Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, this is my first time posting here in the forums. I was wondering what you guys thought of wild caught animals. Im thinking about buying a pair of jacksons that are wild caught for 150$, from the pictures and comments from the seller they seem to be in great condition(good color, no injuries) and are well taken care of but i dont know if its to big of a risk. Is this a good deal or would i be getting into nothing but problems. All ive owned are cb vields

here

Nice looking cham. I read an article on wild caught chams on CIN the chameleon information network. just click on purchasing a cham. I hope this helps. Matt

In a nutshell, spend your $150 on a pair of captive-bred Jacksons. Unlike most, this species is easily bred in the states, and you aren't really getting a better price by buying WC when you figure in vet visits, multiple dewormings and fecal analyses, etc. It is guaranteed in almost all WCs--esp in WC Jacksons--that they will be housing parasites. The stress of importation and acclimation compromises these imports enough that the simple parasite loads that wild chams live with normally multiply like crazy and eventually kill the animal. And that's just parasites! There are many other reasons to spend your money on CB when at all possible over WC. The aggravation of acclimated WCs is just not worth it, especially as I already said, you can very easily find this species CBB.

I would agree, captive bred are better, but they are not so easily found. I had a pair of captive jacksons and they both died only after a year and a half, I dont know why though, but I still believe captives are better. Now a have wild caught jacksons and they are doing great. I found that the key to keeping wild caught animals is immitating their natural habitat as best as possible. I keep they seperate in 4x2x2 cages (made of hardware screen with a live ficus (total cost for cage is roughly $20) and spray them 4 times a day. I feed them a variety of food (crickets meal worms super worms, small roaches...). This way they dont feel they are in captivity and do not stress so much. But the possibilty of parasites is high so it is a gamble, jsut be ready for a visit to the vet if necessary, dont hesitate. Usually by the time you realize a cham is sick its to late. So a vet visit right away would be recomended (To be honest I didnt take mine to the vet and they did fine, maybe I just got lucky, I dont know). But Jacksons are a very hardy species to say the least. I hope this helped. Good luck if you purchase .

I think WC are great if you have experience deparasiting and rehydrating them. WC chameleons are definitely not something for new cham owners. I sometimes get them for new bloodlines to add to my breeding stock. But if you want something you know is healthy, get CBB.
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