New Pygmy Arrival

[lesleyanndunn]

and we need piccies as well!
i wish my son was into animals ;(
ive no excuse to get anything then lol

[JoseDepacos]

Definately pics when its all together. Apparently they have shows at Brookpark and Columbus every month. I guess I wont be lacking in reptile shows, though Columbus is a couple hours away. Its only about 40 minutes to Brookpark.

[pufferpuggirl]

My heat mat came today! So we've put it on. I don't think I have to worry about it producing too much heat, it's only an 8" x 8" mat, very thin with adhesive on one side. I had my husband hold the terrarium up in the air for me and I fitted it from underneath, but I wasn't able to get it on perfectly, so I hope that doesn't make any difference. I don't see why it should though really. I would hope that this raises the humidity in the terrarium because it's not near where it should be.

As today is a feeding day, I decided to dust the crickets for the first time, as we'd not done it before tonight. I was going to get my husband to do it, but he went into work early, so I had no excuse and went ahead and did it myself. Thing is, I caught 6 small crickets and I put them in a styrofoam cup with a lid and I put them into the refrigerator so it would be easier to get them dusted. But problem is that I sort of forgot about the crickets and was writing an email to my friend when I remembered that they were still in the refrigerator. So I raced out to the kitchen and got the crickets out. Three of the six were turned over on their backs, looking as if they were dead. But I put them all in a plastic bag with a very small amount of the supplement powder and shook them gently. Then I put them in the terrarium with the chams. I watched for a short while and I seen a couple of the crickets moving their legs, thing is, I'm not sure if they were the ones that seemed alive or the ones that were "frozen". I suppose I will just leave it and if they are still in there tomorrow, I will remove them.

[JoseDepacos]

Lol. Whoops. I finished getting materials together today. Havent got a heat mat yet. Let me know how that one works out. I also explored a couple pet shops to see if they carry the tiny pinhead crickets and they do! Always good to know ahead considering I dont know if I'll find juveniles or adult pygmys at the show.

[kilofey]

Yes, I should have specified that I intend on putting the heat mat UNDER the terrarium, not inside it at all, because the one I've bought is intended to be put under the bottom of the terrarium, so it will emit heat through the glass and up through the substrate. I don't think there's anyway the pygmies will be able to get hurt. It's just that right now, it's very cold here in England, and my humidity isn't very high at all .... and I don't want them to suffer because of that. Hopefully the heat mat turns up today so I can get that going and get their terrarium warmed up.
As to water, I would not think of treating mine. I use tap water, although I suppose bottled water would be a better option in the long run.
In regards to dusting, the site I bought mine from says to do it twice a week. But I sent a message to the owner of the site and he said he personally doesn't feed his chams every day, he feeds them every 2 days. We decided every other day, but with less food. I'd rather them have less food more often than more food less often, but that's just me. He did say that people often find their own feeding schedules. We've not dusted the crickets yet, but I think today being their next feeding day that we're going to have to dust them today. I wanted to make sure they were eating before I did that, but we've found parts of crickets in the terrarium as well as the crickets disappearing, so I can only guess that they are eating.

We can't wait to hear what kind of goodies you get at the reptile show this weekend Jose, should be very exciting. I wish our big reptile show was sooner, but maybe it's a good thing it's not. Perhaps by the time our show comes around I will know whether I am doing the right thing or not with the ones we have, and then I can decide if I need to get another or not. I can have one more female, so I might be looking to get one if I go to the Doncaster show.

good to know, i just wanted to make sure it didnt go inside the cage. ive read too many threads disgusing the same thing about their chams being burned because of it... i bet your heat mat will keep them nice and toasty

about feeding and dusting: like i said, reptile people all have their own opinions, if there was ONLY one way to do it, everyone else's reptiles would be dead i just put it out there because it was very difficult for me to find a good schedule that more than one person can actually agree on. if you dust every other feeding and feed every other day, that works out to between 2-3 times a week that you dust... so sounds like pretty good info to me you may want to check into age requirements when it comes to feeding tho. i know with the bigger guys, when they are young, they require daily feeding and when they reach adulthood, they only require every other day. (though im having to feed my boy every day due to the fact that he was sooo skinny when i got him)... sorry i cant be more help with the little ones... but i can help with general info somewhat lol

[kilofey]

My heat mat came today! So we've put it on. I don't think I have to worry about it producing too much heat, it's only an 8" x 8" mat, very thin with adhesive on one side. I had my husband hold the terrarium up in the air for me and I fitted it from underneath, but I wasn't able to get it on perfectly, so I hope that doesn't make any difference. I don't see why it should though really. I would hope that this raises the humidity in the terrarium because it's not near where it should be.

when i cant keep my humidity up because of the weather, i soak a sponge in water, and hang it in the viv under the heat lamp (i think u said u dont have a heat lamp, so maybe hide it in the plants on the substrate) maybe the heating pad will work the same for it... jus a little trick i read at chameleonforums it works for me, hopefully it will work for you... couldnt hurt to try. i clean my sponge every 2 to 3 days by boiling some water and letting cool down just a bit so it wont ruin the sponge, i let it sit for a few minutes. if you try it, you probably wont need a big sponge, so you could probably get maybe 3 pieces from one sponge... then you wouldnt have to clean them so often... like you could clean them all at once at the end of the week or something. hope this helps

btw, i thought id share what i came home to yesterday:

this is my cat inside my cricket tank she broke the screen lid a few days ago, so i put a towel ontop of it so the crickets wouldnt get out until i could go buy another lid... yesterday i came home, she was in the tank, the screen let her in one way but she couldnt get out because the screen wouldnt flex the other direction. she ended up eating/killing ALL of my crickets and about half of the super worms her mouth still had cricket food and super worm food on it! i wanted to be mad, but she just looked so helpless it was cute. and btw, could you imagine being the size of a cricket and something the size of a cat comes into your home, which is just barely big enough to fit the cat hahahahahahahaha horrifying

[JoseDepacos]

Omg that little turd. I know what you mean. My cat is my child, you want to strangle them but just cant do it. Lol. Oh, another great way to kill all bacteria and germs on a sponge....wet and squeeze it out really good and put it in the microwave for one minute. Death to all germs!!

[kilofey]

Omg that little turd. I know what you mean. My cat is my child, you want to strangle them but just cant do it. Lol. Oh, another great way to kill all bacteria and germs on a sponge....wet and squeeze it out really good and put it in the microwave for one minute. Death to all germs!!

OOOO! thanks! i never thought of that.... its so much quicker than waiting for water to boil.

[Rusty]

jose


hopefully you'll find something good at the brookpark show. I went there once and was abit disappointed but that was awhile back. Just make sure they are healthy. Ive seen people get scammed at those things. Hoping all goes well.

[pufferpuggirl]

Yeah I've heard about putting the sponge in the microwave before also. Good way to keep the kitchen sponges super clean without chemicals.

Well I must not have killed the crickets yesterday because this morning there is no sign of them at all, so it appears my little chams are eating, and I am sooooo happy they are. The male looked a bit thin to me, but then again, I'm not certain what a "fat" chameleon looks like. But my female looked a bit fatter.

[JoseDepacos]

jose


hopefully you'll find something good at the brookpark show. I went there once and was abit disappointed but that was awhile back. Just make sure they are healthy. Ive seen people get scammed at those things. Hoping all goes well.

I dont know how long its been since you attended the show. Apparently its much larger now and at a new location. Cant wait to find out.

[kilofey]

im glad to hear they are eating! i wish picasso would eat! im getting sick of feeding him by opening his mouth with a credit card and feeding him one crickeet at a time.... i also wish he would eat on his own because that means he would be getting better, keep your fingers crossed for him! this is the last medicine available before he will be on his own. we have tried everything else. this one is very strong and will either help him, or it could shut down his kidneys... so its a big gamble... but if i didnt try it, he would die for sure

all these antibiotics are really taking a toll on his body im sure... antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria, im currently trying to find a probiotic for reptiles to replenish the good bacteria... they are also dehydrating him like crazy. im having to put water in a syringe *no needle* and squirt it in his mouth. he will drink on his own, but not nearly enough. his good eye is somewhat sunk in and his urine sack is yellow (supposed to be white, unless they are dehydrated)... those are both 2 sure signs of dehydration... i hope i dont give him too much.... AAAHHH soo much to think about. i understand why his previous owner got rid of him lol, hes so stubborn when it comes to getting healthy *grrr*

[JoseDepacos]

Poor thing. I hope he improves.

[kilofey]

me too it makes me look like a really bad cham mommy, but i swear his cage specs are perfect and i take really good care of him, it was just an underlying condition i wasnt aware of when i got him stupid dishonest craigslist people!

[JoseDepacos]

There is a veiled on CL in cleveland. What bothers me about that is the fact that if they want rid of it, what are the chances that its already not being properly cared for? The post is worded well and she wants someone with prior cham experience to buy it but that doesnt mean anything.