Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This forum is a great place! Now that I have experienced keeping chameleons WITH a support group so readily available, I really don't know how I managed as well as I have before I discovered it.

It's as simple as seeing other people dealing with the same issues you are dealing with and coming up with great solutions. Solutions based on hard-core experience. I love it.

When I first started out, I made a ton of rookie mistakes. After spending the time and money figuring out what worked and what didn't, I came up with my own creative techniques and continually refined them. If I could have had a place like this to ask questions, and to pay attention to you..I could have saved THOUSANDS of dollars avoiding things that we all just "know" now.

My first chameleon enclosure was a 55 gallon long aquarium that was stood up on its end. I put a makeshift door on it, and some branches I pulled out of my backyard. A vita-lite was suspended in the air with a clothesline from my ceiling fan cord. I had a floodlight pointed through the back of the aquarium. I sprayed the branches every morning with a hand pump sprayer.. I never checked for temperature nor humidity. I fed crickets that ate only romain lettuce. And thats it.
I find it hard to believe that a Jacksons would have lived 10 days in that enclosure, let alone 18 months.
The biggest sin about those times were that there wasn't anyone that had correct information (at least no one that I could find)

Just wanted to share -

I agree. I love this place, and all of the people in it! If it wasn't for them, and all the help they've given me, Orion would surely not be here. I know what you mean about info from other sources. How am I supposed to believe a pet store who sold me a female as a male that was sick with a URI?? Thanks to all of the people on here, Orion got better and is great. Even if she wasn't sick, figureing things out for myself would have been impossible. I figured the humidity out for myself, and spent a load of $ on two humidifiers and a fogger, after all the other stuff I tried.
Hurray for kingsnake and all the people in it! lol

Salvador would have been so much better off if I had found this forum several years ago. Poor old guy I did my learning with him. It's a miracle the old boy is still around.

It's wonderful to have the support of many knowledgeable people...somewhere to turn to ask even the dumbest of dumb questions...somewhere to share the ups and the downs. I'm very thankful for this forum and all the people here.

Kristen
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0.1 pygmy leaf
1.0 carpet
1.0 jackson

Actually, a lot of the recent ground-breaking care info for chams (diet, UVB lighting, feeder nutrition, basic origin and climate info for more species, breeding and egglaying, health problems) originated with the Chameleon Information Network back before internet forums. CIN is not really functioning now, as electronic forums sort of outpaced it and Ardi Abate was pretty overwhelmed with trying to run it. Past volumes of the Journal are still very valuable and they published a hard copy list of those folks worldwide who anyone could call for help. I just wanted to give some credit where it was due. I think sometimes we have the opposite problem. There are a lot of "keeping tips" and caresheets online that are less than great...and for some reason some search engines always seem to find them first!! I find however that if you really read EVERY link that an engine brings up you will see common threads in the keeping info and eventually you can weed out the weird ones.