Hatchling furcifer verrucosus not growing.

scags

Established Member
As the title states.

I currently have 2 hatchling verrucosus about 6 weeks old. They’ve barely grown since hatching, and it’s a little concerning.

Enclosure- 24x12x18 exo terra - bioactive, live plants, lots of small sticks and cover. Using an exo terra to help control temps and humidity better. Once they have grown up a little I’m moving them to screen enclosures.

Lighting- 24” t5 5.0 uvb and two 6500k cfl bulbs for plants.
Second enclosure is the same but with the addition of a 6500k t5 instead of the cfl bulbs.
Temps- day time ambient temps high 70s to low 80s peaking around 86-87 at the hot spot.
Night time temps are dropping to mid 60s (my reptile room isn’t heated, and it’s Southern California.

Humidity- misting several times per day. With filtered water. Ambient humidity fluctuates between 60-90 percent. Depending on time of day.

Food- fruit flies, bean beetles, pinhead crickets.

Dusting- repashy lod 2-3 times a month, and calcium 2-4 times a week.
Also occasionally bee pollen powder

One of them has grown a decent amount, but not as much as I’d like. Maybe 1/3 larger than when hatched.
The other one hasn’t grown at all.

They are housed in separate enclosures And offered an incredible abundance of food.
They are extremely shy. The adults are known to be shy, and the babies are not different.

They aren’t aggressive feeders. Rarely do I see them hunt. They are also very hesitant to strike. They will posture for the strike, but often times the bug moves out of range before they strike.

I’ve raised plenty of panther chameleons from neonate to adults, but these guys seem a lot different.

Some thoughts I had- could my lighting be too intense? There is plenty of cover- but the lights to sit directly on top of the enclosure. So maybe moving them up a few inches might help. But they don’t seem to showing any light adversion- no eye issues that I can see, and acting fairly normal.
They were very small when they hatched. Similar in size to the smallest of my panther Cham hatchlings. They incubated for 10 months before hatching- but most of the viable eggs from the same clutch are still incubating- and it’s close to 1 year of incubation now.

Just wondered if anyone has any advice or experience to offer?
Thanks!
 

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