Calavera
Established Member
After purchasing my two original female brev's from the East Bay Vivarium in Berkley, California, i bought 4 more from LLL reptiles. I had a total of 6 Brev's in a large exotera cage. After posting several series of enclosure descriptions and pictures, i received approval from many of you, including Roo (who we all considder the "guru of pygmy's"). In my enclosure, i had 2 males and 4 females. Every single female has reared eggs, and i currently have 8 fertile eggs that are 1-2.5 months old. To be blunt, my brevs have been dying at a frustrating and depressing rate.
I feed them pin crickets every 2 days and i can see that they are all aggressive and active eaters. When i ordered my brevs from LLL, my cousin and i each got 4. First off, 2 of our original 8 were dead upon arrival, and those that survived the trip were extremely dehydrated and emaciated in appearance. The first thing i did was mist the cage and these little guys drank like crazy. After about a week of nourishing them, a male died. I figured that he died because he was weak from the travel and was just too far gone to be saved. A week later, another make died. The following week, one of my original females from the EBV died. I was confused when she died because she was from my original stalk and was not dehydrated or starved at any point. Just yesterday she appeared vibrant and alert. When i found her dead body, she had a lesion on her side. I currently have 1 male in the cage. Even though there is a 4 female to 1 male ratio, could the male be a threat? Secondly, is there any finite health issue that may be compromising the longevity of my chameleons? Both my cousin and i, who have experience with chameleons are facing this same problem with our brevs. Is there something that may have been transmitted from this new stalk of brevs that were shipped to us? I am aware that Brevs have relatively short life expectancies, but i am concerned. I just cant see another one of these splendid creatures perish, it breaks my heart.
Thanks for any advice,
-Cala-
I feed them pin crickets every 2 days and i can see that they are all aggressive and active eaters. When i ordered my brevs from LLL, my cousin and i each got 4. First off, 2 of our original 8 were dead upon arrival, and those that survived the trip were extremely dehydrated and emaciated in appearance. The first thing i did was mist the cage and these little guys drank like crazy. After about a week of nourishing them, a male died. I figured that he died because he was weak from the travel and was just too far gone to be saved. A week later, another make died. The following week, one of my original females from the EBV died. I was confused when she died because she was from my original stalk and was not dehydrated or starved at any point. Just yesterday she appeared vibrant and alert. When i found her dead body, she had a lesion on her side. I currently have 1 male in the cage. Even though there is a 4 female to 1 male ratio, could the male be a threat? Secondly, is there any finite health issue that may be compromising the longevity of my chameleons? Both my cousin and i, who have experience with chameleons are facing this same problem with our brevs. Is there something that may have been transmitted from this new stalk of brevs that were shipped to us? I am aware that Brevs have relatively short life expectancies, but i am concerned. I just cant see another one of these splendid creatures perish, it breaks my heart. Thanks for any advice,
-Cala-
