FINALLY got my very first cham!!!

[Jupiter]

Yay! Thats good to hear haha. Bransworld, I'm excited for you! Definitely looking forward to seeing him. Psycho, I got him from Bruce over at Chameleon Paradise, his sire is Kandiroo. Sorry I didn't deliver on that update, I ended up hanging out with a friend all day so I didn't get too many pics. I just got some new smaller superworms, some dubia roaches, and some silkworms. They arrived JUST as I was starting to feed, so that worked out well. He ate about three silks off my hand, dusted with some of the vit A powder that Bruce gave me, then seemed to lose interest and darkened up. Like I said, I'm actually going to make a more detailed post in the health section to see how much needs changing and how much is just new keeper paranoia. I put some on the branches around him and he ate two, but his appetite does seem lower these last few days. I'll probably offer some roaches for lunch, once they've had some time to gutload themselves. I also lightly brushed off the skin flake that was on his leg, even though I know I shouldn't have, I just couldn't help myself. Anyway here are some pics from yesterday and this morning













It rained the other day and the apple tree in my back yard did this. Not cham related, but still beautiful

 

[Neonugz]

Question: how do you get your iPhone pictures to show up as actual picture, and not little attachments with a thumbnail?

 

[Renashe]

TOO cute! I get my first baby in a week or so. So excited!

 

[Jupiter]

Ugh, I ended up getting a migraine that pretty much put me down for the count yesterday, I think I might be getting sick Anyway I fed him some roaches this morning, dusted with a little more of the vit A powder since he ate so few of the silks, and gutloaded with vit-all, although I'm not sure how much they actually ate. I moved it over to the cricket container and will offer some of those later. He still isn't eating quite as much, only like seven or eight roaches before losing interest. He definitely has new colors coming in, specifically a vivid blue-green patch by his front armpits. I tried to get a pic but it's tough. Speaking of pics, Neonugs, I upload them to Photobucket and insert them from there. I actually don't know any other way haha. Renashe, the waiting is the hardest part, but it makes it all the better when you do finally get him!

Anyway, here are some pics from this morning, I'll try and upload some more tonight

 

[Jupiter]

Hey everybody! Yesterday was an adventure day, very eventful.

As you may have seen in the thread I made in the health section, Carol pointed out that I had the plastic cover on my UVB light. I immediately took it off, although I checked the instructions and it says to leave it on, but given how uninformed the pet world in general seems to be, I should have known to take it with a grain on salt. Anyway, it's staying off.

Here are some general chillin/feeding pics from early yesterday.











Definitely not the pest pic, but it shows his colors pretty well.





Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, so I decided to take him out for the first time to get some of that genuine solar stuff. He...hated it. At first anyway. I know the breeder took him outside, so I think it was mainly the new area that was bothering him. He stayed very dark and did QUITE a bit of gaping, and refused all food.



Saw a lot of this.




Here he is, gazing out at the world with his silkworm buddy




Even though he looks relaxed/inebriated, I think it was pretty much the opposite. A robin landed about ten feet away, and it was the first time I’ve ever seen him give his full attention to something other then a bug he was about to eat.




I brought his palm out because I knew he would be more comfortable on it, but he disagreed.

I eventually moved the whole operation to the back yard, where there was a bit less stuff going on, and managed to get him on to his palm. As I thought, he lightened up a good bit.











He certainly didn’t explode with color when he was out there, but when I brought him back in he was showing some reds I had never seen before, and stayed pretty vibrant for the rest of the day.

 

[Jupiter]

After I brought him back in I stuck him in the shower for about half an hour, and I think his eyes got a good wash.






Chillin in his little jungle after his adventurous hour and a half






He showed some pretty crisp patterning for the rest of the day.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now, I’m definitely going to try and get him out again today, hopefully he’ll get used to it pretty quick and start showing those colors! Stay tuned for more updates, same cham-time; same cham-channel!!

 

[Jupiter]

Sun does wonders!! He was looking more colorful then I had ever seen him today!!




Today was basically a repeat of yesterday, minus the shower. He responded MUCH better to the outdoors, displaying a dark but very striking pattern that I had never seen at first (as opposed to yesterday when he just looked like mud), then eventually lightened up and seemed to be pretty happy




Can you spot the cham?!?




Crazy pattern!










Now he’s lightening up some…




…And turning into a snake?!?!












Some cool oranges coming in on his tail

 

[Jupiter]

Color is just pouring in day by day!

 

[ReptiGeek]

Your boy has grown a ton since he first checked in to CF. Very excited to see his colour growth. This thread is very well done, keep up the good work!

 

[Jupiter]

Thank you very much!! I would say he is about 10%-20% bigger then when I got him, but way more colorful. I’m seeing a noticeable difference on a day by day basis, especially now that he’s getting sun. When he came in yesterday he was showing BY FAR the most vivid coloration I had ever seen on him. But I’m getting ahead of myself; here are the general early morning cage/feeding/chillin pics.



He looks extremely guilty in this one




He wasn’t terribly interested in the roaches this morning. He only ate like three or four while I was holding him.




Allegedly he is going to shed soon.

So I took him outside again, but I did it much earlier then I have been so the usual spot was in shadow. I found a new spot, which unfortunately was not within the screen porch, so my eyes were swiveling more then his, looking at all the birds and things. He didn’t care at all lol. Which makes sense given that most of the birds around would probably be more interested in his food then him. I did hear a high pitched scree cut through the twittering at one point, and just about gave myself whiplash looking for it, but I don’t think hawks are really that interested in getting that close to humans if they can avoid it, even if it means missing out on that weird lizard down there.










There were also a bunch of flying ants buzzing around that he was VERY interested in, and despite my efforts to shoo them off he still ended up getting one, so I took that as a sign that it was time to bring him back in. I put the cup in his cage and he pretty much just hung out above it and grazed until mid afternoon, when I took it away.








He doesn’t seem to show much when he’s actually outside, but later on in the evening he got realllly colorful.

 

[Jupiter]

...and then just some general climbing around.









More updates to come, either tonight or tomorrow morning. Thanks for looking!

 

[Jupiter]

Well, I’ll start things out by showing you what he started out by showing me: unapologetic biology



He then celebrated by busting out a few awesome poses.





I mayyyy change my photo contest entry to that one (thoughts?)

When I took him out for feeding he once again showed a marked increase in color over yesterday.





I took him outside as usual but both spots were in shadow. I ended up setting him on the walkway, which I was hesitant to do because its low down and out in the open, but he didn’t seem to have a problem with it. Instead he went down to the base of his plant and stuck his leg out like a kickstand and turned himself into a little solar panel.









Fortunately his palm is thick enough that it always has shade.







One day I’ll get a good pic of him feeding…

 

[Jupiter]

He ate a few grubs really enthusiastically, then just sat there with this one in his mouth, not chewing, for like a minute before carrying on. ????





He spent most of the day after coming back in kickin it up on what I call his Godzilla branch, because its one of the highest branches in the cage and its kind of off by itself and he likes to stand on the top like Godzilla. (I didn’t get a picture of the Godzilla pose, but I think you all know what I’m talking about )





This is one of those ones where I feel that I’ve basically failed as a photographer. A curve this elegant deserves a much better pic, but this is the best I could get.







That’s all for today folks, watch this space for more kooky chameleon antics!

 

[cswan19]

I just looked through this whole thread and I love it, couldn't help but smile at some of the pictures Chameleons are really fascinating creatures and I love to watch them. You have a gorgeous little guy! I'll be following this thread, keep it up

 

[Jupiter]

Thank you very much, he definitely can get cute when he wants haha. They certainly are, sometimes ill just watch him climb around for like half an hour.

Don't have much of an update I'm afraid, I wen't a road trip yesterday and wasn't able to do much picture taking. I fed him some grubs, but when I switched to silks he turned up his nose. He doesn't really seem to like them much.







I'll definitely make sure to take more pictures today!

 

[Jupiter]

It blows me away just how much his color is coming in; each day I notice a difference. He’s got more blue coming in, and his bars are really starting to pop out. The yellow is also starting to get really vivid. To make up for yesterdays skimpy update, I took lots of pictures!



Gettting better…



I had stuff to do in the morning, so I didn’t get a chance to hang out with him much until the afternoon, when I took him outside to get the last of the good sun and have some food.







He was showing some pretty sweet colors the whole time, I think because he was eating since he normally turns muted and sandy colored when he’s outside.



Sexy.







Starting to darken up now that the foods gone…









He lightened back up eventually

 

[Jupiter]

And back in the enclosure



I don’t even have words for this…





Doin some clamberin!





Hanging on his Godzilla perch



Pullin a yooie









Here’s a shot of him hunkering down for the night. He seems to have chosen the very back of his cage as his spot and I had to go around the outside, so you’ll have to excuse the screen.



And finally a feeding video from outside, you can really see his colors. (I don’t have an easy way to edit video but if I could I would end it at 1:10)



That’s all for now, he’s starting to get some flaky skin on his head and around his eye, so I’m hoping he’ll shed soon!

 

[Jupiter]

Yesterday was exciting! My silks have grown huge so I want to feed them as quick as possible, but they seem to be his least favorite food. He had this one that I fed him in the morning and another one I left in there in the evening but he wasn’t having any more then that. I think because he’s shedding? It seems like he’s been about to shed since I’ve had him, although his eyes are definitely looking a little flaky.



This is a fairly intense look



Here’s his eye, best pic I could get



I took him outside for a few minutes before realizing that I should probably give him his shower first, so he could warm up in the sun after. Here he is just before.



And during.



Then we went back outside and I parked him in the screen porch in the back. Here he is being a grump and refusing yet another silkworm.



While he was chilling back there, I went and let my boa, Otis, do some freeranging in the front yard for the first time, and spent a good portion of the day running back and forth checking on them and taking pics.



Aesop and Otis both being sneaky.





HOLY !@#$ AN EARTHWORM



The closest I could get to catching a tongue flick



Aaaand back to the cham. Here he is in backing mode

 

[Jupiter]

He stayed pretty sexy for the most of the rest of the day











He was leaf walking and was so uninterested in the silkworm that he accidentally picked it up! I tried to get a pic of him waving it around, it was pretty funny, but by the time the camera focused he had opened his hand and clearly wasn’t digging it any more, so I pulled it off. I was really hoping he would eat it out of his own hand, that would have been awesome lol.



Here he is looking all sour and embarrassed after the silkworm incident haha



The bottom of his U bar is coming in nicely…







Got a little red rain on his tummy









Got probably four or five hours of sun yesterday!!

 

[Jupiter]

…Which is probably why he was looking so darn crazy today!







Giving me the stinkeye. I did the same thing as yesterday and gave him his shower first, but it was pretty windy and on the lower end of acceptable temperatures anyway, so we didn’t spend too much time out there.



He was pretty introverted all day today. I offered him a silkworm this morning and I figured since he only had two yesterday he would gobble it right down, but no luck. He really does hate them I guess. I switched to grubs, which are his favorite except for crickets, and he had one but still didn’t seem to have much of an appetite. I left 25 in a cup for him and when I took it out there where 16, so I guess that’s not bad, he just usually eats all at once. He was also kind of skittish and weird all day today, pacing a circle on the wall of his cage and shying away from the front whenever I got close. Maybe he’s just having an off day, maybe because he’s starting to shed? Is he starting to shed? I feel like he should have shed by now, its starting to worry me. I just hope its something like that, and that I’m not losing his trust somehow



He did, however, look pretty damn good. He was sporting this forest green, VERY saturated, all over. It was the first time I’ve seen that color on him and it was probably the most saturation I’ve seen on him yet; this picture doesn’t even come close to capturing it. I wonder what prompted it



…and his more standard yellowish



I didn’t get as many pics today, partly because it wasn’t as eventful but also because I was figuring out this new app I got for my phone. Its called PureShot, it was two bucks, and it basically gives you most of the controls over the iPhone camera that you would get with a standard DSLR, which is nice, because its not a bad camera by any means, it just has Apple’s “basic simplicity > advanced control” philosophy getting in the way of anything more thought out then point and shoot. Anyway, like I said I’m still tinkering with it, but I think it should really help in the long run, so stay tuned for more Aesop! (With maybe a few guest appearances by Otis. Speaking of which, here is a quick vid of him snaking around, if anyone is interested.)