Success in Breeding Parson Chameleon?

[pohchunyee]

Had anyone been successfully CB Parson Chameleon? I read a lot of journal suggesting that there were around 10,000 known Parson Chameleon imported into the States right before CITES place them in endangered list. Yet, only a handful of CB Parson were produced. I wonder if anyone who success in breeding and hatch some Parson chameleon would share their methods; especially those in Europe.

 

[westcoastchameleons]

I believe in a previous thread it was mentioned that in germany Parsons have been bred by multiple breeders, and are sold for around 500$ in US money. As for the States, i dont know about anyone successfuly hatching out baby Parson chameleons.

Jake

 

[Kent67]

Over the years quite a few people have done it in the US. Ken Kalisch was the first to reproduce LTC's and successfully raise hatchlings back in '94 I think it was. The incubation time was extremely long, I'm wanting to say 18 or 19 months. I know people have pairs here in the states but I haven't heard of any clutches hatching in a while....

 

[Will Hayward]

I think its safe to say that for the people in the US that are indeed working with parsoni now and have been just recently, they would likely not announce egg incubation. Why? with a period of incubation that can span two years, thats two years of possible errors to occur in.

Count eggs all you want, but don't count your chameleons before they hatch.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Are the Kammers doing it?
They show that they have at least 6 adults in their breeding colony and
recently they offered CB parson babies for sale.
Of course no where on their site do they claim to have bred these babies.....but one assumes...

-Brad

 

[Kent67]

I believe they have hatched them in the past, but I'm not positive so don't quote me on that. I think the last group of babies were USCB but they were selling them for another breeder. I had a couple long conversations with them at the last show here but I didn't think to ask about any eggs incubating. Maybe someone else knows....

 

[pohchunyee]

I feel like flying to Germany and tied up those who success in breeding Parson and force them to tell us the trick of the trade. Oh crap, i dont speak German.

 

[Kent67]

The most important "trick" is having a source of more parsonii...Madagascar. If there was even a small quota allowed out of Madagascar, I'm sure there would be the same number of clutches hatching here as in Europe.

If you want details the following book has a reprint of Ken's CIN article documenting how they hatched the first clutch(es) as well as great husbandry info and pictures.
http://www.amazon.com/Chameleons-Br...7460954?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186075067&sr=8-1

 

[Todnedo]

Without natural habitat there will be no parsonii!!
For those of you breeding or trying to breed parsonii legal or otherwise hats off to you!!

 

[Kent67]

Without natural habitat there will be no parsonii!!
For those of you breeding or trying to breed parsonii legal or otherwise hats off to you!!

To clear up a little misconception, a lot of primary forest is being cleared in Madagascar. However, C. parsonii occurs naturally in areas that ARE protected such as in national forests. That's not to say that some farmers don't find a way in and clear out some land, but, for the most part it is protected habitat. As well, C. parsonii HAS been found living in agricultural areas such as in coffee groves. But hey, don't take my word for it, look it up. The information is out there if the same internet misconceptions weren't so prevalent. 18,000 imports to 218 babies "hatched" in captivity is not going to save any species. Sorry.

And since you're suggesting that smuggling protected species of animals is a noble deed, do you know of any reptile species that are now extinct in the wild that were totally saved from extinction by the efforts of smugglers? If so, I'd like to hear because it might make me change my mind a little.

 

[Dankmeleon]

smuggle is a cool word none the less

 

[sativa420]

any one catch the trio for sale on kingsnake?

 

[pohchunyee]

the Parson are always on sale on the wrong time. I am broke and they are up for sale...when i have they money for them....none are available!!! I would love to have that breeding pair...Ooo...orange eye looks awesome!

 

[Marc10edora]

Im going to try and put away some money in the bank. Then one day when Parsons are up for sale, hopefully I'll have a chance. Probably won't be for a long time.

 

[Marc10edora]

To clear up a little misconception, a lot of primary forest is being cleared in Madagascar. However, C. parsonii occurs naturally in areas that ARE protected such as in national forests. That's not to say that some farmers don't find a way in and clear out some land, but, for the most part it is protected habitat. As well, C. parsonii HAS been found living in agricultural areas such as in coffee groves. But hey, don't take my word for it, look it up. The information is out there if the same internet misconceptions weren't so prevalent. 18,000 imports to 218 babies "hatched" in captivity is not going to save any species. Sorry.

And since you're suggesting that smuggling protected species of animals is a noble deed, do you know of any reptile species that are now extinct in the wild that were totally saved from extinction by the efforts of smugglers? If so, I'd like to hear because it might make me change my mind a little.

Are there any wildlife organizations out there that allow you to buy a peice of forest in Madagascar? I would really like to buy a couple of acres out there if I had the money. Especially where the Parsonii are located.

 

[wow]

http://www.prismchameleons.com/HomePage.html about half way down the page on the left there is a side bar with a email address.

 

[Kent67]

Are there any wildlife organizations out there that allow you to buy a peice of forest in Madagascar? I would really like to buy a couple of acres out there if I had the money. Especially where the Parsonii are located.

Not sure where/how Prism is buying that land, but I've heard of similar arrangements (I think the CIN did something similar.) Very cool that she's doing that. Also, the WWF is very active on the island:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildplaces/mad/

And yeah, I saw those parsonii on kingsnake. I love the blue on those two males, simply beautiful.

 

[Chameleons By Design]

Yeah I saw that reverse trio on Kingsnake very nice animals. I sure hope some kind of acreage gets saved for the sake of these beautiful creatures.

 

[SeanCJ]

Had anyone been successfully CB Parson Chameleon? I read a lot of journal suggesting that there were around 10,000 known Parson Chameleon imported into the States right before CITES place them in endangered list. Yet, only a handful of CB Parson were produced. I wonder if anyone who success in breeding and hatch some Parson chameleon would share their methods; especially those in Europe.

Ken Kalish hatched a few baby parsoni back in the mid '90's. Rob Velton hatched a fairly large clutch in the late 90's. Donovan Swafford hatched at least one clutch in 1999, early 2000. That's when I lost track of the hobby al together due to other interests and responsibilities.
I was successful with a trio of wild caught parsoni from 1991 to 1997. My collection started with a juvenile male and female and I later introduced a second young female.
This trio started breeding in 1994. Both females laid clutches in 1995. One full clutch went bad within a few months. The other clutch went 25 months without losing a single egg. In 1997, two babies were hatched from this clutch and I was so excited. However, they both died a few hours later. The remaining 39 eggs all had full grown babies, but none made it out of the egg. It was very depressing. I believe I added too much humidity to the eggs the months prior to hatching as the egg sacs were very tough and leathery, making it difficult, actually impossible for the babies to work their way out.
I had 2 other clutches of eggs, one from each female, from 1996 and one in early 1997, that all went bad, either to mold or other causes.
I was so depressed that I sold off my trio in 1997. I do know that the new owner, Donovan Swafford mentioned above, was able to continue the breeding success and he actually had a clutch hatch sometime in 1999 or early 2000. Its highly possible that some of the cb parsoni in the country today are from my original trio.
After an 11 year hiatus, I'm desperately searching for new parsoni to begin my breeding trials again.
To me the trick was keeping them well fed on a variety of foods, super well hydrated, and in the proper free range enclosures.
I would hibernate them for a few months each winter.
After each hibernation/diapause period, I would stimulate the male into breeding with images of his own reflection! I would simply place my wife's make up mirror in front of him on the branch a few times each day. He would actually charge the mirror and do breif combat with his own reflection.
After about a minute, I would remove the mirror and introduce a female. He would almost immediately seek her out and mate.
It worked everytime.
Its really too bad the incubation parameters on the eggs are so demanding. It took 25 months, with a diapause each winter, to bring my single clutch to fruition. Even then, a simple oversight on humidity killed off the clutch.
I so hope I can try my luck with them again soon.
Hope this has been a good read with some good, albiet brief, info.
Sean

 

[Kent67]

Hey Sean, if I was you I really wouldn't blame myself for the failure to hatch. The thick leathery shells preventing hatching is something that was mentioned in even the earliest literature on Parson's. As well, the two that hatched but died within hours would lead me to think that there was something else wrong, rather than just the egg shell, that caused your losses. Sorry it didn't work out nonetheless.