Congrats! I hope he does well for you. I hate the whole import thing too. I just hate that they are taken out of their natural environment and put in captivity. If they are born that way, then they know no better. I also hate to think of the conditions they were put in to make the long journey. I don't even want to think about all the ones that don't survive. It makes me sick. I have seen pictures and it is heartbreaking. Not just chameleons, buy other animals too.
Thanks. I think he'll be okay. I'll do everything I can to get him over this. He is set up over top of my garden tub in my master bath with his own mister so I can run gallons through the mister without worrying about flooding. Jpowel86, who has a lot of experience with Mellers as you know, was at my house for a couple of days to pick his own group from the shipment, so it was fantastic to have someone who really knew the species there to help me through it. They really are so different from my quads. He taught me so much about them, things that were counter intuitive. He showed me pictures of them and what they look like stressed and then told me that an extremely stressed WC Mellers will eat and drink--who would have known?--so I should never use eating and drinking as a gauge for stress.
I need to sort out a cage that is more appropriate for him but for the time being he'll have to use one that is too small and has a screen front. Considering he was shipped out of Tanzania Sunday, taken out of the box Thursday night and probably not really hydrated until he came here and we misted for 30 minute sessions every hour or so, I think he's in great shape. He didn't look bad in the store and he had just been unboxed the night before. He has hardly any marks on him that I can see. No rubs on his back--yay! Joel thinks he is about 2 years old based on his size and the size of his legs. He thinks he is going to be one of the blue colored ones when he gets healthy.
Here's a picture of where he is for the time being. Don't you think a nice hardware cloth cage encircling that garden tub, almost up to the ceiling would be a fantastic use of that asolutely useless tub that I was so enamored with when I bought the house but have never used even once? I think I can keep the temps low enough just using the ac in my house because it starts right there over the master bedroom/bath and the thermostat is in the middle of the house. All I have to do is open up the vents in the bedroom and the master bath. If the afternoon sun in the summer is heating up the room, I can just drop the blinds. Free range is out of the question because of my cat and pit bull.
I just can't believe how big he is. That is a 22" wide DragonStrand cage and his body, nose to vent, almost reaches the width of the cage when he is stretched out on a branch sleeping. Nose to vent my guess is he is at least 16" when he is stretched out sleeping. Joel prepared me for what happens when he hits a bug and just how long and powerful his tongue is. I suspect it's a case where I've got to see it to really believe it.
He had his eyes open when I bought him but today he's squinting them shut. Joel isn't worried and says it is just debris from import and he can sort it out himself with enough time under misters to clean them out. I smeared his closed eyes with a bit of antibiotic ointment I had for an eye injury for another chameleon just to be sure he has enough lubrication. I think it helped. I'm going to try to feed him today now his eyes are open again.
Having seen the group less than 24 hours after they arrived at the importers and spending two days with Joel learning how to keep these very vulnerable and fragile animals alive, I am again reminded of why so many die after import. Wild caughts are quite the challenge, but the nature of a Mellers makes it so easy to go wrong with them. I felt pretty confident having been successful with my group of wild caught quads and graciliors, but if Joel hadn't been there with me teaching me, I would have gotten it very wrong. I am sooooo thankful Joel was there to guide me and show me. It's one thing to describe something and quite another to have some one teach you face to face.
He is such a magnificent animal! He needs a name.
Engineers may be smart, but....
