ChamMan7
Established Member
In the panther hobby, as all the panther fans know, there are many very well established locales in captivity. The Panther chameleon has become almost a cliche in the world of chameleons (not without good reason at all), and the knowledge of the species is quite extensive. They are an excellent "starter" chameleon, but at the same time they are an extremely engaging and intriguing species to breed and seriously study in captivity.
Although there are many groups of very well established locales in captivity, there are also quite a few other, less common locales as well (diego suarez, ankaramy, masoala, etc.). These locales are equally as beautiful and interesting; however, far less common in captivity.
Last year, I had a group of ankaramy panthers that were really giving me some problems. Some of the top breeders around have had the same kind of issues with this locale and shipments into the United States were pretty much non existent after the few large imports of Anks due to these problems. (The "Problems" were very large die off rates, and a general inability to keep them alive in captivity.)
I was completely stumped, having failed with these awesome guys. I stopped all my efforts with them and so did many big name breeders.
This morning, however, I happened to bring up the topic to a breeder I knew who had also stopped working with the species. He did tell me, though, that he had spoken to a friend of a friend who had had some success in getting his group up and off the ground with the high supplementation of sea snails in their diet.
My goal with this thread is to see who has worked with some of the more uncommon locales (such as ankaramys), to see if there is any specific reason they believe they are so uncommon, and to see if there is anything you have noticed with them that seemed to have led to a measure of success. I believe the variation in some locales husbandry is much larger than we expect and if we all really discussed any variations that can be noticed between locales we could gather a better understanding of all locales in captivity.
Although there are many groups of very well established locales in captivity, there are also quite a few other, less common locales as well (diego suarez, ankaramy, masoala, etc.). These locales are equally as beautiful and interesting; however, far less common in captivity.
Last year, I had a group of ankaramy panthers that were really giving me some problems. Some of the top breeders around have had the same kind of issues with this locale and shipments into the United States were pretty much non existent after the few large imports of Anks due to these problems. (The "Problems" were very large die off rates, and a general inability to keep them alive in captivity.)
I was completely stumped, having failed with these awesome guys. I stopped all my efforts with them and so did many big name breeders.
This morning, however, I happened to bring up the topic to a breeder I knew who had also stopped working with the species. He did tell me, though, that he had spoken to a friend of a friend who had had some success in getting his group up and off the ground with the high supplementation of sea snails in their diet.
My goal with this thread is to see who has worked with some of the more uncommon locales (such as ankaramys), to see if there is any specific reason they believe they are so uncommon, and to see if there is anything you have noticed with them that seemed to have led to a measure of success. I believe the variation in some locales husbandry is much larger than we expect and if we all really discussed any variations that can be noticed between locales we could gather a better understanding of all locales in captivity.
