I've admired Chameleons for years. I picked a bit of a challenge for my first one, but I'm already head over heals for her and I've only had her for 4 hours. She's awesome. If you read my post a while back it had the whole story. In a nutshell, she arrived at my local store with very bad trauma to her mouth. She was not able to be put up for sale due to her poor health. The store manager personally took her home and saved her life. Sadly her cagemate did not make it, she had similar injuries. But this little gal pulled through with the manager's love and care. She could not keep her and mentioned to me that she needed a home. I picked her up this morning. She'll need continued daily treatment for her mouth injury for quite some time. But she is alert, active, eating good, and the injury is much improved from what it was. Hard to believe when you see the pics that she was worse than this. Her treatment is consisting of Hydrogen Peroxide, followed by Betadine, then a covering of Neosporin. So far the infection has cleared up, and the excess buildup around her mouth is starting to fall off. We don't dare pull it off for fear of tearing her skin. In the places where it's fallen off on it's own, the skin underneath is healthy and looks good. She'll likely bear permanent scars from her ordeal, but should eventually look and feel much better. She could be a poster child against the poor conditions that wild caught animals endure during import. I don't want to start a debate on the topic, I'm sure it's been done a billion times. It makes me sick the conditions the animals go through and I look forward to a day when the Captive Bred Chameleon industry will grow to the point that they will stop importing. I did not pay any money for my new Cham, so I don't feel I've supported the practice by adopting her. Does make me feel bad to look at her and wish she was still back in Madagascar though. Here are some pics of my new girl. I've named her Cera after the little Triceritops in The Land Before Time childrens movie series.
I think she's beautiful. Course I'm a tad partial...
She climbs right onto your hand if you put your arm into the enclosure. Has no fear of people.
I have not done her treatment yet, but the manager said she sits real still for it and doesn't try to pull away, so it must not hurt her at least.
Like I said, hard to believe her mouth was much worse than this when she arrived at the store. I do not know what wholesaler they bought her from, amazing someone had the gall to ship an animal in such a sorry state. I'm thankful that they did or she would have died there, I'm sure the wholesaler was not doing anything to treat her injury.
Here you can see where some of the buildup has fallen off and the skin underneath looks pretty good.
I'll keep taking and posting pics during her recovery, hoping to have some pretty dramatic before/after shots in a few months. I look forward to the joy of caring for such an amazing animal. Still getting used to her looking at me with only one eye while the other one is busy looking around at other stuff. Sorry for the long post. Thanks for looking at my pics...
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Lyns Lair
WNY Herpetological Society
0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
2.0 Rats (Inky & Oy)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose (Wilbur)
1.0 Malagasy Giant Hognose (coming soon)
1.0 Yellow/Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snake (Suezo)
0.0.3 Eastern Milk Snakes (Uno, Dos, Tres)
1.0 Ball Python (Slytherin)
2.0 Smooth Green Snakes (working on names)
1.0 Northern Water Snake (coming soon)
1.0 Taiwan Beauty (coming soon)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
0.2 Mississippi Mud Turtles (Squirt & Shyanne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Moose)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Dragon (Tiramasu)
0.1 Oustalets Chameleon (Cera) coming soon
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
0.1 American Toad (Bump)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)
