How Many Pigmys?

[chamgal]

I have a 12*12*18 exoterra tank currently, and plan to upgrade to a larger one (20G high tank or an 18*18*24 exoterra). Can I house a breeding pair or trio in this? They are currently only about 1.5 inches long (MAX) at the petstore. There are 4 that they just got in, and I am going to try to figure out which are male and female!! I would like 1 male and 1 female. I heard that they are social and must live in pairs. Is this true? Should I try to get 2 females?

I am looking to buy them today...so any advice will help! I have been reading the care sheets on them, but there isn't much on space issues.

Can they live on just dusted pinhead crickets? Or do they need a variety in their diet. What else do they like to eat?

Also, what should the humidity and temp be during the day and night (do I need a heat light for night time?) Do they require UV lights?

Thanks!!

 

[blackbetty]

I have a 12*12*18 exoterra tank currently, and plan to upgrade to a larger one (20G high tank or an 18*18*24 exoterra). Can I house a breeding pair or trio in this? They are currently only about 1.5 inches long (MAX) at the petstore. There are 4 that they just got in, and I am going to try to figure out which are male and female!! I would like 1 male and 1 female. I heard that they are social and must live in pairs. Is this true? Should I try to get 2 females?

I am looking to buy them today...so any advice will help! I have been reading the care sheets on them, but there isn't much on space issues.

Can they live on just dusted pinhead crickets? Or do they need a variety in their diet. What else do they like to eat?

Also, what should the humidity and temp be during the day and night (do I need a heat light for night time?) Do they require UV lights?

Thanks!!

No UV. I just place mine in front of a window for natural lighting. The daytime temp should be about 74-77. Room temp. They can drop about 10 degrees int eh evening. My house is always this temp and it has worked for us. If it gets warmer, I will mist the cage with cool water to help cool it down some but spike humidity.

Yes, I would think a Pair would be fine. I house mine in a 30 gallon right now. 1.2 setup and they are well. I have my 6 babies in a 10 gallon Hex right now.
They 1-2 wk old crickets (adults), fruit flies, and some dubias if you can get them to cup feed. Dubias tend to bury themselves int eh dirt or under leaves and its hard for the pygs to find them so if I feed these, I put em in a small cup in the center of the cage. You can also breed your own rolypolys and snails if you wanna get fancy. Not sure if they would eat any worm (silk, meal ect) as I dont think there is enough movement to catch the eye. I think FLChams.com may have a caresheet. Make sure you have a screen top for ventilation on that exoterra. i know mine for my frogs does. No heat either. No undertank mats..nothing fancy. Just lots of dead leaves, live plants, sticks, and food.
Setup

Cup feeding

 

[Chris Anderson]

No UV. I just place mine in front of a window for natural lighting.

Uhh, who told you that? It isn't completely known what the UV requirements for pygmy chameleons are and it is better to er on the side of caution and provide them rather then not. I've seen pygmy chameleons with MBD and while you can't just assume its from a lack of UVB lighting, there is that chance. Providing UVB won't hurt as long as you have an appropriate bulb and setup but not providing it could be very problematic. I've worked with 16 species of pygmy chameleon and have used UVB on all of them.

Here is a good caresheet: http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=46

Chris

 

[blackbetty]

Uhh, who told you that? It isn't completely known what the UV requirements for pygmy chameleons are and it is better to er on the side of caution and provide them rather then not. I've seen pygmy chameleons with MBD and while you can't just assume its from a lack of UVB lighting, there is that chance. Providing UVB won't hurt as long as you have an appropriate bulb and setup but not providing it could be very problematic. I've worked with 16 species of pygmy chameleon and have used UVB on all of them.

Here is a good caresheet: http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=46

Chris

I was told it didnt matter. Some people had some UVB lighting off of the other cham tanks and some used none at all. Results are the same. I just went with advice from another senior member. To each their own.

 

[Chris Anderson]

I was told it didnt matter. Some people had some UVB lighting off of the other cham tanks and some used none at all. Results are the same. I just went with advice from another senior member. To each their own.

I would not expect that maintaining a WC adult without UVB would be a problem. I further would not expect that getting WC adults to reproduce without UVB would be a problem. I could even imagine that newly hatched, first generation (F1) CB babies born to parents kept without UVB could be quite healthy at birth. This is all because these WC adults will have a certain amount of stored resources that they can draw from and even pass on to their fertilized eggs. I would expect, however, that raising F1 CB animals without UVB could be problematic and I would also expect that raising F2 CB animals (whose F1 CB parents were not raised with UVB) would even more problematic. My point is, no one has done enough experimentation to even begin to suggest that UVB is not necessary for the prolonged, multi-generational well being of pygmy chameleons and I would personally expect that UVB is utilized, even if not to the same degree as some other species. The bottom line is that as long as appropriate UVB lighting is provided, it should not hurt the pygmy chameleons and may be very beneficial.

Chris

 

[Dunnigan]

Can they live on just dusted pinhead crickets? Or do they need a variety in their diet. What else do they like to eat?

Also, what should the humidity and temp be during the day and night (do I need a heat light for night time?) Do they require UV lights?

Thanks!!

Pinhead crickets are too small. I feed my guys 1/4" crickets. I havent tried any variety, i should tho, I have some silk eggs and i may try feeding off some of the little ones.

Humidity i aim to keep mine at about 70% and temps in the low to mid 70's day time with a 10* drop at night. so no lighting besides the UV lamp (if you choose to use one, i use a 2.0)

Here are some links that helped me alot with pygmies before i got mine.


http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=63

http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=46

http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=50

 

[blackbetty]

I would not expect that maintaining a WC adult without UVB would be a problem. I further would not expect that getting WC adults to reproduce without UVB would be a problem. I could even imagine that newly hatched, first generation (F1) CB babies born to parents kept without UVB could be quite healthy at birth. This is all because these WC adults will have a certain amount of stored resources that they can draw from and even pass on to their fertilized eggs. I would expect, however, that raising F1 CB animals without UVB could be problematic and I would also expect that raising F2 CB animals (whose F1 CB parents were not raised with UVB) would even more problematic. My point is, no one has done enough experimentation to even begin to suggest that UVB is not necessary for the prolonged, multi-generational well being of pygmy chameleons and I would personally expect that UVB is utilized, even if not to the same degree as some other species. The bottom line is that as long as appropriate UVB lighting is provided, it should not hurt the pygmy chameleons and may be very beneficial.

Chris

Very nice read. I might just pick one up. Mine are currently WC I assume as I got them from LLLreptile. Now the ones I just hatched would be..CH?

 

[Zen Reptiles]

I agree with Chris on the UV. Though I would speculate that because they
are on the forest floor, they wouldn't require very much. Perhaps their
darker coloration, in addition to mimicking leaf litter, would help in absorption
of UV rays (darker colors absorb).

Also, though it might work for Blackbetty, I would STRONGLY STRONGLY advise against
keeping them near a window. There is literally no way you can control the
temps there 365 days in the year, and the risk of cooking them or temps
getting too cold increases astronomically as opposed to keeping them
somewhere else in the room. Too many reptiles/amphibians die this way
because people think keeping them by a window is a good thing.

Anyways, I think you could keep all 4 in that size enclosure. Make sure it
is well planted.

As for diet, don't dust them too much, since they're so small, it will build
up in them a lot faster!

Other than crickets, you can use Drosophila hydei fruit flies, and tropical woodlice.

I would recommend the tropical woodlice, as they will breed within the
enclosure and they are a really excellent source of calcium.

 

[blackbetty]

Well they are in front of a window but directly next to an air vent so they get the opposite from whatever.. hot from window, cool from vent, vice versa..their temps maintain at 77 as my house stays that.. Our house is nothing but windows, and this is the safest spot for them sans kids and dogs. Thanks for the advice though. They are doing quite well. I plan on upgrading their tank this week.

 

[Heika]

My first 7th generation brevs hatched about 2 weeks ago. I have used UVB throughout. My enclosures use Reptisun 5.0's that are between 6 months to a year old. I rotate them when I replace lights on my larger cham species cages.

The size of cage you mention should work very well for a pair.

Just to head off the inquiries, since I usually don't notice them for a couple week or more, which seems rude. I don't sell my brevs. If you have brevs that are five or more generations out, I would love to hear from you if you want to trade bloodlines, though!