! What the heck? Every time I shifted weight just a little she would grind deeper! So I was literally frozen in place! My arm was quickly getting tired and I eventually had to ignore the pain of the bite and was able to work her back legs and tail off. If you find yourself in the very rare situation where your chameleon has clamped down on a body part and won’t let go you will have to place you chameleon on a place where he feels secure and believes he has a chance to escape if he lets go. Yes, I am telling you that you have to ignore the pain and rise above the panic of an animal taking a bite out of you. He actually may be maintaining the bite as an anchor point and not solely an aggressive move. Quickly, but smoothly, put your chameleon in his cage with his feet able to solidly grip his perching branch and he probably will release to try and escape. You can try bringing your other hand up and see if a second menacing target distracts him. Gently tap his snout or even grip his nostrils and see if giving him that distraction helps your situation. But in all of this you have to remain calm! You being bitten is never an excuse to harm this chameleon. Yes, you are in pain, but your life is not in danger. On the other hand, your chameleon thinks this may be his last day and his body cannot stand against the strength of your muscles. You have to put your pain aside and think about the safety of your chameleon. This is our duty as their guardian.

Once this ordeal is over and your chameleon is safely back in his cage you can tend to your conflicted feelings. Take care of any skin breaks you may have received and sink back in your recliner with a cold root beer (this is a family show). Catch your breath and contemplate how to avoid this happening with the next dose you must administer!

A chameleon bite can draw blood, but is usually trivial.

Whew…let’s get back to the medication part…

Giving injections or wiping ointment can actually be easier than giving oral medication. Injections come with their own sets of risks. Obviously, puncturing something you shouldn’t is high on that list! Injections and applying ointments require only a firm grip to keep the chameleon immobile. If your target area is the flank or the arm pit areas then you will appreciate having a friend help you. It will take two hands. One to hold the body of the chameleon and make sure the biting end stays in a safe direction. The other hand to hold down the legs and/or tail. Depending on how active your chameleon is while in your hand you may need two hands simply to keep the tail from thrashing about. While it is not dangerous to you, the chameleon may be thrashing about trying to bite your finger. If their tail or even foot gets in the mouth they will bite down on it and can easily break and bloody their own tail. I do not like putting something in their mouth to give them something to bite down on. This is a personal preference as I do not want them breaking their dental arcade in a fit of passion. I need to be clear that I have never seen this happen – so somebody may do this and have it be successful. I am just sharing with you why I have decided not to do this. I try to give the most factual information in this podcast as possible, but much of what we all do is just a result of logical thought. I’ll do my best to let you know when what I suggest is a result of that thought process. I want to you know the “why” behind everything. Challenge everything I say, integrate what others say, and make it real for you. “Well, that is what Bill Strand says” is not a good argument for doing anything. My dashing good looks and rapier wit are certainly compelling, but I work hard to give the reason behind what I say so I hope it can make sense. I study the topics, bring on experts, test as much as I can, and work hard to present the information I have in as useful a format as possible. You can take what I say as a man who has had close to 40 years of experience, but is working on his next 40 years of learning. This podcast is merely me sharing where I am and taking you along with where I am going.

Hmmm, I feel I have tangented somewhere along the way! We were talking about chameleons that are not being cool with your agenda. Wearing gloves is one way to deal with the claws and possibly teeth that may be brought to bear upon you. There are some that will advise against gloves. The reason for this is because it is a barrier between you and your chameleon. I really have no idea what a chameleon thinks about a gloved hand and I do not have any background that tells me that it makes a difference. I have rarely used gloves in my many decades, but when I have I noticed no emotional damage or relationship harm. If I am using a glove for protection the relationship is pretty low to begin with. Some people believe it does make a difference. When you are doing taming exercises it does make sense that if they get used to a gloved hand being safe that they may not extend that to an ungloved hand. In the present case, though, we are talking about a necessary application of medication. So if a glove is necessary to get the job done then use the glove. And, it might not hurt your future taming exercises if the hand that did the medication is different than the hand that is trying to be friends. I don’t have a study that says this, but it makes sense to me.

Although I am going to avoid talking about medicine, this is a good place to talk about the internal structure of your chameleon’s mouth. We breathe and eat down the same throat and further into our body cavity there is a valve that makes food go in one direction and air go in the other direction. I don’t know if the correct authorities are listening to this, but I question the wisdom of that design. I feel it pretty much invented 90% of the choking industry. But I understand that this model has been in production for a while now and that a recall would be outrageously expensive so I guess we humans will have to continue to breath and eat with the same tube. Chameleons are a little different in that at the base of their mouth you can see their air intake tube and then this cavernous hole that leads to their digestive system. This is very important when you are squirting medicine into your chameleon’s mouth. If you squirt it too shallow into the back of the mouth area you may shoot it into their air hole and kill them. Way back into the throat is best or by their tongue if you only get their mouth open a little. Their natural swallowing reflex should do the rest of the job. For reference, check the show notes for a picture of an open chameleon mouth to see the location of the air hole. This would be the big “avoid” spot.

The hole at the base of the back of the mouth is the air hole. Avoid this when administering the chameleon with oral medication.

Now, how in the world do we get them to open their mouth? As I said earlier, the absolute best situation is when the chameleon is annoyed with you so much that they gape and threaten you with an open mouth. Squirting the medicine in is easy. Just avoid that air hole. If they clamp down on the syringe then get the medicine out and release the syringe. Most of the time, they will let go of it as it is no longer a threat and turn back to face you. If the medication process is over with then mission accomplished and you can let you chameleon go on with its day without ever picking him up.

Chameleons may get wise to this and then you either have to change the way you annoy him or else you must pick him up and induce a mouth opening. But here are some ways to get a mouth open without picking your chameleon up.

Bring your hand up towards the front of him
Tap him on the nose (VERY gently!!)
Bring your hand up from behind. You may get a gaping just by being near by.
Place your hand over the back of your chameleon as if you are going to pick him up. Just the threat of picking him up may get a spirited response.
Go ninja on him: feed him and then squirt the medicine in during the chewing. This sounds deliciously tricky and you feel pretty smug pulling it off. The problem is that your chameleon is not stupid and has evolved advanced methods to thwart your smugness. You may not be able to pull this off more than a couple times. Please note the look your chameleon gives you when you do this. That would be pure disgust.

If all these attempts fail you may be left only with physically picking him up. The very act of picking him up may get you your gaping. If your chameleon gets wise to this – and they do – we go a step further. You can move your thumb and one finger forward on either side of their snout to where you are covering the nostrils. If even this will not produce a gape, you can try the previous nostril covering while you gently pull on the gular pouch. This has to be done very gently as it could harm your chameleon. When you take you chameleon into the vet to get that medicine you have ask the vet to show you how to administer the medicine. Definitely ask how you can get your chameleon to open his mouth if you are being prescribed an oral medication. Practice it under the supervision of your vet until you are comfortable doing it on your own.

There are always other bits of advice floating around out there that include using a credit card or other common object to pry the mouth open. I am going to send up a big warning flag. I do not like applying any force to the dental arcade. The dental arcade is the rows of teeth. I have seen too many of these broken and/or detached to feel comfortable using them to pry an object against the strength of the jaw muscles. If a tap of them makes the chameleon open their mouth then success I say. But if there is any prying or using muscle involved please reconsider because this will be a movie that will have the audience squirming in their seat. The dental arcade does not have the strength to hold against our arm muscles. And there isn’t that substantial of a ridge of teeth to apply pressure without the real danger of slipping and sending your prying implement into the gum line. A damaged gum line from a slip is the last thing you need for the rehabilitation and taming of your chameleon.

Any chameleon can find itself in need of taking medicine. But I would like to say that there are a couple of things you can do to avoid having to go through the ordeal of medicating and handling a chameleon that is in the mood for biting. The best thing you can do to avoid this trouble is to buy a captive bred specimen from an established and reputable breeder. You would not believe how much trouble you just instantly bypass when you go captive bred. The second thing you can do is to make sure you have everything you need for your chameleon’s environment to be set up correctly. You can be proud of being Mr. Bargain Hunter, but do not compromise on quality. Get a cage that has enough space. Get the best lights possible. Invest in a misting system. Get those supplements and train yourself on feeder gutloading. Chameleon keeping can be easy and trouble free. All it takes is one problem with a vet visit and medication and possibly losing your chameleon to totally wipe out any savings you may have gotten.

Conclusion.

And that, my friends, is a bit of talk on dealing with a chameleon that deals with medicine taking like I do when I have to get a shot. It is one of the more challenging times in your chameleon ownership. Much of what I talked about today would do well to have pictures to illustrate. So this would be a good episode to check out the show notes at chameleonbreeder.com. There I’ll have illustrations. I also have a video showing one of our community’s senior members, Luis Weidemann, medicating his parsons chameleon. This parsons’s has not read the books about being a gentle giant and Luis gets to deal with a not so friendly face. Does he get bit? Well, Luis is pretty good at this so he is going to show you how it is done. But I keep playing the video over and over because I am convinced that one of these times the Parson’s will get him! The link is in the chameleonbreeder.com show notes.

It was great spending this time with you. Next week I host a chameleon roundtable discussion on the state of Furcifer lateralis, the carpet chameleon, in captivity. If you are interested in a beautiful chameleon and can keep a panther healthy, check out this episode.

Until then, get your UVB, take your calcium, and set a good example for your chameleon by being healthy yourself.

Ep 81: Chameleon Facebook Roundtable

January 25, 2018 by admin

“Welcome chameleon wranglers! Today I am going to have a roundtable discussion on Facebook and its effect on our community. I have asked Elise Stein, Dru Reeves and Nathalie Norris to join me and share their views. Elise founded The Chameleon Enthusiasts group which I am active on. Dru is the head admin for the community’s largest chameleon specific group, Chameleon Central. Nathalie is an active moderator and can be found on a number of different groups. All three are supported by a large group of admins and moderators that are here to help you. Let’s revisit chameleons on Facebook. I invite you to listen in on our roundtable discussion.”

Ep 80: Handling Your Chameleon

January 18, 2018 by admin

Handling Your Chameleon:

Chameleons are tricky things to hold in that we don’t actually hold them, but allow them to sit on our hand. Today I will talk about handling your chameleon.

See the companion video with special guest Briana Kammer to demonstrate handling techniques!

Maintenance Handling vs. Recreational Handling with Chameleons

Today we are starting a three part series on handling your chameleon. This first episode will be simple extracting your chameleon from its cage and putting him back. Handling a chameleon has its nuances and it isn’t as obvious how to do it as one may think. The second episode is how to handle a chameleon that absolutely does not want to be held. Getting medicine shot down its throat, having its legs swabbed, or getting an injection does not rate high on any of our lists of things to do. The third part of the series will be on taming. Chameleons can be tamed at a basic level and this is a useful exercise for their acclimation to living with humans.

In a way, this series is a companion to episode 6 in which we talked about Stress. Once you are done listening here, your next step is to go back and listen to episode 6 either on your podcast player or at chameleonbreeder.com. There will be some overlap, but repetition is good!

Stress and the topic of handling are intertwined because handling is one of, admittedly, a number of stresses we place upon our chameleon. Now, there are two types of handling – maintenance handling and recreational handling. Maintenance handling is medicating, doing health inspections, vet visits, and extracting them when the cage needs a deep clean. Recreational handling is us playing with them, showing them off to friends, or doing any sort of taming training. Maintenance handling is necessary for health. Recreational handling is in that gray area. But either way, we need to know how to do it.

Basic thoughts on handling chameleons and stress

First, let’s address stress and handling. If you have been around just a bit you will have heard someone tell you that handling causes stress and stress will kill your sensitive chameleon. These are two truths that are sandwiched together, but there is so much that should be stuffed between those two ends. Because it is important to understand why I am going to fill in those blanks.

It pains me to say this, but chameleons are not designed to be pets. They have the very healthy and survival-encouraging assumption that anything bigger than them will eat them. That includes me and you. Chameleons do not understand the concept of love and affection so there is a huge mis-understanding between worlds as WE hold things we love close and THEM assuming that any closer means they will be eaten. Thus it is no wonder that handling your chameleon can be a source of stress for them.

Stress compromises our immune system. Humans, chameleons,.. we are the same in this. We, and chameleons, are always under attack by bacteria, viruses, funguses, and parasites just trying to make a living. It is our immune system that is constantly fighting these things off. Yes, things go poorly when we encounter a disease that is new to our body, but we also fall when we are weakened by not being warm enough, being too warm, not getting enough sleep, being under constant pressure from work or having constant relationship issues. It is when we are weakened these bugs that are all around us find that the defenses are not as strong as they should be. They get in and take hold.

But…and here is the filling in of the blanks…The stress that compromises our immune system is the constant stress. For chameleons it’s a parasite load or that other chameleon in the same cage that it can’t escape from. That is constant stress. Short periods of handling time is a stress spike. It will get their heart pumping, but handling is not a problem until you go past the acceptable level.

Now, at what point handling a chameleon becomes stressful depends greatly on the individual chameleon’s personality. There are some that think coming out of their cage is death and some that can’t wait to climb over their hairless ape. The problem is that until you understand chameleon body language you could be convinced that your chameleon is showing signs of affection when, in reality, it is at the end of it’s ability to cope. For example, we think a chameleon falling asleep in our hand is a sign of the ultimate trust. It is really the sign that the chameleon is so stressed that it has given up. This is a very dangerous miscommunication. As I want to get to handling techniques, please hop on over to episode 6 when you are done here. But what this means is that short handling periods – with all the caveats just described – are generally no problem against your chameleon’s health.

How to handle a chameleon

So now, let’s go over some basic handling techniques. To start with, most of the time we do not “hold” our chameleon. We do not entrap the chameleon in our hands. We allow it to perch on us. We allow them to freely range across our hand and arm. Holding them, meaning putting them in the palm of our hand and restricting their freedom, brings a high level of stress. Only in the most necessary times, such as administering medication should you ever hold a chameleon in your hand. We will start with a couple of basics.

The first is our energy level. When we are around our chameleon, especially at the beginning, we need to lower our energy level. Move slowly and calmly. Avoid quick movements and unnecessary arm waving. For all you expressive people that talk with your hands I am looking at you! The reason is that when presented with an animal bigger than they are a chameleon will naturally take on the prey attitude…well, most do. There are some that don’t realize how small they are, but most will be either scarred or at least wary of you. This will diminish as they get used to you and your mannerisms, but at the beginning, any quick movements will set off their internal alarms. It is the quick movement that is the hallmark of a predator and will trigger adrenaline surges and reflexive actions. You need to show you are not a predator. So be as calm and inexpressive as possible.

The second is our approach. A common predator strategy is coming at the chameleon from back and above. Think on how a hawk may come down on a chameleon. You being in this area puts your chameleon on high alert. This is the best way to get a fight or flight response. So, we are going to be careful how we enter that sensitive area.

The third is our strategy. In this episode, we will focus on encouraging the chameleon in making as many of its own choices as possible. When we talk about medicating we will have to be more direct, but, outside of medicating, any handling needs to be as stress free as possible. Encouraging choices that get him where we want him will be high on our list of tools.

For basic handling you place your finger or hand or whatever part of your arm is appropriate for the size of chameleon you are working with in front and below the chameleon. The ideal situation is that the chameleon climbs onto your hand under its own volition. Some chameleons who are totally acclimated to humans, or just have no fear, may need very little encouragement and will step onto the hand that is offered. By the number of people who say their chameleon does this on the internet you would think this is common. However, you are not hearing from the vast majority of keepers where this is not the case. Do not be disappointed if your chameleon does not seem to like you much or does not care so much for getting on your hand. This is actually normal. It is common for your chameleon to react with a look of “what do you want me to do with that?” which is followed by a slow chameleon turn to be somewhere else to leave you to work through your hand issues on your own. Otherwise, you could get the defense response of puffing up and even lunging to bite your hand. If it is a baby a common response is an all out panic run away or even a drop to the ground to get away. I know this hurts your feelings as you consider this your child that you will care for forever and ever. Just remember that millions of years have programmed that instinct inside your chameleon – especially baby chameleons – and it has worked well for eons. We are not going to reverse that any time soon. So it is nothing personal!

Almost every chameleon will need encouragement to step onto your hand. This can be done by bringing your other hand behind them and having them crawl onto your perching hand to get away from your herding hand. Once they find themselves on your perching hand it is too late and they’ll usually take a wait and see attitude.

Let’s talk about this “herding” hand. Remember how I talked about quick movements and above/behind being a bad relationship building experience? We are trying to herd them with annoyance and as little fear as possible. You can’t easily remove the fear component. It takes time. But you can avoid giving them quick shots of adrenaline and triggering the primordial fight/flight response. Move slowly and bring up your hand from behind. It doesn’t even have to be close to the chameleon. A sensitive chameleon will start walking away from your herding hand as soon as it is in the cage.

Once your chameleon is on your hand or arm just let your chameleon perch there. They may hike up your arm to try and get on top of your head. This is just a security measure for them. They like to be high up. In fact you will notice that the higher your perching hand is the calmer they are…well, unless they are trying to escape. In that case you’ll have a very active chameleon no matter what you do. Just put one hand in front of the other and you will be able to contain the escape plan. Although, and I hate to be a downer, be aware that the treadmill game is not your chameleon having fun. He is trying to escape and the road is unnaturally long.

A middle step is to use a branch instead of your perching hand. Just get a reasonable length branch and put that by your chameleon’s feet. Some of these clever creatures will treat your branch like they would your hand because they are pretty darn smart and they are not fooled by your big-brained mammalian bait and switch tricks. But a stick is often a much easier sell.

How to get a reluctant chameleon out of its cage

Now, let’s discuss the panicked or even aggressive chameleon. First, the panicked chameleon. There are chameleons that have a very high level of fear towards humans and being handled. You’ll often find this in wild caught chameleons or in babies. Wild Caught chameleons, unsurprisingly, have a much higher fear of humans than the ones brought up being fed by their human servants all their life. But it can happen with any individual of any species from anywhere. This panic can even manifest itself by your chameleon leaping into the air to get away from you. They are willing to take their chances with an injury from a fall rather than the almost sure death that comes from when you put them in your mouth. Remember, their survival instinct was not developed with your loving heart in mind. Trioceros quadricornis and montium can even roll into a tight disc as they launch themselves in the air to get a little gliding distance going. It is pretty easy to pick them up from the bottom of the cage after this, but you will not be able to trust that they will stay perched on your hand and if they attempt to jump off your hand you know you have a chameleon with a strong survival instinct. You’ll want to be extremely careful not to trust that they will just perch on your hand. They actually will watch for when you look away and then leap into oblivion. Chameleons can survive falls surprisingly well, but it is absolutely a trauma you want to avoid. When they do this they are not checking to make sure they do not hit anything along the way. If they hit the corner of a hard surface this jump and fall could be fatal. Unfortunately, this kind of chameleon needs to be held in the traditional sense of the word. This is a bad situation because a jumper is already high strung. Entrapping him in your hand will be many times more stressful for him. This particular chameleon is not a good candidate for holding and holding should be done only for the most necessary maintenance and medication purposes. You are in more luck when it comes to babies because they can grow out of it. Once they get some size to them their confidence will increased. If your baby is panicked don’t chase him around the cage. That just adds to the panic and engrains a fear of you. You will just have to be patient and try to get him to climb on a stick you provide. And, yes, he will do his darndest to get off that stick before you can pull it out. This is where the patience comes in. But truly consider why you are bringing him out. Is it necessary? You can always try again tomorrow if it is not critical. Both babies and adults can be tamed down over time. Hang tight for the upcoming taming episode for that.

Chameleon Claws and Skin Rash

There are some consequences for holding your chameleon. A chameleon’s feet are meant to be strong enough for holding onto branches at the top of a tree with the wind blowing. The claws are designed to dig into branch to allow vertical climbing. These feet are wonderfully designed to grab tree parts. Our hands, fingers, and arms are much more sensitive than tree parts and our skin is not bark. Thus it is common for you to find small scratches and punctures all over your hands after putting your chameleon back. The smaller chameleons are less of a problem. An adult veiled or panther chameleon has the strength to make you notice big time. A Parson’s chameleon can stop you in your tracks as you try desperately to figure out how to get his vice-like clawed grip off your poor finger. You already have the punctures of his claws into your skin. You are just hoping you can provide him with an attractive perching branch so he moves on his own. If you try and dislodge him he tightens his grip. If you try to pull him off you just turned punctures into deep gouges! Handling a large chameleon is really a collaboration. You can wear gloves if you want, but the added shape may intimidate your chameleon and remember they are great at seeing colors. There may or may not be issues with the gloves being on sometimes and not others. As with every part of husbandry – keep observing your chameleon and adjust as is appropriate.

Being Bit by a Chameleon

Let’s turn our attention towards biting. The big question everyone asks when considering a new pet. “Will it bite” and then the pet store employee who thinks himself much more clever than he actually is will say “every animal bites”. If this happens, just stare at him until he answers what he knows you meant. If he doesn’t answer your question then why in the world aren’t you buying a chameleon from a breeder in the community? ….Well, I suppose we can just answer this here and you won’t have to play that game. Yes, chameleons can bite. They have true teeth and they have a jaw strong enough to crunch beetles. And, yes, these teeth can draw blood on a hapless human.

Now, the fact is that bites are rare. Chameleons do not hide their emotions. They do not lie in wait. They are very expressive and bites come after some pretty obvious warnings that it is coming. Chameleon bites are a surprise only for the densest among us. You don’t even have to speak the subtle nuances of chameleon body language. They use an effective blend of showing their teeth and even lunging at you to get the point across. If you do not get the message after that then the natural order of things is that you have a learning experience just waiting to meet your acquaintance.

That said, an adult male panther or veiled can give you a respectable bite. Usually it is a bite and release with the intention of escape. Only rarely is it a bite intended to do damage. And, yes, I have had a few foul tempered chameleons that wanted to do damage. They do exist, but they are rare. Most chameleon keepers go through their entire 5 to 7 years of pet chameleon ownership never experiencing a bite. Especially if you get a captive bred chameleon you are on the easy road. Those of us who work with wild caught get to experience a little more excitement. The, uh, kind of excitement that you don’t necessarily need in your life.

Playing with your Chameleon.

Though there is another side to this. Many chameleons are so passive it causes another problem. And that is that some keepers want to play with their chameleon. Jackson’s chameleons are the species that most often end up having their passiveness be misinterpreted as a desire to play or be with humans. People read into the passive nature that the chameleon not only tolerates it, but actually loves play time! Chameleons do not play. Go ahead and bring your chameleon out for brief periods of time to quietly observe him. There is immense value in you getting up close and personal with your chameleon in the way that this is how we humans build value and relationship with something. And if enough people value chameleons then perhaps we can put in the efforts to reverse our destructive environmental actions. Honestly, how many of us can point to Madagascar on a map only because we got into chameleons? Share your experience with your friends. And that can include short periods of time out of the cage to show your friends. But please, no soap bubble popping. And especially no playtime with your other pets. If you want to interact with your chameleon do chameleon things, not human things. Here are some things to do with your chameleon:

Put them on a tree branch and watch them crawl around getting unfiltered natural sunlight.
Feed them special treats of green and/or flying insects
Observe them and enjoy studying their behavior

So I say a short period of time for holding. The reality is that each chameleon will tolerate different lengths of handling time. This is where we come back to knowing your chameleon and knowing chameleon body language.

Lifting your Chameleon by its tail

When bringing your chameleon out to share the experience with friends you’ll want to be careful for your friend’s reactions to a lizard. A surprising number of people are nervous around reptiles. A jerking of their hand when you are in mid transfer or a panicked flinging of the chameleon as it makes its way up their arm can deal serious damage to your pet. The world needs more chameleon evangelists, but do not be so excited to share your new found love that you pressure people into holding your chameleon before they are mentally ready. Many of you are shaking your heads asking how anyone could be scared of a chameleon. Wouldn’t the possibility of having your own dragon perched on your shoulder overcome any fear? Yeah, so don’t ask me to explain these poor souls. Just know they are many and the safety of your chameleon is your top priority.

While you might think that handing a nervous friend a branch with the chameleon on it may be a good compromise this may back fire as your wonderfully acclimated chameleon may then run towards your friend’s hand with the intention of making it to the top of friend mountain. A prehistoric looking dinosaur suddenly charging towards your friend’s face may produce an unintended response opposite of what you were hoping. You know how you feel when a strange dog escapes their leash and is charging at full speed towards you and your dog? The owner is yelling not to worry because his dog doesn’t bite. All nice and good, but your fight or flight center of your brain is going off the charts. Maybe this dog doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it, but you and your smaller dog are not convinced that protection extends to you two.

Once you have determined that your friend is safe for chameleon holding just use the same method as getting the chameleon out of its cage. Put your friend’s hand under and in front of the chameleon and encourage your chameleon to walk forward. Make sure your friend knows to stay put until all five grabby parts have released you. That is four feet and a tail. All need to be free before the receiving hand can move away.

An interesting a fun way of transferring a chameleon is through his tail. Many chameleons such as panthers, veileds, and jacksons have strong prehensile tails. These tails naturally wrap around things to provide anchor points. The tail actually overrides the feet in priority. So, with just a basic level of comfort with you, you can transfer these chameleons from your hand to somewhere else by getting them to wrap their tail around your finger. Rub your finger along the underside of the tail until it wraps tightly around your finger. You can then slowly lift off and your chameleon will go where its tail goes. You can then place the chameleon on your friend’s hand or else back in its cage.

Back in the Chameleon cage

And just to reiterate moving a chameleon from one spot to another – whether that is a friend’s hand or back into the cage. You must provide the same care on the back end that we did getting him out of the cage in the first place. Just like when your chameleon started stepping onto your hand, he may cautiously step off your hand. This means you must be patient until all five gripping parts are away before you draw your hand back. If you have a nervous chameleon it may just short of leap into its cage to get away. A more acclimated chameleon has a tendency to move slowly. Sometimes painfully slowly as you have to go to work and they sit half on their cage branch and half on your hand just watching you. Use your “herding” hand or gently tap their backside to encourage them to continue moving forward.

Next Steps

So these are handling basics. There are a couple of other aspects I would like to address coming up. The next episode will be on the challenging situation of handling a chameleon you are attempting to medicate. Everything I said about the chameleon not really wanting to bite you kind of goes out the window when you are swabbing at sensitive areas. And then we will wrap it up with a talk on taming your chameleon. And, no, I am not talking about “best buddy for life” training. My job here is to get you and your chameleon on a good enough standing that basic care and maintenance is a comfortable interaction between you and your mini-tree dragon. Though, you know, a little tongue zap on demand wouldn’t hurt anyone so I’ll include that!

Until we meet again, keep hungry for growth. Our knowledge about these modern day dragons is certainly respectable, but nowhere near complete. If you want to know more then just stick around. This podcast is not so much a vehicle for me sharing my wisdom. It is me welcoming you to come along with my journey to know the world of chameleons better. So climb aboard and let’s see what we can discover!

Season Three Starts Jan 2018!

October 22, 2017 by admin

Good morning Chameleon Wranglers! It is time for an update as to what is going on with the podcast! This isn’t an episode per se. It is just a short update to let you know I am working hard on season three! I haven’t just migrated to Madagascar for the winter! We have this break because I am substantially increasing what this podcast will offer. In season three I will have video companion episodes to the podcast. You will still get the podcast which can keep you company into work or during the cage cleaning days, but you will also be able to come home and see a companion video which gives a visual to the topic. I am estimating that the new season will launch in January. I have been having a great time recording interviews and video for this new season and look forward to sharing them with you. We are going to be taking a close look at handling your chameleons, the ecology of the veiled chameleon, and chameleon anatomy. We’ll get a better feel for supplements, plants in the chameleon cage, and even how we in the hobbyist community can effectively perform some citizen science to push our collective knowledge further. I intend for this new format to be well worth the wait.

Until then, I just want to throw out a notice that it is once again time to get ready for winter if you are in the northern latitudes. Some areas already have snow. Seriously consider starting that feeder breeding project just in case your mail delivery service gets interrupted. Healthy chameleons can go a week without eating and it should not cause a problem, but sometimes bitter cold weather can last weeks and you don’t need that feeling of helplessness as you beg the feeder company to send crickets at your risk and boxes of them continue to show up dead. Superworms are easy to breed. Dubia are easy to breed. Fruit flies are easy to breed. If you have chameleon eggs incubating or a live bearing species that could possibly have babies then get yourself breeding fruit flies now so you are in full production by time the hardest of winter hits. Adult chameleons can survive a week or even two without food (I am not saying they will be happy about it or that you should do this purposefully), but babies will not be so lucky. If you have ever experienced the frustration of finding fruit fly cultures that are “blooming” during summer, imagine the difficulty during winter when many companies just won’t ship due to the weather. Now is a GREAT time to get set for the winter! And if you are in the Southern latitudes then head to the beach and laugh into your umbrella drink at the poor slobs having white stuff falling on their heads!

Another fun project to put together you are part of the people that might be spending more time indoors is to put together a photo album of your chameleon. With smartphones we end up doing a great job documenting every flower that blooms, everything that your kid does, every coffee from Starbucks, and every stage of growth in our chameleons. You can sit down one afternoon and make a folder with all the stages of growth you have experienced with your friend. If you want to go a step further you can easily find an online service that will take those photos and make them into a print book for your coffee table. It is a very cool thing to be able to see the growth in colors or horns as your chameleon grows up. And it is a good way to judge people. If they look at the book and say “oh my gosh, how awesome” then they get to level up. If they scrunch their face and can’t figure out why you have a book about these weird things then you are able to show them the door and not waste time with that kind of undesirable element.

“You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here…”

So, while I am arranging simultaneous interviews across three continents, massaging those video transitions, and trying to coax the why out of these topics, enjoy the holidays, your family, and that mini-tree dragon that makes our lives border on the fantastic! I’ll have something special for you when 2018 plops itself on our doorstep! It will be a great year to learn, understand, and pass it on!

Ep 79: Mourning Your Chameleon

July 13, 2017 by admin

Today we talk about dealing with the loss of our chameleon. Chameleons have so much personality and character that they easily become considered part of the family. And when the time comes for them to pass we can get confused as to how we should feel.

Today I share my thoughts on losing a beloved chameleon.

Transcript:

Good morning, my friends. Today we are going to be talking about the heavy topic of how we handle the loss of a pet chameleon. This is for the keepers that have bonded with their chameleon and have now had to face the loss of that friend. If you are the type that numbers your chameleons and see them as genetics or keeps them isolated and true to their wild nature as possible then there may not be an emotional attachment. This is absolutely okay and more chameleons than not are very happy with that arrangement! If this is your way then this episode may not be your thing. This week is for the keepers who allow a chameleon to be part of their family. While this most likely appeals to the family that purchases a baby panther chameleon and raises Rango as a beloved pet, this also can apply to the most logical and scientific of us who have our breeding projects. We hatch and sell. But with each one of those projects, if they go on for a number of years, there is always that one or two or few chameleons that stay with you. Somehow, somewhere along the way, chameleon 24601 becomes Candide or Sarge or Safari. They get past their breeding age, but we just can’t let them go. Congratulations, your heart wouldn’t stay locked up and now this chameleon is more than an ectothermic vertebrate. And should the day come that Sarge is no longer sitting on his branch cautiously acknowledging your approach there is suddenly a hole in your life. Ironically, it is sometimes the logical ones among us that are hit the hardest by this loss. And that is because we never knew we cared so much.

Most of us who bring a pet into our lives will have to, one day, deal with that pet leaving us. I say most because there are some birds and tortoises that will outlive their owners. But we chameleon keepers are not in that boat. Chameleons have a lifespan of anywhere from a year or two to perhaps 20 years. And this is worth speaking about ahead of time because it is not uncommon for a chameleon owner to lose their chameleon and then find they have no idea how to deal with the feelings they didn’t realize they had. We spend so much time and energy learning about our chameleon and working with it that, somewhere along the way, our chameleon became something more than “just a lizard”. With chameleons wearing their emotions on their sleeve – literally through their color changes – there is a great deal of true communication that goes on between us and our chameleon. Those of you who have raised up a baby chameleon, watched the little guy grow up into its adult colors or horns, and developed a relationship with its individual personality know that there is strong bonding that happens.

I tell the story of many years ago where my wife, Yvette, helped me raise up a clutch of panthers. I arranged their sale ahead of time and sent them all off one afternoon. Although it was fun, it was a lot of work and I knew she would be relieved that it was over. Yvette was out doing some errands at the time and I texted her the good news that all the babies were off! Yeehaw, No more hours spent cleaning and feeding! When she got home she stayed in the car for a while and, after a little bit, I went to go see what was up. I found my wife bawling her eyes out. This was her first clutch that she had cared for. She had gotten to know them and their personalities. Remember that I raise babies individually. Especially when you do this – you get to know them as individuals even though they are just babies. Each one has their distinct personality right out of the egg! So it is easy to understand how the forever-home owner who spends years nurturing their one baby up to adulthood and old age would be so much more connected. So how do we handle the loss of our friend?

Now, I just want to start this episode on the right foot. This has nothing to do with how much emotional capacity a chameleon has. It is obvious that chameleons form basic relationships with us. They equate us with food, get comfortable around us to the point where they eat from our hands or engage in even more interaction. For all my admonishing that we do not project human emotions and feelings onto our chameleon, there is no doubt that there is a basic trust that a chameleon develops with its owner. Chameleons can easily tell the difference between people and trust must be earned. Regardless of what level of relationship they are capable of, there is no denying that we ..form bonds.. with them. And when they pass, the severing of those bonds is real and it is painful.

Perhaps the hardest thing about losing a chameleon is that your family and friends may not understand or fully appreciate this emotion.

The first thing many of us hear when we are caught with a tear in our eye is “it was only a lizard”. This will come from well meaning family and friends who just don’t understand. You see, it has nothing to do with what it was or wasn’t. It has everything to do with what it meant to you. And this adds a loneliness to the pain. We humans work through emotions by sharing them. So when you need comfort you will probably need to go to your circle of chameleon friends as they may be the only ones who truly understand.

But please do not let any person’s lack of understanding lessen the beauty of the time you had with your chameleon.

Now, It is incredibly hard to find a silver lining in this, though a universal truth is that the sadder you are, the deeper you loved. And the deeper you loved, the more the relationship changed you. And that is a beautiful thing. Beautiful things are not always free of pain and change as a human being is rarely with out discomfort. Regardless of whether you can see good in this or not, there is no getting around that right now you feel horrible. And I am going to say that is okay. It’s healthy. You lost a friend. Allow yourself the time to process what is happening. This is not the time to dull your feelings by immediately replacing your chameleon. Give yourself time. Don’t worry, another baby chameleon will be available when you have worked through your sorrow and figured out what happened.

And yes, figuring out what happened is part of the process. We need to grow from this experience both emotionally and in our husbandry. Identify what happened. If the vet or online discussion did not give a definitive answer there is always the option of a necropsy which is an autopsy that your vet performs on the body. This can give insight into what may have been wrong on the inside. It is your job to figure out how that happened. Your vet would be a good source for why the liver was mottled or why the fat pads were so huge. But find out why.

There is one emotion that plagues us chameleon keepers more than other pet lovers might have. And that is guilt. Chameleons have such different husbandry and there are so many pockets of bad advice that it is easy to fall into providing poor husbandry without knowing it. We have keepers who have no problem spending what it takes for proper care, but with bad advice you don’t know what you are missing. And you don’t always bump into the right people before your chameleon gets sick. With nothing to compare to, how would anyone know when a chameleon is off? We see keepers showing off chameleons riddled with MBD and, because they have no healthy chameleon to compare to, they are unaware that their pet is dying. And when they do bump into the right people and get plugged into the right community it all floods on them the realization of how bad the situation is. When their chameleon dies they are shouldered with the realization that all it would have taken would be the proper light bulb and their chameleon would be alive now and healthy.

At least with dogs and cats you don’t have to think as much. There are established best practices. Follow the vaccination schedule , wellness visits and dietary advice and you are able to have a great life with your dog! The path isn’t as clear cut with chameleons.

And this happens at all levels of experience. It was only last year that I noticed a swelling on the head of one of my chameleons. Excess fat? Maybe edema? It is in a strange place for any of these. I’ll cut back on supplementation. He is eating and active and shows no signs of being sick. Fast forward to the point where I decide this needs to get looked at and I find out that this was actually a bacterial infection. It wasn’t growing on the outside because it was eating downward into my chameleon’s skull and if I had brought him in sooner he could have been saved. My lack of decision cost my chameleon his life and I have that on my conscious. I couldn’t sleep soundly for days. Each of us has our own story that we really would rather not share publically, but it rages inside of us. It took me months before I could stop beating myself up for that mistake and talking about it now brings it all back up.

So what do we do about guilt?…… Embrace it…. Dig deep and understand what it was that we could have done differently. This isn’t a blame thing. Blame is useless. It is making sure it doesn’t happen to you again. The only way to get rid of the guilt is to acknowledge it truthfully and then let it heal over time. The easiest thing to do is to figure out how to blame something or someone else. If only the vet would have had a sooner appointment. If only the breeder didn’t sell me a genetically inferior animal. It couldn’t have been my husbandry because I did it all right… That just keeps the poison bottled up. Let all that go. Finding a convenient scape goat only dooms you to repeating the part that was your responsibility. If you have to go through being angry then go through that stage and get it out. Just be careful that you do not lash out. Let the pain be without action for now. There will be time enough for whatever action you feel is appropriate once your head clears.

What has helped me with closure is that I have a burying ceremony where I lay my friend to rest. To do this I will dig an appropriate size hole that is deep enough that dogs, cats, and raccoons won’t be able to sniff things out and dig my hole back out. I line the bottom with rose petals, lay the body of my chameleon on the rose bed, and then provide a blanket of more rose petals. Once I fill the hole up I place a picked flower on top. That flower represents the time we spent together. The flower wilting and going back to the earth represents this chapter in my life coming to a close.

It helps for me to say some words of goodbye. That just seems to be the thing that provides the closure. Hearing it out loud somehow makes it more real. I am not a poet so forgive me my form, but these are the words I speak when saying good bye. I call it the Dragon’s Embrace and, if you are not sure what to say, you are welcome to take these words as your own message of farewell to your friend.

Dragons Embrace

We met along life’s path

You from the heart of an ancient dragon

And me from my human world

Our paths crossed; we shared a story together.

And now, too soon, that heart calls you back

I speak these final words to close our chapter

As I lay your body to rest

Your memory forever with me

As you return back

to the Dragon’s embrace

Every chameleon that I have lived with has added to my life. Every chameleon has contributed to what I share. Their physical bodies leave, their time passes. But their influence remains. Each article I have written over all these years and each podcast I have shared is because of them. They go on in me and this is how I honor their memory.

And your chameleon will go on in you. Everything you have learned goes towards strengthening you as a person. You took time to see the world through alien eyes. There really is no greater exercise of empathy than that. And if this experience truly affected you and you are looking for a way to honor your chameleon and the time you spent together then take what you learned and make it mean something for those still here. There are chameleon rescues that are helping chameleons struggling with life right now. Donate $25, or any amount, to a rescue in the name of your chameleon. If you don’t have money to give then honor your chameleon through your actions. You just spent all that time trying to figure out how to see the world through the eyes of a dinosaur to best take care of it. Surely you can pick one person in your life that you don’t understand and use that developed empathy skill to try and see the world from their perspective. On the surface we are all different, but the deeper down you go the more we are the same. If you can feel for a dinosaur, just try that once for a fellow human. And if you are able to bring a smile where there wasn’t one before then you have made the ultimate learning experience. You took something seemingly totally unrelated- chameleon keeping -, found the underlying truth behind it, and used it for personal growth to make the world just a little bit better.

So where do we go from here? Well, you get on with your life. You give yourself the time to heal. Immerse yourself in activities with family and friends and maybe give the chameleon world a little break. This may have been a once in a lifetime experience and you may be ready to try other things in life. If that is the case then take your chameleon memories with you and enjoy knowing you spent time communing with a real life mini tree-dragon. Not many people can say that. But if, once the pain has faded, you find yourself scanning the chameleon pages on social media. You day dream of horns and casques and impossible colors. You miss the adrenaline burst of when that tongue snags the cricket from your fingers. Well, then maybe it is time to consider coming back. Maybe it is time to approach the heart of that ancient dragon and bring back a tiny wisp of a dinosaur…whose horns, casque, and colors will come to be under your loving care.

Because every day is open for starting a new chapter.

Ep 78: Chameleon Fecal Exams with Alec O’Brien

July 6, 2017 by admin

Today we are going to talk about how to do your own fecal exam for your chameleon. Of course, there is much more to it than I can go over here, but it really isn’t that hard and we will give you a very good start. I have brought back Alec O’Brien who is a vet tech and chameleon breeder!

For those interested in Reptile parasites, these two books are the best out there! Check for Kindle or iPad or any other electronic versions.

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

As far as equipment, purchasing these one time will last a long time for you!

Microscope

This is a similar microscope to what I use. This one does not have the computer interface so you can use your smartphone to take pictures through the eye pieces.

Microscope with computer display

If you would like a professional interface to your computer where you can record video and still pictures then it is not much more to get a model that does just that. BEWARE: These microscopes don’t support all systems. Whatever microscope you select specifically verify that it supports the computer system you want to use with it.

Microscope slides & Cover Slips

This pack is of 100 of glass slides and 100 cover slips

Agitators

It is worth it, in my opinion, to get yourself these plastic collection and agitation container. This box will give you 50 and that should tide you over for a nice long time.

Fecosol

This is the solution we use for the float

Wash Bottle

As you are trying to fill up the agitator and you want to stop right at the moment before it overflows I would suggest you pick up a squirt bottle. It can be messy pouring that big jug of Fecasol into a little agitator. And this stuff really isn’t what you want splashing around.

Saline Solution

I am including a link to this to be comprehensive, but you can buy this at any place that sells saline for contact lenses.

Ep 77: Incubating Chameleon Eggs with Carl Cattau

June 29, 2017 by admin

Today Carl Cattau and I discuss incubation of chameleon eggs. Incubation can be intimidating and I know I gravitated towards live bearers for the longest time. But hatching eggs really isn’t that bad once you understand how to pull it off. Listen in and try it yourself!

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