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Paula’s Game Ramblings: A New Addition

Welcome to another edition of Paula’s Game Ramblings.

If you are a regular reader of these ramblings, you may remember that last year I introduced you to the monsters in my home, aka my reptiles.

Bad News and Good News

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Mr Grump

I have an update to that previous article and some sad and happy news. Unfortunately, in June of this year, Grump the Yemen Chameleon passed away due to old age. He lived a good life until he was over six years old (the average age in captivity is six).

The first time I met Grump, he bit my finger, hence why he got his name. After that, whenever I opened his vivarium door, he had to show me who was boss by lunging for me. But really, he loved me as much as I did him.

Holiday Home for Midge

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Midge in her vivarium

We now had a sizeable empty vivarium sitting with the lights off; it was like a big black hole in the living room. After a bit of a rethink, we moved the Bearded Dragon, Midge, into the empty vivarium Grump had left. However, moving Midge meant that the vivarium was far too large for her, with a lot of wasted space.

Being a ground-dwelling reptile, bearded dragons do not climb high on branches, so half of the 4foot tall vivarium was unused. Anyway, we decided to leave Midge in the large vivarium as she enjoyed the view and see how it went.

Empty Vivarium Syndrome

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Empty Vivarium

Fast forward a few months until the end of October and Halloween, we started suffering from a serious complaint called empty vivarium syndrome, a lot like empty nest syndrome. Then, one day we spotted a post on social media by our local reptile shop, Reptile Hunters; they had Yemen Chameleons for sale.

After a few messages to Eddie, the owner of Reptile Hunters, I managed to arrange to buy a male Yemen chameleon. However, we had to wait until the cham was transported to the Belfast store. As soon as I got a message saying he had arrived, I got busy rearranging his new home and moving Midge back from her holiday home to her original vivarium.

It felt like Christmas when we went into town and picked our new handsome fellow up from Reptile Hunters.

New Addition

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Yemen chameleon in his little tub used to transport him

He is two months old and about the length of my finger, which he has not tried to bite. He is also a well-travelled Chameleon for being so young, as he was initially brought back from the reptile expo in Hamm, Germany.

He settled in nicely to his new home, and now all we had to do was think of a name to call him. We couldn’t agree on a name, so I asked a few of my grandkids to come up with sensible, not stupid, names to call our new addition. Their ages range from 17 to 2 years old, and this is what they came up with.

Abi – Rodrick chamelio of the Balthazar barbarians
Chloe – Pascal or Harry
JJ – Mitch,
Matthew – Lucifer or Small Fry
Torin – Boo (good answer for a two-year-old that hasn’t mastered talking as yet)

Pick a Name

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Meet Harry-Boo AKA Haribo

While I like some of the names, especially Abi’s, I’d never remember a long name like that. After some more thought, we came up with Harry-boo; the Boo reminds us that we got him on Halloween. I’ve shortened his name to Haribo, which fits him well.

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Haribo starting to show his stripes

Little Haribo is quite a friendly chap compared to Grump. He is happy to come out and walk up my hand and arm, and he hasn’t shown me his teeth. Haribo should have his full colours by 18 months old, so I’m keen to see how he changes as he grows up. All being well, Haribo will have a long and happy life in his new house inside my home.

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Haribo sleeps on a plant leaf at night.

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