Bearded Pygmy Chameleon

[Brock]

Interesting, the little white bugs could also be a parasite that is passed on to eggs. Because that is wierd that you would have them and people in the states would have the exact same things. Trace did you check your enclosure for these white things? Collide maybe you could stick some in an air-tight bag and send them to a vet for analysis, or send them to someone who can take them to an experienced vet.

-Brock

[meow_mix450]

Well i dont have any chameleons at all but my dad use to grow and took care of plants and when sometimes i have to water for him i would see these litttle white bugs running around.......i dunno if that will help but ya....

[Trace]

Morning everyone!

Wow Collide! That is a wonderful offer on your part! I can't thank you enough! I will take her. My prime reasons are as follows:

A: I would still like to breed this species. Despite the set-backs I've had, I'm not the type of person to give up.
B: In light of the recent studies on parasites in the R. temporalis chameleons, and the fact that she is still alive, I would use her as a test case first for the coccidia parasite. Now I beleive that she came on a different shipment from Tanzania than mine did, but for general interest for everyone involved with this species, she is going to be a guinea pig for further studies.

As much as my male is lonely and pacing his cage looking for his "ladies", she is going to be quarantined far from him to avoid any possible contamination that may be happening here. We'll hook up on MSN today and discuss the details about payment and shipping etc.

And Brock... I have 2 set-ups of pygmy chameleons here, the R. brevicaudatus and the R. temporalis and neither of the tanks have those little white bugs of which you speak. When I went purchase the dirt required for them, I went for a more expensive, quality bag of dirt for my animals as I have seen those white bugs in the soil of my houseplants here. (I use cheap dirt for my plants) As Meow has indicated, I think those bugs are specific to the dirt, more than a parasite brought in on WC animals, so I don't think they are anything to worry about. I will pursue this line of thinking later on in the day and contact some of my plant buddies and report back.

It's getting late, I've finished my coffee now and it's time to call my vet and figure out a plan of attack here.

Cheers!

Trace

[dank7oo]

boy was i behind on things ... i am ashamed of myself

this really sucks, and i honestly feel horrible for the peopel who ahve lost chams ... i know i have grown awfully faund of mine, and couldnt ever picture loosing one.

as for ichiro? i know that you are very busy trace, and i wont get into that, but do you want me to find another home for him? i may be going to toronto this weekend afterall, and am very busy gettting things up and running for my pantehr, and i need the space ichiro is in ...
just lemme know if you still want him, but i will understand if you dont, becasue i know right now you are looking out for your other guys

email me or post here, i will be checking regularly

best of luck for all of you
Jason

[Trace]

Hey Folks!

Well I have good news and bad news. Good news... my chams fecals came back clean for pinworms, tapeworms and the like... bad news... I have coccidia here. GRRR! I now have the meds to treat it effectively and I'm not too concerned about it at this point. My collection is healthy and I caught it in time.

I'm posting my findings, which are NOT scientific by any stretch, but I'm hoping that someone out there will learn from my bad experiences, so here it goes!

Normally my chameleons poop like clockwork, you can set your watch to it! Yesterday when I actually needed poops from everyone... do you think they would poop? NO! Buggers. Out of the 20 chameleons that I currently own, I got 5 fresh poop samples yesterday. Out of those 5 poops, only 1 animal tested positive for coccidia. Now that isn't saying much, as the coccidia parasite may not have been shed in the other 4 samples. Because of the 1 definate case that I have, we are treating everyone here. I should point out that I had an interesting cross sampling of poops... as in some came from WC animals and some came from CBB animals. Also the sampling of poops came from both the quarantine room and some came from my regular collection.

Now here is the points to ponder about this:

1: We have not narrowed down the point of entry of coccidia into my collection. It most likely came from those WC Tanzania animals, but we will never know this for certain.
2: The animal that did test positive for the parasite is a CBB animal who lives in my quarantine room. She is not technically my animal... I'm rehabbing her for a friend of mine. She has been previously vet checked (twice) since her arrival here, although we did not do any fecals. She had other, more important, health issues to deal with first. In hindsight we should have done fecals. Did she bring the coccidia into my house? Is it localized just to her?
3: For the most part, I'm the only one that has access to my animals, but I do live with 2 other people that have reptiles themselves. Has it been brought in by them? Is it in their collection? Both of those people work with animals themselves outside of the house... could they have brought it home from work?
4: In discussions with some medical staff here... there has been a marked increase of coccidia in the general animal population here in Ottawa. Could I have petted my neighbours dog and brought it in? Is there something "fishy" happening in my drinking water at the moment?
5: My crickets and other feeder insects... could they be coming from a place that is infected by coccidia?

So there are too many variables happening here for me to say we chameleon owners DEFINATELY have a problem with animals coming from Tanzania at this point. I should also point out that the coccidia found here was not the same type as the German findings that Brock pointed out. I'm lucky too, my vet is very interested in learning about this new problem, so I'm forwarding off links to all of the websites I have read including this one that started it all, to him. He and I will never solve the problem here, but maybe we will be one step closer to the solution. Any knowledge is good right?

I'm also going to say, now matter how stringent your quarantine methods are, there is always room for improvement on them, as I have found out in the last 24-48 hours. Unfortunately I have a roomie living in my third bedroom at the moment and he is only here for the summer. When he leaves, I'm turning that room into a HIGH quarantine area that I will only have access too. I will also have an area for animals that don't really need to be quarantined persay, but maybe aren't quite ready for my general population yet. Frequent vet checks are always a must.

That's my story, it's unfortunate that it's happening, but I decided to post it in the hopes that people will read this and learn from it. I sure have! I'm off for now... I've got animals to weigh... meds to give and cages that need disinfecting! GRRR! I've got my work cut out for me for the next week.

Have fun with your herps everybody!

Trace

[Trace]

FINALLY!!! All my guys just got their last dose of the coccidia meds today! YEE-HA! I even managed to get the little pygmy chameleons medicated as well. Now that was a treat trying to figure out a proper doseage of a strong medication when they only weigh 4 grams! :/

Unfortunately I did lose one chameleon through all of this, (RIP Mr. Fischer Too) but so far the rest of the posse seems to be doing ok, beyond the fact that they all hate me now. Some are off their food a bit and some have loose stools. Both are side effects of the medicine and hopefully will clear up within the next few days.

I'll have their fecals rechecked next week and hopefully all will be clean. I must say, I've had enough of daily washing and disinfecting cages and cage furniture in the last week to last me a lifetime thanks.

Cheers!

Trace

[Brock]

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT MR. FISCHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to hear you got everything under control, but I'm so sad to hear about Mr. Fischer, I love fischerii so much. They are in my top 5 favourite mountainous species.

-Brock

[Trace]

Just to clarify, it wasn't this "Mr. Fischer" that I lost:



He's one of the stars of the collection here, and I would be heartbroken if it was him. Not that the other male Fischers wasn't special, but he wasn't as personable maybe as the original Mr. Fischer.

Brock, they are fun to work with and one of my favorites as well, maybe because they are just a little different than the Jackson's group. I've also found that there was a lot of Fischers around in the past few years, but I'm having some troubles locating a few nice females this year. Ah well... hopefully one will come my way soon enough.

Cheers!

Trace

[meow_mix450]

srry to hear about ur loss well good luck on finding a female

[meow_mix450]

Hey i just wanted to bring this topic up again. I found it very intresting, and was wondering how everyones Beareded Pygmy's chameleons. Just really intrested. Dont worry not planning to get one lol, it would be kool though, dont think im up for it yet.

Trace: Hows the babys???Planning on getting anymore of these guys???

Meow

[Geofft]

Wow... Does anyone have a picture of the chameleon? and i noticed that trace, you have them in a glass tank? is this better then screen? because after my panther moves out of the small on i will have an extra cage!

[meow_mix450]

Hey Geofft In Trace's gallery she has picks of her bearded pygmy chameleon, i think im not sure

Meow

[Trace]

Meow: I don't have any of these guys left. As I stated in this thread, all of my females died suddenly on me this past summer, and the male finally passed away on me a few weeks ago. Oh well. They do have a fairly short life span in capivity. Mine were also wild caught as well. Certainly I would like more of these guys, I've still have the tank set-up! I haven't seen any for sale in months.

Geoff: Somewhere on this thread I gave a link for a caresheet on the R. brevicaudatus. Page 1 maybe? Yes, they can live in a tank and yes they can live communally, meaning one male and several females can live together without too much stress. They are not arboreal so you don't need the height that other larger chameleons need. Here is a pic. There are others in my gallery.



Cheers!

Trace

[Collide]

still got my lone female she is a pig i swear, poor girl all alone. Mine is wild caught as well I lost one male and one female. the one i have still I have had for wow ummm lol time flys 9 months or soo mabey more not sure.

Oh trace did those egges of the brevs die or u still got them??

[J-Man]

that's a chubby little *******.