Rejoining the forums and wanted to introduce my new parsonii!

SmithSe

Established Member
Hi all! I used to peruse and post on these forums long ago when I was but a wee lass. Over the past decade I’ve been preoccupied with school and work, but my love for chameleons has never wavered. Funny how they possess the ability to draw you back in after not owning them for some time, isn’t it? Through the years I’ve worked primarily with panthers and a handful of montane species, but it’s always been my dream to own a parson’s (isn’t that everybody’s?!), and that dream has finally come to fruition! I'm entering the writing stages of my graduate thesis and will be home a lot more, so I thought this would be a good time to jump back in.

Last week I received a juvenile male orange eye parson’s from @Garrett. If I’m being honest here, shipping was an absolute disaster, and at no fault of Garrett. The parson’s missed his ride at the Memphis hub and was stuck there for over 12 hours. Although I contacted three FedEx employees and they assured me they would contact me with updates, not a single one called. Garrett and I asked them THREE times to hold the package at my local FedEx location so I could pick it up at 8:30 the following morning, and when I was 2 mins away from the location I saw they updated my package to “on truck – out for delivery”. I just about went nuclear on them. Luckily he arrived just a few hours later in tip-top condition, and drank until his little heart was content. Garrett was so incredibly wonderful throughout this entire process, especially during the shipping delays! Anyways, the little parson’s arrived in good condition, and that’s what really matters here.

I’ve decided to name him Boris, because he reminds me of a little old Russian man, haha. He is the brother to Thor recently posted by @NorCalAnthony. Super excited to be able to watch the two of them grow up on the forums! As he’s still small, I’ve got him set up in a 2’x2’x4’ ReptiBreeze screen enclosure furnished with a couple Schefflera arboricola. He’s got a 6% Arcadia UV bulb, 13 watt ReptiSun 5.0 CFL, and a 75 watt basking light. His mist king is set to a 20 minute morning misting (say that 5 times fast), followed by 1 minute mistings, and ending with a 5 minute misting. I’ve also got plastic sheeting wrapped around two sides of his enclosure to help with humidity retention. He has a similar setup outside as well, and this weekend I’m going to assemble his outdoor automated misting system. :)

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@jannb Thanks, Jann! Being stoked about him is an understatement! :D

@jamest0o0 I've had dozens and dozens of chameleons shipped to me over the years, and probably 10-20% have been delayed by at least a day. Definitely aggravating. Is that a yellow lip parsonii in your avatar pic? How old is she/he?
 
Yeah, a Male YL. He just hit a year old last month. Starting to really pick up on the eating now that summer has hit and it's warm. Didn't grow much over the winter.

Is that a montium in yours?
 
Congrats on your new addition and welcome back to the forums (y) Sorry to hear about all the trouble getting Boris to his new home but I'm glad he eventually made it safe and sound.

I'm stoked to hear one of Thor's siblings went to another forum member. It'll be cool to see how our little guys grow and develope on here :)
 
@jamest0o0 Sorry for my late reply! Do you happen to know how many grams he weighs? It'll be interesting to see how much weight he puts on by the end of summer! Not my montium, just some random image I quick pulled off Google images haha. Haven't had a montium in about 9 years!

@NorCalAnthony Thanks, Anthony! :D
 
No problem! I can actually weigh him today, I'll just need to get creative. It's a pain finding something that doesn't tip over on the scale lol, I gotta make something. A few weeks ago he was just over 100 grams, but he's been eating a lot since then. He has a lot of new color coming out too. Right now he can handle adult dubias easy, most/all orangehead sizes, and medium hissers. He really has little interest in worms other than BSFL and the occasional super. Prefers winged critters so I've been trying to get more of those for him.

Have you weighed your guy?

As for the montium, it's awesome you've kept them before at least. They are so cool looking. As far as I know there's none in the US, or at least no CB.
 
@jamest0o0 I haven't weighed my guy yet, but it's on the to do list. Just received my gram scale today, so I probably will this evening! Your dude is gonna be one big boy! Do you keep him primarily outdoors or indoors? Also, is he cup feeding, hand feeding, or free roaming insects?

My last montium came from Mike Monge at FL Chams! He was nice enough to send me one of his montiums he had just hatched, and I had him for years. Below are some baby pics of him I dug up:

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@Ecubaker Thanks so much! I just love their chubby little elephant legs!
 
Welcome back and lovely to see your new Parsons, he’s very handsome already and I just love that second picture.
Congratulations!
 
Thanks for the pictures! I'd love to keep a montium some day.

As for my parson's. His current enclosure(DS atrium clearsided) is inside. I'm working on an indoor/outdoor set up where he can go from inside through the window and outside as he pleases. Looking into buying one of those large bird atriums for that to keep outside. Since it's been nice out I've been getting him outside for at least several hours most days. He's weird with feeding, the cup in his cage he doesn't even acknowledge even if his favorite food is in there. But he will sometimes quickly take roaches from my hand or from a cup I hold. Most of the time I set something on a leaf or branch near him and he picks it off once it moves. He also loves flying critters, pulls honey bees right out of the air sometimes.
 
I have heard the YL's are among the largest parson locales, though I can't confirm that since this is my first. Do you know if your guy brumated at all?
 
@jamest0o0 I think the way Garrett keeps them in his Seattle greenhouse, they undergo brumation and don’t grow very much during fall and winter. He said growth will take off this summer, and he’ll be putting on some serious weight, so I’m looking forward to that!
 
I was thinking that, makes sense. When I got mine back in February, he brumated for a several weeks. It was pretty cold here in PA and his room was averaging probably 50-55 at night and maybe 60 during the day. Barely ate anything and hovered at the 80-90 grams for awhile until the past couple weeks when it warmed up.
 
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