°•New owner•°

[PeachyLauren]

Hello again everyone! I've read through the care sheet many times but I'm still not 100% comfortable with calling my chameleon set up good because I'd really hate to make a mistake.. here's everything I have and am doing for my PANTHER chameleon at this moment PLEEASE CORRECT ME IF YOU SEE THAT I'M DOING SOMTHING WRONG!!

Chameleon: he's a ambilobe panther chameleon This is his father ( don't currently have photos of his mother )

Here's a pic of my bby

Terrarium: he's currently in a 18x18x39 ( will upgrade when he is 6 months ) there are 2 plants in the cage, one jade and one type of palm bush / tree

Diet: since he is so small I am only feeding quarter size crickets for now, I feed the crickets 'total bites' for their gutload and then i dust them with with calcium(without D3) and will dust 2 times a month with calcium(with D3) and ( help with multivitamin? Best brand? How often should I dust the food with it? )

Water: I spray his cage with a hand spray bottle 3-4 times a day and I have a large warm humidifier in the room to keep the humidity at 60% or 80%

Handling: Almost Never hold him because he's still adjusting to his environment, only held him when we got him home ( 5 days ago ) and this morning for a few pictures ( only for around 1 min ).. one question.. when should I start holding him to "tame him"?

Lights: I have 2 lights, one for UVA and UVB (gives off no heat) and one cermaic 75W, I'm not sure if that's an okay bulb? I just use it for a basking bulb for now. Please let me know!

If you're still reading.. thank you!
If I am doing somthing wrong please let me know! This is my first chameleon (except for a rescue from horrible conditions.. unfortunately the damage was to great.. and I don't know much about chameleons because she needed different things then that of a healthy cham, we got all of our into directly from a vet) I've owned reptiles before and have experience with lizards and snakes but I've never had a (healthy) chameleon! Add any info you think is important that I should know!

Thanks so much!

 

[Chameleon-Scotland]

Hi I'm also quite new to owning chams but have a male veiled for the last 4-5 months. As for wrong I don't like saying that as it's not fair really I would suggest you change the ceramic heater for a heat lamp I use a 100 watt komodo basking lamp roughly 4 inches above his screen top. The Uv lamp looks ok but as I have being told by other members on other pages the uv should be 12% as screen top vivs don't allow a lot of uv to pass. As for handling I handle mine daily as every time I'm home he runs out but I would say after he is 3 months old you could handle him as much as he wants.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[PeachyLauren]

Hi I'm also quite new to owning chams but have a male veiled for the last 4-5 months. As for wrong I don't like saying that as it's not fair really I would suggest you change the ceramic heater for a heat lamp I use a 100 watt komodo basking lamp roughly 4 inches above his screen top. The Uv lamp looks ok but as I have being told by other members on other pages the uv should be 12% as screen top vivs don't allow a lot of uv to pass. As for handling I handle mine daily as every time I'm home he runs out but I would say after he is 3 months old you could handle him as much as he wants.

Hope some of this helps.

Thank you for the info! I was thinking the same about the ceramic, and I'll deffinetly study up on the 12% UV stuff! I also have a 100W UVA UVB and heat lamp all in one.. I was told that they can be helpful by one person and told they were unhelpful by the other.. I decided not to use to until I got a clear answer. Thanks again!

 

[steve mcgarret]

Hi you don't need to upgrade since your cham is a panther .They will do just fine as adults in a 18x18x39 inclosure.

 

[PeachyLauren]

Hi you don't need to upgrade since your cham is a panther .They will do just fine as adults in a 18x18x39 inclosure.

Oh cool! I did not know this thanks for the info! I might just upgrade anyways, but it always depends on his behavior, I've heard that some chams just usually pick a spot of the cage to move around others use the ENTIRE space!

 

[KeopiCat]

Hi you don't need to upgrade since your cham is a panther .They will do just fine as adults in a 18x18x39 inclosure.

This is not true. Male panthers need 2x2x4' minimum in adulthood


Also, @PeachyLauren I would ditch the gut load you're using. Nothing can beat fresh produce for your crickets. After all, all the good stuff they eat goes to your baby boy. The forum provides a great list of what makes for a good gut load, I'll link it here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/

 

[PeachyLauren]

This is not true. Male panthers need 2x2x4' minimum in adulthood


Also, @PeachyLauren I would ditch the gut load you're using. Nothing can beat fresh produce for your crickets. After all, all the good stuff they eat goes to your baby boy. The forum provides a great list of what makes for a good gut load, I'll link it here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/

That's kinda what I thought but I didn't want to be rude and thank you! I'll deffinetly do fresh instead of the stuff I'm currently using! Thanks!

 

[funnyCAT140]

When it comes to adult chameleon's enclosures bigger is always better. 2x2x4 minimum. Good luck with your little guy and make sure to keep posting pics of Him!

 

[dshuld]

Our 9.5/ 10 month old nosy be is in a 48 w x 24 d x 52 tall enclosure. He traverses the entire space but does have 3 sleeping spots down towards the bottom in the umbrella bushes. I would honestly feel sorry for an adult male in anything smaller the 24 x 24 x 48 seeing how much this one explores every day.

As for your ceramic heat emitter, I use a 100w emitter as well on an inkbird itc-306 temp controller. The temp probe is pretty accurate ( reads within 1° of my ir thermometer). So, if you have it on a temp controller I wouldn't worry about swapping out for a standard bulb.

As for your uvb, I would stick to a 5.0 for now at least since you have a t5ho fixture and a shorter cage with a pretty clear open center area and top. If you had a ton more plant cover then maybe a 10.0 but on the shorter cage I probably still wouldn't. Here is a post by @nightanole that I had screenshot for myself to look back at as a quick reference when I first started my research a few months ago that should help you see why I wouldn't do a 10.0.