The Chameleon Academy is for those who love chameleons. Within these digital halls we learn what it takes to successfully keep chameleons healthy and living long from caging to natural history to breeding. My name is Bill Strand and I have been involved with chameleons for over 40 years. I have bred them retail, wholesale, and large scale. I have kept over 30 species of chameleon and have learned what to do and what not to do. Subscribe to this channel for a regular look into the fascinating world of chameleon husbandry!
If you want to explore beyond RU-vid, the website campus is chameleonacademy.com where you can find a course structure that leads you from knowing nothing to building a complete chameleon set-up.
To keep updated on everything going on with the Chameleon Academy, sign up for the monthly newsletter here: chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-academy-newsletter-2/
soooooo glad i found your channel! ive always wanted a chameleon and ive been researching and preparing an enclosure and soon enough ill get my first boy!
Guys this was so helpful. I am one of the few who was convinced a hatchling was a safe and kind investment to make into a chameleons life and this podcast and your information from the Chameleon Academy has helped me immensely fill in the gaps and understand how to properly take care of my little fella. I am so grateful, thank you so much for creating this content for us!
Thank you so much! So sweet of you!! I’m so glad that people enjoyed the episodes! And it’s so cool to have my very own professionally done tutorial basically. I have been sharing the episodes non stop!😅
As a new chameleon keeper, your videos have been so useful to me, better than anything else I’ve found out there. And your passion for the subject is really inspiring and motivating...thank you for all you do. I may well take this course at some point!
I am glad you have enjoyed the videos! And, please, join us with the course. The material is great, but being able to discuss it with experienced people while taking the course is the best part of it!
When running foggers all night, do you find this contributes to any mold growth in your reptile rooms? I have an old house that has had some mold issues over the years and this worries me a bit when considering getting into chameleons. Thanks for all the great info!
I wasn’t very interested , but after going through a few of the classes . And then the interviews with Michael Nash Jonathan Hill . Experiences unbelievable.
You briefly mentioned Florida panthers and warned against them, but did not explain why they are a bad idea. You said wild caught chameleons have problems associated with them. Can you please elaborate on the Florida panther chameleon and what to watch out for?
Apologies for the random question. Are those picture backgrounds in your enclosures the same as aquarium backgrounds. If I add one to the inside on a customer build, do I need to waterproof it somehow?
The background images are an option that is available with the Arboreal XL from Custom Reptile Habitats. So you just have to click yes on that option when ordering. If you are talking about any other cage then going to a place like petbackdrops.com will get you the backdrop that is appropriate for the inside of a reptile cage.
@@ChameleonAcademy Thank you so much for your reply. Going to petbackdrops was my idea. Just wasn't sure if those would hold up to water on the inside of an enclosure. I'm planning on turning an entertainment center into a chameleon enclosure. I will not be able to get help from anyone, so I am very grateful for your Dyi series. Thank you so very much!
Very informative! Question: how does this affect how we maintain bioactive enclosures? Should poop be removed manually vs relying on a clean up crew such as isopods? Assuming that most captive bred reptiles have parasites (citing the study you brought up), should we use a clean up crew that won’t be eaten by the occupant? Can parasites such as coccidia continue their lifecycle within isopods? Or is it just crickets that are the main culprit?
Very good question and the answer is complicated because it shakes the foundation of where we all are trying to go. This question deserves a podcast episode so I will start working on it to discuss the ins and outs beyond simply getting three negative Fecals and calling it good.
Naw my panther really likes to hang out on me lol he won’t leave my hand or arm . He literally loves it and comes toward me if I try to put him back in his cage . He goes crazy when he sees me walk past His cage and as soon as I take him out he sits on me and does not go anywhere
Lol, my enclosures have so many hiding spots more then once ive had a freakout thinking they had somehow escaped because i couldnt find one no matter how many plants and bushy bits i moved around. And thats for the adults (mind all my panthers are in literal walk-enclosures so plenty of places to get lost in) never mind when theyre babies and a single leaf can hide them from my searches. Ive kept all my panthers in glass and, never had a problem with most of them (all but the one but im pretty sure hes trying to scare me down to his lifespan, and his problems arent related to husbandry) It doesnt help that my oldest panther figured out how to open the store bought mesh enclosures himself pretty young (which is why i started building my own). Nothing like opening the reptile room only to see a fully open door to one of your enclosures. I once spent 4 hrs looking for him and started wondering if he hadnt found away up to the window and outside since i keep the window cracked to prevent the room getting too hot. Only for me to knock over a feeder bin and see the little shithead's tongue come flying out from where he had at some point climbed onto my boot while i was desperately searching for him. Found the chameleon, lost 5,000 crickets i had just bought too. It doesnt help that i have reptiles that would have him for a quick bite if he someone got near them (in seperate rooms mind but still. My frilly would have snapped him up in one bite never mind my monitors and they both have full room sized enclosures). I swear he's jealous of my human lifespan and decided the solution is to scare enough years off me to go out together. Took him to the emergency vet once because he was dark and half buried in the dirt and it thought he was impacted and dying... vet comes out... good news hes not impacted and in otherwise perfect health, bad news hes a hermaphrodite and was trying to lay himself some eggs. He may have further complications down the road since he has two complete reproductive systems instead of one complete and one partial. I wonder if that means he can get himself knocked up? Id best not give him ideas. That was an expensive sexing. And that shortly before that he had tried to hump the heat lamp (i had switched the heatlamp to where the humidity reader was because he was growing and i wanted to avoid burning his back...i though such a tiny hole i couldnt even get a finger through couldnt possibly cause problems...i was wrong) and he gave his hemipenes a sunburn...yes he managed to burn a normally internal organ and since he burnt his dick and i had to rub cream on it until it retracted i knew he was male. If the colours hadnt given it away already.
Haha, thank you so much!❤️ I would love too! I have a dart frog hutch that I refurbished that is a similar style & a bio-orb mini paladarium…and also kahuna’s enclosure but that was my 1st & it’s not that good, lol😅 I plan to redo it next.
Just watching this now😟 I got carried away with watering the gardens. It’s been over 100 degrees the past 3 days and no relief today. Very humid🥵🥵. Yay…Stephanie❤
It was very exciting!! And wow!! 100 degrees! Luckily Jersey only get that hot in July mainly. I couldn’t deal with that all summer! Stay cool & hydrated!
Today I found white dots on my eggs, they look like mold, two green dots on one, I cleaned them, do you think the eggs can survive? They are fertilized and I try to clean them every day. Today I replaced the vermiculate with a new one.
