DekuScrub
Avid Member
awesome idea!?
DISCLAIMER
Ive kept chameleons for 14 years now (started when i was 12) and ive made some "mistakes" along the way.
so i dont need an earful (even though i know its coming) especially if what im about to say can be construed by new keepers as a "good idea"
my first attempt at introducing a cage mate was when i tried to feed my first chameleon ever, a big male veiled, an anole. (i know "stupid kid")
they lived happily for quite some time together, sharing basking space. drinking and eating together. until one day the veiled developed a taste for flesh.....dum dum dum. the anole disappeared for a few days i though he must have been eaten till i found him basking with half his face crushed. pretty graphic and fairly disturbing. he actually lasted a few months after the event.
that was a bad one.
second attempt was when i introduced a couple of toads from the yard. they actually did very well (and ate far too much) until i released them a year or so later.
pretty good experience.
third.
a hermit crab named killer for his propensity toward removing fellow crabs from their shells and partially eating them. its been years since i have let him in the presence of his own kind. and he seems only to ever want to change shells if he has taken it from another.
this in my opinion has been the best coupling of chameleon and another animal. they tend to keep their distance though i have caught them cozying up to one another. i actually have a picture of one of my panthers resting his head on the crabs shell. though i have witnessed 2 chameleons attempt eating him.
the biggest concern in my mind being tongue injury. i have had 2 of killers cage mates tested for parasites after long term exposure or bunking, when it came to my attention that contracting parasites was a threat. both tests came back clear. so he remains happily roaming my chameleon cages eating poop and fresh fruit and then hibernating in the potted plants (for what i assume is his molt) every few months
at one time i attempted introducing even more hermit crabs, after my cousin gave me hers, because of how well killer had done. well killer killed one, the biggest and took his shell. the others had apparently not molted since my cousin got them in the first place. and if youre familiar with hermit crabs what they do is when they collect them from the wild is they snip off the tips of their legs. a normal healthy hermit crab should have very sharp needle tipped legs since they are arboreal. well it takes a molt or two before you get a nice fully developed leg capable of climbing the screen of a chameleon cage. so i traded all but killer off to a neighbor for a tokay gecko.
which brings me to my fourth and final attempt at housing other animals with my chameleons.
the tokay was CB so no threats of parasites
i set up one 2x2x4 cage with a tank about 2/3 that height inside with a pothos sitting on top. the tokay spent his days in the tank hidden behind vines and then at night would wander the rest of the cage once the lights were out. they spent at least a year together with no interaction or issues so i think that was a pretty cool set up, it wasnt until i got another tokay to breed them that i removed him from the chams cage. ive heard tokay have very strong jaws so that was a little risky but otherwise i thought it was a cool setup.
SO guys, and gals. have you ever tried housing other animals with your chameleons? or has it cross your mind?
any other ideas on what might be cool together? low risk cagemates?
a couple of years ago i was at the philadephia zoo and they had this one enclosure in the reptile house. 2 male panthers a tokay and a baby sulcata tortoise. i thought the sulcata was interesting, and i found the fact that they had a tokay in there hysterical. but the two adult male panthers really bothered me. i sent them a very long winded letter on why what they were doing was not appropriate and in fact detrimental and neglectful. next time i went back a couple months later the panthers were gone. whole enclosure had been redone. and HA the enclosure was bad enough and so poorly furnished they probably would have been yelled at by even novice keepers that we have on the forums.
so what do ya think guys?
have i inspired anyone to get a hermit crab? poop eater has outlasted all my chams in lifespan at a whopping 14 years old (and thats only in captivity)
DISCLAIMER
Ive kept chameleons for 14 years now (started when i was 12) and ive made some "mistakes" along the way.
so i dont need an earful (even though i know its coming) especially if what im about to say can be construed by new keepers as a "good idea"
my first attempt at introducing a cage mate was when i tried to feed my first chameleon ever, a big male veiled, an anole. (i know "stupid kid")
they lived happily for quite some time together, sharing basking space. drinking and eating together. until one day the veiled developed a taste for flesh.....dum dum dum. the anole disappeared for a few days i though he must have been eaten till i found him basking with half his face crushed. pretty graphic and fairly disturbing. he actually lasted a few months after the event.
that was a bad one.
second attempt was when i introduced a couple of toads from the yard. they actually did very well (and ate far too much) until i released them a year or so later.
pretty good experience.
third.
a hermit crab named killer for his propensity toward removing fellow crabs from their shells and partially eating them. its been years since i have let him in the presence of his own kind. and he seems only to ever want to change shells if he has taken it from another.
this in my opinion has been the best coupling of chameleon and another animal. they tend to keep their distance though i have caught them cozying up to one another. i actually have a picture of one of my panthers resting his head on the crabs shell. though i have witnessed 2 chameleons attempt eating him.
the biggest concern in my mind being tongue injury. i have had 2 of killers cage mates tested for parasites after long term exposure or bunking, when it came to my attention that contracting parasites was a threat. both tests came back clear. so he remains happily roaming my chameleon cages eating poop and fresh fruit and then hibernating in the potted plants (for what i assume is his molt) every few months
at one time i attempted introducing even more hermit crabs, after my cousin gave me hers, because of how well killer had done. well killer killed one, the biggest and took his shell. the others had apparently not molted since my cousin got them in the first place. and if youre familiar with hermit crabs what they do is when they collect them from the wild is they snip off the tips of their legs. a normal healthy hermit crab should have very sharp needle tipped legs since they are arboreal. well it takes a molt or two before you get a nice fully developed leg capable of climbing the screen of a chameleon cage. so i traded all but killer off to a neighbor for a tokay gecko.
which brings me to my fourth and final attempt at housing other animals with my chameleons.
the tokay was CB so no threats of parasites
i set up one 2x2x4 cage with a tank about 2/3 that height inside with a pothos sitting on top. the tokay spent his days in the tank hidden behind vines and then at night would wander the rest of the cage once the lights were out. they spent at least a year together with no interaction or issues so i think that was a pretty cool set up, it wasnt until i got another tokay to breed them that i removed him from the chams cage. ive heard tokay have very strong jaws so that was a little risky but otherwise i thought it was a cool setup.
SO guys, and gals. have you ever tried housing other animals with your chameleons? or has it cross your mind?
any other ideas on what might be cool together? low risk cagemates?
a couple of years ago i was at the philadephia zoo and they had this one enclosure in the reptile house. 2 male panthers a tokay and a baby sulcata tortoise. i thought the sulcata was interesting, and i found the fact that they had a tokay in there hysterical. but the two adult male panthers really bothered me. i sent them a very long winded letter on why what they were doing was not appropriate and in fact detrimental and neglectful. next time i went back a couple months later the panthers were gone. whole enclosure had been redone. and HA the enclosure was bad enough and so poorly furnished they probably would have been yelled at by even novice keepers that we have on the forums.
so what do ya think guys?
have i inspired anyone to get a hermit crab? poop eater has outlasted all my chams in lifespan at a whopping 14 years old (and thats only in captivity)
