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SURPRISE!!! I have baby veiled chameleons!!!

gomezvi Oct 06, 2005 11:10 PM

I have 18 veiled eggs that I was incubating from April. I wasn't expecting babies for another 2-3 months. Well, I was talking to a friend about them just now, so I went to go look at them. SURPRISE! Six lil ones, clawing at the top.
I'll be honest, I got pantsed on this one, totally got me by surprise. Luckily I have a spare small cage. With all the recent storms, I have several dry eucalyptus twigs.
I'm gonna get some fruit flies from Petco in the morning until the pinheads I just ordered come in.
Sadly though, I was too late for ONE chameleon. I'm counting my blessings though, and I'm just considering myself lucky that I checked my eggs when I did.
Bottom line, CHECK YOUR EGGS AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK!!!!
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

Replies (11)

flammysnake Oct 07, 2005 04:22 AM

Congrats! it's sad to hear about the one, but it's great to hear about the others! i usually check my eggs every day....but i'm a very bored person...and impatient! hatch already!!

eric adrignola Oct 07, 2005 08:09 AM

Cool, these are from the animals you lost in the heat, correct?

Same happened with my first veield - George. He died before the
eggs hatched. When they did, it was awesome.

6 months to hatch, that's pretty quick. Did you incubate them in
the mid 80's? I incubate mine in the closet - it varies from high 60's
to low 80's, and it takes usually 7-8 months. Some people
incubate them in the mid to high 80's, and they hatch 1-2 months
earlier, but are smaller.

I actually had much higher hatch rates and lower mortality when I
incubate them in the easiest, most half-a$$ed manner - I put them
in slightly moist vermiculite, seal them in a plastic box, put them in
th ecloset, an dcheck every few days. When I tried with a temp
controlled incubator, I had weaker babies, and more runts. Some
find that incubators work best for them. My animal room closet
stays juuuust right.

I'm glad these guys are hatching out for you. I've found hydei flies
work best - they aren't nearly as prolific as meanogaster, but if
you've got several large cultures going, they can't be beat. I
ordered mine from Flyculture.com. I find that his cultures are
bigger, and last much logner than any others I've had. I had a
culture of melanogaster and one of Hydei when my veields started
to hatch. I overwatered the eggs in one container, so almost all the
babies hatche dearly and died. I had the cultures for several
weeks until anythying was able to eat them. Still, the cultures
lasted me nearly two months of constant feeding. The big 32 oz.
cultures are great, at $8 a piece.

MUCH better than pinheads. Only bad thing is they can climb, so
you need a screen top. The hydei's, however, are too big to fit
through most screen, whereas the wingless melanogaster can.

I've always used pinheads for 90% of my baby's food. Now, the
only pinheads I'm using are ones I'm hatching myself. Pinheads are
the worst. I couldn't get any of my veields to eat baby
mealworms or silkworms until they were 2-3 months old.

Eric A

gomezvi Oct 07, 2005 11:02 AM

>>Cool, these are from the animals you lost in the heat, correct?
One and the same. I had one mating back in March, with 31 eggs resulting. I decided I would experiment, so I incubated this batch in moist sand. BAD idea. The sand dried out too fast. I ended up losing 13 eggs right off the bat.

>>6 months to hatch, that's pretty quick. Did you incubate them in the mid 80's? I incubate mine in the closet - it varies from high 60's to low 80's, and it takes usually 7-8 months. Some people incubate them in the mid to high 80's, and they hatch 1-2 months earlier, but are smaller. I actually had much higher hatch rates and lower mortality when I incubate them in the easiest, most half-a$$ed manner - I put them in slightly moist vermiculite, seal them in a plastic box, put them in the closet, an dcheck every few days. When I tried with a temp controlled incubator, I had weaker babies, and more runts. Some find that incubators work best for them. My animal room closet stays juuuust right.
That's exactly what I did. I put the eggs in a tupperware container, then put that in my bug closet. It's really the coolest part of my house. We've been keeping the AC set to 80, so that's what the eggs were exposed to, a constant 80.

>>I'm glad these guys are hatching out for you. I've found hydei flies work best - they aren't nearly as prolific as meanogaster, but if you've got several large cultures going, they can't be beat. I ordered mine from Flyculture.com. I find that his cultures are bigger, and last much logner than any others I've had. I had a culture of melanogaster and one of Hydei when my veields started to hatch. I overwatered the eggs in one container, so almost all the babies hatche dearly and died. I had the cultures for several weeks until anythying was able to eat them. Still, the cultures lasted me nearly two months of constant feeding. The big 32 oz. cultures are great, at $8 a piece.
I was gonna order up some fruit flies, but I don't think I have time to do so now. I'll have to deal with pinheads, though I don't really like them.

The babies seem to be doing okay. A little dehydrated and hungry, but other than that they're doing okay. Bernie is at home, so she's gonna go get some pinheads from Petco until our order comes in. She's going to put them out to get them started on some good Arizona fall sunshine. It's only been getting about 95 lately, but I think this might be a bit too warm for the lil guys. I'll bring them in during the hottest time of the day.
OH, on a related note, my panthers seem to be doing well, even when the temp spikes to 95. It doesn't stay that hot all day, it just spikes to that for a couple of hours. We CONSTANTLY water them at this temp, just to be on the safe side.

BTW- Anyone in Phoenix with some good Hydei cultures going that could help me out with a culture or two? You'd be doing me and the baby veileds a HUGE favor!!!!
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

gomezvi Oct 07, 2005 11:07 AM

>>Congrats! it's sad to hear about the one, but it's great to hear about the others! i usually check my eggs every day....but i'm a very bored person...and impatient! hatch already!!
Thanks! Being that these are from Apollo and Seren, these babies mean a LOT to me. Yes, it's sad that I lost one, but I'm focusing on the positive. It was sheer luck that I decided to check in on them. I wasn't gonna check on them for at least another week or two. It would have been tragic to peek in to see a whole tray full of dead baby chams!
Now I need to find 6 names that mean luck!
Speaking of luck, I found a picture of Apollo.... not in his best colors.
Image
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

lele Oct 07, 2005 05:55 PM

I am so glad you checked when you did! What a treat that you have some of Apollo and Seren's babes

Here is a link to lots of names. This one is for reptiles, but same site has them by gender, ethnicity - all sorts of stuff! name a boy Nova for me, it is the Hopi word for "chases butterflies"
Link

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

gomezvi Oct 07, 2005 10:14 PM

>>name a boy Nova for me, it is the Hopi word for "chases butterflies"
.... so does this mean you're staking your claim on a boy?
I haven't been able to spot any obvious tarsal spurs yet, but I'll keep an eye out for your Nova.
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

wraithy Oct 11, 2005 02:38 PM

NO VA - means no go in mexican. Nuttin bout no buttahflies


-----
RafJaime@aol.com

0.1 Nosy Be's (Roja)
0.3 Bearded Dragons (Ginger, Baby and Georgia)
1.0 Adult Sulcatta (George)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
0.1 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (WhatsHerFace)
1.0 Yellow Footed Tortoise (Alfred)
0.1 3 toed turtles
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
1.1 English Bulldogs (Alice and Chuckie)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

PHEve Oct 11, 2005 11:50 PM

OH how perfect the fact your favorite pair, (Beautiful as they were,) left you some gorgoeus kids, just...

AMAZINGLY COOL ! A BIG congratulations, best wishes for them all

PICS PLEASE , heehhehe
-----
PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

FEENIEE Oct 07, 2005 01:27 PM

CONGRATS on the new babies!! Post pictures! We all love babies!
-----
Feenie

1.1 vieled cham.- Stitch and Rana (Missing you,Chloe)
2.0 Panther chams- Lou and Yosamite Sam
1.0 Giant Day Gecko- Mr. Gecko
0.1 Aussi Whites Tree frog- Frumpy
1.0 Peacock tree frog- Igaro
2.2 Canines Junior-pitbull chiuahuah mix, Jose- chiuahuah, Pearl- Staffie, and Daisy- Red nose Pit- foster child
1.0 boyfriend- Trent species unknown

gomezvi Oct 07, 2005 02:05 PM

>>CONGRATS on the new babies!! Post pictures! We all love babies!
Yep yep! Love them baby pics. Being 100% honest, I didn't take any pictures last night because I wasn't 100% sure that they would make it through the night. I don't know how long they were in the container, and with one dead one already, I just didn't want to get my hopes up. We were more focused on setting up an appropriate enclosure and getting them hydrated. A couple of them had their eyes closed. Not sure if this was because it was late, or if they still had sand in their eyes.
With all the recent losses we've had at the house, I think it'd be really tough on Bernie if we did lose any of these babies. I just don't want to get 'attached' to them, if you understand me.
Focusing on the positive and looking towards the future, I will be posting pics of the babies probably tonight.
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

FEENIEE Oct 07, 2005 02:53 PM

Well, I think it's great that you have the babies and I know they will do good in your care!
-----
Feenie

1.1 vieled cham.- Stitch and Rana (Missing you,Chloe)
2.0 Panther chams- Lou and Yosamite Sam
1.0 Giant Day Gecko- Mr. Gecko
0.1 Aussi Whites Tree frog- Frumpy
1.0 Peacock tree frog- Igaro
2.2 Canines Junior-pitbull chiuahuah mix, Jose- chiuahuah, Pearl- Staffie, and Daisy- Red nose Pit- foster child
1.0 boyfriend- Trent species unknown

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