Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well I was!
Finally my first baby panther chameleon!
A little Nosey Be from my LTWC male "Salvador" and my CB female "Dali"
The eggs were laid Dec. 23rd of last year and it has been a really long wait for this.
I hope they make it and I will need all the help I can get from any experienced breeders out there!
I am sure I will have tons of questions.

Congratulations !

Wow... december 23...that took about almost 11 months huh? What a long wait! So how many more have hatched, and how many more you expecting? just be ready to spend some serious dough on food, i know my babies are seriously increasing cavity in my wallet.
Don't hesitate to drop me line with any Q's you need A's for.

It was not a large clutch. I am glad because this way they are a bit cheaper to feed. Not to mention I have 7 adult chams and around 50 - 75 herps right now give or take a few not counting these babies.
I actually have a breeding licence but mostly have bred leopard geckos, cresteds and day geckos. I also have bred veileds but these are my first Panthers. All the others are just to support my Panther habit!

Since you have a ton of other herps i'm guessing that you use a lot of adult crix. For food I have a good idea... get some of the little conainers that they use at take out places for dip, etc (if you can, or cut the bottoms from deli cups, or use the tiny cups you use to rinse your mouth at the dentist... you get the idea) and just fill them with dirt, or something, and put them in with your adults. That's what I do to feed my brev's. I feel ripped off paying for pinheads... They take nothing to hatch, it's the raising them to adult size that makes it worth buying them... You've probably thought of this already, just thought i'd mention it in case...
Also, leave out a piece of cantalope in a clean pickle jar. I don't know what it is about it, but when ever there is some in my garbage the fruit flies INVADE my house... You can probably get quite a few, and keep a colony going for a few weeks. Using bamboo pokers helps, you can change the fruit everyother day to prevent mould. (soaking it in lemon juice allows it to stay good longer than two days, fyi).

I keep trying with moistened potting soil, Coco fiber, sand and who knows what else. I put the container in with the adults and then wait and I have never had any hatch. What am I doing wrong?!?
How wet do I need to keep the sand. What temps?
I am so ashamed that after breeding god knows how many herps I can't breed a single cricket!

I know how you feel...I use to have the same issue and still do with wax worms. There are a few tricks that no one seems to see as tricks. 1st the older and larger female crickets will lay a lot more eggs (keep that in mind). I can tell you what works for me after failing so many times... I put up to 500 crickets (max) per large rubbermaid with lots of egg flats on their side leaving the end open. On the end I use yogurt lids (any like lid works too) and I put cricket water (thick polymer crystals that absorvbe up to 800 times their size in water) on one and premium cricket food on another (one trick the cricket food has to be more appealing then the eggs to the males). Then in the middle I put a 8 oz (low profile) deli cup filled with 2/3rds wet peat moss and 1/3 moist top soil. Leave the 8oz container in for 12 hours for hundreds of eggs and up to 24 hours for just over a 1000 eggs. Keep the container moist not soaked after taking it out of the cricket cage and put a lid on it until you see you 1st few hatchlings (the look like ants but don't bite) then put it in a small rubber maid with a light over it to bring the temp up to 85 - 92 F degrees! keep slices of fresh potato and sprinkle the premium cricket food (ground fine). That is it! I sell a complete Cricket Kit on ebay. My thought behind the kit is to teach people how to get started with all the right components and a 2 page higly detail instruction sheet so they can do it for themselves instead of wasting their time like I did learning on my own.

Good Luck
Mike
aka weaf (kingsnake and other like forums)
aka weafdj (on ebay)

Congratulations!!! That is awesome, nothing better then seeing little chameleon babys.

Here they are. Salvador and Dali

Sonia, he looks great! Better then when I saw him last year - but hey, why shouldn't he? lol!
-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

lol typical scene
Male: "Imma gonna get ya..."
Female: "Geezes just get it over with already"
LOL

That is him while mating last Dec.
He is not in great shape now. I will take and post a new picture of him soon showing how a geriatric cham starts looking.
He is much thinner now I assume absorption is not as good as it used to be. He eats well but can't catch the food by himself.
Luckily he is so tame from the years together that he just lets me hand him the food item and opens his mouth by himself and sticks out the tip of his tongue for me to touch the bug to it.
Then he pulls it in and chews. His front feet have all but lost their grip. he can really only hold on with the back ones. his tail does not really curl up anymore. He has wrinkly bags under his eyes. I have to provide bushy plants that he sits in kind of draped over the branches. It is a bit sad but he has a lot of heart and does not give up. He even nods at the ladies then falls asleep on them.
Poor old guy his colors are still as bright though.
I wish I knew his age. I have him for 5 years now. The guy I got him from had him for 1 year and he came in to him as a WC adult male with battle scars (his madagas-scars). He looked pretty young but was full grown and in his prime so know one really knows his age for sure.
I am happy to have his babies to pass on his WC genetics and his nice blue coloration.

Major congratulations!!!!! How excited you must be!!! I am so happy for you.

Marilyn