New calumma Oshaughnessys

[Craigwyatt]

Well I did it. I pulled the trigger on a pair of these guys. Still undecided if I'm going to keep them or pass them along. I'll be receiving them on Friday. I'm pretty exited to be getting something that's not a panther. Going tomorrow to get a bunch of live plants because I've learned they like extremely high humidity and also lots of water. And I also know they like it relatively cool.
I'm posting this not to just show off something cool but also to gain any info I can about the species. I have talked to a few people that own them and read up a bit on whatever I could find using Google. But I know there isn't a ton of good info out there about these guys.
Being a red list species Madagascar hasn't until recently let any out of there country. So there's just not a ton of info out there yet.
I'd appreciate any information you guys can share with me.
Here's my boy. He's still very young and has quite

a bit of growing to do. I'll add the females picture when I receive them.

 

[guanagator]

He looks great!

 

[Craigwyatt]

Ty. I was extremely happy to be able to obtain 2 younger animals. Plus they are both extremely attractive. Neither has a scratch on them. That's the good thing about buying juvenile WC animals. They have had far less time to get all banged up. Whether it be from 2 fighting males or another animal trying to eat them. Also one more thing that attracted me to them was the fact that they have both been in captivity for 5 months. So my guess just by looking at them plus the info I have on them is that they both have spent more time in captivity than in the wild. HUGE PLUS!!!

 

[Craigwyatt]

i was hoping this wouldn't happen when I asked for information. I had a feeling it was going to be difficult to get due to them being somewhat of a new species in captivity.
Still holding out hope though.
Anyone??

 

[wavingsnail]

I had a brief correspondence with an online seller who told me the care was essentially identical to that of a parsons chameleon.

How accurate that is I really couldn't say. It was the lack of info that prevented me from pulling the trigger myself.

 

[distortionz]

i was hoping this wouldn't happen when I asked for information. I had a feeling it was going to be difficult to get due to them being somewhat of a new species in captivity.
Still holding out hope though.
Anyone??

Hey sorry no response so far. There was literally just a thread on their care a couple days ago I just copied my response from that thread to post here..

Lots of water, lots of variety of food, and be prepared to treat pretty heavy for parasites. Almost all that have been coming in have been loaded with worms and coccidia and need quite a bit of treatment to get healthy. You will want to have panacur, flagyl, and toltrazuril or albon on hand. They are a pretty lazy cham.. Mine move first thing in the morning and pretty much sit in that spot all day until they find a spot to go to sleep.. They pretty much just sit and wait for food to come to them. I've noticed they seem to favor worms supers and silks in particular.. Not too much interest in crickets and roaches for me.. Imo a 18x18x36 cage is sufficient. They don't utilize too much space. I use a low wattage basking bulb though they rarely bask maybe just a little bit in the morning. Cooler temps.. Water, water, and more water. You will need an efficient drainage system. Low supplementation also. too much will cause issues.. All I can think of for now

Also join the Facebook page Project O'Shaughnessy. It is the ultimate source for info on O'Shaughnessy on the web.. it's a small closed group of nothing but keepers of O'Shaughnessy..

Also did you get this pair from Nicholas Eugene Bithell? I know he still had one young pair he was selling off. I got a female from him a few weeks ago and she is doing great.

 

[Garrett]

They are similar in care to parsonii but would need an even cooler winter brumation as they're from the central highlands. I remember reading it can sometimes get down into the 40s or even near freezing at night during the winter months.
There is a CIN journal with an article about these guys, Chris Anderson referenced #34 in another thread.. pretty sure I have that issue but I'll have to dig it out.
I remember there being some good information in that article.

 

[guanagator]

I would love to get a copy of that article as well if it turns up. These are the first WC I've dealt with so glad to see some other members working with them. I bought a young pair from Nick, should have them to Florida by next week.

 

[cyberlocc]

They are similar in care to parsonii but would need an even cooler winter brumation as they're from the central highlands. I remember reading it can sometimes get down into the 40s or even near freezing at night during the winter months.
There is a CIN journal with an article about these guys, Chris Anderson referenced #34 in another thread.. pretty sure I have that issue but I'll have to dig it out.
I remember there being some good information in that article.

Would they actually *need* a cooler Brumation, or could they handle a colder one? We do soft Brumations anyway.

I mean honestly 40f, is a tad low. If someone had O's and only O's I could see that happening, but for someone with multiple species it would be a tad harder.

Personally I am considering jumping on board with some of these. But seeing I have other species the lowest I could/would go is 50f.

AFAIK, Parsons are also in areas that can get down that low as well. To my knowledge no one brumates that low.

 

[Craigwyatt]

Great information guys. I really appreciate it.

 

[Craigwyatt]

Hope we don't have a problem here because the pictured female above was sold to me and is sopose to be here on Friday.

 

[Craigwyatt]

I bought this exact same animal too

 

[OldChamKeeper]

1 - Keep them. You sound like somebody who actually knows how to take care of a frigging chameleon unlike some people who after their animal not eating for two weeks still don't have a clue that maybe they need to do something.

2 - Care is very very close to a Parson's. Go with that. If you want to breed them you need to tweak the cooling period lower than a Parson's. Diet, watering, feeding, lighting, de-worming....all that is the same in a nutshell.

3- nice pair. Keep 'em.

 

[cyberlocc]

1 - Keep them. You sound like somebody who actually knows how to take care of a frigging chameleon unlike some people who after their animal not eating for two weeks still don't have a clue that maybe they need to do something.

2 - Care is very very close to a Parson's. Go with that. If you want to breed them you need to tweak the cooling period lower than a Parson's. Diet, watering, feeding, lighting, de-worming....all that is the same in a nutshell.

3- nice pair. Keep 'em.

Okay so what is lower than Parsons temps. This conversation is now taking place here and the FBook group. I asked this temp question there, and am being told 55 night temp for this species brumating. They are in small pockets or CH, and not in areas that get to 40?

Not saying either party is right or wrong, just getting pulled in different directions.

 

[Craigwyatt]

The picture was a big misunderstanding. Just worked that out.
I do have a feeling when I look at them for the first time it's going to be game over for me. Hopefully there not quite as addicting as panthers are. I went from buying my first one to getting 3 more within a couple weeks. Now years later 100s and 100s have come and gone.
I really need to figure out how to get my temps way down for brumating. I know I can get them in the low 60's but I'm going to have to get creative to get the temps lower than that.

 

[cyberlocc]

The picture was a big misunderstanding. Just worked that out.
I do have a feeling when I look at them for the first time it's going to be game over for me. Hopefully there not quite as addicting as panthers are. I went from buying my first one to getting 3 more within a couple weeks. Now years later 100s and 100s have come and gone.
I really need to figure out how to get my temps way down for brumating. I know I can get them in the low 60's but I'm going to have to get creative to get the temps lower than that.

I would assume 58-60 would be okay. If we look at the temps where these guys are found in the wild (from what I am being told) the lows on average are 15c. Though the current 7 day is showing tonight's low is 52, again the average is 59.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

I've let my Parson's get as low 57F with no issues. I know this species can go lower so I'd say above 50F. Also we might be splitting hairs here. Keep 'em during the day btwn 65-78 and at night keep 'em above 50.

Now that said, my Parson's has enjoyed temps in the high 80's with misters all over the place. That's Atlas and just this year. Now back in 80's I also had Parson's that did fine with temps in the high 80's low 90's but only if they had as much water as they wanted whenever they wanted it. Hydration is always a factor to keep in mind with your temp ranges. They are not delicate wall flowers is my point, however you have to have some understanding of when to ease up on the throttle or give it a little gas.

 

[cyberlocc]

I've let my Parson's get as low 57F with no issues. I know this species can go lower so I'd say above 50F. Also we might be splitting hairs here. Keep 'em during the day btwn 65-78 and at night keep 'em above 50.

Now that said, my Parson's has enjoyed temps in the high 80's with misters all over the place. That's Atlas and just this year. Now back in 80's I also had Parson's that did fine with temps in the high 80's low 90's but only if they had as much water as they wanted whenever they wanted it. Hydration is always a factor to keep in mind with your temp ranges. They are not delicate wall flowers is my point, however you have to have some understanding of when to ease up on the throttle or give it a little gas.

Thanks, for the reply. That is great info. And yes that is what was said on Facebook, 50+, around the middle of 50s would be fine. I dont/didnt know Parsons temps.

Thanks for the help, and Parson tips always great to read your posts . I wish you would share your vast knowledge more . It is always pleasure when you do, I do understand why you dont though.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

. I wish you would share your vast knowledge more . It is always pleasure when you do, I do understand why you dont though.

Seeing people buy an animal at Petsmart, then not do anything after it hasn't eaten for 2 weeks, that's a good enough reason to not post much. I'd lose my myself

 

[cyberlocc]

Seeing people buy an animal at Petsmart, then not do anything after it hasn't eaten for 2 weeks, that's a good enough reason to not post much. I'd lose my myself

Oh ya, between here and Facebook posts like that are starting to drive me insane! Then as I am sure you have seen, I am very brash with those people, then people get mad at me for being "mean" lol. I just cant win!

I do not know what happened to this world, that all of a sudden telling someone reality, even when its harsh is "Mean". If you dont sugarcoat and soften reality you are a jerk.

I dont mean to be mean, I just lack tack and call it like I see it.