Sherman has arrived!

[broderp]

LOG ENTRY 4-22-17
Sherman's is 6 months old! Weigh in, a new feeder and A NEW TRUST

Sherman is 6 months old this weekend. Its been a crazy few months with my new cham. The learning curve is pretty steep with so much having been redone with his terrarium and husbandry from my previous chams as I learn more and attempt new methods.

THE WEIGH IN
Today I weighed Sherman. He allowed me to capture him with hardly any fuss. I placed him on the scale. His official weight today is 35 grams or 1.25 oz. My boy is growing.

A NEW TRUST
Today was also a huge trust milestone. Today marks the first time he actually walked out onto my hand on his own. Well, I has a Super Worm as a bribe, but he didn't hesitate at all walking onto my palm to grab the worm. After he ate it I carefully lifted him and put him back in the terrarium. Of course the camera was rolling so I can share this with the forum: I sure hope I'm not the only one who talks to his cham like its a dog or something.... It still amazes me how quick he changes colors. Form the blue to a brownish green!!


THE NEW FEEDER
We received our bi-weekly order of crickets from Josh's Frogs. If anyone has been following the forums, I have been looking into keeping Dubia's for Sherman to add to his diet. Well, his package came today with a little something extra- Dubias! Ok, so just a small amount (50) to see how they work out. They weren't gut loaded so I didn't want to feed them to Sherman, but I gave him a few "samples' and he gobbled them! I plan on giving him a "blend" of crickets and Dubias tomorrow to see if he has a preference.

Of course weekends are for Super Worms! So all in all he ate about 10 crickets, 3 super worms and 2 Dubia today. My little piggy.

A SURPRISE
Shedding again!! This was so cool to see it occur first hand over several hours! I have come home to find the "little outgrown cloths" he shed, but never see it from start to finish. Quick!! I noticed it on his back then within a few hours it had "spread".

Then a few hours later:

THE ISSUES
I worked on his standing water issue with 2 minute mistings 4x a day, I think I have a solution. I reprogrammed my humidity controller to work as a dehumidifier and with the fans I have can control the humidity, but not the standing water (drainage issue). I will need to finish up the fan wiring and hard wiring it into the controller. I bought some cheap plastic trays to see if I can catch enough water as I recorded where the water drip from and pools. For now I will need to drain the trays daily, but I clean out his terrarium and his feeder trough daily anyways. Sherman put up with me purposefully flooding his terrarium and cleaning it all to figure out the proper fan and voltages to control my humidity issue and to have longer mistings for Sherman. I still have a ways to go before I'm done tweaking.

What a busy day! I'm writing about it hoping I don't forget anything, and Sherman is in his pajamas sleeping like a baby.

This was not from today, but it's a beautiful picture, one of my favorites. I call it "Color".

 

[opheliaeatsbugs]

Thanks for sharing! I love the "trust" moments When I open her enclosure sometimes, she will practically jump out on me (scared me a few times). I'd like to think she loves me but she probably hates her cage - she is a free-range cham for sure lol

 

[jamest0o0]

Love how his colors are turning out!

 

[broderp]

LOG ENTRY 4-30-17
Weekly post and a lesson leaned.

I'm still fighting humidity in the terrarium. My fan idea works, but not as effective as in my testing. I'm toying with the idea of adding a dehumidifier to my terrarium electronics. Not a large one but one like this for some active reduction of moisture: I will be researching this this upcoming week. I am wondering if something like this will be beneficial:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZWYNG3C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2869E9NXGD6WI

I learned this weekend that I need to have some way for Sherman to get back up from the bottom of the terrarium. I left for a few minutes and when I returned, Sherman was at the bottom of the terrarium in a mad scramble to get back up. He was struggling to climb the flower pot. I was so worried that he could have injured himself. The experience was traumatic for him because as soon as I picked him up (he didn't fight it or hiss) he climbed up to his basking spot and there he stayed. It was 4-6 hours before he would even come out for a super worm. He wouldn't climb out onto my hand at all this day either.

I need to have some sticks from my floating wall down to the bottom where he can reach it and climb up if he ever manages to go back down there. Maybe a safety net too...

 

[Goose502]

Thank you for the kind words about my little Sherman.

Yes "glass works out well, but I have to keep an eye out for the humidity. Due to the number of live plants I have, my humidity is easily thrown out of balance. (goes way up!) I keep a fan running during the day to draw air thru the enclose helping to circulate fresh air and help dry out the terrarium. I also dry the bottom one a day in the evening when I take out his feeder for it's nightly cleaning.

Also note, it's not a "glass cage" it's a terrarium. It was designed for this and has airflow to avoid stagnant air. Below the double doors there is a ridge with many openings. This is where air can be drawn in and up out thru the top.

This is the enclosure:

I will need to monitor this as spring and summer approach as I use AC in my home. I may not have any issues with humidity if the relative humidity of the house if really low.

These cages are great! I've used mine over a year now for my panther. I recommend you try a bioactive setup with this enclosure. You'll find the humidity will stabilize well, and you won't have drainage issues anymore. I see you got the medium extra-tall, this is great for now, but he will outgrow it quickly. At least you will already have the perfect enclosure for a female.

 

[broderp]

These cages are great! I've used mine over a year now for my panther. I recommend you try a bioactive setup with this enclosure. You'll find the humidity will stabilize well, and you won't have drainage issues anymore. I see you got the medium extra-tall, this is great for now, but he will outgrow it quickly. At least you will already have the perfect enclosure for a female.

I've seen a few post about "bioactive" enclosures. Not sure what that means as I have skipped over the threads ..(Why dive into something if you are still fighting a current issue right?) I'll have to look and see how it fits with my current plans and how it affects humidity. That may be a solution worth looking into.

I want a larger cage as well, but I can't seem to bring myself to go for an expensive screen cage (I don't like screens) but I also know that there is also cages that now have both mesh and clear sides. I really love the all glass for strength and durability, but the larger version of this cage is much harder to find and costs A LOT! (36 x 18 x 36)

I also would have to find a new stand and all new lights etc. Not quite ready for that expense, but it's coming I know!

 

[broderp]

LOG ENTRY 5-30-17
The "Teen Age" years have arrived, and his monthly weigh in.

So a lot has happened in the last month.

HUMIDITY ISSUE
I have had some successes and setbacks with Sherman's humidity. The good news is that I believe (knock on wood) I may finally have it under control. The down side is I had to "Spartan" up his enclosure a bit to accomplish workable humidity. As an example of this success, in the last 24 hours the humidity has peaked at about 97% and as been as low as 65%. Currently it is night time and Sherman is sleeping in a nice 74.8 F with a humidity of 66%.

I have started to test "active humidity control" and have been using this for the last week:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H0XFCS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It lasts about a week and then must be recharged (dried out via a small heater when plugged into an outlet) before it can reused again. The "recharging" takes several hours. I will need to do a test this upcoming week where I can leave it out and see how well it actually keeps the humidity down. I'll also have to see how adding more plants back into the terrarium affects it's effectiveness.

WHATS NEW
The big news this month has been the apparent arrival of Sherman's "teenage years", I started a thread here to discuss this: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/teenage-years-for-chams.158176/ I am relieved that it's not just my Cham and that it doesn't seem to indicate anything wrong. I am however VERY concerned he will hurt himself. He has fallen several times in his attempt to get to the bottom of his terrarium and to climb out on plants he has never tried to climb or walk across.

THE WEIGH IN
I cleaned and rebuild Sherman's enclosure so I took advantage that he had to go into a box for a while. The last official weigh in was on 4-22-17. His official weight then was 35 grams or 1.25 oz. He has GROWN! His new official weight on the 29th of May was 60 oz. on the nose!!!!

I will admit, that he had eaten like a piggy, including 2 large super worms shortly before, so the weight "may" be slightly inflated....

TRUST
With all that is happening he has grown to trust me much more. He seems very intent on getting out of the terrarium. He was at the front door of his terrarium and was doing the "window washing/ waving" thing so I opened the doors and he ran up my arm, across my chest and back down my other arm back into his enclosure! As I was petrified he would fall, and my camera was about 8 feet away from me, I did not get a video of this. It was special because it's the first time he purposely climbed up on me for no reason. At least he's being much more social at this point. When he gets stuck down at the bottom, he also climbs up into my hand to get up. He knows its a free ride to the top of his terrarium. Usually he goes right back to the same spot the turd just fell from or climbed down as if to say "Do it again!"

Eats Dubia, ignores crickets, then eats crickets, always eats the super worms....

REBUILDING THE TERRARIUM
As described above and elsewhere, Sherman has become very rambunctious and out of fear for his safety and the fact I needed to try and control his humidity better, I set out to rebuild his terrarium and add more access to the floor, a few more branches for him to use. I stripped it down to the wall and removed all the fake plants with the exception of a filler vine around the wall and a fake plant in the wall "pocket.

I also raised his LED/ UVB hood up by about 3/4 inch to allow more air flow. I removed the fan in the bottom (I don't want Sherman to accidentally get is tail or feet caught in it.) Besides, it had just failed due to water damage. I added the branches along with new ones. ($16 for three 4 foot sticks at the local hobby store, along with mounting hardware)

The large Pothos was trimmed and the long vine parts of it were strategically placed so they will hopefully grow along the branches. If they don't, I have some wire ties that say they will... By the time I was done, it was "sunset" time for Sherman then bet. He was quite tired from being in the box and promptly climbed out onto my hand then into the top branch and fell asleep.

Here is is at 7am this morning...going exploring. Based on my "Web-Cham" he was all over the place today, found his food, ate about 15 large crickets and appeared to have taken a liking to his new enclosure.

I'm still looking for some more plants that will not crowd the enclosure and help fill it in, but for not all seems "well"


AND FINALLY: Here is my teenager acting all tough in a little video I threw together for your viewing pleasure..I see this 20 times a day...lol This is Sherman's "Hand Dance"










Can I come out........anyone.........Hello!!!................ Is anyone listening to me???

 

[opheliaeatsbugs]

1. Props to all your hard work. Thanks for sharing your journey and your notes.
2. He has grown! Looks very handsome.
3. That is one of my favorite mashups... love the music - good choice