Chameleon Came in Today!!!

[JoCarp]

He's Finally here! I got him from Bruce with Chameleon Paradise. I picked him up from FedEx, brought him home and let him into his new home. He was sired by Cowboy so I hope he gets those great yellows and blues like his dad! The first picture is him coming (slowly) out of his shipping cup. The second is where he posted up and hung out until I left the room and came back to work. The last is just an overall picture of his enclosure. (sorry for poor pictures, only have my phone). I got a dripper going so he can rehydrate and I did feed him before leaving. He ate 5 meal worms out of my hand within minutes of being let out! Pet shop was out of crickets and that's all they had so I'll stop at another tonight and I'm still trying to find silkworms. I figured having meal worms was better than no food incase he was hungry, and he was! Coastal Silkworms looks like they are out if I'm reading it right. Just for reference you may have seen my other thread in the enclosure section "Enclosure Inside an Enclosure" just to tie the two together.

Any advise, questions or comments are always welcome! Let me know if you see anything I should alter.

Make it a great day everyone,
Jordan

 

[Tyzoone]

Congrats on the new babe! I've heard mealworms outer shells can be hard for chams to digest.... But if it's all you have I'd quickly go find some crickets and roaches to gutload/dust and feed to him. you can buy crickets and dubias in bulk for much cheaper online than at local shops by the thousands.... Check out the site sponsors in the upper right corner of this very site to find them. But then again they could take a fews days to get to your house so a local shop is all you've got....

Good luck!

 

[JoCarp]

I've heard mealworms outer shells can be hard for chams to digest.... But if it's all you have I'd quickly go find some crickets and roaches to gutload/dust and feed to him.

Tyzoone, thanks for telling me! I was unaware of that with meal worms. I do plan to buy silkworms and crickets in bulk from the sponsors, this was just to tide him over. Bruce with Chameleon Paradise was extremely helpful with foods/dusting/gut loading info and he said that meal worms should be once a week or less so I thought I would be ok just for this morning.

I went home over lunch and he was basking under his light and looked very comfortable and alert when I got there. I put two pictures of him towards the end of my lunch when he had moved away from the lamps. Again sorry for picture quality, just a phone to use.

 

[TheEricJ]

Congrats and good luck with the new Cham.

 

[PascalsWager]

He's awfully cute. Does he have a name yet?

 

[JoCarp]

Name

I haven't named him yet, I have a handful of ideas and an endless abundance of suggestions! Such as Little Foot, Bagheera, Knuckles and a few others. It may take me some time to get to know him before I can pick out the name that suits him.

As for an update he's eating like crazy and let my wife hold him…. on the first day!!! I didn't know she was going to try but apparently he was more than willing to walk onto her hand (slightly jealous she held him before me). Anyway I i am gut loading crickets on black berries and raspberries to give him tomorrow.

Make it a great day everyone!
Jordan

 

[Tyzoone]

You should call him "UnitedStatesofAmerikeeshan"!

 

[Wowbango]

Nice! Congrats! I'll re-iterate how awesome Bruce at Chameleon Paradise is. Very cool to hear that he's already coming out! My little guy is still a little shy, though I've only had him for about a week. He used to run away immediately once he saw my hand but now I can put my hand/finger right under his chin and he doesn't freak/stress, but still not very willing to come out. He is starting to hand feed so that's exciting! I've had great luck with Dubias with my guy. Feed him mostly crickets/dubias and 1-2 mealworms about every 6 days or so. Superworms are coming in soon and I hear they're great for handfeeding since they love them so much. I've had great luck on ebay finding ridiculous deals on dubias/superworms.

 

[JoCarp]

My guy isn't too shy, he doesn't seem to do much fast other than shooting his food. He doesn't run from me, and lets me touch under his chin. I did get him to come onto my hand late yesterday but when I started to slowly move it out of his cage he started reaching for his branches so I let him stay in. I turned on his dripper this morning and did get to see him drinking which was pretty exciting! I'm attaching a few better pictures that I took last night before lights out.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I buy silkworm eggs from Coastal and hatch them myself. It's pretty easy. Buy the dry food that you have to cook up. Make up half the package. If you have access to mulberry leaves, you don't even need food. They are really easy to take care of--my absolute favorite feeder.

 

[JoCarp]

I buy silkworm eggs from Coastal and hatch them myself. It's pretty easy. Buy the dry food that you have to cook up. Make up half the package. If you have access to mulberry leaves, you don't even need food. They are really easy to take care of--my absolute favorite feeder.

Thanks for the advice, I think I will do that! I was hesitant since I've never done anything like that. How long would you say it takes from say receiving the eggs to having worms you can feed off?

Thanks again! Really appreciate all of the advice on my thread as well as the whole forum!

Make it a great day,
Jordan

 

[Tyzoone]

"I buy silkworm eggs from Coastal and hatch them myself."

jajeanpierre do you use an incubator to keep the worms warm enough to hatch? I've heard it helps and you can find em pretty cheap....

Mulberry trees can be bought online for pretty cheap too... And as far as I can tell they thrive in most all climates....

 

[nick barta]

You need more live plants so he can hide.

CHEERS!

Nick

 

[JoCarp]

Nick, I agree with you. I have a pothos and schefflera next to the cage for humidity, but didn't want to put them in until I have cleaned them off since they came from lowes and I could actually see the "gunk" stuck to the leaves that they sprayed them with. I am putting a few more pictures from yesterday as he has seemed to settle in some. He is not as dark as he was on the first day and still eating like a champ and letting me see him drink as well. So excited for this journey as he grows and develops!

Make it a great day,
Jordan

 

[Craigwyatt]

He's really beautiful. I've been thinking about buying into that line for a while now. Cowboy is really one of a kind.
One more thing. If I were you I would stay away from mealworms completely. They can cause impaction. You could substitute with superworms. They might look the same but they are much easier to digest and are beneficial to your little guy. Hope this helps.

 

[JoCarp]

He's really beautiful. I've been thinking about buying into that line for a while now. Cowboy is really one of a kind.
One more thing. If I were you I would stay away from mealworms completely. They can cause impaction. You could substitute with superworms. They might look the same but they are much easier to digest and are beneficial to your little guy. Hope this helps.

Craig, that does help. The super worms I saw at the LPS were just way too big for him at this point. I am kind of worried about impaction now as he's been kind of dark today. I'm sure it's something else, but it caught my eye because he was so dark and wasn't as close to the heat as he could get.

 

[JoCarp]

It just dawned on me, I think he's darker due to needing more misting. He has a dripper that is throwing off what my humidity is reading (says 99%) which I highly doubt is accurate. Some of the water splashes against it so I'm pretty confident that it's reading incorrectly. I added another at the top of the cage to be sure. When I misted him over lunch he was getting some drinks off what collected on his nose. I'm also kind of wondering if he might need to shed, some of his pictures show that he gets what I think is pretty pale and I think I've seen on here that can be due to upcoming shed?

Thanks for any input!

 

[Tyzoone]

when I had my baby ambilobe sometimes he would be nearly black and within a few minutes he'd be bright as can be again. I thing it's pretty normal for them to change from darks to lights at this age as they naturally change their bodies temps and I wouldnt be reading in to it too much... Maybe there is some reason for it other than that though? Someone else can chime in on this matter.

 

[JoCarp]

Getting settled in

Well I think he is settling in now. We were gone for the day yesterday and when we got back he had gone to the bathroom and shed. It looks like he still needs to shed his tail, but the droppings looked good (white urates). I think the Arcadia 12 was too intense for the size of his juvenile cage so I put some plexi glass over part of it and increased his mist cycle just a touch. Color is no where near as dark now. He's starting to show some greens and blues which is exciting! I'll put up some pictures tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a great 4th!

 

[bobcochran]

You can tell when young fast growing panthers are going to shed by spraying them with a mist of water. On a freshly shed cham the water will bead up like on a newly waxed car, if he's going to shed in a week or so the old skin starts to loosen from the newer skin underneath and starts to absorb water, it makes them look shiny when wet. Check it out! Young fast growing panthers can shed every 3-4 weeks.