New Cham owner

[Chamfam89]

Hey y'all!
I'm new to here and would love to see all your chams! Post em up!

A little info about me:
I'm obsessed with chameleons. Like, cannot wait to get my first one! I have done several weeks of research, and have decided to buy a Cham from a breeder on here! I live in north Georgia and plan to keep my Cham inside 24/7. I have 2 children and a loving (We share a love for reptiles) husband. We cannot contain our excitement! We are going to get an Ambilobe/nosy be panther and can't wait to get our setup fixed up for the little guy! As always, tips are appreciated!

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum! Good that you've been doing some research ahead of time. Your husbandry needs to be good or you'll likley end up with problems. Are you getting a male?

 

[Chamfam89]

Welcome to the forum! Good that you've been doing some research ahead of time. Your husbandry needs to be good or you'll likley end up with problems. Are you getting a male?

Yes. Seems to me that they are easier for a beginner to take care of. Correct me if I'm wrong please lol once I get the hang of everything, I would like to get a female as well. I just don't want to start off with 2 chams.

 

[AMdoubleER]

Congratulations on your new family member and welcome to the forums! There is alot of good information available here as well as great knowledgeable people! Your in luck, my guy just came out yesturday and I always take pictures when he comes out to play. This is Smurf, he is an Ambanja at about 4.5 months. I just got him recently from a breader on here as well. I couldn't pass up on the little blue guy! He's seems to be adjusting just fine! Make sure to post your little guy, can't wait to see him. Ambilobes are amazing! I use to have one with a one of a kind personality!

 

[Chamfam89]

Congratulations on your new family member and welcome to the forums! There is alot of good information available here as well as great knowledgeable people! Your in luck, my guy just came out yesturday and I always take pictures when he comes out to play. This is Smurf, he is an Ambanja at about 4.5 months. I just got him recently from a breader on here as well. I couldn't pass up on the little blue guy! He's seems to be adjusting just fine! Make sure to post your little guy, can't wait to see him. Ambilobes are amazing! I use to have one with a one of a kind personality! View attachment 187719 View attachment 187720

Wow! What a beautiful Cham! I haven't gotten mine yet, but here are a few pictures from the breeder...

 

[AMdoubleER]

Wow! What a beautiful Cham! I haven't gotten mine yet, but here are a few pictures from the breeder...

Nice! Little chameleons are always cool because you never know what colors to expect! You just have to wait for that first sign of color in amazement! Thanks for sharing and good luck on your journey!

 

[Hausofdamo]

Nice! Little chameleons are always cool because you never know what colors to expect! You just have to wait for that first sign of color in amazement! Thanks for sharing and good luck on your journey!

Your little Smurf is beautiful! Can I ask if you have any tips on handling as he looks so happy exploring. I have a baby cham about 12 weeks old that gets gets very scared and back away when I go to feed him so i drop the bug and leave him to it and he comes to eat when I'm gone.

Any advice I would be so grateful thank you!

 

[AMdoubleER]

Your little Smurf is beautiful! Can I ask if you have any tips on handling as he looks so happy exploring. I have a baby cham about 12 weeks old that gets gets very scared and back away when I go to feed him so i drop the bug and leave him to it and he comes to eat when I'm gone. Any advice I would be so grateful thank you!

Well I can't take all the credit for Smurf being so easily to handle. Based off his behavior, I would say the breader @distortionz did the initial breaking in of the handling. Don't get me wrong it is definitely a dedicated trust process! Smurf is still some what afraid of my hand and does some dodging when I reach in nor will he yet eat from my hand. He even freaks out when I drop to many crickets in at one time. What he will tolerate is me dropping a worm on a near by leaf, but will still jump if I drop it suddenly and it rolls. Your guy will let you know what he likes and don't like as well as when he trust you and when he fully trust you! I believe that all chameleons will adapt to your lifestyle as long as you adapt to their personalities. My advice for you is to be extremely patient and aware of your chameleons actions/personality. With both of my guys, I first started by dropping worms on near by leaves to get them use to the idea of my hand entering is a good thing(food). After that I attempted hand feeding in which failed every single time. So then I moved on to another method, from time to time as I saw them exploring I would open the door and kind of walk away minding my own business, yet always kepping an eye on the cage (don't want the guy getting past me and I lose him in the house) to see if they would come out on their own and to my surprise this method actually worked! They both on separate occasions of course, eventually climbed out on thier own onto the top of the door and thats when I knew they were ok with me grabbing them from up under!
My other guy:

 

[Hausofdamo]

How old are they?

What worms do you feed them? I think I will try leaving the door open for him in the future, shows that he can come out if he wants, if not he's fine where he is! He does like to have a little explore from time to time!

 

[AMdoubleER]

How old are they?

What worms do you feed them? I think I will try leaving the door open for him in the future, shows that he can come out if he wants, if not he's fine where he is! He does like to have a little explore from time to time!

My Smurf is an Ambanja panther at about 4.5 months, I just got him recently and Shotta is an Ambilobe panther now at 1 year and 7 months old. If my method does not work the first time please keep on trying from time to time. Look at it as a building trust process! If this does not work then the next step I would take is sticking some kind of branch, stick, or plant inside the cage to see if he will climb onto it. Once Shotta had started trusting me he eventually ate out of my hand worms, fruits, etc. I remember when it first happened, I was so happy and felt accomplished! I'm still working on Smurf. Good luck on your journey, keep in touch! Hopefully I was of some help! By the way I'm currently using small mealworms & waxworms, though there's plenty of other feeders to choose from. Shotta didn't seem to like the waxworms too much, he would skip out on eating whenever they were on the menu, but Smurf seems to enjoy them just fine. They both like a variety and for sure don't like eating the same thing everyday! Spoiled bastards, hahaha, I blame myself!