Two New Chams! Carpet/Mitsio (photos!!)

kenya

kenya

Avid Member
Hey guys, I went to Pam's Chams today and checked out the scene! Here are some photos: https://www.chameleonforums.com/went-pams-chameleons-today-17128/#post142667

While there I picked up the newest additions to my growing family: a gorgeous 6 month old male carpet (fires up to an amazingly bright teal and pink but I didn't get any good pics this time through) and a one month old Nosy Mitsio. I think the Mitsio is male; he shows green on his face and eye turrets at times- I sort of got a mild bit of it in the close up of his face but it gets brighter than that. The little Mitsio is really healthy! He has a slight problem, though...he never developed his front legs. He still gets around great, though! He moves sort of like an inch worm and has one heck of a grip. Any guesses on gender?

Enjoy!



carpetmaleoctober27.jpg


Check out the tiny greens he has- he had more earlier but wasn't showing them so much by the time I got a camera =(
mitsioheadoct27.jpg


mitsiooct27.jpg


blurryalien.jpg


gender?
gender2.jpg


gendermitsio.jpg


it's an inchworm!
leeeeean.jpg


mitsioocto27.jpg


is that a smile I see?
mitsiosmile.jpg


his legs...they look tricky sometimes
trickylegs.jpg
 
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wow thats crazy... cant wait to see that guy grow up... has anyone ever seen anything like this before
 
Poor little thing. Glad he has a good home. I have a uromastyx that a friend hatched that is missing his foot on one leg and the foot and half of the lower leg on the other leg. It does fine without them. It also didn't grow for the first 6 months. Its now 5 years old and about 3/4 the size of what it should be. Good luck with it!

Nice carpet chameleon!
 
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I think he will do fine- he has an amazing grip (he will have buff back legs!!) and really does move around just like any other baby. Don't get me wrong- I am wary and nervous, but I think he and I will do fine for each other. :) If he is surely male, then his name is on the way (all of my panthers are named after teas- I have a list somewhere and just need to pick one that fits him)
 
That mitsio is cool. You should call him homeo as in homeobox genes or HOX. It looks like he might have a problem with one of his HOX genes. Hope he lives a very long life in your care.
 
Sporkthedork said:
That mitsio is cool. You should call him homeo as in homeobox genes or HOX. It looks like he might have a problem with one of his HOX genes. Hope he lives a very long life in your care.
Click to expand...

Ooh! Elaborate, please! Are you sure this is genetic related? I was thinking his egg got jarred during development and it resulted in loss of front legs or that he is just an anomaly. Could it have been random mutation? I am very curious!
 
The homeobox genes or HOX genes control body plan and limb formation. It's basically a cascade of sequences of development, like build arm first then fingers. There's been a lot of cool experiments with HOX genes, especially with drosophila and mice. Scientists have been able to get drosophila with legs as antennas and other weird stuff. They've also found that some mutatuons in some HOX genes can result in the total loss of limbs, well that makes sense cause they are the body plan genes as some call them. They've even found that you can make chickens grow teeth. Their ancestors, the dinosaurs had teeth, and thus they had retain those genes to make teeth but have been suppressed over the years. However a mutation in those genes can activate the development of teeth in chickens. If you look up HOX or homeobox genes I'm sure you'll get plenty of cool research and experiments.

EDIT:
By no means am I sure that your little buddy does indeed have a problem with its HOX genes but it's the first thing that popped into my head.
 
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I think the baby is beautiful in its own unique form. There's nothing wrong with not having the front legs. Whose to say that four legs is the correct form. None of us can. Perhaps this baby will be stronger then others and have a bigger heart. I guarentee this baby will be happy and loved the same as your other chams.
Thanks for sharing your amazing baby!
 
woah i will be very interested in how this guy grows up. Do you have any special accomidations for him? I'm interested in how he is supposed to climb up branches etc considering my veiled seems to pull himelf up with his front legs. Do you just plan on having a short cage?

Good luck with him :)
 
Sporkthedork said:
The homeobox genes or HOX genes control body plan and limb formation. It's basically a cascade of sequences of development, like build arm first then fingers. There's been a lot of cool experiments with HOX genes, especially with drosophila and mice. Scientists have been able to get drosophila with legs as antennas and other weird stuff. They've also found that some mutatuons in some HOX genes can result in the total loss of limbs, well that makes sense cause they are the body plan genes as some call them. They've even found that you can make chickens grow teeth. Their ancestors, the dinosaurs had teeth, and thus they had retain those genes to make teeth but have been suppressed over the years. However a mutation in those genes can activate the development of teeth in chickens. If you look up HOX or homeobox genes I'm sure you'll get plenty of cool research and experiments.

EDIT:
By no means am I sure that your little buddy does indeed have a problem with its HOX genes but it's the first thing that popped into my head.
Click to expand...

Oh no offense taken!! I am just curious about what the possibilities are :)
 
Rocky said:
woah i will be very interested in how this guy grows up. Do you have any special accomidations for him? I'm interested in how he is supposed to climb up branches etc considering my veiled seems to pull himelf up with his front legs. Do you just plan on having a short cage?

Good luck with him :)
Click to expand...

You know, he gets around just fine and was in an enclosure with his normal legged clutchmates. He needs no special accommodation at this point and I think he will do better without it for now so that he can learn how best to move in his body. He will have a normal cage but maybe some thicker vines that are mostly horizontal to make it easier on him.

He hunts fine.

When he moves, he either kind of inches like an inch worm (chest to ground, moves a back leg forward and then moves his front forward and then the other back leg and so on) or he will actually lift his front totally off the branch and walk with his back legs only and stabilize with his tail. I imagine he is able to do it because he doesn't have the weight of the front legs that a normal cham would have so he is more balanced. I will try to get video of it sometime.
 
haha kinda like a mini trex walking aroudn :p well keep us interested and good luck with picking out a name
 
Very neat!

I want to see how this guy grows up. It seems very interesting! It does make sense to have a short cage, Rocky. If he can manage to get around and eats like other chams then maybe giving him special accommodations isn't in order. Good luck Kicki! I hope the best for you two.
 
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