Baby Melleri Madness!!

jpowell86

jpowell86

Chameleon Enthusiast
So, the total count as of right now is 39 babies!! Two broke my heart. They hatched and walked around the box a few laps and then just fell over dead. Very sad. Of course I have them sitting in a box by themselves, because chameleons have shocked me before. I will wait a whole day before I do anything with them. The last two eggs are sweating and one has pipped. So, hopefully, my final count will be 41 babies out of 43 eggs. Not bad!!

Most sources state that baby melleri will usually not eat for 4-5 days while they absorb their yolk. I gave mine some anyways and they went bananas. They were romping about feasting on hydei and pinhead crickets. I couldn't believe the vigor in which they ate. I will have to get some videos of that for you all.

I will make this the thread where I add and update with pics for those who are interested in watching them grow!

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I love their stripes! Makes it easier to see! Congrats on all the babies! And I'm sorry about the two that passed.
 
Congratulations, what a great event! Glad to see these babies--I wish you well with them. It happens far too infrequently.

I found them to be one of the more difficult chams to raise from babies, so I'll be very interested to follow your progress/technique. Please do record for posterity.

Sam
 
BackwaterReptiles said:
Congratulations, what a great event! Glad to see these babies--I wish you well with them. It happens far too infrequently.

I found them to be one of the more difficult chams to raise from babies, so I'll be very interested to follow your progress/technique. Please do record for posterity.

Sam
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Thank you! It's sad that we haven't got close to getting this species established in captive breeding yet.

I am going to keep data of the progress. How did you babies do? Any information you feel pertinent to their success?
 
They are some of the cutest babies I've ever seen. I can't wait for them to be ready to go to their new homes. I'm already working on rearranging my reptile room so I'll be prepared when it's time for me to get mine. Congratulations again. I'm so happy for you
 
jpowell86 said:
Thank you! It's sad that we haven't got close to getting this species established in captive breeding yet.

I am going to keep data of the progress. How did you babies do? Any information you feel pertinent to their success?
Click to expand...

I had eight of them, and they seemed to be doing well and then just started dropping like flies after 2-3 weeks. I kept four chams per 16"x20" screened cage, and perhaps that was too many--maybe the stress gets to them more than other chams. I wasn't able to focus on them a whole lot. I had a single dense schefflera in the middle of each setup, with an automatic mister, and a ReptiSun 5.0 CF on top.

I wish I had some nuggets of wisdom to pass along but I just don't. I'm still not sure what happened, which is why I'm so curious to read about your experiences going forward.

Thanks,
Sam
 
Nursemaia said:
They are some of the cutest babies I've ever seen. I can't wait for them to be ready to go to their new homes. I'm already working on rearranging my reptile room so I'll be prepared when it's time for me to get mine. Congratulations again. I'm so happy for you
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Thank you very much!

Moderndinos said:
Will you be rehoming these when they get older? If so I would love to make the list! Congrats on the babies!
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Thanks!! I am and I will let everyone know when they are ready to go!!!
 
BackwaterReptiles said:
I had eight of them, and they seemed to be doing well and then just started dropping like flies after 2-3 weeks. I kept four chams per 16"x20" screened cage, and perhaps that was too many--maybe the stress gets to them more than other chams. I wasn't able to focus on them a whole lot. I had a single dense schefflera in the middle of each setup, with an automatic mister, and a ReptiSun 5.0 CF on top.

I wish I had some nuggets of wisdom to pass along but I just don't. I'm still not sure what happened, which is why I'm so curious to read about your experiences going forward.

Thanks,
Sam
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That's terrible. I wonder what happened? Did you hatch them out yourself?
 
jpowell86 said:
That's terrible. I wonder what happened? Did you hatch them out yourself?
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I didn't hatch them myself, I purchased them from someone who had hatched them out a couple weeks prior. I remember very distinctly calling one of my vendors who I talked to about chams a fair amount. Since I'd never had access to babies before, I was pretty excited. He was very pessimistic based upon his own experience with babies and poured some water on my expectations.

I'm convinced if you have the time to really focus on them, you can be very successful with them. I only spent 5-minutes daily working with them--had way to many chams at the time--many hundreds. Overwhelming.

You can do this.

Thanks,
Sam
 
BackwaterReptiles said:
I didn't hatch them myself, I purchased them from someone who had hatched them out a couple weeks prior. I remember very distinctly calling one of my vendors who I talked to about chams a fair amount. Since I'd never had access to babies before, I was pretty excited. He was very pessimistic based upon his own experience with babies and poured some water on my expectations.

I'm convinced if you have the time to really focus on them, you can be very successful with them. I only spent 5-minutes daily working with them--had way to many chams at the time--many hundreds. Overwhelming.

You can do this.

Thanks,
Sam
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Gotcha. Well I hope that I can get these little ones to stay strong and survive. Thanks for info and support.
 
Wonderful news Joel but I m very sorry about the two little guys who didn't make it, I guess that is just nature but sad all the same. Are you raising the hydei , you'll get through buckets of them!
That is an impressive number, what an amazing story, that poor girl Left a legacy and you've done her proud.
Super pictures and I look forward to seeing the next instalment.
I suppose what I need to do now is to work out a viv for my own one here!:eek::)
Thanks Joel, lovely start to the morning to see those darlings rushing around. :love:
 
Twitchet said:
Wonderful news Joel but I m very sorry about the two little guys who didn't make it, I guess that is just nature but sad all the same. Are you raising the hydei , you'll get through buckets of them!
That is an impressive number, what an amazing story, that poor girl Left a legacy and you've done her proud.
Super pictures and I look forward to seeing the next instalment.
I suppose what I need to do now is to work out a viv for my own one here!:eek::)
Thanks Joel, lovely start to the morning to see those darlings rushing around. :love:
Click to expand...

I am raising hydei, but they will become pointless pretty fast!!!

Twitchet said:
I suppose what I need to do now is to work out a viv for my own one here!:eek::)
Click to expand...

Exactly!!
 
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