Had a couple more items of note that happened last night, which happened before I made last night's post but I didn't want to spend a lot of time on writing it, since I was doing so in Firefox again. As I've said before, I have zero trust for that browser at this point.
Part of it was, I don't think I'd mentioned some of the difficulties I'd been having with Colombina's setup; specifically, I'd bought another Zoo-Med Environmental Control Center for her, since I was pretty happy with the one I'd gotten for LeChuck (and it was on sale). One night about a week or so ago, the humidity sensor seemed to die, as it was no longer updating the percentage on the hand controller; what I hadn't realized was, the hand controller itself had somehow come unplugged, likely due to chicanery from one of the cats (my money's on Kingsley), so it wasn't updating because it wasn't getting ANY data from the base unit. I realized this a little late however, as I unplugged all the sensors trying to get that item to update--it's supposed to drop an error code if a sensor disconnects--and, when I plugged everything back in, including the hand controller this time, three outlets failed to come back on, those controlled by the humidity probe and two temperature probes.
Alas, no amount of unplugging and plugging back in of any devices, including the base unit from power and the hand controller's battery backup, brought those outlets back. I shot an email off to Zoo-Med (though I can't seem to find it to reply to it, I DEFINITELY remember doing it...), but still to this moment have not heard back from them; while one could blame the holidays, I also suspect they're just not terribly enthused about an email chain with me again, after another item of theirs failed twice. (Which I have since decided to forego, since another piece of hardware does what that did, but MUCH better.)
Last night, tired of waiting, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I discovered the base unit's casing could be pulled apart without breaking it, as it was only held on with plastic tabs. Doing this, I was faced with the back-side of a PCB--seemingly a dead end, I flipped the unit over, hoping to pry the other side free, but in doing this, the PCB actually fell out of the unit. While it was still being held in by a cable to the ports for the probes, it was clear that this board, the primary "brain" board, was supposed to be connected to two daughter boards, one on each side--the outlet boards. These connections had come loose. Re-seating the board, all the outlets came back, and I'd finally restored functionality to the silly thing. Don't really know how that happened, except maybe the connectors weren't seated very well to begin with and had shaken loose to being marginal by the time I got it. I don't believe any actual power goes through those connections, but since the relays were absolutely on the "brain" board, they simply weren't being powered.
But, with one problem solved, since I was down there, I re-arranged some items on LeChuck's control center; namely, I moved a ceramic heat emitter from one temperature-controlled outlet to the other. This is because, that unit had been plugged in to the dimming outlet; this outlet is controlled by the temperature probe in LeChuck's basking spot, and that's where it's supposed to be, but unfortunately, ceramic heat emitters CANNOT be safely used on a dimming thermostat. They have to be either on or off, and any state in between actually causes weird stresses in the ceramic, which can cause it to pop. So, while the other temperature probe was at the opposite end of the tank--again, where it's supposed to be--I plugged the ceramic heat emitter into that outlet, as it's strictly on or off. (This ceramic heat emitter's gonna be moved anyway, as it's not powerful enough to heat LeChuck's basking spot to where it needs to be; as such, for now, it should be constantly on.) This also frees up the dimming outlet for the coming infrared "deep-heat projector", which can (and should) safely be dimmed.
But, in making that move, I realized the ceramic heat emitter... wasn't, y'know, emitting any heat. So I checked the unit and... the power switch on the light fixture itself was turned off. Which, I'd flipped it to that position a couple nights ago, since in that position--again, the off position--a light in the switch comes on. So I'd assumed that the thing had managed to turn itself off somehow, and flipped it "on"--that is, off--and left it. So, I turned that back on, and wouldn't you know it, this morning, LeChuck came out of his hide even earlier than he's been doing since his first Ivermectin dose, and stayed out for longer, even going out to explore the tank a little more than he'd been doing. He's also been grazing from his food bowl throughout the day, which again, is something he should be doing. It's amazing what a little heat can do!
(But, again, this is still not actually the proper amount of heat he really needs in his basking spot, or throughout the rest of the tank! This should be remedied whenever that stuff gets here, which it's sitting on a truck in Alamogordo right now, so naturally UPS Corporate assumed that meant it'd be delivered today, so now they have no idea; I'm assuming they're gonna deliver it Monday, but at this point I legitimately have no idea!)
Oddly enough, both Colombina and Coquelicot were also much more active today; Colombina spent much of the day hanging out on a fake vine around the middle of her enclosure, which SOUNDS like she wasn't terribly active except that spot is a far cry from the basking spot she tends to spend all day every day. (Including sleeping there, which isn't good for her. Her temps, unlike LeChuck's, ARE correct throughout the tank, throughout the day, so I'm not sure why she doesn't usually like venturing too far from that spot.) I'd say she might've noticed a couple crickets that had managed to escape her before, which I'd noticed hiding last night in the bottom corner opposite the basking spot, behind those potted plants; this is possible, but given how food-motivated she is, I suspect she got 'em pretty early on. (Maybe she thought there might be more?) But, that spot also puts her in a good position for drinking, so she might've just been staying hydrated. (She's been pretty good about hydration!) And even after I got up and fed her--which, she did go over to get food, since she had to climb to an entirely different fake vine to more easily reach it--she went right back to that spot. I dunno, but it's healthier behavior at least!
Meanwhile, Coquelicot scrambled all over her enclosure today. Some of this was glass surfing, which meant she wanted to get out (possibly because she was hungry), but MOST of it didn't seem to be? I'm wondering if maybe she was just feeling better. She DID poop shortly before I got out of bed, but alas, it was on her basking spot, meaning it rolled off and I couldn't PROPERLY inspect it; still, it did seem solid enough to have rolled off without causing too much of a mess. (And I know it rolled off, because the camera caught it happening--she actually accidentally hit it with her tail trying to turn around at one point, which knocked it down.) It wasn't really where I'd expect it to be fully, but of course we do have one more dose of Ivermectin to go with her. She did eat though, and even accepted a hornworm from me after I cleaned her tank--so I guess we haven't burned ALL the bridges yet!
In addition to the aforementioned heating elements that are arriving via UPS, I've got a number of other things that should be arriving early next week as well. This includes a shipment of new feeders, mealworms and black soldier fly larvae. Mealworms, I'd done before, but the substrate ended up rotting because of how I was keeping them (which I've since learned a couple things); at the time I didn't consider it a big loss, as frankly they're NOT great feeders, but they do make good treats and are fairly easy to have as a colony. (Y'know, assuming the substrate doesn't rot.) Also, variety is still important! Crickets, even the banded crickets I've been using, aren't exactly the best food item either, and dubia roaches, while considered by many to be the be-all end-all feeder for beardies, CAN cause issues in veiled chameleons (like Colombina) if fed too frequently. Crickets are also notoriously difficult to keep at-length, and dubia roaches, while much easier, don't grow very quickly and are EXTREMELY slow to breed, making forming a colony like pulling teeth, especially if you're constantly pulling from the population to feed to reptiles. Mealworms do have their issues, and really should not be fed as a staple bug, but they do have some positives that make them worthwhile.
The other feeder, entirely new to me, are the black soldier fly larvae (or BSFL); these practically ARE a superfood, extremely high in calcium in particular (enough so that they actually don't require dusting), but also protein and many vitamins. (For many feeders, it's not so much that they don't have much calcium as, the phosphorus in their exoskeletons is too high and cancels it all out. That's why they need dusting.) They're EXTREMELY easy to keep, and in the event they pupate or even fully metamorphosize, they're still perfectly viable feeders--in fact, the pupae generally have MORE calcium in 'em (though with a bit of added phosphorus), and the adult flies make excellent enrichment feeders, particularly for chameleons, who'd typically eat flying insects in the wild. They are QUITE expensive though, and do take a bit of work to be able to feed to reptiles. (Also, in spite of all these positives, they're also high in moisture as larvae which can cause problems for beardies in particular, which means they shouldn't be an exclusive feeder either.) Still, definitely looking forward to getting these in, giving them both a try. Back when I'd first gotten Coquelicot, she was RAVENOUS for mealworms, so maybe she'll remember that. (And I know for a fact that the store was feeding Colombina mealworms almost exclusively, which obviously wasn't good for her but, as a result, I do think she'll appreciate these.)
Still doing a bit of research for the planned full-size enclosure for LeChuck. My biggest stumbling block right now is the base; I want to be able to put a bioactive substrate in there, and also have a section cordoned off as a little swimming pool. It won't be hard to waterproof the base for either of those, but the challenge is gonna be finding a material thin enough to work with the skeleton I'm planning, but strong enough to support water. (Probably gonna have to go with polycarbonate.) Then, an added issue is gonna be, I'm gonna need to be able to get into the thing too, meaning I'm gonna have to engineer something able to hold MY heavy ass without losing that watertightness. I might just support a central spot with additional material or something, I dunno. Can't use plywood though, what with the aforementioned water. :V
Might just get the parts for the primary framing at least, put that together, see how much space it actually takes up and plan from there. The secondary framing, I'm pretty sure I've over-engineered it, but I DO want it to be able to support a couple little shelves for LeChuck to climb up and relax on, including an upper-level basking spot. (And obviously the thing's gonna need a door.) We'll see. It's just, the stuff I'm wanting to use adds up pretty damn quickly; for literally just the box, no secondary framing and no panel pieces, I'm looking at $650. (And of course, that's not to mention any substrate, plants, all the lighting and heating this thing's gonna need... It's gonna be a pricey project.) Still though, LeChuck DEFINITELY needs something more permanent than his current enclosure, and this SHOULD solve that problem pretty well. It's gonna be nice-looking, too!