How interseting!

[Raphael1047]

Hi, i just wanted to ask people how they got into chameleons like their personal story to the chameleon and/or reptile world, sorry if i seem weird:cool i just find this interseting. Personally, i always loved animals, but i found that my favorite kinds are reptiles and insects. Anyway i had lots of different kinds of animals before i got into reptiles. When i got my first reptile i knew that this is what i want to do in my life. So from there i have been taking care of a bunch of different reptiles. My favorite are panther chameleons though. So as of right now i am set on becoming a zoologist specializing in herpetology and entomology. So that is my story and i am looking forward to reading your story.

 

[maxttu]

A long time ago in college I had a red tail boa and a black and white tegu.

Last summer I went into petsmart and saw a baby veiled chameleon and thought it was very neat and interesting. I did a little research and decided that I wanted a male.

After searching all of the local petsmarts and petcos, I couldn't find a male (lucky for me)! There happened to be a reptile show in town and I found the perfect lil male. Unfortunately, he passed after only 3 days.

I then found a baby male panther a few weeks later at a locally owned pet shop and had Maynard for approx 7 months until one day the wind blew his cage over and he wandered off.

Repticon Houston was shortly after this and I found Chazam, my male verrucosus. I still have him!

And two weeks ago I picked up Fenix, my new male panther!

There you have it...

 

[Raphael1047]

Interseting, you post a picture of Fenix yet?

 

[maxttu]

Interseting, you post a picture of Fenix yet?

Just a couple...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/fenix-rising-89746/

 

[kokom05lb]

I have a love for all animals. I use to pick up wild lizards, snakes, spiders, etc all the time when I was younger. My very first lizard I actually bought from a petstore was a iguana named Iggy only lived for 3 days. My moms friends had an apartment FULL of reptiles. Leapord geckos, chameleons, bearded dragons, you name it they had it! Well after that I got back into horses and started doing competition riding and lost my interest in reptiles for a while.

Later on I met my husband (we were both in the military together) our very first pet together was a Oscar Fish named Buddy! My husband let for deployment and I moved to Arkansas. That dang fish lived that whole RV ride from NY to AR Anyways my husband got home from deployment and we talked about getting a snake. Our first snake was a kingsnake very pretty little girl. We moved to AZ and our snake population grew! We had 2 ball pythons and this kingsnake, then 3 red ear sliders! Then he left for another deployment and I wasnt going to be able to take care of our snakes we we rehomed them.

When he got back we moved here to El Paso TX. Our chameleon addiction started when he seen little veiled at petsmart that had just sold. We went to EVERY pet store in the city to see if we could buy one, there was no more. We looked up breeders and fell in love with Ringo dad at FLCham.com Newton Bloodlines.
I know it was long and boring but thats how it all started=)

 

[sdheli420]

back in 1988 i was finally allowed to have a pet..i thought really long and hard about it and wanted a parrot..did my research, and well, parrots poop alot, take large spaces. take alot of attention, and are extreamly loud (most species)..they can also be very aggresive to certain people (will bite anyone and anything other than the owner that they feel is their mate)..basically too much for a young kid to deal with in the long run (all was my choice) my brother had anoles for years, and even had some larger "knight anoles" but they were mean..

I went to the pet shop (pet kingdom at the time) and saw some chameleons..they were amazing..they are slow, docile (mostly), look you in the eye, and very colorful..i had my mind set..i studied up for a year before i had my first senegal (i was told it was a good begginner chameleon) it had "sunken eye syndrome" but was the only one available, and got a discount because of more than likley vet bills to fallow... long story shortened, i have loved them since and cant live without having chameleons!!!..my most recent chams are incredible, they are the friendliest chams ive ever owned and i couldnt be happier to be with them!

 

[Creaturelover123]

My story is that we gave our cockateil away to a close friend, and my mom promised me we could get a chameleon, so we went to petsmart and got a J Xanth.

 

[Raphael1047]

Wow that really cool, that sucks though that some of us (including myself) has started off bad like the first reptile Dying in a few days or getting a sick animal etc.

 

[ISA my Veiled]

A long while ago my girlfriend and I wanted a Velied Chameleon so bad, we did our research and we wanted it to be OUR first pet. Well going to Petsmart they didnt have one and we had no clue about the reptile world. So we originally bought our two first Leopard Geckos Edward and Paul, soon we had 8 reptiles lol....in a matter of a few months we had added one more and we were loving it. So For the past couple months before entering the wonderful Chameleon forum and my best friend getting two Jacksons chameleons to make me jealous she finally ran onto the opportunity to get our female Veiled Chameleon Isabella. It was such an impulse buy lol I didnt really expect any of the sort until she called me while playing Call of Duty with her little brother and she was freaking out "Should I get this chameleon they have one Ben!! I know you want one so bad Should I get it?" And you can imagine my response lol I most definitely said yes!!! And now today my girlfriend of 5 years and myself have a collection of 11 reptiles that we love and my baby Isabella that is totally daddys girl lol they are amazing and I have loved every moment since. Hope you enjoyed!

 

[maxttu]

Nice stories! It is sad that some of us got off to shaky starts, but we've rebounded nicely!

 

[okiroo]

Long story

I've always loved reptiles for as long as i can remember i have a picture of me being like 3 holding an anole i caught. i never kept a lizzard untill i was 8-9. i think i was in the 5th grade when i went into a store and saw a bunch of young iguanas. i really wanted one so my parents let me get one. i picked the meanist one( he bit the guy when he put his hand in the tank). Named him iggy. i LOVED that lizzard like a bestfriend. you could pet him and he'd lean into you. he loved eating fruit and snuggles. he had a cage but FR'd my room. only went in the cage to bask. when i slept he'd come wrap around my neck and sleep on me sometimes. i also took him for walks often and we'd go sit at the beach(i hadnt met the internet and learned how to care for him by myself. he never got mbd beacuse i found vitimins and luckly gave him a gr8 diet) sadly he became very sick(i think he got parasites). after begging my parents we finally took him to the vets. we went to every vet on the island(lived in japan) and no one would/could help him. an army vet said he'd be fine but he ended up passing. I came home one day- now in my first year of high school. i had been giveing out cupcakes with friend and came home to give him his meds. i cant even explain how much a cried when i saw that he had died and i wasnt there for him. i was depressed for a long while and didnt want to do anything with lizzards.


years later, i move back to the states and im like 15-16 and start thinking about lizzards again. i dont want an iguana becuz i feel its to soon after loseing iggy. i spend a year planning so nothing happens to the animal. i made a checklist of all the things im going to need. soon i can drive and i get a job. i worke for mabey a month and saved up some money and bought clair. she was already sick and i took her to the vet. she got better and i fell in love again . i love all animals but i find reptiles so beautiful and fun to watch and learn about. Chloe joined in not to far after. i also got some pygmys but sadly they were WC and didnt work out. now im out of high school and working on becomeing a vet tech

 

[Elizadolots]

The family went to a Reptile show because, you know...it wasn't expensive and it sounded cool (this was at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, so much bigger and less compressed than when it later moved downtown). There were lots of things that stood out. Masses of pinkies were disturbing...the time a guy dumped a bucket load of scorpions out on his table sent my daughter and me running in opposite directions...but there were baby chameleons...they were SO cute!! I just wanted one. It became a discussion point. "Where would we put a chameleon?" "Could we fit a chameleon cage here?" "Can you handle the bugs that chameleons eat?" Years later my husband couldn't find something great to give me for my 50th birthday. He turned to me and said "Why don't we go buy that chameleon you've always talked about"....So, I got my first.