Chameleons, Chameleons, Chameleons!!!!!!

[MannyM]

They have to be one of the most beautiful exquisite creatures I have ever seen.
I am awestruck!

Ditto, the markings are amazing!

 

[orsm]

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Very nice!!!

 

[Moreliaman]

They are very prone to metabolic bone disease and a electrolite imbalance causes their tongue to not withdraw and thus be amputated.

electrolite imbalance happens with alot of chams, ive had yemens/jackons & panthers with this problem. Easy enough to cure though. Dunno about being amputated ! i would have thought a chameleon without a tounge would starve unless its hand fed !

They also get bored with crickets and other commercially available live foods

Yep some of mine did too, they love colourful things..... so green cockroaches, butterflies,moths are gulped down..... you should'nt really feed the same food all the time to any animal, much healthier to vary the type of food offered.

These chameleons grow to 3 foot in length and this male was close to that.

lol...you should tell them that includes tail !! which can be 1+ foot long on its own ! Ive got a pair of Mellors atm, they get a bit on the large side too, they dont half drink alot of water !

 

[Morelia_Hunter]

Those are Panthers, not Mellers. Chamaeleo pardalis, saw lots of them when I was in Madagascar!

 

[Retic]

I must agree, they look like Panther Chameleons.

 

[Moreliaman]

lol.....i didnt the say the pics were mellors..........it is a panther...lmao!

you two should read my signature ! :lol:


Ahhh is this the "no pic not true" thing ? ok ill take some pics of the mellors tomorrow when i get my camera back :wink:

 

[reptililian]

Chameleons

I must agree, they look like Panther Chameleons.

I must disagree, they look like a bad hawaiian shirt, which is actually a very nice look for a chameleon!

 

[instar]

OH Ilove the first two pics, Chams are very beautiful animals. Its nice to see folk post pics of herps that are not local occasionally, I love our herps but theres a big world out there!
Thankyou.

 

[Linus]

What sort of temperament do they have? That one sitting on your hand there looks pretty relaxed.

 

[Retic]

Chameleons generally rely on a lot of bluff and bluster, big wide open mouth etc. Most of those in captivity are many generations captive bred and are very relaxed and have great temperaments.

 

[waruikazi]

They have to be the most bizzare and awesome lizards that exist!

 

[SLACkra]

Chameleons generally rely on a lot of bluff and bluster, big wide open mouth etc. Most of those in captivity are many generations captive bred and are very relaxed and have great temperaments.

mmm mine used to go ballistic when i went to take her down off the blinds. i had these blinds in my room which she could easily climb so she loved climbing up them and sitting in the sun. whenever i went to take her down she would huff and puff! same with getting her out of the enclosure. i eventually took the method of using crickets to get her to come out and come down(off the blinds) without too much fuss.

moreliaman you have some very attractive chameleons!

andrew

 

[Morelia_Hunter]

Just some pics of a Mellers Chameleon I saw when on holiday a few weeks ago:

And this little guy stopped traffic in the Kruger National Park when I was there 4 weeks ago!:

And a close up. This guy was almost begging to be deported to Australia!!!!

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

Chameleons ARe amazing animals,in the first two pics they not only change color but they change the color of thier surrounding as well,,the mysteries of nature aye?
but great pics
baz

 

[Rennie]

Absolutely beautiful, I'd love to have one of any of those species if we were allowed.

 

[Moreliaman]

Sorry, been a bit busy latley & i forgot !!

Heres those mellors, interesting to keep but certianly dont like being handled (you can see just by taking pictures they start to display stress colours) They were bought by a shop to re-sell on from an importer, but they were in a pretty poor state when they arrived, so much so i phoned the importer & gave him a mouthful, they shouldnt have been sold in that condition, let alone transported via corrier !, he gave us one free so i was happy with the compensation, but will think twice before i buy from or reccomend him again! (Fauna Import :evil: )
Anyway, i have to nurse them back to health now so that they can be sold, basically i recomended the importer to my friend because i'd used them before with no problems, so feeling a tad guilty i offered to look after them, until they were in a condition he can sell (plus theres meaning to my madness...how many people get to look after fantastic reptiles like this for free!? )
They get a good mixture of foods like madagascan hissing cockroaches, crickets, hoppers, green cockroaches, butterflies, moths, waxworms
All the food items get fed veg & fruit & a wartery honey mixture mixed with vitamins, they will take food from my hand, but just getting them to do that took 2-3 weeks, like i said before they get stressed out very easily, when they first arrived i tried to give them some water with a turkey baster (due to their size & the amout of water they drink every day!) but they went ballastic at the sight of the baster ! :lol: so i had to leave it in the enclosure so that they could get used to the sight of it & change watering to a little pipette, it took ages !, thankfully they dont mind the baster now, so combined with the drip bottles that get filled twice a day, it takes about 5 mins !
They've come along quite well in the 5 weeks ive had them so far, When i took first them home One of them used to have a nasty open wound along its back, (you could nearly see the back bone !) I had to swab it everyday with an iodine/saline solution, as you can see from one of the pics it doesnt look too bad now.
Anyway, sorry about the delay, enjoy the pics :wink:

 

[Morelia_Hunter]

I have foung that their eyes are a good sign of health as well as theeir skin sunken eyes and black blotchy skin means its too late. Great animals though.

 

[Moreliaman]

Yep, dark eyes on a chameleon means trouble & sunken eyes usually's mean's death shortly follows :cry: