Entertaining Pets (Chameleons)

Member Name: Recon

Product:	Chameleons
Date:	14/02/08 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining, Enjoyable to watch, unique

Disadvantages: hard to feed and provide drinkable water

I had only owned a chameleon for 2 weeks before she died. She was a tiny Panther Chameleon and was a lovely pet. I called her Zoe, and this review is in memory of her. She tragically died due to some eating disorder and the annoying fact that it was hard to get her to drink as Chameleon's can only drink from a drip!

She was very small and green, although she had the ability to change her colour as most chameleons do. She had a tail that curved up into a spiral shape, and she used this to hold onto branches and for balance. Her feet were the cutest things - very small and like little pinchers. When she climbed up my arm, she pinched me lightly as she climbed. It was very cute and she was a lovely pet. She had a long bright pink tongue that was used for watching insects that she never ate...

The Panther Chameleon should mainly eat locusts, crickets and small mealworms and maybe waxworms too. Their diet requires a lot of vitamin supplement and mostly crickets as they love to eat these. This can leave a big hole in your pocket as constantly buying crickets is expensive stuff! They also need a dripping water system that they can drink from, because in the wild they will drink from dripping leaves in the rainforest.

Their natural habitat must be emphasised on their tank if you own one as a pet. There must be many branches and leaves, even if they aren't authentic. Their turf should consist of bark, but they will never be on the bottom of their tank as they climb plants and trees. They will need quite a warm tank too, which can be done with a heat lamp.

They can be a pain to feed and water (not literally water them), because of their diet needs and need for dripping water. To feed them, you need to buy the crickets, which cost enough themselves. Then you need to shake some out the plastic container into a bag (with no holes)! After that, you need to add some vitamin supplement powder. Then you must give the bag a rough shake to get the powder all over the crickets. Finally, you can shove the crickets in the tank. They are very fussy little things and require a lot of time. The dripping water can be done with a special bottle that you can buy for chameleons, but you must make sure it is always topped up.

Apart from that, they are lovely pets and perhaps one of the best for reptile lovers. They are very cute and very entertaining. They only have a lifetime of up to 10 years, which is a bit sad, but at least the lucky ones live more than two weeks unlike Zoe.

Overall, I would highly recommend a chameleon to any reptile lover. They are fantastic pets that provide great entertainment. They can be expensive, as mine cost me over £200 with the tank and everything else costing more. They are really fun to watch sticking their long tongues out and catching their food too!

Thanks for reading,

- Recon -

Summary: These are great lizards for reptile lovers, but require a lot of care