Pacific Chameleon
New Member
Hello all. I have been on chameleon forums now for a couple weeks and have just been poking around. There are a lot of experienced people on this site and I have already learned alot. I consider myself pretty good at chameleons (mainly veilds, panthers and jackson's) but I find it interesting that there is always more to learn.
My name is Jeff Bushaw, and I live in Vancouver Washington. I use to own a fish and reptile store here locally about 10 years ago. I have always loved fish and reptiles. http://www.3reef.com/forums/breeding-tropical-fish/breeding-program-progress-37021.html here is a link to my clownfish breeding project I used to have.
I had missed being out of the reptile thing for so long that I decided to get a colony of leopard geckos for my son and we have already had some great success with them. I have 7 eggs in the incubator and our first hatchling is expected in the next couple weeks.
I have always been very fond of the panther chameleons and shopped around for probably 6 months or so, doing research on new methods and products and bloodlines and I finally started picking up some things. After I got all the things together I thought I might need I bought a pair of chameleons from Lance here on the forums. They arrived the next day and they are doing great. I will post pics very soon. At the moment my uncle is borrowing our camera.
I bought 3 24X24X48 screen cages from FL Chams which I am very happy with. I have 2 varieties of ficus. I put two of the smaller ficus in the females cage and the large ficus I had into the males cage. I started with a drip system made from a 5 gallon water jug bought from the Home Depot for drinking water and sunk a air pump hose line down to the bottom of the jug and put the jug on the top shelf of my closet and ran the air line around the room and down the wall to a manifold. The lines then come out of the maifold and lay on top of the cages, and I found that putting a cue-tip in the end helps regulate the drips. I hung a Zoo-Med deep dome light from the ceiling above each cage and I can't remember but I think I have Repti-Sun bulbs 150w in each. The lights hang down and are suspended about an inch above the cage top. I have an electric timer that turns the lights on at 6:00 am, and turns them off at 6:00 pm. Does that sound about right?
I got a drip pan for a washing machine and put under each cage to keep from soaking the carpet. I just wet-dry vac out the cage and pan each week. I have abandoned the drip system and just use it as a back up now because I have finally finished my misting system. I have an electric timer that connects my 4/10 hp submersible pump that I have in a 55 gallon water drum that I fill with treated water. I cut a whole in the compression fitting lid for the hose and electric cord and ran a hose line up to a 25 psi pressure regulator and then reduced the line down and installed an irrigation misting head in each hose line and cut a small hole in the top screen and screwed the head into the hose pinching the screen between the head and the hose. I have the pump kick on for 2 minutes four times a day.
I am thinking they are getting plenty of water but wonder if I should mist more. Any thoughts? I am using the 3rd screen cage for pupating hornworms. I three in cocoons right now and we'll see if they emerge and lay. I sexed them the best I can and I believe I have 2 females and a male, but am not positive. I purchased a bunch of hornworms and will have 5 or 6 more pupating soon. The plan is to have them turn to moths and lay then feed the moths to the chams. I am going to try to raise up some silkys also and have a neat little setup I am working on for them as well. I just got my worm shipment the other day from Mulberry farms. I got Silkys, Hornworms, phoenix worms, and butterworms from them. All arrived in great condition. I feed gut loaded crickets that I keep in one of those cricket keepers with the tubes and that works real well. I use Flukers cricket feed and that gel stuff to load them and then dust them with 1 of three suplements. I have miner-al and a Zoo-med product. I feed them about 2 dozen crickets a week each. I then alternate between a couple hornworms one day to several silkworms the next. I have a suspended feeding dish that I put Superworms and butterworms in but they haven't gotten used to this yet. I have to put the worms on the branches to get them to eat them. I try to vary the diet as much as possible, but am not completely sure if I am feeding to much or not enough. They appear to be putting on weight but and have shed a couple times since I got them. I need to document the feedings better and if I can get myself to journal the feeding regimen I will post that on here.
I welcome any suggestions and thoughts and will post pics of all the things mentioned above soon. Thanks in advance and good luck to all. I think the chams are a few months away from breeding, but I am very happy with the males coloration. He is throwing some very cool colors. I don't think he likes me very much though. He flares and gapes at me even if I just sit in their room and watch them.
Thank you Lance and all of you who's posts I've read and enjoyed.
Jeff Bushaw
Vancouver Washington
p.s. Did I leave anything out?
My name is Jeff Bushaw, and I live in Vancouver Washington. I use to own a fish and reptile store here locally about 10 years ago. I have always loved fish and reptiles. http://www.3reef.com/forums/breeding-tropical-fish/breeding-program-progress-37021.html here is a link to my clownfish breeding project I used to have.
I had missed being out of the reptile thing for so long that I decided to get a colony of leopard geckos for my son and we have already had some great success with them. I have 7 eggs in the incubator and our first hatchling is expected in the next couple weeks.
I have always been very fond of the panther chameleons and shopped around for probably 6 months or so, doing research on new methods and products and bloodlines and I finally started picking up some things. After I got all the things together I thought I might need I bought a pair of chameleons from Lance here on the forums. They arrived the next day and they are doing great. I will post pics very soon. At the moment my uncle is borrowing our camera.
I bought 3 24X24X48 screen cages from FL Chams which I am very happy with. I have 2 varieties of ficus. I put two of the smaller ficus in the females cage and the large ficus I had into the males cage. I started with a drip system made from a 5 gallon water jug bought from the Home Depot for drinking water and sunk a air pump hose line down to the bottom of the jug and put the jug on the top shelf of my closet and ran the air line around the room and down the wall to a manifold. The lines then come out of the maifold and lay on top of the cages, and I found that putting a cue-tip in the end helps regulate the drips. I hung a Zoo-Med deep dome light from the ceiling above each cage and I can't remember but I think I have Repti-Sun bulbs 150w in each. The lights hang down and are suspended about an inch above the cage top. I have an electric timer that turns the lights on at 6:00 am, and turns them off at 6:00 pm. Does that sound about right?
I got a drip pan for a washing machine and put under each cage to keep from soaking the carpet. I just wet-dry vac out the cage and pan each week. I have abandoned the drip system and just use it as a back up now because I have finally finished my misting system. I have an electric timer that connects my 4/10 hp submersible pump that I have in a 55 gallon water drum that I fill with treated water. I cut a whole in the compression fitting lid for the hose and electric cord and ran a hose line up to a 25 psi pressure regulator and then reduced the line down and installed an irrigation misting head in each hose line and cut a small hole in the top screen and screwed the head into the hose pinching the screen between the head and the hose. I have the pump kick on for 2 minutes four times a day.
I am thinking they are getting plenty of water but wonder if I should mist more. Any thoughts? I am using the 3rd screen cage for pupating hornworms. I three in cocoons right now and we'll see if they emerge and lay. I sexed them the best I can and I believe I have 2 females and a male, but am not positive. I purchased a bunch of hornworms and will have 5 or 6 more pupating soon. The plan is to have them turn to moths and lay then feed the moths to the chams. I am going to try to raise up some silkys also and have a neat little setup I am working on for them as well. I just got my worm shipment the other day from Mulberry farms. I got Silkys, Hornworms, phoenix worms, and butterworms from them. All arrived in great condition. I feed gut loaded crickets that I keep in one of those cricket keepers with the tubes and that works real well. I use Flukers cricket feed and that gel stuff to load them and then dust them with 1 of three suplements. I have miner-al and a Zoo-med product. I feed them about 2 dozen crickets a week each. I then alternate between a couple hornworms one day to several silkworms the next. I have a suspended feeding dish that I put Superworms and butterworms in but they haven't gotten used to this yet. I have to put the worms on the branches to get them to eat them. I try to vary the diet as much as possible, but am not completely sure if I am feeding to much or not enough. They appear to be putting on weight but and have shed a couple times since I got them. I need to document the feedings better and if I can get myself to journal the feeding regimen I will post that on here.
I welcome any suggestions and thoughts and will post pics of all the things mentioned above soon. Thanks in advance and good luck to all. I think the chams are a few months away from breeding, but I am very happy with the males coloration. He is throwing some very cool colors. I don't think he likes me very much though. He flares and gapes at me even if I just sit in their room and watch them.
Thank you Lance and all of you who's posts I've read and enjoyed.Jeff Bushaw
Vancouver Washington
p.s. Did I leave anything out?
