Hatchling Precautions, (gone for 24 hours)

I thought this might trigger some interesting and informative discussions. Lets say you just hatched out some chameleons (<1month old), but you will have to leave them alone for 24 hours... What do you do?

It is pretty much agreed that newly hatched chameleons can be quite delicate and can dehydrate quickly. So how do you keep them fed and hydrated while you are away!? I personally hydrate and feed my hatchlings "excessively" a few day out to ensure their bodily "stores" are fully loaded! Then a few minutes before I leave I place them in a dark room to simulate the night, with the intent that they will rest while I am away. The goal with this approach is to keep them sedentary so they wont be using much of their food and water stores. What precautions do you all take if you have no choice but to leave your hatchlings alone?



Disclaimer: This should never be a common occurrence, but sometimes life happens. As keepers we have the responsibility to take the best approach for the health of our animals!
 
For only 24 hours?
I try to let that be the maximum amount of time, and it has never led to any issues! This would not be something I would want to experiment with to find out how long they can actually go. Have you had success over longer periods of time? I would love to hear some of your experiences!
 
Can you post pic of your baby bin? That will help with what can be figured out.

The hydration isn't the issue, since you can always have some kind of mechanical spray or fogger system. I picked up a plant drip system off amazon for 25 bucks which works great for dripping.


If your worried about to much water in the container, put a small container to catch the extra water and place mesh over it so the babies would not fall in.

My experience with babies Veileds (66 at one time) is they eat so much but even this can be worked out (not sure if baby panthers are as active eaters as veileds). I did the fish food timer thing by putting small amount of tissue (that would stay in the feeder) and every 3 hours would have the 5 sectional feeder turn. The pinhead crickets would leave and get eaten.

I did not try putting fruit flies in, but think that might work too. I have not tried but think if you put the flies in the fridge long enough to slow down, you can dump a bunch in each section and set the timer.

That being said, it is always good to test before actually leaving this type of set-up. If you go for multiple days you can always set up multiple timers to start on different days. I did not need to do multiple days with babies.

Example: I had to put 1/8 mesh around so the babies would not get to close to the fish feeder, but pinheads were small enough to escape through the mesh.
There are a few sizes of mesh that are bigger if you need different size crickets or other foods.

I tried with Dubia but they would get stuck or didn't leave as quick as the crickets.
Hope this helps or you can improve on it. (y)
 
Can you post pic of your baby bin? That will help with what can be figured out.

The hydration isn't the issue, since you can always have some kind of mechanical spray or fogger system. I picked up a plant drip system off amazon for 25 bucks which works great for dripping.


If your worried about to much water in the container, put a small container to catch the extra water and place mesh over it so the babies would not fall in.

My experience with babies Veileds (66 at one time) is they eat so much but even this can be worked out (not sure if baby panthers are as active eaters as veileds). I did the fish food timer thing by putting small amount of tissue (that would stay in the feeder) and every 3 hours would have the 5 sectional feeder turn. The pinhead crickets would leave and get eaten.

I did not try putting fruit flies in, but think that might work too. I have not tried but think if you put the flies in the fridge long enough to slow down, you can dump a bunch in each section and set the timer.

That being said, it is always good to test before actually leaving this type of set-up. If you go for multiple days you can always set up multiple timers to start on different days. I did not need to do multiple days with babies.

Example: I had to put 1/8 mesh around so the babies would not get to close to the fish feeder, but pinheads were small enough to escape through the mesh.
There are a few sizes of mesh that are bigger if you need different size crickets or other foods.

I tried with Dubia but they would get stuck or didn't leave as quick as the crickets.
Hope this helps or you can improve on it. (y)
CBDB771D-0316-4E39-A147-7E91C735C879.jpeg


My bins are a pretty simple setup, live plants, skewer jungle gym, and there is a drip line that runs above the plant in the back! For whatever reason I don't like leaving the dripper running for extended periods of time, I guess partially due to the water accumulation. I really like the idea of the automatic fish feeder though!! I haven't thought of that, but it is a great solution for feeding!
 
Nice! The dripper was an issue until I fine tuned 1 or 2 drops every 5 seconds for the time I wanted- You can even set up a watering system for the plants and they will drink that way.. . The accumulation was not an issued since I put under-tank reptile heater under the container with 3 layers of bounty "the quicker picker upper" as bottom. By day time the towels were dry since I did not drip at night time. We did have a few warm nights but I would just add a cup of water to the paper towels.

Silicone by the handles will keep the flies from escaping and a bead of silicone around the whole top worked perfect for me. I also cut the top and put wire mesh, purchased off amazon, so the flies could not escape and the light would not burn anything (it is aluminum and I did it 2 ply for heat purposes).
My set-ups changed a lot because I would give people them as they adopted the chameleon babies. So I started making my own vines and used silk plants to absorb water for hydration. These where just quick/temp set-ups.

Not as pretty as yours but they thrived and did not lose any.
 

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I have an automated dripper so if I am late misting them they still have a water source. They get automatically fogged overnight. If I have to I release extra feeders in their cages just not crickets, more like bean beetles and fruit flies.
Or I get a pet sitter.
 
I have an automated dripper so if I am late misting them they still have a water source. They get automatically fogged overnight. If I have to I release extra feeders in their cages just not crickets, more like bean beetles and fruit flies.
Or I get a pet sitter.
Yeah I like to be a little heavy handed on the food if i'm going to be away for awhile!

Do you not have any issues with the bean beetles flying away or do you have a top cover? I have notice you can put them in the fridge for a few seconds and they will become "dormant" until they warm back up. Then they start moving and eventually fluttering around! haha
 
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