So I have now completed my first month of chameleon husbandry and I thought that I would do this blog as both a collection of research I have done for those who re also starting from scratch like I did, and as a time lapse of my first chameleon Stanley.. I hope that I can be of help to those out there in need of guidance as chameleon husbandry has turned out to be something not for the average reptile enthusiast.
Stanley
Stanley Kubrick is my 4 month old blue barred ambilobe panther. He is one of the most vibrantly colored guys I have come across which is one of the reasons he is so special to me. His sire belongs to Red Island from these forums and the sire's name is Clint. The female was a breeder from FL Chams. At this moment he is about 4 1/2 inches from nose to vent and he is awesome. He is maintained on a pretty steady 12-15 crickets a day with a few mealworms mixed in for a little bit of variety. He is misted 4-5 times a day, depending on the outside temperature as I live in Texas and my apartment is all but affected by the conditions outside. And I recently began a 12 hour constant drip due to a very slight yellow in his urate but it was nothing too bad for even concern, just want my guy to be amazingly healthy
My Enclosure
Unlike a lot of handlers I decided to stick with the largest cage I could get which was a ZooMed 2x2x4 reptibreeze. I made this decision because when I first got him I let him test it and he climbed the entire cage and due to me being a cup feeder I wasn't too worried about him being able to find his food. His cage is completely furnished (yet still not "fully" complete). Currently the only live plant I have inside the cage is a Dracaena about 4ft. tall (with the top chute trimmed down). I have four separate wooden dowels marking different points of basking for different temperature gradients... the second highest being the most moderate is where I located his food bowl.. There is also about 18ft. total of mainly flukers vines.. I have 3 different sizes inside wrapped throughout the cage and into all of his favorite hiding spots... Making sure nothing is out of reach. I plan to add two small pothos on the basking side and sort of drapery of vines across the door of the enclosure to encourage him to roam a bit. For lighting I have obviously a reptiSun because I honestly found nothing positive about anything else.. And due to having a very warm blooded fiance who enjoys freezing everything to death, I have a 100 watt flourescent bulb placed 8 inches away from his nearest perch to give him a good 87-92 degree hot zone (down at the bottom is still gets to 68-72). And for the simplest drip system in human history I have a milk jug filled with two tiny holes in the bottom... This flows into a pot at the bottom of the cage that is emptied every two hours (still trying to improve this as I fear drowning)
First Week
When he came in little Stanley had taken a trip from Florida all the way out to Euless, TX... But because I live in Dallas near Richardson, the poor little guys journey was not yet over. He was so stressed from his journey that when I let him into his new home, it didn't matter how big the cage was he just wanted to hide... One of the saddest things I have ever seen. So I heavily misted, placed a couple of crickets in... and left the poor guy alone. When I checked on him only an HOUR later, he was already eating from his cup! I was very surprised to say the least. When night came I turned the lights out and wouldn't you know the guy curled up and fell right asleep. That was when I realized this little guy was going to be awesome! For the rest of the week it became about acclimation. I let him go through his cage with very little contact for about two days before I made my first attempt to introduce my hand. I tried hand feeding but it was simply too soon for that so I straight on attempted to move him to my fingers and after about 50 attempts.. HE FINALLY CAME OUT! Granted he didn't enjoy it but there was no biting, hissing or anything like that.. Just a little darkening and a flare. After that I began to look through the cage for proof of his digestive system and found what I was looking for, my little guy had begun a very regular pattern of every day or so... White urate, dark brown poo. I was so happy that he was healthy and as far as a cham can be, happy
Week Two
The second week was all about getting to know this little guy... I kept going with slowly removing him from his cage, with a bit more hissing than the last week so those attempts he came out victorious. He became very familiar with his cage and had even located a couple of his now favorite hide outs (including a piece of vine WAY at the bottom of his cage where he LOVES to sleep ). Because of the increased hissing, I decided to attempt to relate my hand to treats so I began again trying to hand feed. After only ONE attempt this week I SUCCEEDED! You've never seen someone so happy. He was hand feeding whenever I presented one and it made climbing onto my hand that much easier! For the rest of the week I just maintained the hand feeding to see if he would keep with it but unfortunately by the end of the week, the behavior changed and he no longer wanted ANYTHING to do with my hand... So we were back to square one.
Week Three
So with his hand feeding behavior a thing of the past I decided to let him be as much as possible to see if I could get the behavior to return. Unfortunately it didn't return. But as the week drew on I sensed he would make another big move in this week and he did towards the end... His first shed with me. I started to notice the light coloring and the fold on his side so I began misting even more to keep him hydrated and within the next day the skin began to fly (so to speak of course)... It was everywhere and it was possibly the cutest thing ever to see my little guy confused trying to get mounds of himself off his legs as he walked. At the end there was some straggling skin around his eyes and tail so I helped him with that, he actually didn't seem to mind which was good for him. After the shed I was so happy to see that his colors became even brighter! And on top of that he began to show his yellows around his stomach and fire orange around his eyes! I thought it impossible for him to get even more vibrant for such a young guy but I was wrong!
Week Four
So now to week four where we are currently. I had decided just two days ago that I wanted to try another tactic to acclimating Stanley to my hand. And I figured the NEW best way to do this was to try to get him to relate my hand with a free range area where he can bask in real sun. So I went out and bought him an Umbrella plant that was unusually full and about 2 feet tall and repotted it and made my move to bring him outside. It was a LOT of work but he finally came to me and when he got to that plant it was like a cham in a cricket shop! He LOVED it... It became his hangout when I'm on the porch and whle outside yesterday I was ASTOUNDED to see him coming out of hiding and actually basking close to me. It was a HUGE step and I am so ready to keep trying this new method. I hope to grow his free range into an idea that I had so I will be getting that started soon
But there you have it, the first month of Stanley's new home down here in Dallas. I will continue the updates and I will give out the knowledge I am gaining for all those starting out like I did.. From scratch
Heres a link to see his sire...http://www.chameleonforums.com/clint-eastwood-panther-chameleons-54638/
Stanley
Stanley Kubrick is my 4 month old blue barred ambilobe panther. He is one of the most vibrantly colored guys I have come across which is one of the reasons he is so special to me. His sire belongs to Red Island from these forums and the sire's name is Clint. The female was a breeder from FL Chams. At this moment he is about 4 1/2 inches from nose to vent and he is awesome. He is maintained on a pretty steady 12-15 crickets a day with a few mealworms mixed in for a little bit of variety. He is misted 4-5 times a day, depending on the outside temperature as I live in Texas and my apartment is all but affected by the conditions outside. And I recently began a 12 hour constant drip due to a very slight yellow in his urate but it was nothing too bad for even concern, just want my guy to be amazingly healthy
My Enclosure
Unlike a lot of handlers I decided to stick with the largest cage I could get which was a ZooMed 2x2x4 reptibreeze. I made this decision because when I first got him I let him test it and he climbed the entire cage and due to me being a cup feeder I wasn't too worried about him being able to find his food. His cage is completely furnished (yet still not "fully" complete). Currently the only live plant I have inside the cage is a Dracaena about 4ft. tall (with the top chute trimmed down). I have four separate wooden dowels marking different points of basking for different temperature gradients... the second highest being the most moderate is where I located his food bowl.. There is also about 18ft. total of mainly flukers vines.. I have 3 different sizes inside wrapped throughout the cage and into all of his favorite hiding spots... Making sure nothing is out of reach. I plan to add two small pothos on the basking side and sort of drapery of vines across the door of the enclosure to encourage him to roam a bit. For lighting I have obviously a reptiSun because I honestly found nothing positive about anything else.. And due to having a very warm blooded fiance who enjoys freezing everything to death, I have a 100 watt flourescent bulb placed 8 inches away from his nearest perch to give him a good 87-92 degree hot zone (down at the bottom is still gets to 68-72). And for the simplest drip system in human history I have a milk jug filled with two tiny holes in the bottom... This flows into a pot at the bottom of the cage that is emptied every two hours (still trying to improve this as I fear drowning)
First Week
When he came in little Stanley had taken a trip from Florida all the way out to Euless, TX... But because I live in Dallas near Richardson, the poor little guys journey was not yet over. He was so stressed from his journey that when I let him into his new home, it didn't matter how big the cage was he just wanted to hide... One of the saddest things I have ever seen. So I heavily misted, placed a couple of crickets in... and left the poor guy alone. When I checked on him only an HOUR later, he was already eating from his cup! I was very surprised to say the least. When night came I turned the lights out and wouldn't you know the guy curled up and fell right asleep. That was when I realized this little guy was going to be awesome! For the rest of the week it became about acclimation. I let him go through his cage with very little contact for about two days before I made my first attempt to introduce my hand. I tried hand feeding but it was simply too soon for that so I straight on attempted to move him to my fingers and after about 50 attempts.. HE FINALLY CAME OUT! Granted he didn't enjoy it but there was no biting, hissing or anything like that.. Just a little darkening and a flare. After that I began to look through the cage for proof of his digestive system and found what I was looking for, my little guy had begun a very regular pattern of every day or so... White urate, dark brown poo. I was so happy that he was healthy and as far as a cham can be, happy
Week Two
The second week was all about getting to know this little guy... I kept going with slowly removing him from his cage, with a bit more hissing than the last week so those attempts he came out victorious. He became very familiar with his cage and had even located a couple of his now favorite hide outs (including a piece of vine WAY at the bottom of his cage where he LOVES to sleep ). Because of the increased hissing, I decided to attempt to relate my hand to treats so I began again trying to hand feed. After only ONE attempt this week I SUCCEEDED! You've never seen someone so happy. He was hand feeding whenever I presented one and it made climbing onto my hand that much easier! For the rest of the week I just maintained the hand feeding to see if he would keep with it but unfortunately by the end of the week, the behavior changed and he no longer wanted ANYTHING to do with my hand... So we were back to square one.
Week Three
So with his hand feeding behavior a thing of the past I decided to let him be as much as possible to see if I could get the behavior to return. Unfortunately it didn't return. But as the week drew on I sensed he would make another big move in this week and he did towards the end... His first shed with me. I started to notice the light coloring and the fold on his side so I began misting even more to keep him hydrated and within the next day the skin began to fly (so to speak of course)... It was everywhere and it was possibly the cutest thing ever to see my little guy confused trying to get mounds of himself off his legs as he walked. At the end there was some straggling skin around his eyes and tail so I helped him with that, he actually didn't seem to mind which was good for him. After the shed I was so happy to see that his colors became even brighter! And on top of that he began to show his yellows around his stomach and fire orange around his eyes! I thought it impossible for him to get even more vibrant for such a young guy but I was wrong!
Week Four
So now to week four where we are currently. I had decided just two days ago that I wanted to try another tactic to acclimating Stanley to my hand. And I figured the NEW best way to do this was to try to get him to relate my hand with a free range area where he can bask in real sun. So I went out and bought him an Umbrella plant that was unusually full and about 2 feet tall and repotted it and made my move to bring him outside. It was a LOT of work but he finally came to me and when he got to that plant it was like a cham in a cricket shop! He LOVED it... It became his hangout when I'm on the porch and whle outside yesterday I was ASTOUNDED to see him coming out of hiding and actually basking close to me. It was a HUGE step and I am so ready to keep trying this new method. I hope to grow his free range into an idea that I had so I will be getting that started soon
But there you have it, the first month of Stanley's new home down here in Dallas. I will continue the updates and I will give out the knowledge I am gaining for all those starting out like I did.. From scratch
Heres a link to see his sire...http://www.chameleonforums.com/clint-eastwood-panther-chameleons-54638/
