whole mess of melleri pics

[Sepioteuthis]

I got a little picture-happy this morning

Dume, >5yr old WC male

Chaucer, 3.5 yr old CB female

Merlin, ~3.5 yr old WC female

Sybil, 10 months old CB

different lighting - looks a little too yellow

trying to show that her bars aren't symmetrical

now really annoyed with me

Rincewind, 10 months old CB - not happy with the camera

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

What a great collection ! I love mellers. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jannb]

Just beautiful!!!!

 

[jmcc000]

Awesome collection!!
You must have quite the setup with all those big guys and gals. They are quickly becoming one of my favorites.
Any pics of the room / rooms they are in?

 

[Eric Adrignola]

I'm thinking of setting up a semi-half-a$$ed semi-permanant free range in my basement for now...

We need to replae the carpet there, soon, so it cannot be really hard to remove.

Nothing better than free-rome melleri groups (as far as lizards are concerned).

 

[Kat77]

Yay for Melleri! You have a great collection!

 

[lbesok]

They all look amazing, great pictures, thanks for posting.

 

[Lizardlover]

hey i was just curious what size cages are yours in, or are they free roaming, ive always wanted one but i know they are what some call the 90 day chameleon

 

[PICHISPYTHONS]

Beautiful chams i love them!

 

[Trace]

Suzanne, you certainly have quite the collection of melleri now! Nice pics.

Cheers,
t

 

[spatulars]

I'm really enjoying all these posts of more rarely-kept species. What beautiful chams!

 

[studiocham]

They look good and full of themselves! But you need more melleri. Definitely.

 

[summoner12]

Great pics Suzanne!

Nice AV Liz!

Edit: I have a bunch of pics of the Melleri that is on exhibit at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago! I will post as soon as I am home.... Prolly Monday.

 

[Sang]

is this the same species as yours?

 

[Sepioteuthis]

Awesome collection!!
You must have quite the setup with all those big guys and gals. They are quickly becoming one of my favorites.
Any pics of the room / rooms they are in?

Actually we wrote an article about our set up for the February Chameleon E-zine (www.chameleonnews.com). The free range article on the front page is ours.
Right now though, only the 2 females are free ranged. The big male, Dume, got a little to persistent this mating season and won't leave the girls alone. The smaller male (not pictured) is recovering from 2 infected toes. So I've temporarily set up 2 reptariums for the males.
The younger chameleons each have their own 2x2x4 screen cage.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

You might try this - it worked for deremensis, and I'm not yet in a position to try it for myself.

I set up a semi-free roam for my deremensis a few years back in the Raleigh area.

It was approx 12' long, 4'deep and 5' high. The area was divided into several pens, each had a 1"x2" frame that was 5' high and about 3 feet deep, with translucent plastic for a barrier. This provided a near total visual barrier, but not a total physical barrier. The 1' gap in front enabled the animals to traverse between the pens if they wished, but it was a bit out of the way for them.

The only route between the two areas (besides the floor of the cage) was a lower branch that was not placed in a really compfortable position for them - it was low, bare of leaves, and not easy to access form their main "highways".

The animals usually stayed on their sides, visually separate. A few times during the week, I'd catch them near each other, minus any stress coloration. They did this all on their own terms, and a very good understanding seemed to be reached between the females and the male.

During mating season, the male would spend more time pacing the entire thing, getting the females a bit upset every once in a while. He never was very persistant, however.

I guess in the wild, the foliage is so dense, visual separation can happen easily. For melleri, it might be a space issue not really possible in a room-sized enclosure.

 

[Sepioteuthis]

I appreciate the input, Eric.

I had already provided several barriers in their habitat so they could get away from each other. Up until recently this worked great - if they were in each others way one would just leave that part of the free range. The persistence of Dume became a problem when one of the females, Chaucer, started to really fight back instead of just ignoring him or displaying. These fights would usually result in Dume leaving, however a couple hours later he'd be back trying to court her again. At this point the smaller male, Guin, was also still in the same free range and Dume kept picking fights with him aswell.
Anyway, emotions just started to run too high, so it was time to isolate Dume. It seems a good solution for everyone, Dume isn't restless at all, I think he appreciates the solitude right now.
I'm planning to start reintroducing Dume to the females in a month or so, but Guin is staying separate from now on. I'm hoping that one or both of the 10-month-olds are females that I can pair up with Guin and make everyone happy

 

[summoner12]

is this the same species as yours?

Who are you asking?