So earlier today, I went to the pet store so that I could get some tooth brushes for our dogs and some other things for them. While I was there, they had this baby Veiled Chameleon that was just too precious to not stop by and see. I have always wanted a chameleon, but have never had one.
I sent a picture of the chameleon to my daughter and she was super excited, so now all I had to do was convince my wife. It didn't take too long to convince her. Her main thing was that we would need to keep the room temperature and humidity controlled for it to survive. Luckily my grow room is the perfect environment for a chameleon to live. It will stay warm enough year round and there will also be plenty of humidity for it.
The chameleon itself wasn't too expensive. It was only like $40, but the enclosure and everything else is where it started to add up. So about $300 later, we have our own chameleon and everything we need for it. There are still some things we will be adding as time goes, like more branches and leaves for it. I am also going to be looking into having live plants in there for it to crawl around on. I am going to be getting an automatic mister for it as well. They have some pretty cool options for that. One of them I saw was shaped as a log and mist goes up out of it every few hours.
We really had no idea what kind of care goes into having a chameleon before we bought it, but we have all been watching videos, reading, and trying to learn as much as we can. I learned that they do not drink out of bowls like a lot of pet reptiles do, but instead, they lick the moisture off of the leaves and other stuff in their enclosure, so it is very important to mist their enclosure at least 3 times per day.
You can see on his head, where he has some dry skin from a recent shed. Hopefully with a few mists, that is able to fall off on its own. One thing with veiled chameleons that we also didn't know is that they are not big fans of being held. The pet store let me know that during the first couple months we have this one, we should not handle it at all because it can stress it out. I am guess this one is only a few weeks old. It is probably about 4 inches long from head to tail, but they can get to their full length in about four months, so it won't take long for it to get to be about 24 inches long.
It is still too early to determine if it is a male or female, so we had a hard time choosing a name, but my daughter picked the name Yoshi. The males tend to be a bit larger with a larger crown on their head. The males also have a spur on their back feet, but I was not able to get a good view today to try and figure it out. I didn't want to stress it out any more than it already was.
Yoshi did seem to be having fun while exploring the new home. I am going to be going to a pet store tomorrow that specializes in reptiles to make sure I have everything I need to give Yoshi a good home and that is healthy.
One thing that is really cool about chameleons is that their eyes can go in different directions. I think I am going to have a lot of fun with Yoshi when it comes to feeding and getting pictures. We are super excited about our new little pet. But for now, Yoshi is going to just try and adjust to its new home.
