A quick and healthy addition to your chams diet

[Jono]

Ahoy!

Just a quick one I wanted to share that has been working really well for my little ones. Next time you are at the store pick up a few of those cheap foil packs of seeds such as the mixed salad greens and herbs. Then just sprinkle them on the soil on the tops of your pots and cover with pebbles (I use drainage stones as they are cheap and I like the rustic look.) Then just forget about them and water your plants as normal. After a week or so you should have shoots sprouting up between the stones which the chams absolutely love and make a healthy addition to their diet. Mix it up a bit and take note of what your cham prefers and add more seeds when necessary.

For the newer keepers make sure the pebbles/stones are ALL large enough so there is no way the cham can eat them. They will also stop your cham from eating anything else in the soil that can cause impaction. I've found a layer of stones keeps the soil more evenly moist and improves the overall health of the plant.

Here is a (terrible BlackBerry) pic of the lettuce/rocket mix I put into one of my ficus pots about 2 weeks ago.

 

[mickeyratfink]

Wish I'd thought of that!!

I'm terrible with any plants and have tried growing salad greens in trays, but keep forgetting to water and they always die off!!

I end up spending a FORTUNE (well, realtively!) down the local supermarket for rocket salad etc.

My Yemens REALLY do eat better than me!!

 

[laurie]

Good idea I will try it this week, wish me luck.

 

[chameleonneeds]

Very good idea jono.

Im going to get a whole bunch of new plants sometime to setup new cages and will definetely use this idea!
Thinking of getting some mellers maybe..

How many chams do you have now? And what species?

 

[cuso]

Not to Be a pain but can u send me some of the brands u use!!?

I think this is an amazing idea and want to try it out

 

[Sodbuster]

Dude your Brilliant. Thats such a good idea, I think I will steal it and pass it off as my own.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Boy do I have a picture to take when I get home tonight. I had a big patch of spouts from finch food, in with a parson. And the whole thing looked like it got mowed over the weekend.

 

[lisa h]

Yes, bird food works well too! Any of the seed varieties.

 

[Jono]

Bird seed is a great idea, especially as replacement seeds as they must fall between the stones onto the soil easily.

@ Chameleon needs - I have 4 at the moment, my 2 vields (George and Sarah) and my 2 original Knysna dwarf females are still going strong. I gave all my babies away so hoping to find a male to mate again at some point. The one male juvenile I had kept was attacked by a glossy starling and died a few months later. Damn bird came right ito into the house

How are things going with your bunch? What do you have now? Mellers are amazing! Hope you manage to find some. I'm planning to start specializing in small species at some point, jump through all the hoops to get the proper licenses etc. maybe setup some sort of educational center. Just holding back for the moment as I've almost qualified as a commercial helicopter pilot so might go work up in the bush for awhile

 

[chameleonneeds]

Sorry to hear about your loss with the damaranum.
And good luck with finding a new male.
Really hope you can find a way to keep them legaly, that would mean they can be kept legaly by other people to, and I would love to keep them

I lost all of my adult stock recently to an unknown cause. My prized male Panther was the first to go, but the most healthy looking one out of all of them

Im really undecided now about what to do next, I have thought about going into fish keeping/breeding again, or I might keep some baby veileds and panthers back when they hatch, then possibly get a carpet chameleon pair, also dont know if the new jacksons are coming in or not, if all of that doesnt work out I will probably get 2 or 3 mellers and a pair of amazon tree boas...
So many decisions, wish I could take them all But dont have the space...

 

[mikeduner]

The one male juvenile I had kept was attacked by a glossy starling and died a few months later. Damn bird came right ito into the house )

Man that sucks, something like that just happened to a good friend of mine in may. We live in northern Ohio, and one day he let his little pomeranian poodle mix out to use the bathroom and Bam! a hawk came, picked it up, and he never saw the guy again

 

[Monzon]

I had a big patch of spouts from finch food, in with a parson.

The Cheshire Parsonii?