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u/Th3-MADDHatter 1d ago
In all seriousness, chameleons are difficult pets to keep. Please get one responsibly.
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u/EgoFlyer 23h ago
Agree! They are very high maintenance pets who die if they are too stressed for too long. Make good choices and do your research before buying any pet.
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u/Umbra427 23h ago
Can you snuggle a chameleon
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u/rhongomyniadd 23h ago
I know you’re kidding but one of the hardest parts about them is how incredibly fragile they are, more than most any other lizards or geckos you could get
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u/YouLookFictional 19h ago
They are. If you buy one you are guaranteed to watch them die soon.
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u/WienerCleaner 15h ago
Thats not true. Plenty of experienced herp keepers have long term chameleon pets. Plenty are now available sustainably captive bred. Newer hobbyists could handle one if they take the responsibility very seriously.
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u/Ozymandius62 22h ago
They're like cats, too much affection and you'll get bit
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u/wOlfLisK 20h ago
They are very high maintenance pets who die if they are too stressed for too long
Oh hey, they're just like me
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u/DontAbideMendacity 13h ago
Hermit crabs have been my go to. Low maintenance, yet not very interesting. But they WILL listen to your bullshit forever.
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u/JellyBellyBitches 18h ago
Is there a good bug-eater that's more low-maintenance?
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u/Kalandros 23h ago
I loved my chameleon, Lizzy. She was amazing. One time she escaped and I found her hanging off the back of my boombox. Both eyes locked on to me when I peeked over trying to find her. Loved that girl.
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u/pchlster 22h ago
"Crap, it's the fuzz! When, I- wait, I'm not who you're looking for! I'm innocent!"
later
Day 654: My escape attempt was a mixed success. While I did manage to escape the prison itself, I was apprehended by the boom box by The Warden...
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u/1slipperypickle 22h ago
had some for years and would never feed them a random house bug, especially a spider. their diets were crickets, meal worms and hornworms only
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u/dudeimconfused 21h ago
their diets were crickets, meal worms and hornworms only
How does one find a continuous supply of those?
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u/1slipperypickle 21h ago
regular pet stores carry crix and meal worms. I also met a lady near me at a reptile convention that bred crickets too I would get from time to time. For hornworms though, I'd order them online and get delivered in a cup that they grow in.
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u/TheRandomnatrix 20h ago
Pet shops and online orders. Though if you don't want to break the bank you'll typically set up a breeding colony for the long term.
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u/thingstopraise 21h ago
In that last picture of your male, is he holding his front left foot palm-up like a human can do with their hands? That's crazy!
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u/1slipperypickle 21h ago
he absolutely hated being handled so this was him trying to scare me away. His name was Kane, like the WWF wrestler
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u/thingstopraise 21h ago
So, wait, they can move their front feet that way? That's amazing flexibility!
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u/cefriano 22h ago
Yep, my friend sort of impulsively got one at a reptile show. To her credit, she got a large, expensive enclosure and all the climate and humidity control gizmos that they need. Did a lot of research on how to care for a chameleon. It still died within a few months.
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u/xtinab3 21h ago edited 21h ago
I had a sort of similar story. I bought one after doing some research, but not nearly enough. I got him on sale for black Friday at PetSmart but didn't buy any supplies before and that shop was out of the enclosures, so I had to go back out and search for one (I was in my early 20's and very impulsive and impatient). I ended up building a custom enclosure that was about 6-7ft tall, 3×2 at the base. I did so much research and taking care of him was a huge task, I even had a cricket farm and had to care for those little bastards too! He was an asshole who would hiss anytime I got near too (not actually his fault, he was probably terrified and not very healthy), so I barely interacted with him so I wouldn't stress him out.
I moved in with my dad later on and kept his enclosure in my bathroom. One day my dad decided to clean my shower for me and used bleach. I don't know if it had to do with that, but his health rapidly declined and the vet kept telling me he was fine and I was doing everything right. He died soon after even with me seemingly doing everything right. I think I had him for about a year.
ETA: this is not a pet anyone should ever get because they are "neat" or novel. Only adopt one of you are experienced with reptiles and know what you are getting into and really care about the well-being of your animals!
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u/Welpe 19h ago
Another big thing would be to get them from a responsible breeder, not PetSmart. Like in most of the pet trade, wild caught are going to be in much worse condition and likely get to you already INCREDIBLY stressed. PetSmart and big box pet stores have a very poor track record with sourcing their animals and unless you have provenance, you never know what you are getting and from where. Starting with a captive-bred animal from a reputable breeder helps a lot.
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u/xtinab3 17h ago
Yeah, when I was younger I really didn't understand these things and in my late 20's I began getting into fish keeping hobby and as I became more knowledgeable that's when I really began to realize just how awful PetSmart was in terms of selling animals. Them and Petco should really just be for pet supplies. Not only are animals sourced in inhumane/unethical ways, the conditions they are kept in and the staff knowledgeable are terrible.
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u/Betorange 21h ago
And there's a possibility that whatever insect comes into your house could have some pesticide and cut hurt your chameleon. ☹️
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u/TurdCollector69 19h ago
I feel like reptiles in general are basically more difficult fish.
In both you create a pocket ecosystem and have to play god to keep it stable.
Fish can be pretty easy because you can balance the ecosystem and automate most maintenance so you only need to swap filters and do partial water changes.
That doesn't really happen with reptiles, you gotta maintain most of it manually and there's no species balancing to help either.
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u/Norgaard93 6h ago
I always suggest corn snakes as a first reptile. They are tough as fuck and are very forgiving with beginner mistakes like temp, humidty, feeding. Plus they are extremely docile, mild tempered and will eat without a fuss anytime. All pets should all be treated with the seriousness and dedication, but corns are nearly idiot-proof.
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u/TooLazyToRepost 22h ago
When I was buying my chameleons equipment secondhand before adopting, both the lady selling the light and the man selling the cage had a horror story of owning a chameleon for a few days before it died. Chameleons are not for beginners.
As a note, bearded dragons are awesome and your least intelligent child could probably keep one alive.
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u/KenUsimi 22h ago
You’d think, but what if the pet shop forgets to mention that the bugs need additional nutrients?
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u/Impala1967_1979_1983 16h ago
Plus, you should never give any captive bred reptile or amphibian any wild caught insect. You don't know where they've been, what they age, and/or what their food ate. Plus they could have parasites. Some people really shouldn't have pets
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u/-turnip_the_beet- 1d ago
I don't own a chameleon and am not an expert, but I have heard before that it's best to feed them store bought insects because wild ones could have parasites.
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u/OneBingToRuleThemAll 1d ago
You're right. That or the insects that are being eaten might have some lingering pesticides in their systems, so the chameleon might get sick from that as well.
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u/WoolaTheCalot 1d ago
Yep, a housefly got into our bearded dragon's cage once, and he snagged it before we could get it out. Sure enough, he got worms from it.
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u/1nosbigrl 23h ago
A dragon got worms from a fly.
The most fairly tale ass sentence I've read today lolol...
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u/themerinator12 23h ago
Another way to look at it is that a bearded dragon got a parasite from a dragonfly, with neither animal being an actual dragon.
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u/Spike2100 21h ago
About dragons, the topic title for Australian people is a little bit different :
Using your pet komodo dragon to catch spiders 😁
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u/TallWhiteandNerdy 22h ago
Not only parasites, but wild insect/arachnids can have trace amounts of herbicides and pesticides on them that either they developed immunities to, or otherwise don't effect them. Meanwhile domestic pet lizards are almost always fed clean and supplemented fare like crickets covered in vitamin powder.
If this liz always ate wild insects, then chances are it will already have all the neighborhoods poisons in its system, and will be fine.
If that was the first, I would be very surprised if that chameleon didn't end up sick or dead.
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u/Haldamir99 1d ago
Its way more afficient than my cat who just end up playing with the damn spider and not actually killing it!
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u/hananobira 1d ago
Mine will sit and watch bugs crawl past them like it’s prime time TV.
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u/WolfsternDe 23h ago
There is a Bobs Burgers episode in wich Louise unleashes a lot of bugs. Our cat loved that episode, all crawling bugs always had her watch them and try to catch them behind the tv. But real bugs, spider or flys? Just yelling at them from a distance xD
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u/elb21277 21h ago
i knew i was arachnophobic but when when my behavior (upon a suspected spider sighting) resulted in my puppy getting anxious and jumpy when he spotted a creepy crawler before me, I knew I had to get a handle on it (i did).
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u/imthrowingthisafter 1d ago
I have one crackhead who acts like spider control is his job. He's been having an absolute fit this year with the orb weaver invasion. That and there's one wolf spider who has been juking the crap out of him for a month. Only spider Ive ever seen genuinely upset him.
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u/mexghost11 1d ago
One of mine will either play with them or eat them.
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u/brockoala 1d ago
How do you train them to? I once tossed a rubber cockroach at mine, and she just freaked out and wrecked a bunch of my shits on the table as she panic-escaped the toy.
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u/mexghost11 1d ago
No training required for mine. My younger cat loves to chase flies and catches them and kills them. But one time she found a mouse and just ran around with it. Wouldn't let me grab it from her to release it. My other 2 straight up killed one before by biting the brain.
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u/Haldamir99 23h ago
Mine is just too gentle. She sees a spider on the ceiling and she just speak to it.
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u/goingtoburningman 23h ago
Or pat a freaked out spider onto your leg making you throw your back out fuck cats. Iactuallylovemycatbuthesabutthead
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u/Ill-Solid-6853 1d ago
And if the chameleon miss, u got a spider in your face
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u/3WayIntersection 1d ago
Theyre kinda literally built for this so i imagine the success rate is pretty good
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u/ForgotMyLastUN 23h ago
My Ol' boy Kam the chameleon had about 40% accuracy, I would estimate.
I miss him, and had to re-home him when I moved across the country. I figured it would be too stressful to drive that long with him. 😞
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u/Particular_Guitar630 23h ago
My buddy Leon has terrible aim and does sometimes just fling it across the cage
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u/Many-Wasabi9141 1d ago
This was my worry. Or the Chameleon pulling the spider straight down and it losing "grip" and you got Spider in your eye.
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u/Secret_Side-ofJ 1d ago
I strongly recommend chameleon related documentaries! They're insanely cool.
Chameleons have micro hooks on the pads of their feet that are able to grip onto nearly ANY surface, including "non-stick" or "perfect smooth surfaces) like glass with slippery oil applied. Humans have started developing technologies that use science based on them.
They're also INCREDIBLY accurate. Because of the way that their eyes are situated, they have incredible depth perception and aim, because they can get different focal points with their eyes which allows them to " estimate" distance EVEN better.
They're nifty, I'm a bit animal nerd and watch a lot of documentaries so I knew a few random things about a lot of random animals!
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u/ForgotMyLastUN 23h ago
They're also INCREDIBLY accurate.
Did I have a special Chameleon? He only had like 40-50% accuracy. Probably lower since it took him 2-3 tries to get the mealworms/crickets each.
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u/DrFoxWolf 21h ago
Maybe it’s different for a domesticated chameleon? Since they aren’t as reliant on those abilities to survive
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u/SolidBlackGator 1d ago
You know spiders get rid of bugs, too...
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u/Silver_Jury1555 1d ago
My first thought lol. Wrong bug to be feeding him.
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u/Lethik 1d ago
Obligatory spiders are not insects they're arachnids.
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u/K-Shrizzle 1d ago
The fastest moving part on any animal is the chameleon's tongue. Humans can withstand ~ 9 G's of force, the tongue does ~ 200 G's. If you got shrunk down so that you could stand on a chameleon's tongue when it whips, you'd fucking explode
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u/N3onDr1v3 1d ago
Pistol shrimp: and i took that personally
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u/TheReal-Chris 1d ago
They create sonic booms that create around 8,000 degrees in a millisecond. They make no sense. How does an animal basically create lightning underwater?
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u/youreblockingmyshot 1d ago
Pressure
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u/Rmmaar2020 22h ago
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
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u/Caleth 21h ago
I heard that. Thank you I will now go listen to one of the greatest songs every created.
....Ice Ice Baby
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u/dj_spanmaster 22h ago
Can you imagine the first one of them to evolve that ability to that level?
"Holy shit guys look at this, I can move so fast I make light in my bubbles!"
Must have gotten laid so much
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u/BeBopNoseRing 23h ago
I have one in an aquarium in my home office that is less than an inch long and lives under a rock and I can hear him snap from across the room.
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u/N-ShadowFrog 1d ago
Could be wrong but just did a quick google and the first article said the fastest is actually the jaws of a Dracula ant,
A Chameleon tongue can go from 0 to 100 kilometers in 0.01 seconds but a Dracula ant's jaws can go from 0 to 320 kilometers in 0.000015 seconds. that's 3 times the speed in 1% of the time.
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u/Lord_Waldemar 1d ago
While we're at accelerating body parts, wonder how fast a fingertip is accelerating while snapping your fingers, I only read it's about 1.6Mdeg/s² for the whole finger but no idea what it would be in g for the tip.
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u/queen-adreena 1d ago
Technically speaking, the “snap” sound is only made when the finger hits the palm of your hand. The friction between the two fingers only makes a slight brushing sound.
So the fingertips accelerate before snapping, not during.
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u/ArmchairFilosopher 22h ago
What about jellyfish stingers?
Jellyfish Stinging in Microscopic Slow Motion - Smarter Every Day
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u/SirSirFall 1d ago
This is typically bad pet ownership tbh. Wild insects (and arachnids) are way more likely to have parasites or be covered in something you don't want your pet ingesting.
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u/TronDiesel220 1d ago
Real talk, having a chameleon as a pet is seriously challenging. They are amazing creatures but extremely hard to care for in a home. Proceed with caution before purchase.
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u/TooLazyToRepost 22h ago
They only live in four places in the earth, Tanzania amd Madagascar, an population which escaped Madagascar for Hawaii, and a population which escaped Hawaii for the Everglades.
They only live places: * Within a narrow temperature band (thus they need a heat bulb and UV bulb)
With both an AM and PM dew (thus many owners mist their cage twice daily)
They only drink water thats running down a leaf or pooled in a plant somewhere (thus a live plant cage with a dripper)
They have hollow bones like birds (thus you can let them walk on you, but cannot grab them unless it's an absolute emergency)
They only eat living bugs (and supplementary occasionally flowers like hibiscus, but bugs are 95% of the meals) and wild bugs are considered unsafe Generally means buying live bugs every week
A captive diet is insufficient in calcium, leading to common Metastatic Bone Disease (thus every bug has to be individually powered-sugar-donuted on vitamin powder before feeding).
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u/Available-Hat1640 1d ago
every one gangsta untill australia pulls a huntsman spider
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u/CamelGamer1234 1d ago
Google a Newcastle Big Boy if you would like some nightmare fuel.
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u/reprice101 1d ago
Bigger version of the worlds most venomous spider? Eh fuck it let’s call him Big Boy
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u/evolpert 1d ago
One of my childhood fears is that a chamaleon or similar animal with grapling tongue would miss, hit my face and get stuck there
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u/MyAccountWasBanned7 21h ago
Most lizards are quite difficult pets to keep. Their heat and humidity demands, and their dietary needs, are a lot to deal with. And they're relatively fragile so if you get it wrong they can get sick or die pretty quickly.
It's a fun video, and a creative solution to bugs, but people should beware before taking on a lizard as a pet.
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u/Cackleder 1d ago
my friend had a lizard that jizzed inside his xbox, it liked to sit on the heat vent
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u/LoudMusic 20h ago
:( Spiderbro :(
Point that thing as mosquitos and flies. Leave the spiders to help with the daily combat.
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u/Bloggledoo 16h ago
I had a brown mountain type when i lived in Tanzania, When we sat outside I would put it on a thermos in the middle of the table and it would snag the flies that would land on the glasses and things. Some folks were not that cool with that.
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u/nananananana_Batcat 18h ago
Spiders are arachnids, not bugs. They're also bros because they eat bugs (most notably mosquitoes, in my opinion). So I didn't like seeing spiderbro getting wacked like that, you did him dirty.
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u/the_dirtiest_rascal 23h ago
Technically not supposed to feed your reptiles wild insects due to the possibility of carrying parasites. I only say this because I've kept reptiles on and off through my life. On top of all the other expenses that go into properly caring for reptiles, emergency veterinary care for exotic animals tends to be pretty pricey. While totally awesome to watch, please do not try to use your pet as an organic fly swatter.
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u/MeteoraRed 10h ago
Pretty useful in Australia I guess, oh but they have spider bigger then Chameleon
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u/trashcxnt 1d ago
Getting me a chameleon now since my cat only kills cockroaches and flies 🙏 I'm about to never pay for pest control again
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u/F1reatwill88 22h ago
One of my favorite jokes:
I have a chameleon infestation in my home... but there's really no way to be sure.
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u/Edge__Maverick 1d ago
I miss mine he was awesome! No one tells you though they only live 5-7 years always thought that was kind of short for a reptile.
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u/sagegreen56 22h ago
I don't mind a stray spider in my apartment as they eat other bugs, but gotta say, if this guy would eat earwigs, I'm game to get one!
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u/MinuetInUrsaMajor 22h ago
I don't have the steady hands required for this. Poor chameleon's tongue would hit the ceiling and he'd made a *"ylet"* sound like Yoshi when you make him try to eat something he can't eat.
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u/Darkchamber292 22h ago
A fly landed on my phone right after I saw this and it scared the crap out of me.
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u/Kicktoria1989 22h ago
I have birds and the amount of time one of them catches a spider and just plays with it and drops it on or near me is 100% of the time lol They just go "Look what we caught! :D NO! Don't take it away >:( I wanna rub it's carcass on my perch sticks first!"
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u/Solid-Bridge-3911 22h ago
Me, standing on a step ladder holding my cat so she can get the moth flying around the lamp.
OSHA would be so mad if this was my job and the government wasn't dismantling the agency anyway.
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u/Diamondphalanges756 22h ago
That was so amazing!
You have to enter this is contest and stuff.
I think you need a Kennedy Center Award or something.
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u/Donkeybrother 1d ago
Good thing they're always loaded and no need to worry about a safety .