Any suggestions?

[gremlin980]

Hello all, I have just set up my new panther enclosure. I use a 100w powersun and zilla 100w black light for lighting. Substrate is reptibark and there are two live plants. Is my foliage okay? Does it need to be denser? Any help/suggestions is appreciated!

 

[Kaianuanu]

You should get rid of the substrate. It can cause an impaction if he accidentally eats some and it is a breeding ground for bacteria. Both can be lethal. And how old is your panther? Power suns are not recommended for young chams. Also I cannot see your pics. Also, if you have the power sun you shouldn't need the backlight. What are your temps?

 

[GabeCastro]

Welcome to the forums! Glad you found us, we'll get you started off in the right track.

First off, please fill this out and copy/paste it in your Original Post (OP). This way we can go over your entire set up and be sure you're good to go. Please be honest and detailed when answering questions. https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

As for now, Get rid of the substrate and black light. Lights you'll need is a 5.0 UVB bulb + 60-75watt basking bulb (you can use a regular household bulb).

As for denser? You'd want to set up a misting cycle for your cham with a drainage system. But i can go over everything once you fill out the forum.

-Gabe

 

[gremlin980]

You should get rid of the substrate. It can cause an impaction if he accidentally eats some and it is a breeding ground for bacteria. Both can be lethal. And how old is your panther? Power suns are not recommended for young chams. Also I cannot see your pics. Also, if you have the power sun you shouldn't need the backlight. What are your temps?

The black light is for his sleeping hours. He is a year and 4 months. It sits just under 90 degrees at basking and 70 towards the bottom. Sounds good on substrate. I dont know how to make my photo larger sorry.

 

[gremlin980]

http://sn140w.snt140.mail.live.com/...blob=MXxJTUdfOTMyOS5qcGd8aW1hZ2UvanBlZw_3d_3d

 

[GabeCastro]

The black light is for his sleeping hours. He is a year and 4 months. It sits just under 90 degrees at basking and 70 towards the bottom. Sounds good on substrate. I dont know how to make my photo larger sorry.

Chams don't need any heat or lights at night. They're on a 12 hour cycle, 12 hours awake, 12 hours asleep.

When you have your lights set up, they should be on a timer. 7am on, 7pm off.

Having a night light will make it too hot for your cham and you'll run into a bunch of problems. Also chams benefit from temperature drops. Some members house their chams outside and temps can drop to the mid 40's and they're fine.

Also your pic isn't working. Try creating a photobucket.com account to share pictures. (They just updated it so it's a bit confusing now, just try and find the HTML link to copy/paste).

Try and fill that forum out so we can go over your set up, especially for a panther chameleon. 90 at a basking is too hot for a 4 month old, try dropping it down to mid 80's to 87ish. You can burn your chams skin. Bottom should be a bit cooler aswell so he can have options to cool off.

 

[Kaianuanu]

Your photo isn't showing up at all. And those temps seem alright. As for the blacklight, unless your house gets under 65 degrees Fahrenheit, you should not have any light on at night. If it is colder than that, you need a ceramic heat emitter that does not give off light.

 

[Kaianuanu]

Oh and Gabe, he said one year and for months, so it's really 16 months old

 

[GabeCastro]

Your photo isn't showing up at all. And those temps seem alright. As for the blacklight, unless your house gets under 65 degrees Fahrenheit, you should not have any light on at night. If it is colder than that, you need a ceramic heat emitter that does not give off light.

Where are you getting this info from?

If you're not 100% sure on an answer try not to comment, it'll get the OP confused.

Only time a heat emitter should be used if your room/house gets below 45-50 degrees at night. But it should atleast maintain the levels at around 60-65ish.

 

[GabeCastro]

Oh and Gabe, he said one year and for months, so it's really 16 months old

Just noticed that aswell. Basking sounds fine with what you have it at.

But again, no need for heat at night unless temps drop down to 50's. 60's is comfortable.

 

[gremlin980]

My house does indeed drop to below 65, in fact my room will be right around 50 tonight. Chameleon eyesight can not detect the light frequency a black light is at, so he needs the night but can not see it so that should be ok. Im going to work on the photo. Is there no way to just copy and paste?

 

[gremlin980]

http://s1281.beta.photobucket.com/user/gremlin980/media/IMG_93291_zpsbae2de9b.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

[Tay And A]

That's a great cage setup! Only two things that I personally would change. Take the substrate out of the bottom. And please change the ligjts to a reptisun 5.0 for uva/uvb and a 60 watt house bulb for heat. Good job though!