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THIS IS WHY MY BREEDERS ARE DYING I finally figured it out. These little bastards like to eat eachothers’ sheds/molts which is great because it’s recycled protein and nutrients. Except they’re doing it while the other is still in mid shed! Look at the hopper on the left hanging down by...

I have a ficus bush I don’t really care about and a group of mature gray birds I don’t really prefer. So let’s do a test! I’ll create a more natural environment for breeding gray birds and give them a bush with fertilizer-free soil in the pot. The spotted birds will have the normal breeding...

I think at a certain point the odds will tip in your favor. If you have twenty breeding pairs that can turn into several thousand eggs and several thousand turn into millions.

Im chalking this all up to natural selection. If there’s 100 million hoppers each year and by the grace of God, 1 out of 100 survive to adulthood through several molts, predators, pesticides, and illness AND they go on to mate, and successfully lay eggs, they lay 100 eggs each and guess what...

Looks like a shed in progress and missy rubbed hard on a branch or something else in your enclosure. She will be OK. i have seen similar spots on my chams. Not much lately because I cut any sharp edges off branches and trim all the zip ties really low. Make sure you watch your humidity and...

Can you stick your pinky finger down easily in that sandy soil?

Right but that’s so misleading. The enclosure has a mix of diced vegetables in a bowl. Whoever takes this cham home will likely replicate that. I’m going to talk to the manager tomorrow. There’s no reason to complain and groan on the forums unless I’ve made an effort to have them correct...

Totally agree. Gotta soak things and let them dry out completely. I do cover two sides to protect the drywall in the corner. Plants also have to dry out or you get lots of annoying gnats.

I’ve done that too! If they’re missing a leg or two that’s OK but several missing or deformed legs…they don’t stand a chance and it’s feeding time for them

The sign below the female veiled chameleon’s enclosure said, “omnivore” and they had a dish of cut up veggies on the floor, next to a bowl of water which had a poop in it. Strangely even the San Diego zoo calls them omnivores...

I want to know what’s an acceptable death rate from hatchlings to final mature breeding adults. All of the parameters have to be perfect through all the 6 instars and multiple molts. If a hundred nymphs are hatched, maybe 20% make it through all the molts to breeding adults? I wonder how...

My local Petsmart in Broomall, PA just replaced their entire reptile section of the store. Here’s a pic of the new enclosures. All of the old glass enclosures with screen tops are in an easily accessible dumpster next to the store. There has to be 20 which may be good for frogs or baby chams.

And I have plenty of mature hoppers so no sweat.

Mature hopper disabled after last molt. This is about 8 hours after molting and the legs and wings are not functional. I feed anything like this off to my chams so it’s not a waste.

Funny because my guys all hated crickets. Then I started feeding them hoppers and they loved them! Now when I feed them crickets they are like heyyyy what’s this crazy treat? And eat a ton of crickets. They’re no different than kids. Take something away for a while and it becomes new again

Also I wonder if soft bodied hoppers sometimes drop prematurely from a shed and hit the hard ground while they’re still delicate. A fall like that from 3’ up head first could do some damage. At this stage they’re so soft their legs aren’t even functional

I do notice a lot of 4th and 5th instar females doing this and they’re not ready to mate

Since I started feeding this blend of mustard greens, arugala, and boy choy along with my own powderized multi grain blend their molting has exploded. All of my 100 hoppers seem to be coming up to maturity at once. I don’t care about the cost of getting this started. If I have 50 breeding...

When the babies start hatching, do you move that whole lay bin into the hatchery bin up top?

Oh and last thing, even though I’m buying all, “organic” greens from Whole Foods and washing them, I’ve noticed several adult males drop to the ground seemingly suffering from neurological issues. And for that reason I switched to only aeroponically grown micro greens so I’m absolutely sure...