New Pygmy Arrival

[pufferpuggirl]

Hey Jose - what's the update on your little boy chameleon?

I've just called the place I'm going to tomorrow for my female, and I am very excited. Today was feeding day for Burt and he's always up and ready for a meal. I just hope he accepts this female I'm getting and she accepts him. I just want them to live "happily ever after"! I think if everything goes alright, I won't bother with getting a 3rd cham .... until we go to the reptile show in June, if they have any nice inexpensive ones that is. Then I might get another.

Strangely enough, after the heat wave of last week, this week's weather has been really good, and I hope it continues this way.
I will be sure to take some photos of our new arrival and let you know how things work out.

Oh, I bought one of those Kricket Keeper things and it's really neat, very glad I got it. It makes getting the crickets out of the container so much easier, and it's kinder on the crickets as well. Very cool contraption!

[JoseDepacos]

Unfortunately the little guy is hunting bugs in the big rainforest in the sky now. I attempted to force feed him with no luck. He wouldnt open his mouth for anything and I felt like I might cause more harm than good so I gave up after trying for about an hour. He was so small I didnt want his end to be more painful than it was by causing him bodily injury. Next month I'll head back to the show and pick up another male. They arent very expensive and I dont think of them as throw away pets by any means but I am glad I didnt spend the money to take him to a vet. I really dont think it would have done any good. For future reference I did find the best herp vet in our area. He treats all the reptiles at the Akron Zoo. His office is around the corner from me not even ten minutes away should the need arise. On a side note, I cant imagine not having that Kricket Keeper. Very cool idea. Someone is making a fortune on those.

[pufferpuggirl]

Awwww.... so sorry to hear about your boy, Jose, that's sad. I thought at first you were going to say he's back to normal hunting crickets. Seems you and I both had a bit of bad luck with our first experiences in keeping these lovely little chams.
I am getting very excited about getting my new female tomorrow, I just hope everything turns out okay. This one will be a wild caught female, so I am a bit nervous about her .... but you never know, things might work out just fine.
Do you have one of those Kricket Keepers yourself? Such a basic container, yet very useful. It makes getting the crickets out so much easier. It will still be a pain when I need to dust them, but that's okay, I have a method for that. At least with this KK you just sort of knock them out of the tube instead of trying to pick them up and having them go AWOL all over the house!

[JoseDepacos]

Yeah, I have a Kricket Keeper. I feed mine the same way wether dusting or not. I tap the crickets into a small butter dish with or without dust and snap on the lid and shake vigorously for a couple seconds. It stuns the crickets (and is much faster than the fridge method) and dusts them as well. Then I just pick em out by hand or with tongs and toss em where I want in the terra. It works great. The quarter size crickets cant seem to jump out of the shallow butter dish either. Try it.

[pufferpuggirl]

Great News! I got my replacement girly pygmy today! The trip to get the new cham was nearly as nice as getting the cham itself, as it was out in the English countryside, very beautiful drive (and what a lovely day!). Once there, the people were really quite nice, it's a young woman Karen and her mother (and Dad, but we didn't get to meet him) who runs the website and the business and it's very low-key. They literally had vats full of substrate with some wooden branches and leaf litter and that's basically it. Most of the chams were hanging onto the ends of the branches, or moving about on the substrate. Not at all how I imagined it to be. But the good part is that they literally had bunches of them where you could see them easily. She showed me all the different ones. They had some green ones that were absolutely gorgeous, but almost 3 times the price of the Beardeds. Maybe another time for that one, but from what she said, that particular species had only been known of for the past 2 years, so that's probably why they are so expensive. She knows the man I got my original pair from and she told me honestly that they get their stock from the same source, so that made me feel good. I talked with her about how to take care of the chams and she said that you want to drench their terrarium with water every 1 to 2 weeks, just literally drench it. But she also said that if you feel you need to mist them more often than twice a day, then by all means do it because she said that you cannot do it too much, especially as they would have alot of rain and wetness in a rainforest setting. She also said that they are fairly hardy, and not as "fragile" as people make them out to be. She said they can withstand temperatures almost down to freezing .... but they cannot take the heat. She also showed me what to look for when the female has eggs inside of her, and told me how the female should look after she's laid her eggs. The eggs aren't buried very deep down, so that's good to know. She had several eggs that she let me look at.
It was all very interesting. In the end, because she knows much more about them than I do, I had her pick me a nice female. She pulled 3 different ones out and said that all were in good health, and I could take whichever one I wanted. I picked a nice looking healthy girl, and as Karen examined her, she said that it felt as if she already had eggs inside her. So I could have babies in the near future.
After I picked my cham, we walked around the facility and looked at the Bearded dragons, geckos, armoured lizards, turtles, frogs, and many other creatures, including a family of dwarf hedgehogs that were adorable. It was a very interesting afternoon. I am very glad that I ordered from them and that I was able to go and pick up my new addition. I think the ride was much less stressful on the chameleon, and I enjoyed the scenery going and coming back from the place, as well as saving some money on shipping fees. So it was a win-win situation!

Anyway, here's my new arrival, and as boring as this may be .... I think I'm going to call my new girl "Kitty" again. I wanted a Burt & Kitty (as a tribute to my mother & father) and it wouldn't be right to have a Burt, but no Kitty and to name the girl something else. So it's Kitty again I'm afraid. Once I put her into the terrarium she was keen to climb up and get quite a few drinks off the glass. And I noticed that Burt came down to hang out near her very quickly upon putting her into the terrarium. I think he missed the first Kitty and was happy to get another companion, because from what I've read, these little guys are a bit social .... so it was nice to make him happy again. Let's just hope that everything goes better this time.

New Girly Pygmy.jpg

New Girly Pygmy 2.jpg

New Girly Pygmy 3.jpg

[L!$A]

Kitty #2 is so cute!
I love how small these guys are, just adorable!
Good pick Suzanne

[pufferpuggirl]

Thank you Lisa, you should have seen all of them at the wholesaler, they were all over and so darn cute!

[L!$A]

I bet!

[JoseDepacos]

Very good looking little girl. Grats on the new pygmy and glad it was all a good experience. Sounded like a good time.

[JoseDepacos]

My little Miss Piglet just scared the bejesus outta me. I did a thorough cleaning and soaking of the terra today and I didnt plug the substrate heater back in. I went out to check the temp and she was in her favorite spot in the ficus and her right eye was telescoped out of her head like way further than normal! WTH?! She rolled it around a little and pulled it back in. I wasnt aware they could do that. I squirted her with a bit of water, though her eye looked clean, and she seems fine. I'll be keeping watch just in case. Must just be something they do.

[pufferpuggirl]

In my opinion - I think this is still very much a learning situation for both of us Jose -- I don't know about you, but I have very little experience with reptiles, however, I'm enjoying it very much!

I'm happy to say that Burt & Kitty2 are doing really well, and it's almost looking like he's showing some extra interest in her. I watched Kitty2 eat several crickets yesterday, so it's good to know that she's eating food.

Jose -- do you bother with giving your crickets water to drink? I was reading about keeping crickets earlier today and it says you should provide them with water. Not sure how I would do that now that I'm keeping them in that small Kricket Keeper. Any thoughts? What are you feeding yours to keep them alive?

[JoseDepacos]

I feed my crickets carrot slices and give them Fluker's cricket quencher that is calcium fortified. It is little gel chunks that wont allow bacterial build up and they cant drown in it. Your Kricket Keeper should have come with two extra clear caps. Those are food and water bowls. You can give them plain water but use a sponge so they cant drown. Even when I dont dust the crickets, they are gut loaded from the gel. I highly recommend getting some. The regular is blue and the calcium fortified is yellow. Good stuff and dirt cheap.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=6461

[pufferpuggirl]

I've just done a look for those, and it's looking like I will have to get them imported from the US, unfortunately we can't order from Fosters & Smith over here.

But it does sound like a good option, as I don't really like the idea of water down in the box. I have been giving them lettuce, which has a high water content, in lieu of actual water, but I am starting to feel bad (yes, actually feeling badly for crickets) that they don't have any water source. I will get some of the cricket quenching cubes ordered in I think.

[jus85411]

in my old frog tank that has become a cricket breeding tank, when i put more of the thrist quenching gel, they go crazy and all swarm to it. they love it!

[Brent]

I just read the whole topic. Took me >1hr. O-o

I was reading Rob's topic where there was more chameleon chat just before this un'. Really got me interested. Plus their small size would mean a smaller exhibit (I hate the word 'cage,' haha)... Time to pull out my skill with persuasion! After more research of course. =P

Sorry about the problems you guys are having / have had with your chams. ):
Better luck this time around, Suzanne. Best wishes for Picasso as well.

Thanks for rekindling the fire that fueled my love of reptiles. >.>
Seriously though, thanks!

Already started a mental checklist of lizards that I want:

Pygmy Chams (of course!)
Bearded Dragon (always been one of my favorites)
Frilled Lizard (ever since I saw one at Big Al's in Toronto...)
Plated Lizard (what's not to love?!)
Mali Uromastyx (wrinkly-ish <3)
And more....


Lizards.