Chameleons Northwest
Avid Member
We have a beautiful (IMHO
), large Sambava male. When we first purchased him on February 10th (he was reportedly 15 months old), he had a small burn on his left side that was beginning to ulcerate, a coccidia infection, bleeding from his vent, and then he prolapsed. We could tell when we went to pick him up that he was not well, but the only visible signs at that time were the burns and an odd coloration (so odd that it was difficult to determine whether he was Sambava, or some cross morph. He was actually being marketed as an Ambanja, but we knew he wasn't that because of the good "U" stripe. Even though he had a lot of blue/blue green in his color).
He was listed on Craigslist as a healthy adult male. We didn't know in advance that he had any health issues, but once we saw him we could not leave him with the current owner. The owner wanted $300. Believe it or not, even after we pointed out the infected burn, the owner WOULD NOT come down on his price. So, we purchased him.
After some vet care and treatment for coccidia (his last 2 fecals, taken 3 weeks apart, have been clean), he is now a vibrant, self confident Sambava. Here are some before and after photos. He "fires up" red, black, and banana yellow. His resting colors are good strong traditional Sambava red stripes on green background.
I am not suggesting that health issues actually change the coloration, but more likely the chameleon "feels" sick and so his feelings/emotions depress his coloration. So, initially, he was showing stress coloration.
These photos are from shortly after we purchased him on February 10th (sorry the body shot is not real clear, we were trying to take as little time as possible to minimize stress.):
Here he is sometime after we purchased him. He is about to shed. You can see the black scars from his burned area on his side. He's had 2 more sheds since this photo. This photo was taken about midnite while he was sleeping.
Here are photos from the past few days:
This one is from last week- fired up.
), large Sambava male. When we first purchased him on February 10th (he was reportedly 15 months old), he had a small burn on his left side that was beginning to ulcerate, a coccidia infection, bleeding from his vent, and then he prolapsed. We could tell when we went to pick him up that he was not well, but the only visible signs at that time were the burns and an odd coloration (so odd that it was difficult to determine whether he was Sambava, or some cross morph. He was actually being marketed as an Ambanja, but we knew he wasn't that because of the good "U" stripe. Even though he had a lot of blue/blue green in his color). He was listed on Craigslist as a healthy adult male. We didn't know in advance that he had any health issues, but once we saw him we could not leave him with the current owner. The owner wanted $300. Believe it or not, even after we pointed out the infected burn, the owner WOULD NOT come down on his price. So, we purchased him.
After some vet care and treatment for coccidia (his last 2 fecals, taken 3 weeks apart, have been clean), he is now a vibrant, self confident Sambava. Here are some before and after photos. He "fires up" red, black, and banana yellow. His resting colors are good strong traditional Sambava red stripes on green background.
I am not suggesting that health issues actually change the coloration, but more likely the chameleon "feels" sick and so his feelings/emotions depress his coloration. So, initially, he was showing stress coloration.
These photos are from shortly after we purchased him on February 10th (sorry the body shot is not real clear, we were trying to take as little time as possible to minimize stress.):
Here he is sometime after we purchased him. He is about to shed. You can see the black scars from his burned area on his side. He's had 2 more sheds since this photo. This photo was taken about midnite while he was sleeping.
Here are photos from the past few days:
This one is from last week- fired up.
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