Pretty perfect pygs

[Twitchet]

Hi all, No purpose to this post at all except to tell the world I love my pygs! I've only had them a week but they are such charming little creatures. They seem to be doing well, Liking their hatchling locusts in the morning and evening. Females are all looking a bit gravid so here's hoping. They are a delight to watch, I bought them as CB so hoping they are- I have never had WC so can't compare behaviour but they dont seem worried about me, opening viv doors, shaking food in there, whether that means they are cb I dont know. Anyway, I'm so pleased I finally got some and hoping they continue to do well.
Nom noms-loving the stance.

 

[jpowell86]

They are so cool to keep. I loved keeping them because you get to be extra creative when setting up their viv!

They look fantastic Tabitha. Did you get 4 total?

 

[jajeanpierre]

The first picture is incredible!

 

[Twitchet]

Hi Joel, yes, vivs can be fantastic- I'm glad I've given them a 3ft long one, They use every bit of it and it's nice to see they have some space from eachother. I did indeed get 4- It was a very funny story- i pm'd shop via facebook then phoned to clarify- but they mistook me for two different people so when i phoned they said someone else is having one pair and you can have the other- i bought 1 pair home then got a call saying the other person ( me) hadnt turned up so i COULD have the other pair- it was all rather silly and funny. All ended well as the second 'pair' are females so i have 1.3.
I'm going crazy here as there are some bradypodium and calumma parsonii( cb unrelated pair) for sale- opposite ends of the cham world I know- gosh I'd love the calumma but space and money are not going to allow it at the mo Gggrrr.I can dream! Having great fun with my xanths and pygs though.
Thanks Janet- I'm going to try and get some more feeding pics tonight. They are quite willing subjects.
Cheers guys.

 

[Andie]

Hi all, No purpose to this post at all except to tell the world I love my pygs! I've only had them a week but they are such charming little creatures. They seem to be doing well, Liking their hatchling locusts in the morning and evening. Females are all looking a bit gravid so here's hoping. They are a delight to watch, I bought them as CB so hoping they are- I have never had WC so can't compare behaviour but they dont seem worried about me, opening viv doors, shaking food in there, whether that means they are cb I dont know. Anyway, I'm so pleased I finally got some and hoping they continue to do well.
Nom noms-loving the stance.

Hi, T.
Congratulations on your new babies! I've been following lots of post about keeping pygmies, because I'm trying to learn all I can. I'm very nervous about keeping them alive.

I've hatched and raised Pardalis babies, so I'm familiar with tiny, but the vivarium set up makes me tremble!

What is the primary feeder for your tiny neighbors? Fruit flies?

 

[Twitchet]

Hi Andie, Congrats on the pardalis,must be so exciting to do that.
Yes I'm new to pygs too,
My viv has been great fun to do- it has hydroballs at the base-3-4",then membrane then 4-5" of arcadia bio active soil for the live plants ,then the whole thing is seeded with springtails and tropical woodlice. The plant growth and health is astounding- definitely not due to my care but the jungle dawn led lights- i have two above a three foot viv- 13 w each and the plants are great, they have a low wattage basking light and a 6% uv, all at one end to maximize the light shade method-
I'm feeding them gutloaded hatchling locusts as I'm in u.k -trying them on calci worms and silkworms too, but as I have dart frogs I have lots of fruit flies which the pygs gobble up- i let calci flies pupate and emerge and feed them to my day geckos for a bit of fun for them, so the pygs will no doubt have things like that too..
I'm sure you'd be fine making up a viv, mines 3ft and it's really nice to give them lots of room.
Im nervous about keeping them alive too,several times a day I do a head count- to see everyones o.k ! knowing they are short lived , John from Arcadia lights here in the u.k said this to me
"And know their limitations ,They really are not a long lived species! They grow quickly, breed well, so you look for a culture if ever and ethical in-situ replacement rather than years with a single animal as you have with your panther"
Still wont help the day you loose one but i think good advice -enjoying the time that you have with them I guess .
Hoping to see a post soon telling us all that you have some! ( try and get cb! )

 

[Andie]

Hi Andie, Congrats on the pardalis,must be so exciting to do that.
Yes I'm new to pygs too,
My viv has been great fun to do- it has hydroballs at the base-3-4",then membrane then 4-5" of arcadia bio active soil for the live plants ,then the whole thing is seeded with springtails and tropical woodlice. The plant growth and health is astounding- definitely not due to my care but the jungle dawn led lights- i have two above a three foot viv- 13 w each and the plants are great, they have a low wattage basking light and a 6% uv, all at one end to maximize the light shade method-
I'm feeding them gutloaded hatchling locusts as I'm in u.k -trying them on calci worms and silkworms too, but as I have dart frogs I have lots of fruit flies which the pygs gobble up- i let calci flies pupate and emerge and feed them to my day geckos for a bit of fun for them, so the pygs will no doubt have things like that too..
I'm sure you'd be fine making up a viv, mines 3ft and it's really nice to give them lots of room.
Im nervous about keeping them alive too,several times a day I do a head count- to see everyones o.k ! knowing they are short lived , John from Arcadia lights here in the u.k said this to me
"And know their limitations ,They really are not a long lived species! They grow quickly, breed well, so you look for a culture if ever and ethical in-situ replacement rather than years with a single animal as you have with your panther"
Still wont help the day you loose one but i think good advice -enjoying the time that you have with them I guess .
Hoping to see a post soon telling us all that you have some! ( try and get cb! )

Thank you for the encouragement but all those names sound like Greek to me.

I once saw a video on YouTube about how to set up a vivarium. I definitely need to do lots and lots of homework.
If you're able, I would love to see pics of your viv. I still can't believe you got such great close ups of the Pygs!
Thank you.

 

[Twitchet]

Hi Andie, Vivs are pretty easy- if i can do it anyone can!
Anatomy of my viv- ( im sure there's other methods but this is what I've done)
hydroballs are ceramic pebbles that create a layer for excess water to drain into, if you just put earth in a glass viv and then water the plants too much- over time the water level will rise and the soil will become saturated like a swamp and the plants will die as it's too wet for them- with the layer of hydroballs(get from reptile shops) ( also callled Leca) you can monitor your water level and it keeps any water well away from the plants roots and soil, you can drain out excess water if you need to-i have never got the vivs so wet that i have needed to do this, the balls soak up water so it pretty much takes care of itself-i water plants daily and sensibly keeping earth damp but not wet as you would a houseplant and they are fine-
The membrane you can just see in pic is the black cloth that separates balls from earth, this stops earth from just falling through all the balls - if it did the earth would be able to wick up excess water and you are back to saturated earth, It's available from reptile shops-certainly here anyway, cut a piece the size of the base of the viv plus a few inches to go up the sides to create a barrier from balls Then a topping of earth( it seems here that there's lots of mixes made especially for us as reptile keepers for vivs and for growing plants available in reptile shops so easy to find and takes guess work out for us non gardeners-open packet and pour in) Reptile shops here have viv friendly plants to buy by post so that''s what i did, planted them in soil- minus pots. then added some tubs of springtails( tiny insects-custodians- for bioactive vivs- they take care of the viv for you, they eat all the icky things, mould, decaying plant,poop,animal matter- keeping the soil healthy and sweet ,pygs eat them too apparently) The jungle dawns are lights designed for perfect plant growth. I personally dont use any resins, foams or plastics in my vivs as I believe they are toxic so I used brown HA6 aquarium sealant smeared over sides of glass and cork bark stuck on, filling gaps with dry moss, it looks great and natural and easy to do but others I just cut coconut fibre cloth that is used in hanging planters and lined the vivs with that-
good luck- it's great fun to do and really great if you have a good sized viv- gives good scope for planting and decorations with natural roots and vines( grape vines-sold in reptile shops- go mouldy in a humid viv by the way) .

Here's the layers


This is the pyg enclosure( not quite the same at front as i made base slope up from frontwith pebbles but set up is same at back)


This is where my peacock day gecko lives- see how good the plants look- I dont do anything with them its just the jungle dawn! you cant see the seperate levels here again because I've tinkered with design and added pebbles but you dont need to do that.

O.k not a cham- I've sneaked a pic of the day gecko in- shush..He is one of my dearest animals.

 

[Davecameos]

Nice vivariums and congrats.
They are fun to have.
I really like the twisted vines.

 

[Twitchet]

They are lonicera -honeysuckle, I live by a wood so it grows everywhere and I've found some fantastic pieces, some over an inch thick and super twisty! Cheers.

 

[Davecameos]

Thanks.

 

[Andie]

Hi Andie, Vivs are pretty easy- if i can do it anyone can!
Anatomy of my viv- ( im sure there's other methods but this is what I've done)
hydroballs are ceramic pebbles that create a layer for excess water to drain into, if you just put earth in a glass viv and then water the plants too much- over time the water level will rise and the soil will become saturated like a swamp and the plants will die as it's too wet for them- with the layer of hydroballs(get from reptile shops) ( also callled Leca) you can monitor your water level and it keeps any water well away from the plants roots and soil, you can drain out excess water if you need to-i have never got the vivs so wet that i have needed to do this, the balls soak up water so it pretty much takes care of itself-i water plants daily and sensibly keeping earth damp but not wet as you would a houseplant and they are fine-
The membrane you can just see in pic is the black cloth that separates balls from earth, this stops earth from just falling through all the balls - if it did the earth would be able to wick up excess water and you are back to saturated earth, It's available from reptile shops-certainly here anyway, cut a piece the size of the base of the viv plus a few inches to go up the sides to create a barrier from balls Then a topping of earth( it seems here that there's lots of mixes made especially for us as reptile keepers for vivs and for growing plants available in reptile shops so easy to find and takes guess work out for us non gardeners-open packet and pour in) Reptile shops here have viv friendly plants to buy by post so that''s what i did, planted them in soil- minus pots. then added some tubs of springtails( tiny insects-custodians- for bioactive vivs- they take care of the viv for you, they eat all the icky things, mould, decaying plant,poop,animal matter- keeping the soil healthy and sweet ,pygs eat them too apparently) The jungle dawns are lights designed for perfect plant growth. I personally dont use any resins, foams or plastics in my vivs as I believe they are toxic so I used brown HA6 aquarium sealant smeared over sides of glass and cork bark stuck on, filling gaps with dry moss, it looks great and natural and easy to do but others I just cut coconut fibre cloth that is used in hanging planters and lined the vivs with that-
good luck- it's great fun to do and really great if you have a good sized viv- gives good scope for planting and decorations with natural roots and vines( grape vines-sold in reptile shops- go mouldy in a humid viv by the way) .

Here's the layers


This is the pyg enclosure( not quite the same at front as i made base slope up from frontwith pebbles but set up is same at back)


This is where my peacock day gecko lives- see how good the plants look- I dont do anything with them its just the jungle dawn! you cant see the seperate levels here again because I've tinkered with design and added pebbles but you dont need to do that.

O.k not a cham- I've sneaked a pic of the day gecko in- shush..He is one of my dearest animals.

Wow! Thank you so much for this! I can't believe you took the time to send it all. So, you put the coconut fiber up the sides for the plants? Do you just cut a hole and stick them into it?
Amazing. I'm going to hang on to the email so I can keep referencing the pictures.
I'm taking my time about all this. I attended a reptile show this past January and promised my husband I wouldn't come home with anything live....to the best of my ability. Well, came home with a pair of Carpets! LOL!
Just couldn't help myself. They were too beautiful!
Anyway, I need to make sure I have somewhere to put the Pygs. I free range my Panther, and I'm looking to FR my Carpet. I just hate how the cages look.
I must say your vivarium is really nice, though.
Thank you, again!