"My Herp History"

Welcome to my area, this is were you can read about my herps and you might learn something about solving problems. Anyways if you have any comments or suggestions contact me at mabrey@istar.ca.
Chamy

Chamy is a two month old vieled chameleon. He is living currently in a 15 gallon aquarium that has been turned on its side. This aquarium has one hibiscus plant that cover the entire inside of the cage. He lives here happily not seeing his reflection at all due to a jungle wrap around his cage. If you are thinking about purchasing a vieled chameleon or any other type of chameleon I would say ... the make a great visual lizard. They are not the handling type. However hand feeding is possible which involves bringing the chameleon up to the fly or cricket and he will do the rest. Chameleons are not a good starting reptile. In other words not good for begginners, infact I went through three different species of reptiles before purchasing my chameleon. I am currently subsrcibed to the Chameleon Conservation Listerv. You can find a link to this page under Herp Links. Look under organizations. These people have been very helpful to my successful husbandry of my chameleon. Some of the problems I hav enecountered with my chameleon are housing, watering, and feeding. Housing is especially difficult for chameleons since they require so much space. An average adult vieled chameleon requires an all sided screen cage that measures about 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide, and three feet long. This costed me and my dad about 100 dollars canadian, say 70 dollars US, and 50 pounds. This is an expensive purchase especially if you place it outside, because then you need another one inside! So an average baby vieled chameleon costs around 70 dollars canadian, 50 US, and 35 pounds. Although I should point out that my judgment of the british pound is correct, but prices there my be different than here in Canada. I also have been told by my british friends that it is hard to come by lizards in Britian as is in Canada. Watering is also a problem because when they are adults they need a drip system. See my caresheet on vieled chameleons for that one. Feeding is a pain in the back when they are young because they eat SO MUCH. On average a baby vieled chameleon will eat 10 flies per day.! YIKES! Now in the winter they will have to eat crickets (make sure they are dusted). I put a calcium and vitamin supplement in his water since I don't dust my flies.

Rex
Rex is a Carolina Anole. He lives in a 36 gallon allthough he could easily live in a 10 gallon. In my opinoin the more the space the happier they will be. Although some people would disagree. Rex is doing ok but I want to improve his surroundings greatly. I also want to introduce him to two females. Anoles are a very good starter lizard since they are cheep about 2 dollars canadian. I have had no problems with him.

Grandis & Phyllis
Grandis & Phyllis are Madagascar Giant Day Geckos. They both live sepratly (to stop them from breeding which could prove fatal to Phyllis) in 10 gallon tanks. These were my second reptile species. These are deffinately not handable. Thier skin is so think that touching them to hard could rip it. This happened before with my last female MGDG who died after a fight with the Grandis. There is no blood but just a pinkish skin underneath that if not treated can become infected. That is what happened to her and she died :(. Anyhow from that fight Grandis also dropped his tail, yes they are capable of it. Oooh said my sister as it sat there squigling on the bottom of the cage. I removed still squiglling and put it in the garbage. They can't get inffected from this if it is broken at what we call a segment. The tail is seggmented and there are certain parts that can grow back. Grandis lost his here there was a little blood but not much. I increased his vitamin intake and sped up his feeding and in a few months the tail grew back to its full size (a lot of people thought it wouldn't since he had lost 3 quaters of his tail). Also what I found amazing which I am bringing up with the gecko conservation page is that the tails scales were the same colour and were facing the same direction.! This is extremely odd, usually the new grown tail is a different coulour and its pattern is different.

The Late Fish

Fish was a Fishcer's Chameleon. He was my first chameleon and was a grave mistake in buying two weeks after I bought him he died. It turned out he was wild caught and had a parasite that had killed him in the night. So learn from my mistake the only reason that you should buy wild caught animals is to add new jeans into a breeding pool.