Choosing a Panther Chameleon Breeder

Selecting a breeder is just as important as selecting the panther chameleon. Your breeder will know the lineage, background, and personal details of your particular panther. You often hear that you want to select a breeder you can trust. Just what does that mean and how can you find one that matches that description? Listen in and I share what you need to know!

When you are searching for a breeder I recommend doing a good deal of social media stalking. You can start with a Google search for Panther Chameleon Breeders but the top results aren’t necessarily the best choices. Google  is an excellent search engine, but it still is an advertising platform and business can pay to be on top. There are definitely good businesses that do this, but Google doesn’t check that when deciding what to put on their search results. So it is a good place to start gathering names, but there needs to be the second step of following that up with some research into their business.

And, just a note, just for fun I did a Google search for Panther Chameleon breeders and there were some things that were on the first page that were disturbing and bordered on being a scam. One of the top picks had a page that was only semi-readable because it was keyword stuffed for web traffic and said if you wanted a pet you could hold to choose a panther chameleon. Incorrect husbandry information is a huge red flag that something is not right.

So, please, take some time to research the breeder you are interested in. In many cases you select a breeder because you fell in love with one of the promo photos of one of the breeders. I know some sites that are using the same breeder photos that they have been using for over a decade. There are places where they purchase babies from a group of breeders they hire to breed chameleons for them and they never see what is being sent to you. So, don’t fall in love with a picture of a panther chameleon until you can verify that breeder is actually still alive and will be the sire to your baby. This is where there is no hard, fast black and white way of verifying a legitimate business and so you need to give it time to study how they post and how they interact with their audience. Digitally, get some personal recommendations.  And do not assume that a big name in the business means it will give you quality chameleons. Always check out the names behind the business.

And, of course, I can see it a mile away, but someone new to the community wouldn’t be able to pick up on the signs. And I know exactly what it is like to be new to a community. I live, sleep, and breathe chameleons so it is easy for me to pick out the bad apples. But when I was looking into dart frogs I was back at square one and had no idea who the good names were and I had to go through each and every step I am laying out here.

Wow…. sounds like a lot of work. And, yes, there is a bit of time involved. I have been involved with chameleons for over 40 years and I have watched the community grow. I have seen breeders come and go and more join in. It is a constant churn. And I can see that some great breeders are not marketing savvy and I have seen some breeders where marketing is only thing they do well. And in this episode I am going to go over a checklist for you to keep handy. You can decide which of the items I look for you value and make your decisions. But at least you what is important to look for.

Now, I want to say that this is a general checklist and you should use your judgement as to the mix of things. In this social media driven world it would be easy for a very good breeder to be left behind because they haven’t kept up with the 253 changes Instagram has done in the last month or they haven’t figured out with a tik-tok is. Social media is a completely different skill from breeding so nonexistent social media is not a black mark. It just means it is much more difficult for you to give them the green flag unless you know someone personally who has dealt with them or some other way to gauge their competency. That said, there are a number of excellent breeders that do have an extensive social media presence that will allow you to check the boxes.

Check to see if they have a website or social media outreach that allows you to see something about what they do. The lack of showing their facility isn’t a bad sign as people are rightly concerned about security. But they can show caging and you should be able to see some sort of husbandry. While not showing the facility is not a sign that they have poor husbandry, if someone does show their facility and husbandry you can make a judgement on it. Breeders who are proud of their husbandry usually find ways of showing it off. And this is a good sign. Some breeders will be interviewed on podcasts and Youtube videos. This is also a great way to check in on who they are as people. Red flags are websites with pop up ads and ad ridden web pages and advocating poor husbandry. When you just start out it may be difficult to know what is poor husbandry and what is just a difference in opinion. But I can give you a couple of pointers. Serious red flags to avoid are when a breeder will say you can hold panther chameleons and you can keep panther chameleons together. These are things that people wish chameleons were and to present chameleons like that is deliberate deceptive marketing. Anyone using those items in their sales pitch is not going to be honest in other aspects of your transaction. One husbandry aspect that would put the breeder in the top tier is if they raise their babies individually. Chameleons should not be raised in groups. Breeders have been doing this for decades to save on space and they just got good at knowing when to separate the bullies. But you still would have bite marks and nipped tails here and there. But there are a number of breeders popping up that have put the health of their babies ahead of the demands of mass production. If you are deciding between breeders and one of them individually raises their babies you know which one I would go with.

One of the big advantages of going with an established and reputable breeder is that they will support you before and after the sale. So, to “interview” a breeder, call them or email or chat over the website…whatever communication method you like to use. And see how they respond. Are they quick to respond and friendly? Do you two “click”. This step is not to judge whether they are good or bad. It is simply to decide whether your personalities mesh. If this is your first chameleon it pays to have a breeder who is there to help you. And part of the definition of reputable is the customer support. So try it out. Call them or email them and ask them if your set-up is good for a chameleon. See what they say. Don’t expect an hour long detailed analysis if you are not yet a customer, but they should be able to give you a thumbs up or thumbs down as to whether they feel comfortable selling to you. Presumably, if you have found this podcast you also have found the Chameleon Academy panther chameleon care guide and you have a setup that will make them feel confident to sell to you. If you don’t have a cage set up you can simply ask them to help you decide which locale to get. There is no good answer for this as it is 100% up to your taste, but if they are willing to help you decide it shows that they are willing to spend time with you. This passes the test no matter what they actually say or what you actually buy.

If they have been around long enough to be considered established then they will have a certain reputation. You will have to get many data points because anyone established will also have some unhappy customers and they tend to be very loud and tend to make things very black and white in their favor. So make sure you take samples from multiple sources. Honestly, if someone feels they have been wronged they will simply make up a narrative that has brief elements of the truth tied together with a distinct lack of what they did. You know when a kid runs into the house yelling that Johnny hit him for no reason at all? Yeah, there was a reason. So, remember that unhappy people are louder than satisfied people. And the chameleon world is so political that certain groups will bad mouth a breeder for reasons other than the quality of the panthers they send out. I know a couple of exceptional breeders that were bad mouthed because certain groups didn’t like their supplementation schedule. The panthers were of exceptional health, but politics rules social media. So, yes, check for reputation, but also check for bias. If this breeder is active in the community and responds to you when you communicate and the panthers look healthy then that should carry more weight than the politics of social media. The key is to watch direct intersection from the breeder with the community, and be careful with what is said behind their back.

Notice, in all of this, I didn’t say anything about price. This is because the most important thing is to find the best breeder. Once you start looking at price then you start down a risky road. High prices don’t necessarily mean the best quality, but if you find a breeder that is established, reputable, communicative, and with solid husbandry be hesitant to save money going elsewhere.

I realize that all of this is a lot harder than making a choice by falling in love with an over-saturated online picture. In the end it is up to you to decide how much you want to put into picking a breeder. It is true that there is only so much you can before you just have to trust somebody, but the more of the clowns you can wipe off the top the less of a circus you will have.

Now, I have been careful not to mention names. The reason is that the names are always changing. There have been a handful of constants that have stuck around, to be sure, but the value in this episode was giving you the tools to judge a breeder no matter when you are making a decision or what country you are in. Remember, it is extremely difficult to ship chameleons, which are CITES II animals, across country borders. So every country this podcast reaches will have different breeders to evaluate.

To close off this section,I’d like to speak to anyone who is considering being a panther chameleon breeder now or in the future. When you start you will have people going through all of these steps I just listed to evaluate you. And they will be comparing you to these established breeders who have spent years and tens of thousands of dollars getting to the point where they are now. So, your challenge is how to compete. Yes, gorgeous photography of your breeding stock is critical. And yes, money can buy exposure. But if if you want to stand out, a significant option is you can embrace some of the more advanced husbandry aspects. Individually raised panthers are now becoming a selling point. It may be that in the near future the community will start valuing quality of keeping adults and babies in naturalistic, pet quality enclosures. You are getting into this because you love chameleons. So building a breeding business that encompasses the best of husbandry instead of the most efficient husbandry will ensure you are ahead of the curve.

But, of course, this all is way in the future for most of you. We will talk about breeding much later! For now the highlights of selecting a breeder are to be patient. Select some names you are interested in and watch how they interact on social media. See what kind of husbandry they show and then whether you are compatible as far as communication. And then you will be confident that you will be able to fully enjoy the advantages of going with a established and reputable breeder

So, are you ready to take a look at what your options are? Even if you don’t feel ready to get a panther yet then, now is the perfect time to get a list of names together. You can spend this time just watching how they conduct themselves on social media. Although a good interaction style is not the same as good husbandry, it certainly is necessary when you will try and communicate with them in the future.

Another thing to help you prepare is to know what you are looking at is to get up to speed on panther chameleon husbandry. Check out the Panther Chameleon species profile  and that will give you the basics. I know it is a lot to take in at once, but we will go over it here step by step.

Finding the right breeder for you takes a little bit of work, but is worth it to make sure you have the right partner on this incredible experience you are about to undertake. And me? Well, I am going to be right here helping as well.

I hope this was a useful review of your panther chameleon options. This page is the partner to the podcast episode on the top of the page. The Panther Chameleon Podcast is part of the Chameleon Academy Outreach. On this Panther Chameleon Podcast, I take on aspects of starting with panther chameleons that will directly benefit a person just starting off. Please note that you have an entire detailed panther chameleon care summary here on chameleonacademy.com.  This has been put together as a free resource to ensure the widest number of people can get a good start with their panther chameleon. If you would like to support this outreach you can do so at the Chameleon Academy Patreon page linked below and that helps keep this all running.

Getting a panther chameleon is a step to an incredible new world and an experience you will remember for your entire life. And I am going to do what I can to make sure it is a great one. If you would like to ask questions about any of this, check the Chameleon Academy home page for the schedule of when I do live interactive sessions on YouTube and Instagram.