Sorry for the long wall of text, I just really need some advise right now as the clock is ticking.
An acquaintance of mine saw some pics of my panther and decided he wanted to be a chameleon owner too. So, he did very minimal research, if any at all, and went and bought a 2 month old veiled from some breeder off craigslist before he even had a cage.
He quickly made a cage that would properly fit an adult, and stuck a single small ficus plant inside. No vines, sticks, ropes, nothing. Just this one single plant in this too big of an enclosure.
Sounds like some red flags right? Well, not even a few days later he decides he's going to be a breeder! He thought that since babies could be housed together that so can a 7 month old female and a baby could be housed together as well. So he went to the pet store and bought a grouchy female(with financial aid money) that won't even let you look at her without hissing.
I don't know what happened when he tried housing them together, but he texted me not even an hour after purchasing her asking if I had a 10 gallon tank he could borrow. Turns out, he decided instead of making a proper sized cage or even going out and buying a new cage or even wait before getting another chameleon, he was going to put his 2 month old chameleon in this ten gallon tank with a plant inside and no lid with the basking bulb and coil UVB bulb are attached to the sides. No surprise, he ends up getting loose for a couple of hours.
Thankfully he is found safe despite the fall he had to have taken, but it doesn't compare to him falling six feet onto the concrete.
I mean, I might as well get to the point before I write a novel. This guy just sucks at taking care of his pets and won't take any advise whatsoever and makes excuses for it.
He over supplements both of them and when called out on their dusty noses he says its how they get rid of salt.. He has already gone through a thing of calcium within 3 months. I mean, he straight coats all of his crickets to the point where he leaves piles of calcium in the bottom of the cage after he dumps them in their cages.
He doesn't even have thermometers, humidity gauges or a dripper.They are both extremely and noticeably dehydrated. His female is so dehydrated, sometimes when he mists their cage he sprays her in the face and she starts drinking it out of the air as if she's never seen water before. The baby on the other hand runs away the second he sees a spray bottle near his cage and refuses to drink even when he is dehydrated.
He doesn't have anything to keep his crickets in nor does he gutload them. He buys about 50-70 and dumps them in their cages at once, sometimes coating all of the crickets. It is honestly a crazy sight seeing a bunch of crickets huddling towards the basking bulb,
He was even telling my girlfriend and I how he is trying to get them on schedules where he only has to feed them every 3 days and mist every couple of days.
The female was even trying to lay her eggs but he assumed she wasn't old enough yet so ignored it.
He doesn't even have any alive plants in their cages because he can't do something as simple as watering a plant.
I have pointed this out to him and every time he brushes it off or tells me how it is normal or something.
So he asked my girlfriend and I to care for them over spring break while he is away. After two days they have shown major improvement and are even more tolerable at being handled. They are hydrated, being supplemented and fed properly, and they have live plants and more things to walk around on. The female even laid her eggs the day she came into our care. It's so crazy how much healthier and happier they look.
And heres the issue, he's wanting them back seeing as we were just looking over them. He's been back for a week now but we've all been kind of ignoring the fact that they have to go back into his care. I just can't give them back knowing they are going to go back to poor health and being taken care of like shit and just being seen as a money maker. Putting them back into that situation goes against what I stand for, and it will make me feel like a bad person. But I also feel bad for refusing to return them to their owner.
Honestly, this has been one of the most stressful and depressing situations I have been in in a while. I've tried talking to him before about the care of them and he just does not care. There's no doubt that they are going to be in poor care and I just can't be the one responsible for returning them.
So what would you guys do? Is there legally any way I could keep them from him?
Sorry for all the text but thank you so much for reading.
An acquaintance of mine saw some pics of my panther and decided he wanted to be a chameleon owner too. So, he did very minimal research, if any at all, and went and bought a 2 month old veiled from some breeder off craigslist before he even had a cage.
He quickly made a cage that would properly fit an adult, and stuck a single small ficus plant inside. No vines, sticks, ropes, nothing. Just this one single plant in this too big of an enclosure.
Sounds like some red flags right? Well, not even a few days later he decides he's going to be a breeder! He thought that since babies could be housed together that so can a 7 month old female and a baby could be housed together as well. So he went to the pet store and bought a grouchy female(with financial aid money) that won't even let you look at her without hissing.
I don't know what happened when he tried housing them together, but he texted me not even an hour after purchasing her asking if I had a 10 gallon tank he could borrow. Turns out, he decided instead of making a proper sized cage or even going out and buying a new cage or even wait before getting another chameleon, he was going to put his 2 month old chameleon in this ten gallon tank with a plant inside and no lid with the basking bulb and coil UVB bulb are attached to the sides. No surprise, he ends up getting loose for a couple of hours.
Thankfully he is found safe despite the fall he had to have taken, but it doesn't compare to him falling six feet onto the concrete.
I mean, I might as well get to the point before I write a novel. This guy just sucks at taking care of his pets and won't take any advise whatsoever and makes excuses for it.
He over supplements both of them and when called out on their dusty noses he says its how they get rid of salt.. He has already gone through a thing of calcium within 3 months. I mean, he straight coats all of his crickets to the point where he leaves piles of calcium in the bottom of the cage after he dumps them in their cages.
He doesn't even have thermometers, humidity gauges or a dripper.They are both extremely and noticeably dehydrated. His female is so dehydrated, sometimes when he mists their cage he sprays her in the face and she starts drinking it out of the air as if she's never seen water before. The baby on the other hand runs away the second he sees a spray bottle near his cage and refuses to drink even when he is dehydrated.
He doesn't have anything to keep his crickets in nor does he gutload them. He buys about 50-70 and dumps them in their cages at once, sometimes coating all of the crickets. It is honestly a crazy sight seeing a bunch of crickets huddling towards the basking bulb,
He was even telling my girlfriend and I how he is trying to get them on schedules where he only has to feed them every 3 days and mist every couple of days.
The female was even trying to lay her eggs but he assumed she wasn't old enough yet so ignored it.
He doesn't even have any alive plants in their cages because he can't do something as simple as watering a plant.
I have pointed this out to him and every time he brushes it off or tells me how it is normal or something.
So he asked my girlfriend and I to care for them over spring break while he is away. After two days they have shown major improvement and are even more tolerable at being handled. They are hydrated, being supplemented and fed properly, and they have live plants and more things to walk around on. The female even laid her eggs the day she came into our care. It's so crazy how much healthier and happier they look.
And heres the issue, he's wanting them back seeing as we were just looking over them. He's been back for a week now but we've all been kind of ignoring the fact that they have to go back into his care. I just can't give them back knowing they are going to go back to poor health and being taken care of like shit and just being seen as a money maker. Putting them back into that situation goes against what I stand for, and it will make me feel like a bad person. But I also feel bad for refusing to return them to their owner.
Honestly, this has been one of the most stressful and depressing situations I have been in in a while. I've tried talking to him before about the care of them and he just does not care. There's no doubt that they are going to be in poor care and I just can't be the one responsible for returning them.
So what would you guys do? Is there legally any way I could keep them from him?
Sorry for all the text but thank you so much for reading.
