Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have kept reptiles all my life and have decided to take the plunge and get back into it. A few questions
1. What are the chams. to avoid?
2. What are the chams. to really consider?
3. I have heard that panther chams, while being the biggest cham. also only live a couple(2 or 3) years. Is this true?
4. I would like a good size cham. Prolly around the size of a full size veiled, maybe a little smaller or bigger. Any suggestions.
Thank You for you time and I look forward to hearing from you.

1: I suppose chams to avoid are the smaller sized (pygmy) chams. There more difficult to keep and to tell if they are sick or not.

2: There are 3 chams you can consider, Veileds are stated as being the most easiest (not that any cham is easy). Panthers require the same conditions (around) as veileds, vaeileds are considered better becausethey are more forgiving to heating/humidity mistakes. Jackson's are also good beginners except they require colder temps and higher humidity. But if you are able to provide constant good temps/humidity any of these 3 species are fine. Veileds are vary easily findeable and are pretty cheap, panthers are also easy to find but are more expensive, jacksons are a little harder to find and can run from 50 bux to just a little less then panthers. Sinse you said you worked with alot of reptilesI suggest panthers, They are a slightly easier cham but are very beutiful.

3: I always thought that Veileds were bigger, however with proper care a panther can live up to 9 or more years (The highest recorded age I think was 15 years).

4: I may be wrong but panthers are a little smaller, Jackson's are pretty small (around 3-5 inches SVL), Fischers are also small but they are harder to keep and are excellent escape artists.

If you go to the chameleon journals they have info on most cham species as well as very god FAQs, Go to them for a starter, select what cham you like.

also chameleoncondo.net has good care sheets on all the 3 most commen pet chams.

Good luck selecting a cham!
TheChameleonJournals

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0.2 Cats (Moora and Twitch)
0.1 Dogs (Maria)
soon to be 1.0 Panther Chameleon (Yoda)

1. I would also make sure to avoid imported chameleons. While you can certainly be successful keeping these, it is a lot harder due to the condition they usually arive in (stress, parasites, etc...).

2. Panthers and Veileds are both "easy" chameleons (easy for a chameleon that is). Panthers are a lot more expensive due to a bigger demand and slightly smaller supply, but veileds still look nice and colorful. Another "easy" chameleon that everyone overlooks is Oustalet's Chameleon. They require the same conditions as Panthers but are much bigger (the longest chameleon). They are not nearly as colorful (rather drab actually), so they are a lot cheaper.

3. I think 9 may be a bit high for an expected lifespan. 5-7 is probably closer, with females usually living less. Not that they can't live that long, it is just not super likely.

BTW Panthers are definitely smaller than Veileds. And the largest chameleons are Parson's (the heaviest) and Oustalet's (the longest).
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Currently
2.0 F. silvestris (NFO)
1.1 F. pardalis (Ambilobe)
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Suriname Cobalt)
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Weygoldt)
0.0.~100 E. prosticus