what handsome guys you got
Johnston's chameleons are an awesome species. They were my first species that I ever bred. They were also the first species I worked with that were highly sensitive to oversupplementation and a species that John Annis (sp?), I believe the first editor of the old Chameleon Information Network (CiN), wrote an article about, an article I would definitely recommend getting ahold of. About the same time (maybe in the same issue; I have to dig out my old issues), he wrote about vitamin A (preformed) overdose. As did I, he also had issues with T. johnstoni developing edemas caused by vitamin overdose. I should point out though that even though he demonstrated, with the help of a vet, that you can cause edema through too much preformed vitamin A, he also pointed out that vitamin D3 was suspect in causing the condition too. Although I don't know whether he and the vet (forgot his name) followed through with additional experiments involving D3, many keepers' experiences have demonstrated that D3 can easily cause the condition too if given in excess. All of this is simply to point out that you should use caution with supplements with this species, if you aren't already "in the know".
Also, the breeder you bought them from must have known what he/she was doing to raise his neonates to adulthood, especially given their sensitivity to supplements. Unfortunately, all of the neonates that I hatched did not make it, though in my defense, that was back in the mid 80s to early 90s, before we knew as much as we do now (with still a lot to learn) about supplementation. I would like to know if the breeder hatched any others and if so, what their fate was. I would really love to have a chance to work with the species again but at the more affordable prices they used to be offered at.
One thing I really remember about johnstoni was their extremely strong grip. In fact, the first time I held a panther chameleon, after being used to johnstoni, I was really surprised how weak its grip was compared to Johnston's chameleons.
By the way, I also love that subspecies of Jackson's chameleon, but I've never worked with them.
Perry
Johnston's chameleons are an awesome species. They were my first species that I ever bred. They were also the first species I worked with that were highly sensitive to oversupplementation and a species that John Annis (sp?), I believe the first editor of the old Chameleon Information Network (CiN), wrote an article about, an article I would definitely recommend getting ahold of. About the same time (maybe in the same issue; I have to dig out my old issues), he wrote about vitamin A (preformed) overdose. As did I, he also had issues with T. johnstoni developing edemas caused by vitamin overdose. I should point out though that even though he demonstrated, with the help of a vet, that you can cause edema through too much preformed vitamin A, he also pointed out that vitamin D3 was suspect in causing the condition too. Although I don't know whether he and the vet (forgot his name) followed through with additional experiments involving D3, many keepers' experiences have demonstrated that D3 can easily cause the condition too if given in excess. All of this is simply to point out that you should use caution with supplements with this species, if you aren't already "in the know".
Also, the breeder you bought them from must have known what he/she was doing to raise his neonates to adulthood, especially given their sensitivity to supplements. Unfortunately, all of the neonates that I hatched did not make it, though in my defense, that was back in the mid 80s to early 90s, before we knew as much as we do now (with still a lot to learn) about supplementation. I would like to know if the breeder hatched any others and if so, what their fate was. I would really love to have a chance to work with the species again but at the more affordable prices they used to be offered at.
One thing I really remember about johnstoni was their extremely strong grip. In fact, the first time I held a panther chameleon, after being used to johnstoni, I was really surprised how weak its grip was compared to Johnston's chameleons.
By the way, I also love that subspecies of Jackson's chameleon, but I've never worked with them.
Perry
If he had a working "formula" for raising them, then it's a shame that the method he used wasn't shared on a forum such as this (not to my knowledge anyway) before the species became very hard and/or expensive to acquire. Like with many species, if we could have just figured things out on how to raise multiple generations (while johnstoni were still widely available), many more of us would have had the opportunity to work with this amazing species.
