BABY UPDATE....WITH PICS!!!

Your doing a great job of trying to figure out what works best. It's funny I had success keeping them in a totally different way. At what point will you move them to larger cages?
 
Action Jackson said:
Your doing a great job of trying to figure out what works best. It's funny I had success keeping them in a totally different way. At what point will you move them to larger cages?
Click to expand...

I've already moved the biggest meru and the largest jacksonii into larger enclosures and then moved the next two biggest jacksonii into the 8"x12" enclosures vacated by the older meru. They're all still in glass but I'm considering moving some of the biggest ones into screen enclosures...but I'm a bit nervous about doing so. I am a teacher and only have a day and a half left until summer break and plan on making some changes then as I will be able to be home to keep a closer eye on them.

Thanks for the encouragement. I consider you one of my mentors as I read everything you wrote about keeping Mt. Meru babies in preparation for caring for these two groups of babies. I am expecting at least one more clutch of jacksonii jacksonii and one or two clutches of Mt. Meru babies sometime this summer.
 
Action Jackson said:
I noticed some of your Meru's have wonky horns. Are these babies you've hatched? Any idea why they are like this?
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One 3 month old male has "wonky" horns. His horns started growing very early. The other male's horns didn't start growing until a couple of weeks ago (I thought he was a female!) and his horns are coming in as straight as an arrow AND MUCH THICKER. Maybe super early horn development can lead to "wonky" horns (???). That's something it would be interesting to watch for if I have any more babies. These babies were born alive via retained sperm from a wild caught mom (father unknown). I have an adult male that had a broken horn which is growing back very upturned. I've had a couple of WC male Meru's that have had broken horns or, more interestingly, a horn that broke off after LTC and I'm wondering if some kind of earlier nutritional deficiency or some other environmental condition can impact the formation or strength of the horns...??? The LTC male that recently had a horn break off I've had for over a year and, looking at pictures since I received him, I can see the break line present on the horn from day one. Hmmm.....It's something to think about.
 
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MeruJack said:
One 3 month old male has "wonky" horns. His horns started growing very early. The other male's horns didn't start growing until a couple of weeks ago (I thought he was a female!) and his horns are coming in as straight as an arrow AND MUCH THICKER. Maybe super early horn development can lead to "wonky" horns (???). That's something it would be interesting to watch for if I have any more babies. These babies were born alive via retained sperm from a wild caught mom (father unknown). I have an adult male that had a broken horn which is growing back very upturned. I've had a couple of WC male Meru's that have had broken horns or, more interestingly, a horn that broke off after LTC and I'm wondering if some kind of nutritional deficiency or some other environmental condition can impact the formation or strength of the horns...???
Click to expand...

There's no doubt that Meru's horns a very fragile. They often break the tips off. Horn growth has always interested me. You'll see WC's with nice dark moist looking horns but every Jackson's I've had had more of a dried out horn look in spite of lots of misting. I think it would be a cool experiment to feed them a lot of snails. They love them and may be eating lots of them in the wild.
 
MeruJack said:
I've looked into getting some snails but haven't found a good source yet. Any ideas on where to check or where to buy?
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If they're appropriate, almost every aquarium store has an over abundance of small pond snails and Malaysian trumpet snails. If you're nice, most stores are happy to give away as many as you want to catch. They're so small that I doubt any bigger Chams would be interested in them, and there may be health / disease concerns since they're coming from an environment that often sees high turnover, but it was my first thought.
 
RedMountainHome said:
If they're appropriate, almost every aquarium store has an over abundance of small pond snails and Malaysian trumpet snails. If you're nice, most stores are happy to give away as many as you want to catch. They're so small that I doubt any bigger Chams would be interested in them, and there may be health / disease concerns since they're coming from an environment that often sees high turnover, but it was my first thought.
Click to expand...

I think you're only supposed to feed chameleons land snails...but I still have more research to do. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
MT. MERU DWARF JACKSON'S Baby Update
The babies are doing well. They will be 5 months old next week (July 20th) and will be ready for their new homes! The biggest is 16 grams! The two males are only 7 grams but both are healthy and active. Strangely enough, I have noticed that my biggest babies (both Mt. Meru and Jacksonii Jacksonii) have been in larger enclosures the past two months. I tend to feed the babies in the larger enclosures more because I was worried that they would have trouble finding their food in the larger enclosures...obviously that is not the case!!!

Meru Biggest.jpg
This female is my biggest Mt. Meru at 16 grams. She has been in a screen
enclosure (divided in two with each side housing a female Mt. Meru) for the
past month or so. The two males below are the smallest of my 4 month old
babies at 7 grams each.
Meru Wonky.JPG
Meru Duma.jpg



 
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JACKSONII JACKSONII Baby Update
The babies are doing well. They will be 5 months old on August 3rd and will be ready for their new homes!
The biggest weighs in at 16 grams. He is also the only baby that has been in a 12"x12"x18" ExoTerra for the past 2.5 months...
and getting fed extra of course!

JJ Biggest.JPG Biggest at 16 grams
JJ Smallest.JPG Smallest at 7 grams
JJ brown.JPG Brown jj
JJ Speckled.JPG Speckled jj
JJ_0821.JPG Yellow stripe JJ_0832.JPG Brown stripe
 
How did I miss this thread?? This is freaking awesome you are doing a great job I going to have to keep notes! Did you loose any do to the whole sids thing?
 
brownie64 said:
How did I miss this thread?? This is freaking awesome you are doing a great job I going to have to keep notes! Did you loose any do to the whole sids thing?
Click to expand...

I lost several in the early weeks when they were still living in a larger ExoTerra but not since I moved everyone into the smaller ExoTerras 3.5 months ago. Once they were in the smaller ExoTerra, it was MUCH easier to monitor every single baby. I am slowly moving some into larger glass or screen enclosures but still as singletons because they are older and they have all been living solo for most of their lives. I am also working on modifying my smallest ExoTerras to help the babies make the switch to screen.
But I am hoping to find new homes for them before I run out of screen enclosures!!
 
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