Chameleon Breeder Podcast With Bill Strand

Chameleons are fascinating creatures and easily catch the eye of both kid and adult. The question often comes up from parents – should I get a chameleon for my child? In today’s episode we will explore that topic and give you the tools you need to make that decision.  

If we are going to consider giving our chameleons vitamins as they would naturally get them in the wild we will have to dive into Ultraviolet light. This is the natural energy that powers the vitamin D3 conversion a chameleon. Today we talk with Mario Jungmann who specializes in Montane chameleons which show the highest sensitivity to supplements and is a great place to start a minimalistic supplementation routine.

 If we want to explore supplementation schedules the first stop needs to be Kammerflage Kreations. Since the late 90s, Ed and Liddy Kammer have been a constant in the community. And during all this time, Ed has meticulously refined his conditions. His breeding colony conditions are tightly controlled which allows him to make one small change and truly understand its effects. As his entire business is based on customers having a long lived, healthy panther chameleon we have a captive husbandry research facility whose very existence is based on the success of its findings.

Supplementation is a complicated subject. We still don’t even understand what humans need for nutrition, much less what a chameleon needs. Most of what we do with chameleons comes from trial and error. The more trials, the more errors we can weed out. Today I start a series on the basics of supplementation so we can all understand what we are trying to do with all those powders.

It is a big world out there and in some of those far off corners there chameleons roam free. One of the great experiences in a chameleon enthusiast’s life is to visit chameleons in the wild and we are going to start talking more and more about chameleon eco-tourism here! Today I talk with Marc Vaillant who has visited a number of places where chameleons live and we are going to get a feel for what to expect.

In this third part of the Calumma parsonii series we focus on the smaller of the two subspecies, Calumma parsonii cristifer. It has parson’s charm, but not all of the challenges of it’s larger cousin Calumma parsonii parsonii. Even though this subspecies isn’t as well known it is amazing how many people have requested an episode specifically about it! Well, here it is. Aaron Allred hails from the Pacific Northwest and has been working with cristifer for a number of years. He is a great example of someone who used the information available, figured out where to dig deeper, and was able to succeed in hatching them out multiple times. As I play this interview with Aaron, you’ll get the basics such as temperature and humidity and some husbandry tips, but when I bring on these breeders, the greatest value actually ends up being hearing their answers to questions you didn’t think to type into Google.  

The Parson’s Chameleon has been a tricky species to breed. But we have entered into a stage in our community’s growth where we are now able to reliably complete the reproduction cycle. Today we talk to Craig Durbin of Primo Chameleons about his experience in breeding Parson’s Chameleons.

The Parson’s Chameleon is one of the most sought after species and, for good reason. It is a wonderful chameleon to keep. The challenges in reproducing this chameleon have kept the Parson’s chameleon rare. But recent successes by some dedicated breeders have given us a chance to enjoy the holy grail of chameleon keeping – captive bred specimens. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Craig Durbin of Primo Chameleons as he shares his experiences with the Parson’s Chameleon.

The reptile community of which we chameleon people are a part of is like any other community. It is made up of hobbyists and businesses catering to their needs. Today we are going to look into the pet business at the corporate level. I am going to talk about how we as consumers create and shape the community at that level through our decisions. And how “actions speak louder than words” is more than just a cliché.

It is easy to be smitten by chameleons.  From their patterns, horns, impossibly long tongue, color change, and….just all of what they are, they are truly other-worldly and have a quick charm about them.  Their popularity continues to grow through movie appearances and social media exposure.  In addition, a growing community of breeders has made robust, captive bred chameleons easily available.  But do they make good pets? Today we will discuss what kind of pets chameleons make.

Reptile shows are a blast to go to. You get to see your favorite local vendors and the national brands all in one space. Today we are going to talk about chameleons and reptile shows.

Making your own chameleon cage can be a fulfilling project and a way to use all your available space for that larger than life chameleon cage. Today I talk about considerations in making your own chameleon cage.

Kinyongia carpenteri. Most of us have not heard of this name. This is a rarely seen chameleon from the highlands of Uganda. Today we have Mario Jungmann, one of the few people to reproduce this species on to tell us about the husbandry. We may never have a Kinyongia carpenteri ourselves, but just hearing about the steps Mario took to figure out the care can help us the first time in whatever species we may bring home.

Once we set up a chameleon cage we need to maintain it and adjust if things are not correct. Today we will talk about tweaking your cage and keeping your chameleon happy. So you got your cage, did your research, listened to this awesome podcast, and made a gorgeous garden of a cage that fulfilled the Forest Edge 4+4 method from podcast episode 114 perfectly. And then, you introduced the newest reptilian member of the family. What now? Well, I have to let you know that I have dived as deep as I can into how to take care of these little guys and I am only one of a number of people who have done so there is plenty of good information out there, but we are just learners. You have now brought the true master into your home. That is right. We must all bow before the authority of that 4 month old panther chameleon who knows chameleons 100 times better than the best of us. Once you have your cage set-up and it hits all the numbers in the caresheet perfectly your next step is to throw away the care sheet. From this po

One of the most important things we will do as chameleon keepers is set up our chameleon’s home. This is where our fantastical beast will need to find everything required for a happy chameleon life. Today we talk about how to set up a chameleon cage effectively and I introduce the 4+4 checklist to help simplify that process.

It used to be so simple. We heard that chameleons needed a 48” tall screen cage and that was that. But then it comes out that all these experienced keepers are using glass or hybrid cages of different sizes. Well, today we will talk about chameleon cages, what makes a minimum size, and when to use screen, glass, or hybrid cages.

Furcifer minor, from Madagascar, has the distinction of having the most dramatic gravid coloration. If you saw a gravid female and a non-gravid female you wouldn’t know they were the same individual. And if you saw a male and a female you would think they were different species. Furcifer minor has variety! This wonderful little chameleon is exceedingly rare in captivity, but there are successful breeding groups and their numbers are growing. Today we talk with Frank Payne who is a leader in the effort to establish Furcifer minor in captivity!

Trioceros montium. The two horned chameleon. The mountain chameleon. Is one of those incredibly decorated Cameroon chameleon species with crests and horns. It is no longer imported, but there are small pockets of breeders working with it. One of them is the team of Tyler Gordon and Kristen Zeller at Cage the Chameleons in Medicine Hat, Alberta Canada. Today we talk to this dynamic duo about their work with this rare chameleon.

One of the basic environmental husbandry conditions is humidity. This is one of the more difficult of our conditions to dial in. In this episode we talk with Mario Jungman from the Netherlands about how he has refined his husbandry with humidity as a critical element.

In the first part of this series we talked about the natural history of Trioceros melleri and the housing strategy. Today we will talk about husbandry. And that is how you set up their cage to replicate the conditions they need as well as nutrition. Our three breeders are back to help us get started in the right direction. Dale Tamura from the United States, Martine Desjardins from Canada, and James Killey from the United Kingdom share their hard won elements of success. To start off, I’d like to say that much of what we go over is the same husbandry that you would perform for any chameleon. We are going to start at the beginning so we are comprehensive. But it won’t be long before some of you who have been around for a bit will start thinking that this care information sounds suspiciously similar to the care information I share about just about any other chameleon species. And that is because Meller’s Chameleons are….chameleons. Just like most other chameleons, once you dial in the basics the difference betw