Chameleon Breeder Podcast With Bill Strand

Dr. Sean McNeeley is on the front lines as a doctor in charge of a medical center dealing with the medical preparations. He is level headed and a voice of reason. We are lucky to be able to claim him as part of the chameleon community. Today we talk about his breeding projects and get a perspective from him as to his day-to-day during this time.

Briana O'Brien of Kammerflage Kreations joins me and we just talk the current events and how it is affecting us. This isn't an interview, just a discussion! We do slip in a very cool news item, but we didn't mean it! Yep, we uncovered that we are on the verge of a new branch supply company, ReptiBranch, run by Briana's husband and previous podcast guest Alec O'Brien. I'll be checking these out!

Today we consider how to deal with our time now that many of us are spending this time at home. If we are working from home, how do we stay productive? If we are out of work, what do we do with our time? Luis Wiedemann, a long time reptile keeper, comes on and shares how he has successfully worked for home for the last ten years.

We are now officially staying home where all non-essential businesses are closed and there are no gatherings of people. The world I used to know is strangely silent as most of life is now behind closed doors. Today I answer a question about how I got involved with chameleons.

We are all spending more time indoors and there is a new perspective on whether we will continue to get feeders shipped. And I discuss the two things to plan for in order to have an enjoyable chameleon baby raising experience.

It wasn't long before the cracks start showing! Yes, the Strand household encountered its first crisis being all home! Once I was able to get over this and I realized that the entire internet mob always sides with my wife, I went on to discuss how we can develop skills in determining when something is wrong with our chameleon.

Well, we survived into day 2! The home office is beautiful with my chameleons around, but, boy , is it a mad house out in the stores! We are going to have to get a grip to make it through this!

The world is going through a tough time so maybe we just need more chameleon touch points during the week! This is just an unofficial, informal, unscripted, and unplanned episode for podcast listeners. Today I touch on chameleonifying your time working from home.

In today’s day and age we are very familiar with community. In fact, there has been no time in history when there has been more community! We are able to tie together chameleon hobbyists, scientists, and veterinarians from around the world and share ideas and enthusiasm. This week I talk with Allen Repashy about the upcoming Herpeton Herpetocultural Conference and how we fit into the larger reptile community.

We set the groundwork for season five and introduce a more interactive podcast where we will work on keeping our plants alive and understanding UVB. John Courteney-Smith, MRSB, from Arcadia Reptile joins me to introduce us to the new ProT5 fixture product line.

2019 has been a year of growth for us in the chameleon community in a number of ways. Today I review what progress we have made in 2019 and lay out what is ahead for us to figure out in 2020!

Wouldn’t it be great making money doing what you love? Have you ever wondered how to start a business in reptiles or chameleons? Today we talk about starting a business in the reptile community.

Today, I am talking to the people who have purchased the Chameleon Kit from ZooMed. This is the set-up which is the most commonly brought home. It is not meant to be the final cage set-up for your chameleon so this episode tells you how to use what you have until you can upgrade to something more permanent.

There is a lot of information about using UVB with chameleons bouncing around the internet. But how is it in execution? Today I bring you a discussion with Pete Hawkins who has raised a female veiled chameleon with UVB light and completely without dietary Vitamin D3.

If you are new to the chameleon world this podcast episode is for you. Here I will give you an orientation to the community and give you an overview of what is important for you to know now about chameleons.

One of the most dynamic companies in our industry is Arcadia lighting with their dedication to moving reptile technologies and research forward. And that is due to the dedication of their Head of Science and Innovation, John Courteney-Smith, MRSB. In this episode, I talk with John about his products are today and where the technology is going.

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.