My Town Monday: Reptile Love in San Diego, CA

This Monday sees Mr. Conehead and Fat Letta, our male and female veiled chameleons, sharing a cage and some romantic time together.

They usually live in separate cages, sans date nights or any other type of interactive behavior. Veileds are solitary creatures, and it stresses them to hang out too much together. In fact, it can stress them to the point that they stop eating! I'm sure I can make some kind of comparison with my own past dating life, but will refrain. :)

So, you're perhaps wondering how we know when to pluck Mr. Conehead from his cage to let him wander the branches of Fat Letta's abode. For us, it seems to be more an art than a science.

Apparently, Fat Letta sends out some pretty powerful pheromones. Last week, someone forgot to latch the door on Mr. Conehead's cage. When I went to spray him with water the next morning, he was nowhere to be found! Eventually, I looked up, up, up. There he was--perched on the very top of Fat Letta's cage! However, when I opened her cage door to let him in, she hissed and gaped at him. When Fat Letta gapes, she lunges at Mr. Conehead, her mouth wide open and her eyes wild. It is not an attractive sight and is even somewhat scary. Her gaping lets us know she has zero interest in entertaining Mr. Conehead. When Mr. Conehead realizes he's not welcome in Fat Letta's cage and is being banished to his bachelor pad, he gapes at me!

Following Mr. Conhead's escape, every couple of days or so, I hold him near Fat Letta to gauge her reaction. Eventually a day will come when she has no reaction. (Fat Letta is not the most demonstrative of women.) And that's when I place Mr. Conehead on a branch in her cage, then latch the door on the lovebirds.

If you look closely, you will see some beautiful turquoise spots on the lovely Letta. This is another sign that she's interested in spending time with Mr. Conehead.

I added some mood mist to the cage. Just kidding! It's just the mister which increases the humidity.

Wish us luck in our quest for a clutch of fertilized eggs.

I'm this week's hostess. If you throw up a My Town Monday post, let me know here or on the official My Town Monday blog, and I'l link to you on both. Have a great day!

Please check out these posts from other My Town Mondayers!

In celebration of this week's 42th anniversary of the Apollo moon walk, Jim Winter posts about Cincinnati's Neil Armstrong

From Dayton, OH, Jeannette Marie Powell posts about the BEST potato chips!

Clare2E of Women of Mystery has some fun menu items from a Mamaroneck, NY Mexican restaurant

The next Summy Family project!

Now that we're, ahem, successful veiled chameleon breeders (slight exaggeration, BUT it was a very successful clutch of 32!:) Read about it here.), you're probably wondering what's next on our list of challenges.

Here are some hints....


Child #4 and I planted some sunflower seeds.


Oh, look how well they're doing after only six short days!


Next, we'll be sprouting a few varieties of TALL sunflowers in our Ultimate Growing Kit, then transferring said plants to the garden.

Because we're planning to grow a sunflower fort! Complete with moon vines!

Anyone else want to join in the fun? We could all post pictures.




p.s. I posted the chameleon cage shot before, but I couldn't resist re-posting. I do so love it! Babies, babies, everywhere!

More News From the Chameleon Cage

Welcome to the nursery! Aren't they just the cutest little reptiles you've ever seen? I caught six out of the seven (two more hatched today) in this shot. They're asleep at the top of the cage, close to the warm infrared light. How did they get to the top of this 30-inch cage? They climbed. CUTELY.


Thank you for all the congratulations re getting some of these eggs to hatch (still MANY (like 42?) to go). Now, we have to get the babies to start eating. Kids. Yeesh! There's always something to worry about.

Anyway, this container is home to hundreds of pinhead crickets. Chameleon food. Today we'll see if any of the baby veileds eats. We think they're ready because a) Most of the little yolk sacs attached to their bellies have been absorbed. b) Eyes are opening. c) Mouths are opening. Wish us luck!


I wonder if this little guy (or girl) will be out of the egg by lunch?

Oh, and to answer the big question...we'll be selling the babies to a reptile/pet store.

And not in chameleon news, I'll be at the Yellow Book Road this Saturday, September 18 @ 2:00 for a Random House Tween/Teen Author Panel. Who else will be there?
Stacey Goldblatt (GIRL TO THE CORE), Laura McNeal (DARK WATER) and Laura Peyton Roberts (GREEN). Please come by if you get the chance. We'll try to be entertaining and educational. Also, I can't imagine that a panel like this will happen all that often.