baby pgymys dying, help needed

[dossman]

I bought a pair of grown pgymy chameleons, after about a month the female started to lay eggs, one month later I had 3 babies looking at me from behind leaves. A couple days later two more babies joined the family. Then I noticed the male was hanging around the bottom more often than the rest of them. The breeder that I got them from said it was a upper respiratory illness and that the enclosure was too damp or wet. I have a small ZOO-Med terrarium and my humidity is between 60-80, my temperature is around 80 degrees because I live in florida and keep them in my garage (which is air conditioned), however they are on the back side of the AC supply duct. The male started holding his head up up with his mouth open and a few days later he was dead. then the babies followed about one dropping of every week. Finally the mother perished in the same manner. All this time I was asking the breeder questions on what to do. Then after about six weeks from hatching all the babies were gone. good new is that during cleaning of the enclosure and changing the frog moss I came across eight eggs. I moved them to a small enclosure and the very next day a new baby was born at around 3:30AM. the next day another was walking around after I came home from work, and later that night a third one was born. That was about 10 days ago. Yesterday I found the third hatching (and the smallest one) dead in the corner. I love these little guys and don't want to see them suffer and die because of something that I could have prevented so I could use some advice. I have two babies left in the habitat and four more un-hatched eggs. I put a few drops of Pedialite in their water dish daily and mist them twice a day with spring water which I De-chlorified because I did not trust Wal Mart that is was pure enough. I could use some help about now and it looks like the babies are having trouble catching the 1/4" crickets. Thanks

 

[Seeco]

Do you see them use the water dish? If not than ditch it. If they DO use it than change every day and don't use pedialyte because the nutrients will increase bacteria growth. I have never had a problem with chlorine with babies or adults -- if your animals are getting resp infections you need that chlorine to keep things clean. Nasty swampy cage with water bowl is a guarantee of problems. Since you live in Florida there is probably little need for a moist cage. Keep it dry enough to dry out between misting and all should be ok since babies are in a new clean container.

 

[dossman]

thanks for the reply

Yes they do use the water dish and I have a loofa sponge in it to keep it moist during the day and prevent it from drying out. They are in a one ft square enclosure but I wonder if they are having a hard time catching the crickets. I never saw them eat yet and I put in around 20 crickets last thursday, today there were around seven left in the tank. Is spring water ok to use.

 

[Lizardlover]

80* sounds too hot for baby pygmies. What species are they?

 

[Thezillaman21]

not experienced with small chams like that but i would recomend getting some flightless fruit flies and offer alot i know just cuz i was ganna get brevs that they have large appitites for their small size. just wondering about how big are these chams when they hatch?? i mean i know thier super small but like could u compare them to something??
i hope the best for them. it sucks you have lost so many in such a short time. btw could the mother have died from laying alot of eggs?

 

[Thezillaman21]

yeah not only the heat now that u mention it arnt pgymies kept in glass cuz it makes it easier to keep it humid?? might want to look up how humid it should be.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Can't pinpoint any specific problems that are clearly causing death from your description but have some suggestions based on my successful experiences with them. I keep my brev babies in a big critter keeper with lots of fake plants for them to hide in. I mist them at least twice a day, or at least dribble water on the leaves so there are droplets, which I see them drink from all the time. Get flightless fruit flies ASAP, crickets may be too big for them now. I don't start feeding crickets until babies are several months old, and those are very tiny crickets. Try to keep them at less than 80 degrees, pygs prefer mid to hgh 70s at most and babies like it cooler than adults in general. Keep their cage very clean, try to make sure there are droplets on the leaves but let the cage dry out in between, feed fruit flies and keep them cooler. Hopefully that will give you better results for those tiny little things. LOVE baby brevs!!

 

[hbskeet]

First off ditch the water dish. if you mist only twice a day it should be heavily. you need to drop your temps. Aim for low 70s like 72-75. 80 is not optimal. Don't drop in so many crickets. I drip in 14 at a times every other morning in my 1.4 Brev colony. The crickets are all gone within minutes.

 

[dossman]

Updates

I have gotten rid of the water dish and provided an AC drop above the enclosure which keeps the temps in the mid 70's. I can not find any fruit flies for sale locally (all they sell is crickets and mealworms). I bought a Pothos plant to put into the enclosure but I think it will outgrow the space in a short time. I do not know whether to leave the plant in the pot or plant it in the organic peat (which is under the frog moss). I am down to one baby now but he seems to be real healthy and hunts all the time. He has had problems catching the crickets so what I did was dust and hold the cricket with hemostats until he sees it, then he can eat it. Thanks for all the help and I should have asked for it sooner when the adults were gaping with their mouths open. Now I think it was because of the heat being above 80.