Chameleon question

[karyn674]

Hello all,

Last week my father in law saw a Chameleon at his fields and brought it to me. I have placed him in my yard with potted plants to live there. My mum's garden is not an option, I'm afraid her cat will hunt him down. He's been in my yard for about a week now and sometimes it's hard to find him since he mingles so well with the leaves. Haven't fed him anything, I believe he hunts flies and insect.

Today I went out and noticed what looked like a leaf on the ground.....it was him!!!!:D I noticed that he has a wound above his left upper arm. Propably from a fall and have landed on the edge of a pot! Ouch! Doesn't look infected but could you suggest anything to put on for him poor guy?

Would fresh Aloe Vera be of any good?

Please give me your views.

Thanks

karen

[Genny]

Sorry, I don't know of anything that you could put on him; I don't know much about lizards, especially chamelions ;)

I just wanted to ask you about him. How big is he? I think they are cute little animals. We have little brown and green lizards running around here all the time lol... But I just can't imagine how your chamelion has stayed in your plants for a week! That's cool. I would have figured he would have run off by now or something...do they not move around much or somethin??

[karyn674]

Hello Genny

He is the smallest chameleon I've ever seen, they do grow up to a modest handful: This is him:
http://petoftheday.com/talk/picture.php?albumid=202&pictureid=1784

http://petoftheday.com/talk/picture.php?albumid=202&pictureid=1785

http://petoftheday.com/talk/picture.php?albumid=202&pictureid=1783

Chameleons do tend to run off but mainly with the help of creapers on the wall and I have none and they do move very slowly .

This is the wound he has. It's small and not bleeding. He just tore away skin, but I wish i knew how to help him heal it and prevent infection. Here it doesn't really show, it's a tiny cut:
http://petoftheday.com/talk/picture.php?albumid=202&pictureid=1786


Anyways he seems to do better now and has even ate a fresh fly!

[Genny]

AWW! He is adorable! Thankyou so much for sending some pictures of him ;) I wish I could help you out about his cut but I really have no idea about what would help it. I'm glad he's eating; that's always a good sign :) So since he's staying w/ you do you have a name picked out for him? :D

[Twisterdog]

Oh wow, that is the cutest thing!!

[Catherinedana]

Does he have hairs sticking out of him or is that stray cat hair from your baby, Karyn?

[Karen]

Wow, he is just amazing and cool! I hope he decides to stick around for a long time, and we get to watch him grow up with you!

[karyn674]

Hello!

Thanks for your response!

Unfortunately our chameleon friend left us. He died during the night and I found him dead by morning yesterday.

My father in law brought it to me because he was spraying pesticide on the crops, where he found him. Normally I do not pick and slave animals just for my personal enjoyment...actually I'm very contrary to this. But I wanted to see if he was ok to free him in another field. I was suspicious by the amount of time he was sleeping. In my opinion and past chameleon experiances they tend to spend much more time awake. This guy just slept all the time!

Infact since it was raining for the past two days I kept him inside, attached to an indoor plant. I hunted for flies for him but was not interested. By morning I found him on top of the soil, dead.

I don't say it's better like this, becaus obviously I was hoping his guy would get better, and let him free once again, but I do think he was suffering. It is also not that normal that he falls off to the ground.....where this post started off! I suspect he was feeling bad due to the pesticide, if not directely sprayed on him, he might have ate insects that died from it...poisoning!

I'm sorry to give you such news, I'm even more sorry I wasn't able to help him!

Cathy, yes you're right....Chameleons do not have hairs....those are Lulu's after a lot of sniffing all over his body!!!

[Catherinedana]

Oh, I'm so sorry that he didn't make it. I'm sure the pesticides were what harmed him. That's such a shame. :(

Bless you for trying, Karyn. How many people would take the time to catch flies for an ill chameleon!

:love: Cathy

[Genny]

Awww :( I hate to heat about him dying...that's sad. You tried to help him though-you did all you could-sometimes you just can't save them...

[Karen]

Awww, rest in peace, little wild one. The flies in chameleon heaven are slow-moving and never poison, I promise!

[karyn674]

[Awww, rest in peace, little wild one. The flies in chameleon heaven are slow-moving and never poison, I promise!

Oh Karen! That's just too sweet!!!

Genny, you're right about dying issues, I hate it too, especially when I start getting attached!

Cathy, even Lulu runs when she sees the fly swatter in my hand!!! I would catch them even for you, if you'd like them....a little fly pie anyone?! Hm!

Jokes apart! This leads me to some questions......

Are we poisoning our food? Pesticides needs to be stronger and stronger, because pests are adapting to it.
Do you wash your fruit and veggies well before eating or cooking them?

You'll better do!

Lately I received an email about waxed imported fruit. The wax helps to mantain a nice colour for longer and prevent it from discolouring, but you cannot use it's peel for cakes and so on!

So, please be careful. Man has the power to even destroy his own nature...imagine others!

[kokopup]

I am really sorry to hear about your Chameleon. I don't guess i have ever seen a real Chameleon in person. Since i was a little boy I have been misinformed about a lizard that is common here. I have always thought that the Indo-Pacific gecko was a Chameleon because they changed color. This is the Gecko that looks like the Geico commercial Gecko. I don't guess they have Geico commercials in Malta so you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

I'm glad you posted pictures of your Chameleon because I found I had been mistaken believing all my life that we had Chameleon here in Alabama.;)

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I'm really sorry to hear about this little guys misfortune. It's awesome you tried to help him.

I am really sorry to hear about your Chameleon. I don't guess i have ever seen a real Chameleon in person. Since i was a little boy I have been misinformed about a lizard that is common here. I have always thought that the Indo-Pacific gecko was a Chameleon because they changed color. This is the Gecko that looks like the Geico commercial Gecko. I don't guess they have Geico commercials in Malta so you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

I'm glad you posted pictures of your Chameleon because I found I had been mistaken believing all my life that we had Chameleon here in Alabama.;)
A lot of people down here wrongly call Green Anoles (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kblaix/2522122787/in/set-72157620678686094/) "chameleons" because they can quickly turn from green to brown. They kind of look similar to the Geico gecko, could this be what you're thinking of? We have Indo-Pacific geckos (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kblaix/3967364574/in/set-72157620678686094/) here too, but they're usually a translucent pink-grey color.

[karyn674]

kokopup no we do not have Geico commercials in Malta but thanks to you now I know....I googled it;)

Now the following is extracted from Wikipedia:

The family Chamaeleonidae are a distinctive and highly specialized clade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clade) of lizards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizard). They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygodactyl) feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopic_vision) eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, and the possession by many of a prehensile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehensile) tail, crests or horns on their distinctively shaped heads, and the ability of some to change color. Uniquely adapted for climbing and visual hunting, the approximately 160 species of chameleon range from Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa), Madagascar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar), Spain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain) and Portugal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal), across south Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia), to Sri Lanka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka), have been introduced to Hawaii (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii) and California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California), and are found in warm habitats that vary from rain forest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_forest) to desert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert) conditions.

Now the ones we have in Malta do change colours to camouflage and become invisible with the surroundings. Here in Malta people also tell you that they have the ability to change in all colours except red, so if you put a chameleon on red it will die, due to heart failure, trying to turn red. I don't know if this is true, because obviously it is not something worth trying!!

Something which is also very interesting with this particular animal is that it can move and see independantly from each eye. So he must have at least two brains. How intelegent is that!

[kokopup]

A lot of people down here wrongly call Green Anoles "chameleons" because they can quickly turn from green to brown. They kind of look similar to the Geico gecko, could this be what you're thinking of? We have Indo-Pacific geckos here too, but they're usually a translucent pink-grey color.

Since I just found out I had been wrong i tried to find a Lizard in the Native to Alabama list and the picture I found looked like the Lizard I have always called a chameleon. I think the Green Anoles is also suppose to be common here. I do not think either is native to the state. I believe we get a lot of critters in Alabama that come in through the port of Mobile. The fire ant that has taken over here came in through Mobile. I know the little Green/brown guy (Gecko?) I have in my yard number in the thousands and are everywhere