Meet Jacques the Melleri

[EC22]

Hey everyone

I finally bought a wc melleri in a local shop in Montreal. I have been actively looking for one but it seems it's very difficult to find one in Canada. He was in a very small enclosure without proper lighting and looked like he was highly stressed. They had him (let's assume it's a boy) for 2 weeks and he probably spent the same amount of time at the wholesaler's. He is apprx 5-6 in s to v, eats like a monster and saw him drink a bit. How old could he be? The pic is not the best one as he's a bit aggresive towards the camera.

I read through melleridiscovery a few times about acclimation and I'd like to know what you guys do about that. Are the showers helping or is it just adding more stress to the whole process?

Oh and he's already got a vet visit scheduled tomorrow.

Etienne

 

[laurie]

Can give you any help but that is one nice looking mellers, congrats.

 

[Myerz77]

The showers help mine a ton, he loves them, but when the water gets even the least bit cold he's bitter and on his way out but once it's warm again he's lovin' it

 

[Zen Reptiles]

Awesome! I'm with you on that one, they are very hard to find in Canada. I've never seen a single one for sale commercially or privately.

Hope you get them breeding and out there so we don't have any demand for importing!

Goodluck, it seems there's a lot of mellerii keepers on here so you'll get some great advice, go back and check out past threads if you haven't already.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

Meller's have kind of taken off in the past 4 years or so. It is no coincidence that my CB melleri is about that old. Kristina put so much time into her animals and her webpage that people got interested. Melleri have had a reputation for a long time as dead chameleons walking. All it took was someone to do the right thign, wiht the right animals, and success was found.

The fact that she put it all on the most detailed chameleon webpage on the internet didn't hurt either!

Then, Mike's CH form the last couple years took off, and people everywhere have them.

It's exciting, as I've been waiting for this for about 15 years.

 

[chrisw]

Melleri - tough in the U.S. too

Long time chameleon owner - first forum - first post. I currently own 2 panthers (male ambilobe, male nosy be'). Have always wanted to own a melleri but older articles scared me off. Newer info seems more promising. I recently cleared a huge area in my basement (5'x6'x7' high - will try free range) and am now on the hunt for a melleri - tricky to find though. Have never owned a WC but might be my only option this year. Search continues for related posts, but assume people are having some success with WC Melleri since CB is so hard to find. As someone who has never owned a WC animal and will likely HAVE to buy mail order (no inspection possible) - is it a given that WC animals are full of parasites? I do not have a reptile vet - might have to find one. Do wholesalers - in general - administer any type of medicine? I spoke to someone the other day who said
"we get them, hydrate them for a week, then ship them out". Assume that all WC can't die but can't picture administering medicine without really stressing out my animal. Are only successful WC's melleri having fecals checked and meds given? sorry - long one.

 

[EC22]

First of all,

Welcome to the chameleonforums chrisw!

The lady at the reptile shop told me WC animals all get a treatment of Panacur at this particular wholesaler. I couldn't say they all do it as it could get time consuming and expensive if they do it for each and every animal.