Reptile & Amphibian Forums

some Q's.... why do they need such huge cages when they only reach 2-3 inches? Cant i keep onein a kritter-cage? (im not saying i'll house it there, im just curious.....Also What Do i feed it? do they change colors?are they aggressive? Thats it for now, THX

Hi,

Have you gotten your pygmies yet or are you just researching at this point? I just got three from Kammerflage Kreations (highly recommend them!) they are the stump-tails from Tanzania - Rhampholeon brevicaudatus and just love them! They are about 3 months old and 1" long ...cute! I have two females and a male and the boy tends to stay distant from the girls except at basking when they all hangout together

In answer to your question...these are forest floor dwellers in nature and therefore need to have more ground space than climbing space (as most other spp. do). I have my three in a 10 gallon glass tank, 5 live plants, an incandescent light for basking and they are under my "gro-lites" for my plants which are full spectrum so they get some uvb light, but again their needs are a bit different than the "big guys" in that they do not require the same in lighting. Eventually I will put them in my 29 gal. They do need high humidity and therefore a nice deep substrate(stone/charcoal/soil/bark) helps and is best for growing the plants as well. Believe me, they use up the entire space while hunting for the fruit flies! Hiding under plants, lurking next to a fake turtle I have in there (it looks real!)

Let me also say that I think you would get much more pleasure having them in a bigger tank that you can plant nicely! 10 gals can be found at yard sales very inexpensively, but even new at a pet store should only be $10-12

So all in all I have had them barely over a week but did my "homework" for many months before deciding on them over the more common velied, panther etc. There is much less info on them as well but I have found Liddy and Ed Kammer (breeders) to be hugely helpful and there is someone on this forum who has been nice enough to email directly who keeps pygmies.

Go to the link below from Cham News for a good article on
Brookesia spp., another leaf species. Hope this helps!
Brookesia