Calumma parsonii parsonii

[Chuck G]

Hi Andreas,

great thing you´d also share yiur informations in the english Forums
I really like this attitude of yours. Keep up the good work!
Did you see that the female that i just had to sell turned out to be a male?
At least that´s what i think.
In addition to her growing horns i also noticed that she got those black stripes on her head when stressed today, that i have only seen in males by now.
What do you say?

Best regards
Robin
View attachment 60041

I think that is a young male.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

I think that is a young male.

I'm thinking that one is a male too.

 

[Chameleoco]

here is one of the offspring 13 months ons.

 

[Todnedo]

I think that is a young male.

I agree with Chuck. It's a male.
I raised a male that was green and turned blue.
Here's a before and after pic.

 

[lumbasammler]

Thanks for the replies.
I think it´ll turn out to be a male.
Yesterday i also thought to have seen the first signs of the head turning paler to become white in the end.
But well, we´ll see

 

[rantotro]

here is one of the offspring 13 months ons.

She looks like her mother Heike.
A lovely girl.

 

[Garrett]

It's that time of year again, just caught a glimpse of these two before lights out

 

[lumbasammler]

Good luck Garrett

 

[rantotro]

Good work. It's difficult to fix this moment in a photo.
Wish you luck for the egglaying in next winter.

 

[rantotro]

It is not easy to know when exactly the babies hatch out.
Maybe it depends from the weather. In 2010 we had a longer area of high air pressure here in northern germany. The babies were hatched in only 3 weeks.
This year we had a cold spring and summer until now. The siblings of 2012 are hatching since 14th May. Now after 2 weeks of waiting with cold and rainy weather here is a high pressure area again and the hatching restarts.
I guess nature has programmed little chameleons in their eggs to hatch when the possibility of rainfall is small. So they don't have to choke in the wet earth, when they begin to breathe through their lungs.
With much rainfall it's better to use the Allantois in the egg for breathing and to have patience with the hatching.

 

[rantotro]

Here are 2 Photos of the enclosures for the babies.
It's systematic that there is no soil. The small house crickets shouldn't have too much places to hide.
And we don't need too much time to clean the boxes on the ground. It's better to invest this time in dripping and feeding.
So the essential things are a little living plant, some branches and a 20 W halogen lamp for build a sunshine on one branch to warm up. The baby should reach the full room with the top of its tongue to catch every fly and every cricket. If some crickets survive, they maybe would eat from the skin of the baby if you use artificial plants instead of living plants. So some organics are the better choose.
The front and the top are closed with fly mesh.
We water them by dripping through the mesh on the top, so we don't have to open the enclosure for dripping on the branches in front of the babies or on the snout.
Also UV light has no problem to shine through the mesh from outsides.
In the first 2 months we use enclosures with 20x20x40 cm and after 2 months with 40x30x60 cm (WxDxH).

 

[Cainschams]

This thread is absolutely amazing!! What an awesome job! Thanks for sharing

 

[jannb]

Thank you once again Andreas for sharing your photos and all the very valuable information.

 

[rantotro]

When the chameleon grows, the enclosure has to grow with.
You can use this system also for a juvenile or an adult Calumma parsonii.
But the mesh width don't has to grow with. We only use fly mesh where only the nails pass through. These big chameleons are very sensitive at their feet. If the whole foot pass through the mesh they can get hurt. These feet have to carry a heavy body when the Parsons is older and the mesh can cut in them when the chameleon is climbing at the mesh.
If you keep your Parsons in wet environment bacteria and funghu can especially infect the feet, if they are hurt. So the branch for sleeping should be dry.
But in this dry environment we offer the Parsons every day in the morning water by manual dripping. When the humidity is high they are drinking every other day, when it is low they are drinking more. At last they are drinking more than F.pardalis and we have to put a focus on their water needing.
A nice instrument to dripping manually is such a "I don't know the word in english", maybe a "pressure sprayer" on the photo.
Michael Tröger, a very successful chameleon breeder, showed me in 1994 that you can get the chameleons used to this thing. And now I show you. Maybe some of you don't know it by now.
If the animals are get used to this sprayer, we keep them free only with an enclosure on the ground like on the last photos. You need only some shelf to keep your Parsons at its place where it should be indoors. But the Parsons should not reach the upper end of the shelf.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Andreas again thanks for the in depth notes about working with Calumma parsonii parsonii.

 

[rantotro]

I only hope my english is understandable.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

I only hope my english is understandable.

Your doing great!! I'm glad to hear that you have got the Parsonii seasons figured for the northern hemisphere. Such as breeding normally happening from July to September (is what I recall you posting). As is in the past there had been some debate about that here in the USA.

 

[Arch1e]

too beautiful... jealous

 

[Swayne8998]

Wow.

Amazing, it really is. Too bad you're in Germany Otherwise, I would buy one from you (if that was optional), except I don't have the money, or space... or time... But one day, I hope to get at least ONE parsonii. It really is special that you get to be around so many of these gorgeous creatures.

 

[rantotro]

For those who want to keep Calumma parsonii behind glass.
There are some problems with this material. Chameleons don't know this "hard Air" like other lizards.
Like jumping lizards break their noses at glass, chameleons can break their tongue bones, when they try to shoot an insect outsides to near before the glass. When there is a fly at the wall they would shoot through this material. The tongue bone has a length of 10cm or more at adult C. parsonii.
What do you think will happens if it crashed directly against glass ?
Another problem is the high humidity behind glass.
Yes, this is good for less needing to drink of the animals. But it supports the growing of bacteria and funghu colonies. So we water them more by spraying and by manual dripping like rainfall in a less humidity area.
A third thing is the reflection in the glass. When chameleons see themselves in this reflection then there is another chameleon maybe a rival. So male sometimes climbing up and down to reach this rival. If you have an heavy C.parsonii and he is walking on dry hard branches the whole day then this is something what doesn't happen in the rainforest. There they can end this fight but not behind glass. But here he will ruin his feet in a not optimal environment.
So we gave up glass and turn to wood and mesh or free style enclosures also outside.
But outside you have to care more for the length and the weight of your Parsons like on the last photos.
I don't blame glass and I know people love to look through windows in another world maybe with a Parsons chameleon. But if you get a Parsons, this animal should be a part of your world because you have to care for it manually.
It's only my opinion and I hope I have answered the question in the PM.