No More Chameleon Eggs

The last chameleon egg went bad over the weekend.

I’m kind of disappointed, and as horrible as it is, I’m a little relieved.

Every since we found out the eggs were good, I’ve worried about having to find food small enough for the chameleons if they were born in the winter, and then when I found out that I was having a baby, I was worried that the chameleons would hatch right around the time the baby was born, and that would definitely result in Jeff spending more time away from the baby than he wanted too.

At the same time, I know that the eggs contributed to Skye’s early demise, and it makes me sad that she didn’t have any offspring to show for it.

Even though we didn’t breed them, Skye snuck over into Sully’s cage when she was ready, and even though we tried to limit her food so that she wouldn’t have eggs, it didn’t work.

I am glad that we had the experience of having chameleons, and I do miss them, but at the same time it’s nice not to have to feed them, and spray them daily – that really did take up a lot of time.

I was also really scared to leave them for more than a weekend, and in fact, we only left them for longer than that for once their entire lives – and being scared to leave them alone was one of the main reasons we never left them for longer than that, even though before we got Skye and Sully we made sure that we knew someone who would watch them for us if we went on vacation.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get chameleons again – there are so many other things that I want to try, and since it isn’t recommended to have reptiles around infants and toddlers, I don’t think we’ll get any more until the baby is older.

Who knows.

My reptile is getting burned by it's heat bulb, what should I do?

Someone recently found the blog by searching for this question, and I thought that it was important enough to address here.

Sometimes heat bulbs can get too hot and burn reptiles – chameleons are notorious for sitting near bulbs that are burning them, so it’s important for the owner to take steps to ensure that the reptile won’t be burned, because you can’t count on the reptiles to protect themselves.

1. Make sure that you are using the right type of heat bulb and fixture.

Certain fixtures, especially those with reflectors, can increase the amount of heat that is being given off.

2. Measure the amount of heat given off at the bulb, and at the closest distance to the bulb that the reptile can get too after the bulb has been on for awhile.

3. Each time you change brands and watts of bulbs, measure again. Different bulbs can give off different amounts of heat.

You might want to measure each time you change a bulb, even if it is the same wattage and brand as what you’ve been using.

4. Make sure the temperatures are right before you put the reptile in the cage.

Yes that means that the cage has to be set up for a day or two before you bring the reptile home, but his safety is worth it, isn’t it?

5. If your reptile does get burnt, move the bulb farther away from the reptile, or try a bulb with lower watts.

You may need to play around with it for a while to find the settings that are right for you, but make sure that you’re reptile doesn’t get burnt again while you are doing this.

Your reptile may need to see a vet to make sure that infection doesn’t get into the wound.

If you have any tips on how to keep your reptile from getting burned by it’s heat bulb, leave a comment and let me know.

Sully's gone

Jeff woke up last Sunday, and Sully was dead.

He’d been acting normally and eating and drinking regularly until Saturday night, when, of course the vet’s office was closed.

Sunday it was too late.

How long have you been interested in reptiles and amphibians?

I think I’ve always been interested in reptiles and amphibians, although to tell you the truth if i was out walking and a snake I’d never seen before crossed my path I’d be a little nervous.

I loved watching the skinks, lizards, and toads that occasionally made their way to the house when I was younger, but I’d never had one as a pet until I was in college.

While I was in college I got the first of many African Dwarf Frogs, and after I got married we started getting reptiles, starting with the ball pythons, the panther chameleons, and ending with our leopard gecko.

How long have you been interested in reptiles and amphibians?

Do you have any now?

How long have you had them if you do, and are you planning on getting any if you don’t?

Any new reptiles lately?

How are your reptiles doing?

Is anything exciting going on?

Ours are healthy, but they aren’t exciting.

I guess that’s a good thing though – too much excitement would probably mean something bad was going on.

Are you planning on getting, or researching any new reptiles lately?

Planning on going to any of the reptile shows?

Leave a comment and let me know what’s going on in your reptile world.

Legless frog mystery solved

Legless Frog Mystery Solved

It turns out that the deformed frogs and toads aren’t caused by chemical contaminants after all, or at least they aren’t all caused by them.

Scientists have discovered that some species of dragonfly nymphs eat the limb buds off of tadpoles, which results in frogs with missing or deformed legs, if the tadpoles survive to adulthood.

A parasitic flatworm, Riberoria trematode, which burrows into tadpole’s hindquarters, rearranges the limb bud cells while it’s in there, and that can result in extra limbs.

Although this has been going on for years, I don’t remember reading anything saying that natural predators might be responsible for the deformities, all I’ve heard is that it was due to chemicals, so I think it’s really interesting that it is something natural that’s causing the problems.

What do you think about this?

Chameleon egg update

The chameleon eggs still haven’t hatched.

Since they were laid on July 1, 2008, and they normally take 6-13 months to hatch we still have about another month and a half before things start to look abnormal.

Unfortunately some of the eggs have died, so it looks like we have about 7 of the original 13 left that are still viable.

You can read more about the eggs at 13 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon Eggs.

Help! My crickets are eating my chameleon

David just left a comment with a very good question, which I edited a bit for clarity.

“My chameleon is a youngster and eats medium crickets.

Now I looked at him just a moment ago and the crickets have been eating just belowe the spikes on his spine.

Can someone help me please as i cannot figure out what to do.

My e-mail is ***deleted to prevent spam*** thanks and help is needed urgently.”

David, the easy answer is don’t leave crickets in the cage with your chameleon if he isn’t going to eat them very soon.

If there are extra crickets running around, there is always the chance that they will get bored and start crawling on or biting your chameleon.

We keep our crickets and other chameleon foods in separate tupperware containters.

Instead of gutloading the batch we are going to feed the next day, we gutload the entire container, and then we can just grab a few when we are ready to feed the chameleons.

Jeff feeds crickets and mealworms from a cricket feeder cup, and he justs dusts them before he feeds them.

He uses tongs to feed Sully roaches one by one (we really don’t want roaches loose in the house), and he takes a sprinkle of whichever mineral powder he is using that day, and dusts it over each roach before he feeds it.

This way we can see exactly how much each reptile eats, we can make sure they eat the supplements before they come off of the food items, and we can make sure that none of the food escapes from the reptile cages, or stays in the cage long enough to harass the reptiles.

When we do use crickets we will occasionally let one loose in Sully (the panther chameleon) or Tiger’s (the leopard gecko) cages so that they can hunt and get a little bit of exercise, but only when we can tell that they are still hungry, and will be pretty likely to hunt the cricket down before the reptiles go to sleep.

I have heard of people who use a bowl full of crickets wrapped in wire so the crickets can’t climb out of the bowl and eat the reptiles, but with that method you still can’t be sure that your pets are getting proper supplementation.

Your chameleon should also be seen by a vet to make sure the bite wounds below his spikes aren’t infected, and to see if he needs any medications to prevent are treat infections.

Good luck, and let me know how your chameleon is doing.

Thank you.

If you have a reptile question let me know about it! If I don’t know the answer I’ll do my best to find it.

You can see David’s original comment at What do you feed your crickets?

Are your lizards lazy?

Here's Sully in his unlazy days.

Have you noticed your lizards are getting lazy?

Tiger, the leopard gecko, is doing ok, but Sully is getting lazier in his old age.

Since we started feeding him roaches, Jeff makes sure that the roaches don’t escape from Sully’s cage.

That means Jeff feeds Sully each roach with some wooden tongs, to make sure he eats each roach.

Now that Sully is more used to Jeff, he’ll wait for Jeff to get the roaches, and if he drops a roach, he’ll wait for Jeff to pick it back up with the tongs before he tries to eat it again.

Sully is so spoiled.

We’re planning on getting a shipment of crickets soon, so that Sully and Tiger can hunt for their food a little bit more, and so it will give them a little variety.

They've got roaches, just like us!

Sully the Nosy Be Panther Chameleon's Eye

Those are definitely not words that I want to hear in public, especially when they’re coming from my husband.

My three year old niece loves looking at the roaches when she comes over.

The last time she visited she even asked to look at the “aliens” or “ants” twice.

I went and got Jeff and let him do the dirty work, I really don’t play with the roaches that much.

I’ve had enough experience with Palmetto bugs, so I don’t ever want to deal with a roach again.

Anyways, we were at the zoo, and my niece kept calling Jeff to look at the roaches they had there.

Twice I hear Jeff saying “They’ve got roaches, just like us!” from across the room.

I was so embarrassed.

Most people probably aren’t going to think “Wow, I bet they have roaches to feed their reptiles,” they’ll probably thing “Eww, they must be dirty if they have roaches here and it ‘s this cold outside.”

Seriously, what would you think?