Flapneck chameleon

[CHAMLOVER101]

Hi to all...

About a week ago I received a flap neck cham, from a friend who own's his own reptile petshop, who got it from a young boy
Flap neck cham are native to South Africa and therefore illegal to keep captive, I really do not wish to keep the cham...
But here in S.A it seems to be happening more and more that young children remove the chams from the wild, becuese they can be found everywhere.And they think it would make a great pet...
And as you could predict, so many of them are not aware off how to raise a cham...
All I know about this cham is that it was removed from the wild at a young age, what I was wondering.... would it be possible to return the cham to the wild, wil he be able to fend for himself...
I am totally clueless!!!!!!!!

 

[CHAMLOVER101]

Forgot to mension the part that it is illegal for ME to keep the cham,becuese i live in SA....Not for poeple living abroad ...

 

[kylerenz]

I would venture to guess that if you made sure that the chameleon was in really good health and that you released it in the proper habitat that it would be able to survive. You will most likely have to treat it as though it is not a pet. No cup feeding or handling. I cannot be sure any of this will work for sure but it seems fairly logical that it would.

 

[luevelvet]

I'm not sure what your local laws state, but we have specific laws pertaing the release of any animal that has been in a captive environment for any amount of time. This is to prevent the introduction of any non native parasites or "germs", as it were, into the wild populations. It is esepcially enforced for marine specimens, regardless of the legality of acquisition or car for the animals. Once a fish enters a home aquarium, that fish cannot be put back into wild waters. Ever. The bad news is usually this results in euthanizing the animals.

if it were me and depending on how long the animal was in captivity for, I would consider just letting him go in a remote area where theyre known to occupy.

Luis

 

[kinyonga]

If you let it go now, even in the area it came from originally it may have bacteria, etc. that it has picked up on its travels that could harm the wild population.

 

[CHAMLOVER101]

Thanks to all for your advice, but I decided to keep the cham, as it probably is better of with me, I would have loved to see him be free,.
But I guess that’s not possible..
So over the weekend I went to buy him his own enclosure and extras and I think he's going to fit in great with my chameleon family.......