Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got a pair of Rh. brevicaudatus, one seems to be a year, and the other probably around 6 months. Both are captive bred.

Both of them tend to keep one or both eyes shut spontaneously and randomly throughout the day. They have good humidity, good temps, are eating and pooping, I haven't seen them drink but they look hydrated and plump.

Even when I pick them up, they keep their eyes closed for about 10 seconds and then open them, and then keep one closed or will keep them open until I go check on them hours later.

They seem healthy, but I don't know if this is a normal weird behavioural thing or if there is a problem.

Do brevis tend to take naps during the day or something? I know that's not a good sign in larger chameleons.

Some questions …

Where did you get them?
What are the H/L temps?
How often are you misting?
What is the H/L humidity?
How are they being kept?
What are you feeding/supplement schedule?
How long have you had them (days/weeks)?

It’s not normal for pygmies of that age to be closing eye(s). I see that with much older brevs or sick brevs or hatchlings that most likely wont make it. So I would tend to think that something may be up.

-roo

Is there anything in the cage environment that might be irritating their eyes?

What plants are in their cage...if any? What substrate do you use?

Where did you get them? Got them from Dawn at www.enchantedexotics.com at the Edmonton reptile show last weekend.

What are the H/L temps? They high is about 75 and night time will get to 65.

How often are you misting? Misting them two-four times a day.

What is the H/L humidity? Humidity is high. I don't measure it except with putting my hand in the tank to feel, and visually the condensation near the bottom and droplets on the leaves.

How are they being kept? They are in a well planted 10gallon, with moss on the bottom so they don't get substrate when shooting at insects. I have only had them for a week and a half, and just dusted with HerpCare Cricket Dust today. They've been feeding on 1-2 week old crickets. There are no plants that would cause any irritation in the tank. There is a ficus but no sap would have come off it.

What are you feeding/supplement schedule? Feeding them every day. Haven't supplemented them yet except for today. Am planning on calcium one to two times a week, d3 once every two weeks, and multivitamin once every two weeks. Does that sound good? Should I do calcium three times a week?

How long have you had them (days/weeks)? I got them last Saturday, so 11 days ago. They started this behaviour as soon as I got them home. I had them kept in a small (few gallon) container with branches and fern leaves. They ate about 10 crickets each, each day.

I'm going to be feeding them small lobster roaches as well. Does anyone here feed them springtails and fruit flies reglularly? Or would those be better for hatchlings and smaller ones?

The only things that jumps out at me are the 2-4 times a day misting and no humidity gauge. From my experiences, smaller enclosures such as a 10g tend to hold humidity better then larger ones. So MAYBE 2-4 times a day is a bit too much. I can’t say for sure since I don’t know what you are misting with and for how long at each session.

Telling someone how much to mist and when is impossible, there are too many things to factor in such as enclosure size, current weather, room humidity, etc, etc. So here are some guidelines. The substrate should always be somewhat moist but not sopping. Occasionally I mix the substrate up with a long chop stick so that overly wet places get a chance to dry out – I rarely do this and a lot of times it happens when I am searching for eggs – so every other month or so. After misting, I like to see the humidity (gauge at the top center of the enclosure) to jump to around 75-85ish (depends on how hot it is) and as the day goes on, drop down into the low to high 50’s, then one hour prior to lights out I lightly mist again (or heavy – its depends on the weather). One thing to avoid is constant high humidity – you need to let things dry out, so if you still see moisture on plants prior to misting (or moisture/small pools of water on the substrate leaf litter), then hold off on misting. I really suggest getting a humidity gauge – this will help.

So with misting, you need to be observant and take your queues from the outside weather and the room temps and humidity. I think people new to pygmies tend to over mist, I know I did when I first got into them. But I’m sure there are other who under mist too. It’s definitely a learning process.

A lot of moss in the enclosure may make it tough to dry out too. A little bit of moss is nice for sustaining humidity but too much will work against you. Don’t worry about chams eating a little bit of substrate/debris – its going to happen no matter what you do.

Careful with the lobster roaches. You will need to cup feed them with some Vaseline around the rim. If you just toss them in there they will hide then a few months later you will see adult roaches in there. Trust me, I stopped putting lobsters in my tanks well over a year ago and to this day I still yank an adult out every so often.

Now as for the chams with their eyes closed, they may just be settling in still - them eating is a good sign. Give them time, keep the temps in the ranges you have and be very observant with how much you are misting. Hopefully they will snap out of it.

Good luck.

-roo