OMG I'm a chameleon owner... 2/29 Rehoming this weekend. :)

[wodesorel]

So she's literally doubled in weigh (up to 155 grams from 80! ) and she looks fantastic. Grip is so strong! I think I can officially call her recovered.

I named her Jane, after the SNL skit Point/Counterpoint, because that's the look she gives me all day long. I used to think cats cornered the market of disdainful looks, but no, chameleons do it so much better.

This is the first time I've handled her since she needed weighed before Thanksgiving for the dewormers. She did incredibly well, no hissing, no posturing, no biting. I don't plan to ever hold her regularly, but it's nice to know I can if I need to.







Now, lets just hope the extra weight isn't all eggs...

[megmaholm]

She's beautiful! What an improvement

[CallaLily]

Omgosh, she looks so much better!

[wodesorel]

So we had a fun month - my first time with a chameleon that needed to lay eggs. I thought she was dying there for a while... Talk about nerve-wracking! But she managed to get through it just fine. Laid 59 eggs - from my understanding, that was a lot.



(Her pajama colors. They get brighter when the lights go off!)



Before laying, look at that belly! And she didn't get nearly as huge as some of the other gravid females I saw, so it was confusing until she actually started digging.





So skinny... All that work! It was all eggs..



59 - not in the best of shape. They were infertile. They lay eggs even if they haven't been mated. Up to 4 times a year, too. There was evidence of calcium deficiency and several were undersized.


A friend of a friend is driving down on Saturday from the lake and adopting her. Chameleons have to be cared for daily - no skipping for any reason - and it has to be during daylight hours only, preferably first thing in the morning. With things the way they are right now and the possibility of surgery, getting her to a home who can do that for her was important. (Everything else we have can skip a day and isn't difficult, so my husband could take over temporarily if it came to it.) I was also concerned about being able to get her into a bigger enclosure.

As it turned out, this gal contacted me over the weekend about adopting one of her scorpions because she said they wanted to make space for a chameleon. And I'm like well... I have one I want to rehome soooo. She works with the reptile rescue, and has an empty iguana enclosure that is super huge so Jane will be spoiled. She also has several other MBD rescues, so she understands the condition and knows what it entails. We've been messaging back and forth since with photos and questions and I am so okay with this.

Chameleons are awesome, but they are not for nocturnal people, or someone who has to watch their wallet, or someone who can't monkey around on a ladder. I am grateful for the experience. I learned so much. I would honestly probably do it again. But chameleons are like kittens - fun for a while, worth every minute, but tiring as heck and oh my gosh let someone else take over for a while! The friend who got her for me is completely okay with this whole thing as well as she still doesn't have the space and I think I complained so much she lost interest in the end, and she knows that it's a great situation.



She was grey for a while after laying. It was still kind of scary.



I'm going to miss this look!

[landlubber]

Chames are so amazing! Don't want to work that hard on another pet but I sure love to look at them! I am so glad you found a great fit for her. Sounds pretty perfect.