Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
Sadly, many of us got our first chams because we saw a miserable one being badly cared for in some pet shop. So, we followed our hearts and "rescued" them. Unfortunately, that often means the pet shop has an incentive to buy more of them and treat them just as badly! And they sell them to equally clueless customers, give out a bunch of blarney care info, and let them end up dealing with a sick or dying animal...with all the inevitable vet expenses, heartbreak, and sense of guilt.
Rare is the pet shop that has the inclination, expertise or the experience to offer a healthy cham that's had the benefit of the right husbandry. Once in a while we've found a pet shop that cares enough to spend the $ to stock proper enclosures, the proper lighting, proper care references, decent supplements, or feeder insects. You were lucky they gave you a discount, Just put all this in the proper context. It's likely they'd had him for a while, but no one seemed interested. Putting together a decent cham enclosure is a big commitment of time and $. They may have wanted to cut their losses and get rid of him before his health declined and they took even more of a financial loss. I know it sounds heartless, but many of us in this community have forced ourselves not to rescue these poor little things in order to teach a shop a lesson. It can end up sparing multiple future animals a miserable, short life.
Just last year I walked into the only pet supply within a 2 hour drive and was surprised to see two juvenile veiled chameleons in the typical glass terrarium with a unknown wattage spotlight plunked on top. No live foliage to hold spray or provide cover, moss on the floor, a few crickets too large for them running around underneath. Those feeders had probably eaten nothing since being dumped in there too so all they were, were empty husks that in desperation might chew on a cham as it slept. The dumb, inaccurate thermostat sticker on the glass in a useless spot. Looked like they fell for some wholesaler's cheerful "complete cham kit with not one, but two animals for breeding!" offer. I was surprised, as this shop has seemed fairly decent about the few live animals they offer and seemed to accept their limits. Knowing what I know about their needs and how unavailable supplies would be in the surrounding area, how would anyone be able to provide decent care for these guys? They wouldn't. And, when they got sick, no vet with the experience to help. The poor little things were doomed. I found myself feeling the same old anger I'd felt years ago...all over again. Instead of giving the owner the tongue-lashing he deserved, I wrote the chameleon forum info on a slip of paper, gave my phone number if someone wanted to talk things over before taking the plunge, and walked out.
Your little guy is in much kinder hands now, and that's a good thing...for him anyway!
Sorry for the tirade. Off soapbox. Glad you're hear OP!
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