skoram
Established Member
Hello all. I'm fairly new to these forums. Been reading them for about a year but was unable to post due to an issue with registrations from foreign countries (thanks again for your help with this Brad).
I'm a US expat in South Korea and the proud owner of a 3 month old juvenile male panther chameleon. I also have a pair of giant day geckos which I have raised and bred over the past 2 years. Prior to that I kept fish and planted tanks for over 20 years but got a little tired of changing the water for 7 tanks every 2 weeks and am in the process of making an almost full transition to herps and vivaria.
Although I am very interested in reptiles (particularly geckos), I never considered purchasing a chameleon until I started seeing photos of beautifully colored panthers in various reptile websites and periodicals. I decided I had to have one and spent the past year researching and preparing. Admittedly, the long wait was not really due to my patience and caution, but rather the lack of availability in Korea. There were a few full grown adult panthers being sold for around $1,200 - way out of my budget for a single cham. I ended up paying about $300 for a 1 month old captive bred baby this past May.
He is currently in an 18x18x24 Exo Terra glass terrarium lit by a 26W Exo Terra UVB100 CFL and 6500K white LEDs previously used for one of my planted tanks. The enclosure is misted 6 times a day for 30 seconds each with a MistKing system using RO/DI water.
He was initially fed only Hydei fruit flies but has grown significantly since then and now eats about 15-20 small to medium sized crickets each day.
(DISCLAIMER: Having read these forums for a year, I am aware that most people think CFLs are junk and perhaps Exo Terra bulbs in particular. I am also aware that chameleons should be fed a varied diet. Unfortunately, compared to the US and perhaps many other countries, there is a HUGE lack of both vivarium products and live feeders. T5 UVB bulbs are not sold at all here and very few other products from Zoo Med and Arcadia. Additionally, the only feeders commercially sold here are crickets and meal/superworms. To address these problems I ordered several Zoo Med Reptisun 5.0 T5 tubes from Amazon and am also planning to try my hand at raising silkworms (eggs are available for purchase from some local silkworm farms).)
Despite my lack of experience and any other potential shortcomings, he seems to be doing quite well. In addition to aforementioned size increase, he eats well, has started developing nice coloration and feces looks perfectly normal (so far as I can gauge based on photos of "normal" chameleon poop). The flipside of his big growth spurt is that I think he will need a new, much larger enclosure very soon.
I was not happy with any of the commercial options sold in stores here and so, armed with some experience building tank stands for my fish tanks, decided to make my own wooden enclosure. I have in fact already completed building the enclosure itself and plan to spend the next week working on the interior (custom foam background with branches, live plants, etc.)
The purpose of this thread is to share information and photos about the enclosure and the building process with you and hopefully, in return, to receive your ideas and feedback.
To start, here are some photos of my panther taken when he was first purchased and one taken a few days ago.
I'm a US expat in South Korea and the proud owner of a 3 month old juvenile male panther chameleon. I also have a pair of giant day geckos which I have raised and bred over the past 2 years. Prior to that I kept fish and planted tanks for over 20 years but got a little tired of changing the water for 7 tanks every 2 weeks and am in the process of making an almost full transition to herps and vivaria.
Although I am very interested in reptiles (particularly geckos), I never considered purchasing a chameleon until I started seeing photos of beautifully colored panthers in various reptile websites and periodicals. I decided I had to have one and spent the past year researching and preparing. Admittedly, the long wait was not really due to my patience and caution, but rather the lack of availability in Korea. There were a few full grown adult panthers being sold for around $1,200 - way out of my budget for a single cham. I ended up paying about $300 for a 1 month old captive bred baby this past May.
He is currently in an 18x18x24 Exo Terra glass terrarium lit by a 26W Exo Terra UVB100 CFL and 6500K white LEDs previously used for one of my planted tanks. The enclosure is misted 6 times a day for 30 seconds each with a MistKing system using RO/DI water.
He was initially fed only Hydei fruit flies but has grown significantly since then and now eats about 15-20 small to medium sized crickets each day.
(DISCLAIMER: Having read these forums for a year, I am aware that most people think CFLs are junk and perhaps Exo Terra bulbs in particular. I am also aware that chameleons should be fed a varied diet. Unfortunately, compared to the US and perhaps many other countries, there is a HUGE lack of both vivarium products and live feeders. T5 UVB bulbs are not sold at all here and very few other products from Zoo Med and Arcadia. Additionally, the only feeders commercially sold here are crickets and meal/superworms. To address these problems I ordered several Zoo Med Reptisun 5.0 T5 tubes from Amazon and am also planning to try my hand at raising silkworms (eggs are available for purchase from some local silkworm farms).)
Despite my lack of experience and any other potential shortcomings, he seems to be doing quite well. In addition to aforementioned size increase, he eats well, has started developing nice coloration and feces looks perfectly normal (so far as I can gauge based on photos of "normal" chameleon poop). The flipside of his big growth spurt is that I think he will need a new, much larger enclosure very soon.
I was not happy with any of the commercial options sold in stores here and so, armed with some experience building tank stands for my fish tanks, decided to make my own wooden enclosure. I have in fact already completed building the enclosure itself and plan to spend the next week working on the interior (custom foam background with branches, live plants, etc.)
The purpose of this thread is to share information and photos about the enclosure and the building process with you and hopefully, in return, to receive your ideas and feedback.
To start, here are some photos of my panther taken when he was first purchased and one taken a few days ago.
Wood has been coated in 3 layers of PU sealer used for outdoor decks (with most applied to the bottom), all the joints and intersections have been caulked with silicone as well. I'm also thinking about the plastic liner but so far haven't been able to find something that fits well and looks nice (clean aesthetics are very important to me)
