baby bearded pygmy care

SusannahJoy

New Member
Hey all. I'm pretty new to chams. I got three wild caught adults, 2 females and one male who have all been doing pretty well and laying lots of eggs, but I'm having a lot of trouble keeping the babies alive for longer than a few weeks. I've had them in plastic containers with sphagnum moss on the bottom to help keep the humidity up, lots of twigs and a few small plants and have been feeding them pinheads and fruit flies that I dust every other feeding, alternating with calcium and vitamins. Temp has been in the high 60's during the day, dropping to the high 50's at night. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? I've been looking on this site and others and it seems like I'm doing what I should be... I just had another baby hatch and instead of being happy about it, it's just making me nervous. Help!!
 
That's kind of what I was thinking too, but I'm not sure. I hope people with more experience chime in for you and when my little ones hatch!
 
The temperatures should range from around 82 - 86 degrees Fahrenheit in the evenings, and drop to a MINIMUM of 68 - 72 at night. The humidity needs to be around 45 - 55 during the evenings, generally there needs to be a low humidity seeing as this breed of chameleon is found in mid Africa around Tanzania.


I THINK YOU ARE CONFUSING HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE!!! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THEM RIGHT!!!
 
Have you been researching the right species of pygs?

I have also found in multiple places that adults should have temps in the mid 70's and avoid temps in the 80's, and that humidity should be around 70% or higher...not to be argumentative but are you sure you're talking about the same species? The rainforests of Tanzania are actually very humid, they're not from the savanna or anything. I don't know about neonate care, but that's pretty standard for adult brevs. And it's what recommended for adults time and time again on the forums by people with experience.
 
WHOA! These are baby Brevs-PLEASE-NO HEAT! I raise them in medium critter keepers on paper towels with a plastic plant in the bottom. If you have a house that is 72-75 degrees that is perfect. I wouldn't let them drop lower than 65 but you certainly do not want to put direct heat on them. They do not need UVB (Mine get indirect UVB) and they do not need a basking lamp, just light in the day and no light at night. You also do not really want to be giving them much in the way of supplements-maybe a very light dusting of calcium with no D3 a few times a week until they are a month old and then add a very light dusting of multivite once a month after that. Mist 2-3 times a day with a very fine mist making sure the plants are drippy.
 
Ah, thank you julirs! I was hoping someone with experience would chime in. Seems like we had two temperature extremes being offered, neither of which sounded right to me. Thanks for your help, hopefully that will help the OP. I'm glad they asked for my future reference too. ;)
 
I have raised several clutches of brevs, and agree heartily with Julirs.

I have been successful with daytime temperatures in the mid-70s with a small night time drop (just the normal drop in temperature which occurs in my apartment). In a 24-hour cycle the temperature never dropped below about 67 degrees. I keep the humidity up with 2 or 3 mistings of the cage each day. The number of mistings depends on how much ventilation the cage has and how quickly it dries out. They like a lot of humidity but do not waterlog or saturate the substrate.

Cut out all vitamins, and either use them sparingly later in life or gutload your insects well and cut our vitamins entirely. I have used a fluorescent tube overhead which emits UVB, but it is several inches above them in a terrarium which several small plants.

When I have baby pygmies, I alternate feedings between pinheads and fruitflies. I lightly dust the fruitflies with Mineral, which makes the fruitflies easier to manipulate, and by dusting only the fruitflies the alternating rhythm of pinheads-then-fruitflies keeps me for oversupplementing. Keep the dusting light.
 
Mike, how do you dust the ffs? I find crickets easy to dust, but can't get the hang of the flies. What's your trick?
 
Thanks Julirs

I value the input, I am not into pygs but I did see that the initial temperatures were to low. I hope you can help to coach him a bit in his baby pygs. Good luck
 
Julirs and mphelps - do you raise babies in groups or in individual cages?

I raise them in groups-meaning of 4 hatch out, I keep them all together unless I see one outeating or bullying. As far as dusting FF-you just tap a few into your dusting cup and swirl-and lightly, very lightly. You do not want to oversupplement pygs.
 
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