Posted by:
Carlton
at Mon Jan 3 12:23:43 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Carlton ]
I think your basic problem is going to be finding the "hot" species for sale. Another species native to the hotter parts of Madagascar is verrucosus (actually I've read that they are more tolerant of heat than oustaleti), but then again because of export quotas and closures you just may not find any available. I've never seen namaquensis for sale or heard of any being cared for by the few old time "experts" who seemed to get their hands on everything. One of the main reasons so many montane species are available these days is that their countries of origin have not limited their exportation for the pet trade. They are still a relatively newly exploited export. But, in your hot area I think the main problem will be the same for most species...the hotter it is the more spraying you'll need to do. If your cages are shaded during the hot part of the day, they have dense layers of bushes and vegetation, and you spray them enough, the chams will be able to find cooler places to wait out the heat. If you put thermometers in different areas of an outdoor cage you'll probably find there is quite a range of temps. The other problem will be enough drop in temp at night. Basically all chams will need a 10 to 15 degree drop at night. If you can't provide that you may have to plan on bringing your chams indoors and cool them off during the hottest months of the year. When you think about it, the only reason any species occur successfully in the wild in some places is because they can tolerate the climate. If they can't tolerate it they just don't occur. When humans bring species into new places they just have to plan on accomodating them artificially. If you really want to keep chams and your native climate is outside their range of tolerance you'll just have to plan on keeping them indoors with man-made climates.
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RE: desert chams or hot needs/? - Carlton, Mon Jan 3 12:23:43 2005