Should I try again?

jleahl

New Member
I'm feeling pretty bummed about losing my female pygmy, then the egg/hatchling....but I still really like that species! We really don't have room for one of the "starter" chams, which is one reason I let my son buy the brevicaudata.

I did a lot of research before we brought her home, and I can't think of anything obvious we did wrong. My son REALLY wants a reptile (but I don't want a snake); his birthday is coming up, and if I could find a decent breeder with baby brevis...Is it worth trying again?
 
I think it is worth another try. There may have been some other underlying issues. If you can Try and get some CB brevs. They look amazing to me. I plan on getting a set when I can get a cage set up and make sure the feeders are availble. Good Luck.

Frank
 
I have some babies right now and they are adorable. I would say take another shot at them. They are actually pretty hardy little guys, I think that you just got off to a bad start. What type of setup do you have for them?
 
I have a ten-gallon tank w/ a back wall of expanding foam, covered w/peat moss/cocoa husk/weldbond; driftwood sticking out of the back into the tank. Bottom DID have a drainage layer of styrofoam peanuts, covered w/cocoa husk, covered w/moss and leaf litter crunched up. Tank is empty right now, of course. Potted plants also in the tank, w/ the soil covered (no perlite avaiable). Screen lid, just a compact flourescent lamp; misty mate for misting a couple times a day.

I thought they should be pretty hardy, too, Jerm. I was surfing and couldn't find too many brevs available online. Do you sell yours? I know Heika and Will have babies right now, but I don't know that they sell online; or that I'm a very good risk! :rolleyes:

I took back my $10 fruit fly culture, and he gave me 40 crix in return....what a rip! If I could have used the flies, I would; but my frogs probably wouldn't even see them.
 
jleahl said:
Do you sell yours?

They are still pretty young but I will be selling some down the road. www.wildeyereptiles.com has some for sale and I'm pretty sure that there are some on kingsnake.com right now if you don't want to wait. I'm not sure how old that they have to be before I can sex them but I will probably wait until that point before I sell any, probably a couple of months. My oldest babies are curently only a couple of weeks old.
 
Try a post in the classifieds. Post a "Want to Buy" thread, and see if anyone has any they are looking to get rid of.

Frank
 
Yes, you are right, that's a great article. That one and the other one Roo did on the habitat for brevs are bookmarked, and if they were paper they'd be worn out by now! I looked on the Kingsnake classifieds and didn't see but a couple and one was LLL. Jerm, I don't blame you for wanting to sex them before you sell them; that's how I got into trouble in the first place, b/c the breeder missexed my female!

I'll check around some more. Thanks for the encouragement!:)
 
Mike at FLChams currently has some really cool little guys. I am considering getting in to the leaf thing myself and will be going with these guys because they are a little less common. Check them out. Mike is easy to work with and you can be assured that you will get high quality animals.

Rhampholeon spectrum

 
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Zerah Morris said:
Mike at FLChams currently has some really cool little guys. I am considering getting in to the leaf thing myself and will be going with these guys because they are a little less common. Check them out. Mike is easy to work with and you can be assured that you will get high quality animals.

Rhampholeon spectrum


Yes Zerah,
Spectrums are very interesting, though maybe a little touchier than Brevs. I purchased a female spectrum awhile back and I found that these guys are my favorite so far. They have a unique "puzzle piece" color pattern and a long nose. I recently purchased a few more from Mike. The are actually larger than brevs and might require a little bit bigger enclosure. There are a couple other stump tailed species available too including R. nchisiensis and R. temporalis. I think that brevs seem to be the hardiest though, but I have yet to try temporalis. Here is a couple of pics of my female spectrum:

PICS8-5-06108.jpg

PICS8-5-06114.jpg
 
Don't try Temporalis...

Sorry, Im in a bad mood. I lost another temporalis this today. This will be the fifth I beleive, leaving me with only a measely 1.2 colony, as opposed to the 2.6 I was attempting (two colonies). They are large and sturdy in physique, but I havent had seen any evidence to prove that they are hardy health wise.

The photo that I have entered into the contest is of the male that passed this morning. I knew it was coming when I saw him this morning and I made the call home (at work) to find out the status. I hope to have an article written in the next while about how his death came about and some other personal experimentation that I have been doing.

I'm not sure if I will dive back into Temporalis when the next shipment comes to us, or wait it out for a while. Either way, I find brevs quite boring in comparaison, but at the cost of having them die off... Brevicaudatus will always be something I will keep.
 
That sucks Will, I haven't tried keeping those guys yet. Do you think that they might have some sort of illness or is it the species in general? I haven't been able to find much information on keeping them.
I have some good news today, when I went home for lunch one of my spectrum females was finishing up a nest. She only had 2 eggs in there that I could see, but I think that is average for spectrums.
 
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Jerm,
now listen I really had enough chameleons! Now I have to buy more. Yours look awesome. What size terraria are you using? Substrate and setup similar to Roo's suggestions in the article on brev care? What are you feeding, being that they are a bit bigger I am assuming I could get away with 1/4 crickets, lobster nymphs, and the like?

Congrats on the two eggs! Hope they come out for you.
 
Zerah Morris said:
Jerm,
now listen I really had enough chameleons! Now I have to buy more. Yours look awesome. What size terraria are you using? Substrate and setup similar to Roo's suggestions in the article on brev care? What are you feeding, being that they are a bit bigger I am assuming I could get away with 1/4 crickets, lobster nymphs, and the like?

Congrats on the two eggs! Hope they come out for you.

Haha! Thanks Zerah. I have 1 male and 3 females in a 70 gallon terrarium which is setup similar to Roo's suggestions. I actually originally set this tank up for brevs but have since then moved them to a 60 gallon terrarium to make room. They seem to be doing well so far with the . Roo posted a couple of pics of his spectrum setup on another forum awhile back :http://www.chamaeleonidae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=434&highlight=spectrum . I am feeding 1/4 crickets, small silkworms and wild caught bugs that are small enough when I get the chance. I am pretty much treating them as I would my brevs only with a little larger food. They are pretty interesting creatures and their coloration can be amazing. I found a third egg after posting yesterday. I am excited to see if they hatch, but I think that incubation might be around 7 months or so. Good luck with the new species and maybe we can trade bloodlines down the road.
 
Jerm said:
That sucks Will, I haven't tried keeping those guys yet. Do you think that they might have some sort of illness or is it the species in general? I haven't been able to find much information on keeping them.
I have some good news today, when I went home for lunch one of my spectrum females was finishing up a nest. She only had 2 eggs in there that I could see, but I think that is average for spectrums.
Sorry for the late response.


No I dont think there is sickness or disease, I just havent found the key to keeping them. I'll be redoing hte cage tomorrow with a few alterations in attempt to provide them with a better terrarium.

Congrats on the eggs. These Temps havent given me a sinlge egg and the male that I had that was constantly trying to mate just died as I said in the last post.
 
kinyonga said:
Will...I'm sorry to hear about your losses. WC's can be very frustrating.

Haven't been able to find much information on them...but have you seen this site?
http://www.geocities.com/bloody_vikings117/caresheet.html?1044216244850
I havent thank you L, hopefully i will give me insight as to how one or two of them died, as I have a good guess for two.- And hopefully provide clues on keeping the rest alive and well. Eggs would be nice too.
 
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