Helmeted Chameleon surprise

[Ben82]

Hello everyone,
I want to take a second to thank everyone for this wonderful resource and community. I have been avidly reading and leaning from you all for the last 2 years.

I adopted a male & female Helmeted chameleon from a very reputable shop in Canada. I was aware they were farmed and understood the risks involved. This is to be my last attempt at this species, as I lost a beautiful female after owning her for 3 weeks back in February and it was a heart breaking experience. Well wouldn’t you know after 3 days with them she gave birth to 9 beautiful babies.

I’m hoping you could answer some questions.

1) is there anything I should be watching for with the female? Any specific supplementation or additional care?
health issues/warning signs etc?

2) is there supposed to be some form of after birth? I have seen nothing other than individual egg sack residue

3) The babies are very stressed and dark/black. I have them in an exo terra 24x18x18 with a large ficus, they are happy when climbing on the ceiling. I have their basking temps at 78 the dome is raised up from the screen to lower the risk of burns. At night I move their enclosures to the basement where I can give them 55f. They get misted 4 or more times a day and the humidity is in the 70-80%. What can I change to help the babies be less stressed? There is also a 13w exo terra uvb 100 bulb raised about 3” above the screen

4) are they ok to be housed together for a while or should they be split up? I was thinking of splitting them up in to groups of 3 so I can better monitor their prog

we’ve passed the first 24 hours and so far so good, they all ate today. I had to dig through my cricket box for the smallest ones I could find. I have fruit flies and pin heads on order but they won’t be here until Wednesday


I’d be appreciative of any help, suggestions, feedback. I own 7 chameleons, but this is my first experience with neonates.

I should also mention I have an appointment booked at the vet tomorrow as I think the adult male is developing a respiratory infection and I want to get that dealt with ASAP. I’m going to get my vet to examine the female at the same time. I’ll get their fecals tested when I can catch a fresh batch.

 

[Kaizen]

Hello everyone,
I want to take a second to thank everyone for this wonderful resource and community. I have been avidly reading and leaning from you all for the last 2 years.

I adopted a male & female Helmeted chameleon from a very reputable shop in Canada. I was aware they were farmed and understood the risks involved. This is to be my last attempt at this species, as I lost a beautiful female after owning her for 3 weeks back in February and it was a heart breaking experience. Well wouldn’t you know after 3 days with them she gave birth to 9 beautiful babies.

I’m hoping you could answer some questions.

1) is there anything I should be watching for with the female? Any specific supplementation or additional care?
health issues/warning signs etc?

2) is there supposed to be some form of after birth? I have seen nothing other than individual egg sack residue

3) The babies are very stressed and dark/black. I have them in an exo terra 24x18x18 with a large ficus, they are happy when climbing on the ceiling. I have their basking temps at 78 the dome is raised up from the screen to lower the risk of burns. At night I move their enclosures to the basement where I can give them 55f. They get misted 4 or more times a day and the humidity is in the 70-80%. What can I change to help the babies be less stressed? There is also a 13w exo terra uvb 100 bulb raised about 3” above the screen

4) are they ok to be housed together for a while or should they be split up? I was thinking of splitting them up in to groups of 3 so I can better monitor their prog

we’ve passed the first 24 hours and so far so good, they all ate today. I had to dig through my cricket box for the smallest ones I could find. I have fruit flies and pin heads on order but they won’t be here until Wednesday


I’d be appreciative of any help, suggestions, feedback. I own 7 chameleons, but this is my first experience with neonates.

I should also mention I have an appointment booked at the vet tomorrow as I think the adult male is developing a respiratory infection and I want to get that dealt with ASAP. I’m going to get my vet to examine the female at the same time. I’ll get their fecals tested when I can catch a fresh batch.

I’d hit up @Mawtyplant, and @bobcochran.

 

[Ben82]

I’d hit up @Mawtyplant, and @bobcochran.

Thank you

 

[Kaizen]

ok, so having never kept this species, here’s some ignorant advice (in red)

Hello everyone,
I want to take a second to thank everyone for this wonderful resource and community. I have been avidly reading and leaning from you all for the last 2 years.

I adopted a male & female Helmeted chameleon from a very reputable shop in Canada. I was aware they were farmed and understood the risks involved. This is to be my last attempt at this species, as I lost a beautiful female after owning her for 3 weeks back in February and it was a heart breaking experience. Well wouldn’t you know after 3 days with them she gave birth to 9 beautiful babies.

I’m hoping you could answer some questions.

1) is there anything I should be watching for with the female? Any specific supplementation or additional care?
health issues/warning signs etc?

2) is there supposed to be some form of after birth? I have seen nothing other than individual egg sack residue afterbirth isn’t a noticeable thing with chams

3) The babies are very stressed and dark/black. I have them in an exo terra 24x18x18 with a large ficus, they are happy when climbing on the ceiling. I have their basking temps at 78 the dome is raised up from the screen to lower the risk of burns. At night I move their enclosures to the basement where I can give them 55f. They get misted 4 or more times a day and the humidity is in the 70-80%. What can I change to help the babies be less stressed? There is also a 13w exo terra uvb 100 bulb raised about 3” above the screen. this is tricky, since there is such a diversity in the native range of hoenelli, as evidenced by their varied color. In general, moving enclosures every day is not awesome. I’d shoot for low 70’s ambient, a nightime drop into the 50’s, and scrap the basking until you hear back from more experienced keepers. Get your uvb dialed in so as to hit uvi’s in the plus 4 range for the time being. My guess is that they are happy with higher than normal uvb, but those cfls won’t give you the specificity you need.

4) are they ok to be housed together for a while or should they be split up? I was thinking of splitting them up in to groups of 3 so I can better monitor their prog. Split em’ up as soon as you can. I know @bobcochran has kept pairs, but until you hear otherwise, assume individual raising protocols.

we’ve passed the first 24 hours and so far so good, they all ate today. I had to dig through my cricket box for the smallest ones I could find. I have fruit flies and pin heads on order but they won’t be here until Wednesday. Just go to a pet shop and buy a ff culture until then. Their egg sacs will last them 24-48 hours.


I’d be appreciative of any help, suggestions, feedback. I own 7 chameleons, but this is my first experience with neonates.

I should also mention I have an appointment booked at the vet tomorrow as I think the adult male is developing a respiratory infection and I want to get that dealt with ASAP. I’m going to get my vet to examine the female at the same time. I’ll get their fecals tested when I can catch a fresh batch.

 

[Kaizen]

Also, where are you located? I can help with quick and easy individual enclosures and their construction.

 

[Ben82]

Thank you for your feedback, all relevant suggestions regardless of your experience with the species.

I’d love to be able to walk in to a pet shop in this province and by fruit flies. I actually work full time in the animal department of an independent pet store and they are classed las specialized items which have to be ordered. I actually have some 1/4” crickets in amongst my 3/8’s so I can tide them over until Wednesday.

I have a spare Arcadia T5 6% I could use. In regards to moving them. My thermostats arrived from amazon today so I can now regulate their daytime temps in the basement instead of moving them upstairs where it’s warmer. So hopefully this helps. I also have 2 zoo med foggers, but I haven’t decided how I want to hook them up yet

 

[Kaizen]

What province are you in? I’m a fellow Canuck.

 

[Ben82]

Also, where are you located? I can help with quick and easy individual enclosures and their construction.

I’m in Newfoundland, I’m pretty handy, I just don’t have a day off until Friday, but this is a crap hole province and trying to get anything here at the best of times is a joke, let alone in a pandemic. So I’ll see what I can find. Worst case scenario I have some small enclosures at work I can just buy

 

[Ben82]

What province are you in? I’m a fellow Canuck.

I’m actually English, I lived in Ontario for 10 years and moved out east 2.5 years ago.

 

[Kaizen]

I’m in Newfoundland, I’m pretty handy, I just don’t have a day off until Friday, but this is a crap hole province and trying to get anything here at the best of times is a joke, let alone in a pandemic. So I’ll see what I can find. Worst case scenario I have some small enclosures at work I can just buy

The dollar store is your friend. Here’s pics of the enclosures my wife and I did for a surprise litter of xanths. 4 hours

 

[Ben82]

@Kaizen Are those plastic tubs that you cut holes in and cover in screen mesh? That’s actually quite clever. I was going to just knock up a wooden frame & screen, but this might work

 

[Kaizen]

Yup! We bought 18 plastic containers from the dollar store. The nice thing about these is that water only goes to one place. The containers are 12”x12”x8” deep...roughly. Use a box cutter to cut the lid and one side open, hot glue screen to them, use 12” bbq skewers for the branch work and stand them on end. You end up with a screen top, a removable screen front, and a perfect neonate enclosure that only drips water from the front lip—which can be collected in cheap j-channel for vinyl siding and drained into a bucket n

 

[Kaizen]

All 17 enclosures took 4 hours to make, cost less than $100, and saw our baby xanths through their first 3 months. Could’ve stretched that to 4 or 5 months, if we didn’t put them outside in May.

 

[Ben82]

That’s actually very clever. I’ll be giving this a go. Thank you

 

[Kaizen]

Necessity is the mother of invention. We’re still using them for our next clutch.

 

[bobcochran]

All hoehnelii neonates are dark colored in the beginning , I'd be worried if they weren't. You can keep them together for a couple of months, but you must provide an excess of food prey. Tubs work fine indoors. I can't help you with lighting or uv as I keep mine outdoors. Hoehnelii are one of the highest altitude species chameleon, meaning they have high uv requirements. They bask a LOT. This basking behavior is not to be confused with higher heat requirements. 75F. highs are ideal. Your nighttime temps are good.
There are no farm raised chameleons imported from Kenya. Collectors do have large cages where collected animals are housed before shipping.
If you need more info I will be happy to help. This is a wonderful species to work with and one of my favorites.

 

[Ben82]

All hoehnelii neonates are dark colored in the beginning , I'd be worried if they weren't. You can keep them together for a couple of months, but you must provide an excess of food prey. Tubs work fine indoors. I can't help you with lighting or uv as I keep mine outdoors. Hoehnelii are one of the highest altitude species chameleon, meaning they have high uv requirements. They bask a LOT. This basking behavior is not to be confused with higher heat requirements. 75F. highs are ideal. Your nighttime temps are good.
There are no farm raised chameleons imported from Kenya. Collectors do have large cages where collected animals are housed before shipping.
If you need more info I will be happy to help. This is a wonderful species to work with and one of my favorites.

@bobcochran Thank you for replying Bob, I have been searching the forums for info and have read many post where you have given great advice. I’m with you, I find them incredible, they are so friendly and inquisitive and I really hope I can make this work for them.

I guess farmed and WC aren’t any different really, same acclimation and health risks, all I know is the came to Canada via Egypt.

do you think moving them up and down stairs every day is placing undue stress? It’s done in low light conditions while they are still asleep or falling asleep. It’s really the best way I have right now for the temp changes. I could however set up a ceramic heat emitter on a thermostat if you think this would be more beneficial.

Do you have any links to reading materials? I’ve been reading up on Jackson’s babies, as there is more info on them and I’d read a post where @JacksJill had said they have similar requirements. Did you ever put a care sheet together? I thought I’d read you were working on one.

Thank you once again.

 

[Fchamel]

Adorable!!! ?????

 

[Ben82]

Right?! After the initial shock, I’m super happy. We are keeping them, that takes us to 16 chameleons on top of all the other reptiles ?

I did have a 36 hour heads up as the female they had left at the store gave birth to 14

 

[Fchamel]

Cool! Sounds super fun!