Sailfin (cristatus) hatch results

[BackwaterReptiles]

Well we had a 100% hatch rate for the seventeen Sailfin cham eggs. One of the issues is, we only have about six left--they dropped like flies. I had three different setups going for them, each a little different. None of them seemed to be better than the other.

Frustrating? Yes.

 

[frankpayne32]

I'm sorry, that is definitely frustrating. I hope the remaining ones do well for you.

 

[Chase]

Hey Sam-

Yea that'd definitely be really frustrating. What were the setups you used?

Chase

 

[BackwaterReptiles]

Hey Sam-

Yea that'd definitely be really frustrating. What were the setups you used?

Chase

Hi Chase,

I'll preface this by saying I still experiment quite a bit with raising baby chameleons. I have learned a lot, but feel I've not scratched the surface. The overall room varies from about 50% humidity to 70%, depending on the time of day. Food was the same for all: hydei, melanogaster, and pinheads.

The first setup is a 16x20 screened cage, ReptiSun 5.0 UVB, two small potted schefflera reaching the top of the enclosure, auto-mister seven times daily.

The second setup was a 16x20 screened cage positioned right next to the cool-mist humidifier, Reptisun 5.0 UVB, artificicial plants affixed to the top forming a sort of canopy, no hand or auto misting--the humidifier mist maintained droplets on the top of the screen which would fall onto the leaves every hour or so, and needless to say kept things more humid than the overall room.

The third setup was the same as the first setup, except the sides and back of the enclosure were walls, instead of screen, to help trap humidity.

At this point, after a week or two, the chams in the second setup are fairing slightly better than the rest, but I still lost half the chams I put in there. In the other two setups, I lost closer to 70%.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Best of luck with the remaining babies. I would recommend you may want to go with an all glass terrarium to keep the humidity high for the rest of your babies. Or a least until they are older.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[Mike Fisher]

Bummer. I raise all my montanes in bins for at least the first three months. The only screen being on the top. They dehydrate and die if I don't do that, no matter how much I mist. With the bins, I only mist once per day because they are fully planted and hold humidity really well.

 

[BackwaterReptiles]

Bummer. I raise all my montanes in bins for at least the first three months. The only screen being on the top. They dehydrate and die if I don't do that, no matter how much I mist. With the bins, I only mist once per day because they are fully planted and hold humidity really well.

I'm going to try that--thanks for the tip.

 

[BackwaterReptiles]

Best of luck with the remaining babies. I would recommend you may want to go with an all glass terrarium to keep the humidity high for the rest of your babies. Or a least until they are older.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

I'll give that a try as well.

Thanks

 

[Chase]

Both Mike and Jeremy said what I was going to say. If you have Exo-Terras laying around, great. if you have bins or just want to buy them, go for it. Both would work well for these types of chameleons. Like Mike said, it should hold the moisture well enough so you don't have to must but once a day

Chase

 

[Chris Anderson]

Damn, sorry to hear this.

I raise my babies in small groups housed in 12x12x18" Exo Terra Glass Terrariums. I fully plant the enclosures with a layer of hydroton under the organic soil (with a fine screen mesh between them) the plants are planted in. I have a ReptiGlo 5.0 CFL bulb on each and I mist the enclosure once per day. I've successfully raised a number of humidity loving species like this (T. hoehnelii, T. montium, T. perreti, etc.) with great success. I would definitely recommend giving this setup a try.

Chris

 

[Trace]

Sorry to hear of all your problems with them; the world needs more cristatus.

I’ll echo what other people have said and I raised mine successfully in plastic totes with UV and heat lights clamped to the side. The cristatus love the humidity and lots of water. They also prefer more horizontal space over the vertical one. Mine were pretty voracious eaters too.

I also noted that there was aggression between the sexes almost from birth so I ended up raising mine in separate containers from the get go. Everybody was happier that way.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Ditto on the bin / tank approach. Unless the screen cages are housed inside a greenhouse, which would act like a really big bin / tank.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Damn, sorry to hear this.

I raise my babies in small groups housed in 12x12x18" Exo Terra Glass Terrariums. I fully plant the enclosures with a layer of hydroton under the organic soil (with a fine screen mesh between them) the plants are planted in. I have a ReptiGlo 5.0 CFL bulb on each and I mist the enclosure once per day. I've successfully raised a number of humidity loving species like this (T. hoehnelii, T. montium, T. perreti, etc.) with great success. I would definitely recommend giving this setup a try.

Chris

Chris,

How long do you mist for once a day? I've read your article "Keeping Chameleons in Glass Terrariums" in Cameleons!-E-zine. Will that give me enough information to raise baby quads? My recently imported gravid female Trioceros quadricornis gracilior laid a clutch almost two weeks ago--I sure don't want to lose them because of inexperience and poor husbandry on my part.

 

[BackwaterReptiles]

Damn, sorry to hear this.

I raise my babies in small groups housed in 12x12x18" Exo Terra Glass Terrariums. I fully plant the enclosures with a layer of hydroton under the organic soil (with a fine screen mesh between them) the plants are planted in. I have a ReptiGlo 5.0 CFL bulb on each and I mist the enclosure once per day. I've successfully raised a number of humidity loving species like this (T. hoehnelii, T. montium, T. perreti, etc.) with great success. I would definitely recommend giving this setup a try.

Chris

More great information, thank you Chris--I'll give it a shot. There are about 50 or so cristatus eggs that should hatch in the coming months, so I'll be better prepared for them. Really glad I posted my failure, the advice on this thread will help tremendously.

 

[CarlC]

Don't be afraid to warm them up a bit. Keep the basking spot in the low to mid 80's under the basking area as long as you can provide high humidty. They dehydrate very fast! With the high humidity make sure there is great air flow or you'll start seeing respitory issues.

Like Trace mentioned lateral space with these guys is preferred over vertical. They are pretty aggressive towards each other and stress easy so raising in small groups works better.

Carl

 

[BackwaterReptiles]

Don't be afraid to warm them up a bit. Keep the basking spot in the low to mid 80's under the basking area as long as you can provide high humidty. They dehydrate very fast! With the high humidity make sure there is great air flow or you'll start seeing respitory issues.

Like Trace mentioned lateral space with these guys is preferred over vertical. They are pretty aggressive towards each other and stress easy so raising in small groups works better.

Carl

Great info, thanks Carl!

 

[Chris Anderson]

Chris,

How long do you mist for once a day? I've read your article "Keeping Chameleons in Glass Terrariums" in Cameleons!-E-zine. Will that give me enough information to raise baby quads? My recently imported gravid female Trioceros quadricornis gracilior laid a clutch almost two weeks ago--I sure don't want to lose them because of inexperience and poor husbandry on my part.

Just long enough to wet the enclosure completely, so not long. You don't want enough water build up that over time your terrarium starts to flood. That duration is going to vary based on your ambient conditions, however, so you have to watch it and adjust as appropriate.

Chris

 

[jajeanpierre]

Sam, how are they doing?

 

[BackwaterReptiles]

Sam, how are they doing?

Thanks for asking! Down to three, but they seem to be doing well now and my fingers are crossed. They are putting on weight/size--I am keeping each of them in their own setup--not sure if that's helping.

Here's a picture of one of them--they are all the same size.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thanks for asking! Down to three, but they seem to be doing well now and my fingers are crossed. They are putting on weight/size--I am keeping each of them in their own setup--not sure if that's helping.

Did you end up putting them in glass enclosures? Are the remaining ones still doing okay?