Panther Chameleon Hatchling Help

[Chameleonfriend]

I have some babies hatching and some seem to be sleeping a lot ( like 4 out of 15) and the others are awake chillin. I have UVB on them I have 7 in a 12x12x18 exo terra and the rest in the same size exo terra. I have temp controllers that keep the tanks at exactly 80 degrees. I mist 4 times a day and most have been out of the egg for more then 4 days. My problem is I have been feeding hydei ff and I yet have seen any of them eat some is this normal or can you give me some advice. Thanks

 

[Jamelon]

no experience in breeding/hatching, but they may still be using up the last of their "yolks" if you will. I think they still use up whats left after they hatch for the next few days thats just a guess though haha

 

[KCcham]

Four days is the longest i have seen our babies go until they start eating. How long did the eggs incubate for and at what temp? Also, what did you do to get the female ready to breed, and what was her care like after she became gravid?

Also, welcome to the forum!

 

[Chameleonfriend]

The female was a year old I fed her no more then 50 large crickets a week and supplemented with repashy herp and repashy calcium and I crushed real viit A powder into powder and while she was preygo I supplemented more calcium

 

[Chameleonfriend]

Also I kept them in a shoe box size tub with vermiculite and squeezed water out of it the eggs got no warmer then 80 degrees stayed prolly between 70 to 80 degrees the whole te and it took 6 and a half months to hatch

 

[jr andrade]

All you can really do is wait and if they do not start eating after a little less then a week i would take them to the vet to see what their opinion on it is, how long are they sleeping?? have they waken up for a short amount of time? could you post a few pics?

 

[Chameleonfriend]

The 4 sleep a lot but all the others are normally awake I would post pics but I do not have a camera

 

[reptoman]

What kind of lights are you using? Typically for neonates a used reptisun UVB 5.0 set above the baby bins is enough. Too much UVB and it may hurt their eyes. You might take a look at this link:
http://www.chameleonnews.com/02NovHorgan.html

This is what I followed and I had no issues. The first clutch I raised did take around 4 days to start eating and they were incubated for around 6.5 months. The 2nd clutch went for almost 8 months before hatching and ate the same day they hatched. Hope this helps. Good luck and welcome to the forums!

 

[facelesdoll]

if they are awake during other times of the day on their own, they may be slightly premature due to your high temps during incubation! make sure you mist them often! keep hydration up(it also acts as be awake agent), keep humidity up, and only put in a few flys at a time and step away so they cant see you and maybe they eat then.. make sure the cage has potentially some sort of side light, to project light into even the bottom of the cage. i wouldnt use anything harsh that can blind or affect their eyes, maybe a little 7 watt cfl would do, its what ive used. ive had the same issues before when on a free range i suppose eggs were deposited in one of my pots and i didnt know. sothose babies a few of acted surely funny. though if you do your stuff right things should be fine.

 

[Chameleonfriend]

I have a 5.0 florescent tube light for UV I purchased it at petco and yes I removed the plastic slide so UV would work

 

[Cainschams]

Hello,

Unfortunately not all newly hatched chameleons make it. The hatch rate declines even more when you get into retained clutches.

First off I would suggest letting them be able to cool down. A constant 80 day and night is not good. Daytime you should try to achieve temps ranging from 70 to 78 and a basking site of around 80 or a little higher. Night time they should be able to get down to at least 70 degrees. A cooling period at night is detrimental for all chameleons. Some require greater temp drops than others but it is really important.

There are a few things you can do with the sickly ones. Separate them all into their own small enclosures. Can be 5 quart plastic bins, small fish bowls etc. Nothing too big. I do and will not baby any new hatchling that is having trouble. If they perk up on their own with correct husbandry, so be it. If they dont show any signs of getting better I euthanize them or feed them off to another larger chameleon. Might sound harsh but if they are going to die you might as well get some use out of them and nutrition for another animal is on the top of that list. There is no sense in letting them sleep all day and eventually dieing from starvation.

You do need to have temperature fluctuation or I dont think any of them will thrive.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

You could try switching feeders and see if you get a better feeding response. Try pinheads.

 

[Cainschams]

You could try switching feeders and see if you get a better feeding response. Try pinheads.

Great idea!!! I did not notice he was only trying to feed fruit flies. As weird as it may sound, my first clutch of panthers never ate the FFs. I bought a ton of cultures for them too They would readily eat pins though. After that I never tried using FFs for panthers. Bitans, elliots and tavatana sure like them though

Has any of them ate yet? It would take 2 or 3 days for any of my hatchlings to start eating.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I havent raised a clutch in a looong time. But I always started with pins and then I would feed ff's. Mainly because I never seemed to have my ff cultures prepared before the clutch hatched on me. So i would have to wait a cpl of days to get my cultures going.

 

[Dave Weldon]

I have a 5.0 florescent tube light for UV I purchased it at petco and yes I removed the plastic slide so UV would work

Howdy,

Just to double-check, toss us the exact make/model of the linear tube that you are using and the distance from the babies .

 

[Chameleonfriend]

O dont know the exact model but its a zilla and it's just sitting on top of the exo terra which is a 12x12x18

 

[Chameleonfriend]

I think it might be burning there eyes because it seems like more are starting to stay a sleep

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I'd change that now today. You need a 5.0 repti glo or repti sun. Those neonates are much more fragile than a juvie or adult cham. Not much room for error. You dont want to lose a whole clutch because of the bulb your using.

 

[Chameleonfriend]

I think it might be burning there eyes because it seems like more are starting to stay a sleep

 

[laurie]

Hello,

Unfortunately not all newly hatched chameleons make it. The hatch rate declines even more when you get into retained clutches.

First off I would suggest letting them be able to cool down. A constant 80 day and night is not good. Daytime you should try to achieve temps ranging from 70 to 78 and a basking site of around 80 or a little higher. Night time they should be able to get down to at least 70 degrees. A cooling period at night is detrimental for all chameleons. Some require greater temp drops than others but it is really important.

There are a few things you can do with the sickly ones. Separate them all into their own small enclosures. Can be 5 quart plastic bins, small fish bowls etc. Nothing too big. I do and will not baby any new hatchling that is having trouble. If they perk up on their own with correct husbandry, so be it. If they dont show any signs of getting better I euthanize them or feed them off to another larger chameleon. Might sound harsh but if they are going to die you might as well get some use out of them and nutrition for another animal is on the top of that list. There is no sense in letting them sleep all day and eventually dieing from starvation.

You do need to have temperature fluctuation or I dont think any of them will thrive.

Hey Jared I know you meant to say not having a night time drop is detrimental to their health.