Babies, Babies, Babies

[holmesese]

So I have been waiting forever and finally have my babies! They are ambilobe and incubated for a little over 7 months, over the past week 38/41 hatched and the other three eggs look like they are still good.

They are in 4 different rubbermaid containers right now and are looking great. It has been about a week since the first hatched and I put some FF in there but I haven't seen any eating.

Thanks for looking!

 

[hallenhe]

Congratulations!

 

[laurie]

Hey that is great. Babies are just cute, the vine looks huge and those little eyes looking back at you is precious.

 

[draetish]

Precious, just precious. How about some pinhead crickets or phoenix worms?

 

[chams1]

Gotta love those babies!! Congrats!!

 

[chameleonneeds]

They are awsome.

What incubator did you use? And what temps?

 

[holmesese]

Thanks for all the compliments!

I actually wrote an very general "How-to" article for breeding panther chameleons and detailed I prefer to incubate. Most of the information in the article is a summary of many of the posts on this site. Let me know if you have comments or suggestions!
http://www.ehow.com/how_5653850_breed-panther-chameleons.html

This is the first clutch I have hatched using the think-geek incubator and I will detail that in a new thread....

 

[chameleonneeds]

Cool, nice info on there.

My female stays a normal peach with light brown bars but when she sees the male she puffs up, is she just nervous?

Whith diapause incubation method, could you really expect hatchlings at 5 months? And would the hatchlings then not be smaller than usual or maybe not as healthy?

 

[holmesese]

I have "heard" from unverified sources that some have hatched as early as 5.5 months with slightly modified diapause temps. I would expect those hatchlings to be much smaller that those incubated longer and would not advise trying to adjust diapause.

It is interesting that diapause is facultative in chameleons - whereas in some other reptile species diapause is obligate.(such as Dierochelys - chicken turtles)

It is hard to tell whether or not your female is puffing up because of the male or the introduction method - you may have to try a moving him to her. Overall, patience is a virtue!

 

[chameleonneeds]

I have "heard" from unverified sources that some have hatched as early as 5.5 months with slightly modified diapause temps. I would expect those hatchlings to be much smaller that those incubated longer and would not advise trying to adjust diapause.

It is interesting that diapause is facultative in chameleons - whereas in some other reptile species diapause is obligate.(such as Dierochelys - chicken turtles)

It is hard to tell whether or not your female is puffing up because of the male or the introduction method - you may have to try a moving him to her. Overall, patience is a virtue!

Ok well I want to experiment with mine. So with my first panther clutch I want to do a diapause, should I use the one you mentioned in your breeding article thing lol.

 

[nhoj6465]

How many eggs did the female lay??

 

[holmesese]

My female laid a total of 41 in the first clutch and 43 in the second.... sounds like a lot but keep in mind this girl is sister to one of Jim's (cham company) girls that laid something like 53(?) eggs.

Feel free to copy "my" diapause methods... I copied them from other folks who know much more than I! All I can tell you is those temps worked for me!

 

[chameleonneeds]

My female laid a total of 41 in the first clutch and 43 in the second.... sounds like a lot but keep in mind this girl is sister to one of Jim's (cham company) girls that laid something like 53(?) eggs.

Feel free to copy "my" diapause methods... I copied them from other folks who know much more than I! All I can tell you is those temps worked for me!

OK thanks I will do

Have you got any comments about the eggs and how they developed? What was your hatch rate and any mortalities?

 

[holmesese]

Well 38/41 hatched within a week of each other and the other 3 eggs look good. As of now all the hatchlings are healthy.

 

[chameleonneeds]

Oh so they would be the hatchlings of now. Cool.

If you can, please keep me updated with their progress. Thanks