Favorite Breeder to buy Cham-Please Recommend

YellowQueenHoney

YellowQueenHoney

Member
Hello Forum,
My Veiled Male Chameleon died suddenly yesterday. I am so sad. I did not expect him to die.

For the future when I am ready again to add a chameleon to our family, I want to go through a breeder that is know for healthy chameleons.

I understand my husbandry and care plays an extremely strong role in the health of my chameleon. And know that is my responsibility to care for him properly to be healthy but I want to get a chameleon that has a good healthy background and was well cared for before he is in my hands.

I know there are many sponsors and breeders on this site but was wondering from there customers, who do you recommend.

And I will not hold anyone to this. I know they are fragile creatures.

I am just looking for some guidance so I can get a good strong guy.

Thanks
Sorry this is written poorly- I am sincere
And very heartbroken
 
I will give @Matt Vanilla Gorilla his second vote. @Katacara isn't kidding when she says 24/7. He is 3 hours behind my time but I've spent many of my sleepless nights chatting with him leading up to my little guy arriving. Tbh, I now don't really consider him and his wife as just my baby boys breeder. They became like a long lost part of my family during the month I spent building out his enclosure. You can see part of my journey in the home sweet home thread by @Krissy83 in general and the other part (both on going lol) in the enclosure section under so I'm going to use this as a build/question thread. And if you want yet another condensed version I have a link in the home sweet home thread to my good guy thread for Matt and Jessica :D.
 
dshuld said:
I will give @Matt Vanilla Gorilla his second vote. @Katacara isn't kidding when she says 24/7. He is 3 hours behind my time but I've spent many of my sleepless nights chatting with him leading up to my little guy arriving. Tbh, I now don't really consider him and his wife as just my baby boys breeder. They became like a long lost part of my family during the month I spent building out his enclosure. You can see part of my journey in the home sweet home thread by @Krissy83 in general and the other part (both on going lol) in the enclosure section under so I'm going to use this as a build/question thread. And if you want yet another condensed version I have a link in the home sweet home thread to my good guy thread for Matt and Jessica :D.
Click to expand...
Thank you!!! I really appreciate it!
 
YellowQueenHoney said:
Thank you!!! I really appreciate it!
Click to expand...

Np, Matt and Jessica are phenomenal people and like @Katacara did here, he was recommended to me by her and @Kristen Wilkins . Blue happened to be entering his teenager stage when I was in the middle of building but Matt did his best to prepare me for how he was going to be since he is my first lol. @Kristen Wilkins has one of my boys older siblings and he is one gorgeous little guy too.
 
I’m a new owner myself as of roughly 2 months and am on my 3rd cham.

The first was adopted from my son’s friend’s mother. He was a baby, and had terrible MBD deformities to the point where he couldn’t even walk let alone climb. I brought him to the vet to put him to sleep not even after having him for 24hr.

I got my 2nd at a reptile expo from a home breeder. The guy I picked (2-3 month old) looked good aside from the fact that he tended to have one of his eyes closed more often than not. The breeder assured me that all was well and I stupidly believed him. Upon bringing him home to his palace of a cage, I noticed that he rarely moved from his basking lamp and rarely ate/drank. Eventually the suspect eye closed (couldn’t clear it out via water), shortly followed by the other eye’s demise. Watching him try to blindly move around was quite tough, and despite my best efforts to irrigate, water and feed him, he didn’t make it.

My 3rd/current cham is an entirely different story. I had been eyeing her during my trips to Petco for cricket resupplies and additional (fake - atop my live plants, thinking that my 2nd would benefit from a more dense habitat) foliage. In her/Leilu’s case, I had seen her for some 2 months, she was clearly older/bigger (guessing she’s about 5 months old now), and looked very active and healthy - none of the bad signs that I had seen in my other 2 chams.

While I’ve only had her for some 3 weeks now, she’s doing really well. Super active and alert, eats, drinks, healthy doodies, etc... It’s made me rethink some of the orthodoxy of thought that only home breeders are good and stores are bad.

I’d posit, if you see one at a pet store and can observe it for a decent stretch of time (2 months in my case), then that can be just as viable (if not better) a source vs sone unknown breeder who would likely assure you that he/she only sells healthy chams.
 
bishop said:
I’m a new owner myself as of roughly 2 months and am on my 3rd cham.

The first was adopted from my son’s friend’s mother. He was a baby, and had terrible MBD deformities to the point where he couldn’t even walk let alone climb. I brought him to the vet to put him to sleep not even after having him for 24hr.

I got my 2nd at a reptile expo from a home breeder. The guy I picked (2-3 month old) looked good aside from the fact that he tended to have one of his eyes closed more often than not. The breeder assured me that all was well and I stupidly believed him. Upon bringing him home to his palace of a cage, I noticed that he rarely moved from his basking lamp and rarely ate/drank. Eventually the suspect eye closed (couldn’t clear it out via water), shortly followed by the other eye’s demise. Watching him try to blindly move around was quite tough, and despite my best efforts to irrigate, water and feed him, he didn’t make it.

My 3rd/current cham is an entirely different story. I had been eyeing her during my trips to Petco for cricket resupplies and additional (fake - atop my live plants, thinking that my 2nd would benefit from a more dense habitat) foliage. In her/Leilu’s case, I had seen her for some 2 months, she was clearly older/bigger (guessing she’s about 5 months old now), and looked very active and healthy - none of the bad signs that I had seen in my other 2 chams.

While I’ve only had her for some 3 weeks now, she’s doing really well. Super active and alert, eats, drinks, healthy doodies, etc... It’s made me rethink some of the orthodoxy of thought that only home breeders are good and stores are bad.

I’d posit, if you see one at a pet store and can observe it for a decent stretch of time (2 months in my case), then that can be just as viable (if not better) a source vs sone unknown breeder who would likely assure you that he/she only sells healthy chams.
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Isn't that the point of looking for recommendations lol? So you're not going through some random unknown breeder that may or may not have healthy chams? Don't get me wrong, I'm sorry to hear about your first two passing and happy you found a healthy one at a petco. I can tell you, blue lightning is as healthy as a cham should be and has been since long before he arrived at my office that wonderful day lol. Though he's a bit grouchy between him shedding at the moment and his hormones going nuts on top being a teen.

Though I've not seen all of his breeders, I've seen several because my wife and I are considering trying other species once we are confident enough in our cham keeping ability. @Kristen Wilkins boy, septiseye, is around 15/ 16 months old now I think (?) and he is one stunner of a nosy be. I read as much as my little eyes could read and then some before even contacting Matt and I still had tons of questions, still do really lol, and Matt has been there for me every time. Even when it didn't concern my purchase through him when asking about possible other breeders that would be ok to go through to try and find a female if we end up ready before his batch of unrelated are ready. Or, species he doesn't even currently work with because my wife (@Krissy83) desperately wants a cham with purple coloring now lol.
 
@bishop I'm glad you are having a good experience with your pet store purchase. I would caution others that the longer that chameleons sit in a pet store the more time they are exposed to stressful situations, possibly poor nutrition and improper husbandry. A pet store employee can only do so much for so many animals.
You do make a good point of buying locally if you can. If you know a well recommended local breeder you can go in and pick out your chameleon. You also get to look at the care they were given and decide if you think they were raised properly.
 
I'd recommend not going to a pet store such as petco. The stores in my area are absolutely horrid in terms of chameleon enclosures.

As for breeders I do recommend, FLChams is my top choice at the moment. Bought my male veiled almost a year ago and he is healthy, strong, active, and temperamental lol he loves to try and bite me....

Other breeders I've been told about that are reputable are Kammerflage kreations and canvas chameleons which are both sponsors of the site.
 
Definitely agreed - just saying that one shouldn’t summarily write pet stores off either, especially given how the cham looks (awareness, bones, etc..). Every animal, including humans, can live and do well in (temporarily) sub-optimal conditions. Anyone who’s ever adopted a cat/dog know this quite well. Chams at pet stores can prove to be great pets just as they can from a home breeder is all I’m saying - and home breeders can sometimes be as “trustworthy” as a mechanic.

Heh, and apologies for going off on a tangent as I recognize that it wasn’t directly addressing the OP.
 
Thank you all for weighing in! How do you know you want the chameleon the breeder has without meeting him/her chameleon? Personality wise and if you know- that’s the one. Besides knowing the breed and sex and age you are looking for how do you know if the breeder has the “right” Cham for you? I am sincerely asking this. Maybe it’s a stupid question. When I got a cat, I adopted him from a rescue because he was the one. I know they are a whole other animal but they will be part of the family.
 
That is tough to say. In person look for an alert active chameleon with an appetite. Look at the tail base to judge their weight. If the tail looks stringy then they may be thin or dehydrated. Ask the breeder specific questions about their husbandry. If they don't have a good supplement and gut load schedule or don't know when they changed their bulbs last then look elsewhere.
Most people pick their chameleon by the colors, panther people mostly. You try to get an idea of what they will look like by their parents (sire & dam) and the dam's sire. Personality maybe inherited to some extent but that's not much more than a theory.
 
@bishop Welcome our Handsome baby boy . Well he’s not really a baby . He is our youngest . He’s sooooo sweet, and friendly . A true pleasure !
3E91C9AE-9412-4314-BE2B-70AD0BFD8D33.jpeg
FA6534C8-A5FA-4999-AA5F-01D5B76D756E.jpeg
bishop said:
Definitely agreed - just saying that one shouldn’t summarily write pet stores off either, especially given how the cham looks (awareness, bones, etc..). Every animal, including humans, can live and do well in (temporarily) sub-optimal conditions. Anyone who’s ever adopted a cat/dog know this quite well. Chams at pet stores can prove to be great pets just as they can from a home breeder is all I’m saying - and home breeders can sometimes be as “trustworthy” as a mechanic.

Heh, and apologies for going off on a tangent as I recognize that it wasn’t directly addressing the OP.
Click to expand...
Frances is from petsmart . She is absolutely beautiful this is Frances . I will tell you her care has not been easy . She will be 2 in the spring . She’s a bit Grumpy but we love her just the same . We are so very happy that we took her . I know lots do not agree and that they will fill the tank as fast as she was sold . We don’t care . We won’t ever get another from petsmart/Petco but this little girl has had excellent care between this site and an amazing vet .
 
YellowQueenHoney said:
Thank you all for weighing in! How do you know you want the chameleon the breeder has without meeting him/her chameleon? Personality wise and if you know- that’s the one. Besides knowing the breed and sex and age you are looking for how do you know if the breeder has the “right” Cham for you? I am sincerely asking this. Maybe it’s a stupid question. When I got a cat, I adopted him from a rescue because he was the one. I know they are a whole other animal but they will be part of the family.
Click to expand...

Well, for myself and my wife it was the pics Matt originally provided when I first inquired as to his availability. I had already read they may or may not want to be handled and we had come to accept if this was the case so be it. We made the deal with Matt to hold him for us until I got his home all set up with us paying for him before hand of course. Matt was actually nice enough to let me split the cost over a cple of payments so I could get started on his enclosure as my original intention was to shop around while I got started building and make the actual purchase around the 1 month mark.

By the time we actually made the deal that evening (late that evening) I had already been talking to Matt nearly the whole day off and on as work allowed both of us. Then as the month went along Matt sent us update pics and some videos which was an awesome thing for him to do for us. Especially once he hit his teenager attitude about half way through the month lol. Matt does his best make sure they tolerate being held but as per the reading I did, it wouldn't be the end of the world for us to just sit in the bed and watch him do his thing. I actually enjoy that almost as much as "holding" him lol.

Blue arrived to us on 11-2 and though the first day was a rough one for him I couldn't be any happier with my selection in the slightest. I had him delivered to my office since no one is home during the day and turned my office in the office into a mini free range for him for the day lol. The rough part was having to get used to a new person trying to hand feed him which I finally found a way to get the top of my butter worm tub to stay put on an angle in the ficus tree and he ate from there. In the last 11 days we have gone from him being a territorial teenager defending his "turf" to him being exactly what Matt promised us. A tame chameleon in his teenager attitude stage that is excepting of us in great health. It obviously took him some time to learn we are not a threat but he has sure come a long way in a very short period of time with us as far as feeling the need to defend his enclosure from a perceived threat. Sorry for the book and I could go on for days but I doubt you want that lengthy of a reply lol. Basically, we looked at several chams and many of them gave us the wow he's pretty, 1 was a male veiled we looked at in the local shop that was the one that started the I think I want a cham reading and then we saw blue lightning. When we saw his pic it wasn't just a wow he's pretty it was a feeling in the heart we both had of that is the one for us. When it is time for a female, I have no doubt it will be the same process of waiting for that heart string tug of that's the one either.
 
dshuld said:
Well, for myself and my wife it was the pics Matt originally provided when I first inquired as to his availability. I had already read they may or may not want to be handled and we had come to accept if this was the case so be it. We made the deal with Matt to hold him for us until I got his home all set up with us paying for him before hand of course. Matt was actually nice enough to let me split the cost over a cple of payments so I could get started on his enclosure as my original intention was to shop around while I got started building and make the actual purchase around the 1 month mark.

By the time we actually made the deal that evening (late that evening) I had already been talking to Matt nearly the whole day off and on as work allowed both of us. Then as the month went along Matt sent us update pics and some videos which was an awesome thing for him to do for us. Especially once he hit his teenager attitude about half way through the month lol. Matt does his best make sure they tolerate being held but as per the reading I did, it wouldn't be the end of the world for us to just sit in the bed and watch him do his thing. I actually enjoy that almost as much as "holding" him lol.

Blue arrived to us on 11-2 and though the first day was a rough one for him I couldn't be any happier with my selection in the slightest. I had him delivered to my office since no one is home during the day and turned my office in the office into a mini free range for him for the day lol. The rough part was having to get used to a new person trying to hand feed him which I finally found a way to get the top of my butter worm tub to stay put on an angle in the ficus tree and he ate from there. In the last 11 days we have gone from him being a territorial teenager defending his "turf" to him being exactly what Matt promised us. A tame chameleon in his teenager attitude stage that is excepting of us in great health. It obviously took him some time to learn we are not a threat but he has sure come a long way in a very short period of time with us as far as feeling the need to defend his enclosure from a perceived threat. Sorry for the book and I could go on for days but I doubt you want that lengthy of a reply lol. Basically, we looked at several chams and many of them gave us the wow he's pretty, 1 was a male veiled we looked at in the local shop that was the one that started the I think I want a cham reading and then we saw blue lightning. When we saw his pic it wasn't just a wow he's pretty it was a feeling in the heart we both had of that is the one for us. When it is time for a female, I have no doubt it will be the same process of waiting for that heart string tug of that's the one either.
Click to expand...
The sec I Spoke with @Matt Vanilla Gorilla i knew I would get one of his babies . I just had absolute trust in Matt . Matt had several babies available at the time and trust me I wanted Matt to pick us one but nope he made us pick . Our pick could not be more perfectly matched . Matt and Jessica are absolutely amazing and trust me when I say I talked to Matt all the time . I’m sure I drive him Crazy :D .
 
JacksJill said:
That is tough to say. In person look for an alert active chameleon with an appetite. Look at the tail base to judge their weight. If the tail looks stringy then they may be thin or dehydrated. Ask the breeder specific questions about their husbandry. If they don't have a good supplement and gut load schedule or don't know when they changed their bulbs last then look elsewhere.
Most people pick their chameleon by the colors, panther people mostly. You try to get an idea of what they will look like by their parents (sire & dam) and the dam's sire. Personality maybe inherited to some extent but that's not much more than a theory.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply!
 
Kristen Wilkins said:
The sec I Spoke with @Matt Vanilla Gorilla i knew I would get one of his babies . I just had absolute trust in Matt . Matt had several babies available at the time and trust me I wanted Matt to pick us one but nope he made us pick . Our pick could not be more perfectly matched . Matt and Jessica are absolutely amazing and trust me when I say I talked to Matt all the time . I’m sure I drive him Crazy :D .
Click to expand...
Thank you!
 
dshuld said:
Well, for myself and my wife it was the pics Matt originally provided when I first inquired as to his availability. I had already read they may or may not want to be handled and we had come to accept if this was the case so be it. We made the deal with Matt to hold him for us until I got his home all set up with us paying for him before hand of course. Matt was actually nice enough to let me split the cost over a cple of payments so I could get started on his enclosure as my original intention was to shop around while I got started building and make the actual purchase around the 1 month mark.

By the time we actually made the deal that evening (late that evening) I had already been talking to Matt nearly the whole day off and on as work allowed both of us. Then as the month went along Matt sent us update pics and some videos which was an awesome thing for him to do for us. Especially once he hit his teenager attitude about half way through the month lol. Matt does his best make sure they tolerate being held but as per the reading I did, it wouldn't be the end of the world for us to just sit in the bed and watch him do his thing. I actually enjoy that almost as much as "holding" him lol.

Blue arrived to us on 11-2 and though the first day was a rough one for him I couldn't be any happier with my selection in the slightest. I had him delivered to my office since no one is home during the day and turned my office in the office into a mini free range for him for the day lol. The rough part was having to get used to a new person trying to hand feed him which I finally found a way to get the top of my butter worm tub to stay put on an angle in the ficus tree and he ate from there. In the last 11 days we have gone from him being a territorial teenager defending his "turf" to him being exactly what Matt promised us. A tame chameleon in his teenager attitude stage that is excepting of us in great health. It obviously took him some time to learn we are not a threat but he has sure come a long way in a very short period of time with us as far as feeling the need to defend his enclosure from a perceived threat. Sorry for the book and I could go on for days but I doubt you want that lengthy of a reply lol. Basically, we looked at several chams and many of them gave us the wow he's pretty, 1 was a male veiled we looked at in the local shop that was the one that started the I think I want a cham reading and then we saw blue lightning. When we saw his pic it wasn't just a wow he's pretty it was a feeling in the heart we both had of that is the one for us. When it is time for a female, I have no doubt it will be the same process of waiting for that heart string tug of that's the one either.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing your story. All of these replies are very helpful and am need to talk to @Matt Vanilla Gorilla !!
 
I personally have experience with Chameleons 101. They have amazing customer service, excellent chams, and great prices! (Panthers are sold here)
@Matt Vanilla Gorilla is an amazing breeder too, is really nice and patient, and has great quality chameleons!
I don't have experience with these people, but I recommend:
Chameleons Only (Kammerflage Kreations)
FlChams
There is some more breeders, but I can't put my tongue on it. Good Luck!
 
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