cham and pregnant wife...HELP needed!

[gamato8]

My wife is pregnant and we are afraid that by keeping our cham inside it could possibly spread salmonella? or possibly something else to her or the baby. We live in a small apartment and are keeping him outside for the fall, but when winter comes he cannot stay outside. I absolutely will not give away the Cham but do not want to put my wife or my baby in harms way. im sure some of you have gone through this before, I could use some advice!!!

 

[carol5208]

No, I have never heard of anything like this. I don't think that is anything to worry about.

 

[jannb]

Congrats on the up coming baby. My vet tells me that salmonella is fairly rare in chameleons. It is however a good idea to wash your hands after handling your Cham and cleaning his enclosure.

 

[laurie]

I think you should be fine. We have had several members ask those same kinds of questions. Usually Dr's say emptying a cat litter box is worse for a pregnant person than chams are. But normal things like making sure their are no cham items used or cleaned near your wife would be advisable just to add more safety.

Congrats on your upcoming child.

 

[stalincat]

it is bearded dragons who (supposedly) give babies salmonella.
But I'm pretty sure that most of such cases are due to poor husbandry and hygiene

 

[Trillian]

Congratulations! It's a common worry, but you'll be fine with usual precautions. I'm assuming your chameleon hasn't made you sick before, no reason to think he'll start now. Just don't lick him

If you need a lactation consultant or babysitter, let me know, I'm very broody!

 

[gamato8]

no he has never made me sick at all. ok i guess just very worried and wanted to make sure. i appreciate the feedback from everyone yall put me at ease!!!

 

[Tootime]

Thanks for asking this, I have a pregnant wife as well and she is a nurse and is always telling me she or our kids better not get salmonella poison. I am always telling her to relax.

 

[gamato8]

that sounds exactle like whats going on here! i have done a lot of reading but nothing really specific to chams comes up. just alot of info on reptiles in general and they tend to be pretty negative towards keeping the reptile in the house.

 

[Beautiful4Ever]

So I understand how this can be...I have a 2 year old daughter, so I did a ton of research on salmonella poisoning specifically before I purchased my chameleons. Chameleons can indeed have salmonella, however saying this...it IS very rare that they have it. In addition, salmonella isn't good for your reptiles either, they will show signs of sickness if they do. The best way to prevent ANY sickness, especially with a child is hand sanitizer/washing your hands, also keep up on maintenance of the enclosure. My daughter loves our chameleons and she already knows that we clean our hands afterwards. Hope this helps, the risk is in fact minimal.

 

[juice28]

youd have waayyy more issues with turtles or larger ground dwelling reptiles than with your cham but poor husbandry makes a big difference...except for turtles lol theyre just "dirty" lol especially aquatic turtles