Trioceros deremensis growth rates

[filups21]

Hello, I haven't been very active on this forum, so I'll introduce myself. My name is Phil; I'm a graduate student working on the ecology and conservation of Tanzanian chameleons. I've got one paper out so far (http://herpconbio.org/Volume_6/Issue_3/Patrick_etal_2011.pdf) with some more in the works. I'm currently working on a paper focusing on T. deremensis and would like to use natural history data from captive individuals to compare to my estimates from wild populations and to fill in my gaps. So here it goes: if anyone has kept data on any of the following I'd really appreciate it if you're willing to share. I don't expect anyone to be able to answer all of these questions, even if you can only sort-of answer one, I'd like to hear from you. Don't worry about how 'scientific' you were in the collection - just include a detailed description of how you did determine/guess/measure these things so that I can weight it appropriately. Also please include information on your care - what type of environment (temps, humidity, seasonality) did you keep it in, how much did you feed it, was it living communally or alone, was it wild-caught, captive bred, or captive hatched, etc - as these things can influence many if not all of the natural history traits I'm interested in.

1) Fecundity
- how many eggs do your females lay at once?
- what is the age that they first lay eggs?
- do the number of eggs increase/decrease/stay the same as the chameleon ages?
- how frequently do females lay eggs (and/or what time of year)?
- how much time passes between copulation and egg-laying?
- how long is the incubation period?

2) Age
- how long did your T. deremensis take to reach adulthood? (include how you determined that it was an adult)
- how large was your male T. deremensis when it began growing horns?
- do you have actual measurements of age and size (length or weight)?
- how long have your T. deremensis survived? If you don't know how old it was when you got it, an estimate of its age class (hatchling, juvenile, adult) or size will be helpful.

3) Sex
- have you noticed any differences in the sexes (other than the horns...)?
- color, mood, survival, growth, roosts, etc

You can message me on the forum or just email me at [email protected]

Thank you! After I organize and analyze the info, I'll be sure to post it back here so you can all see the results!

 

[Trace]

I have worked with the Deremensis since late fall of last year but I wouldn’t call that extensive by any means. My main focus since about 2005 has been the bitaeniatus complex and there aren’t many of those species that are from the Usambara Mountains specifically so I don’t think you can use those observations and data.

I obtained a pair of CH Deremensis in November of 2011 and they hatched on or about August 10 2011. While some people report they can keep their deremensis together I found that I had to separate the pair from the get go. The male was presented with small but healing bite marks but I’m not sure when or who he got them from. The female was definitely the dominant one out of the pair and would intimidate the male so I raised them in separate baby rearing containers. When they outgrew the Rubbermaid’s they were moved into adult caging, again separately. When they were in the totes they could not see each other but they had sightlines in their adult cages and that didn’t bother them so much. They are definitely a shy species but not aggressive and can be difficult to find in their cages.

I weigh my chameleons weekly so I have an Excel spreadsheet on the Deremensis if you are interested. Let me know and I’ll email it over and we can get into a lot more detail than what I have written here. I don’t really have actual length measurements but I do have about 1583592 pictures of them that show growth rates, when horns started sprouting etc.

Cheers,
Trace

 

[filups21]

I weigh my chameleons weekly so I have an Excel spreadsheet on the Deremensis if you are interested. Let me know and I’ll email it over and we can get into a lot more detail than what I have written here. I don’t really have actual length measurements but I do have about 1583592 pictures of them that show growth rates, when horns started sprouting etc.

I'd love the weight data and some pictures (perhaps just a flickr album?)! Weights are less subjective than lengths, anyway, so they'll work great. You're right that the bitaeniatus data won't be useful to me at the moment, but I'd still be interested in having it for the future. Who knows, maybe I'll want to compare many chameleon species...

Thanks,
Phil

 

[laurie]

I have all the data from birth on the deremensis Trace mentioned. i can give you dob and weight info. here is a link to how they were kept as babies.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/little-something-unusual-66718/

 

[Trace]

Email sent!