Enclosure Setup for Baby Panther

[DomsChams]

Hi everyone,

I am a new member and a new chameleon owner. I am planning on buying a baby Panther at a reptile expo in my area and I just wanted to make sure that I have everything that I need for the little guy. Any recommendations and advice are most appreciated.

Enclosure: all glass exo terra 18x18x24
Water: Little dripper (1 drop/sec all day) and Monsoon Mister
Plants: One medium Pothos and one small Croton and a couple of artificial vines for foliage.
Lighting: I will be posting my lighting arrangements soon
Substrate: I have tropical substrate with a layer of river rocks on top. I know that substrate is highly frowned upon but I live in the Central Valley California where is is dry all year round with Central air in my home (hence the glass enclosure). The substrate and glass combined help keep the humidity much better.

I don't have him yet so I am just wanted to check and see if I need anything else for my setup. Thank you all for the help

Here are some pictures of my setup for reference:

 

[Graves923]

Looks good so far. I will suggest to start saving for a larger enclosure. Your cham will out grow that one within a few months.

 

[DomsChams]

Looks good so far. I will suggest to start saving for a larger enclosure. Your cham will out grow that one within a few months.

Thank you! I really would like to buy an all mesh cage because they are way easier to clean and give the cham the proper ventilation they need; however, where I live is way to dry and I wont be able to meet the humidity requirements. Do you have any recommendation on half mesh half acrylic or plexiglass enclosures?

Also, I am planning on getting my Cham at around 2-3 months old. Will he be able to stay in my current enclosure until he is 6 months?

 

[Graves923]

Hard to say as it depends on how fast your particular cham grows. My veiled out grew his 18" x 18" x 36" tall screen cage at around 6-7 months old and I bought him when he was 2-3 months old.

What a lot of keepers do in dry climates is wrap two or three sides of their screen cages with plastic wrap or a shower curtain to maintain humidity. Others have had success with glass/acrylic cages.

 

[DomsChams]

Thank you so much I really appreciate the advice. There is a particular enclosure via dragon strand that I think will work perfect but its pretty expensive.

These are the dimesions
Large Clear Side Enclosure. 23.75” wide, 23” Deep and 48” High.

http://dragonstrand.com/clear-side-enclosures/

scroll all the way down untill you see the LArge Clear Side Enclosure.

 

[DomsChams]

Also, I have a monsoon mister and I was wondering what would be a good schedule for watering to keep humidity. Iver heard that Panthers need 80-90% humidity. Is this true?

The water schedule that I was trying out was 4 minutes at the start of the day and then 2hrs later for 1 min, mid day for another 4 minutes and repeat the process until the end of the day. last water would be at 8:30 to et the cage dry out before the little guy goes to sleep. Does anyone have any recommendations or constructive criticism for this schedule?

 

[devynnogood]

I also live in California and it's hard to maintain humidity for me as well. What you can do in the future when you buy a bigger cage is get a half glass half screen cage. But also you can buy a full screen cage and then buy a plastic shower curtain and cut it to fit around 2 or 3 of cages sides. It helps ALOT with humidity. I bought a jungle themed one and it looks really good wrapped around the outside of my cage. Currently I have an almost 3 month old baby Panther chameleon and he's in a 60 quart plastic bin. This type of enclosure was recommended by my chameleons breeder. It helps with humidity while he's young, and keeps him in a smaller area where he can learn to hunt his food before being put into a larger cage. For UV you have to get a 5.0 UV light. No if ands or buts about that! ps if you don't want to use a shower curtain, I've also used plastic wrap, it's just not as pretty.

 

[devynnogood]

Also, I have a monsoon mister and I was wondering what would be a good schedule for watering to keep humidity. Iver heard that Panthers need 80-90% humidity. Is this true?

The water schedule that I was trying out was 4 minutes at the start of the day and then 2hrs later for 1 min, mid day for another 4 minutes and repeat the process until the end of the day. last water would be at 8:30 to et the cage dry out before the little guy goes to sleep. Does anyone have any recommendations or constructive criticism for this schedule?

They don't need a constant humidity that high. As long as you keep it at 60 and above, they will be okay. 75 is like perfect. They may develop an upper respiratory infection you constantly have the humidity at 90. And then you need to let the cage dry out from time to time to also ensure no respiratory infections. And don't worry about night time. Chameleons are use to humidity and temperature drops during the night. With temperature 65 and a above for the night time will be okay.

 

[Monta]

Hi everyone,

I am a new member and a new chameleon owner. I am planning on buying a baby Panther at a reptile expo in my area and I just wanted to make sure that I have everything that I need for the little guy. Any recommendations and advice are most appreciated.

Enclosure: all glass exo terra 18x18x24
Water: Little dripper (1 drop/sec all day) and Monsoon Mister
Plants: One medium Pothos and one small Croton and a couple of artificial vines for foliage.
Lighting: I will be posting my lighting arrangements soon
Substrate: I have tropical substrate with a layer of river rocks on top. I know that substrate is highly frowned upon but I live in the Central Valley California where is is dry all year round with Central air in my home (hence the glass enclosure). The substrate and glass combined help keep the humidity much better.

I don't have him yet so I am just wanted to check and see if I need anything else for my setup. Thank you all for the help
Hi , I have one of these tanks I plan on useing for my dart frogs . I have a small one too. My question is how do you plan getting out the water from the glass bottom. My dripping and fogger and plus me hand misting a few times a day adds up to a couple of inches a day of water and that's with a 24"square tray. Have you looked at some of the members enclosures ? They have a lot of great ideas.
Here are some pictures of my setup for reference:

Hi everyone,

I am a new member and a new chameleon owner. I am planning on buying a baby Panther at a reptile expo in my area and I just wanted to make sure that I have everything that I need for the little guy. Any recommendations and advice are most appreciated.

Enclosure: all glass exo terra 18x18x24
Water: Little dripper (1 drop/sec all day) and Monsoon Mister
Plants: One medium Pothos and one small Croton and a couple of artificial vines for foliage.
Lighting: I will be posting my lighting arrangements soon
Substrate: I have tropical substrate with a layer of river rocks on top. I know that substrate is highly frowned upon but I live in the Central Valley California where is is dry all year round with Central air in my home (hence the glass enclosure). The substrate and glass combined help keep the humidity much better.

I don't have him yet so I am just wanted to check and see if I need anything else for my setup. Thank you all for the help

Here are some pictures of my setup for reference:

 

[Longhorn1234]

To all the people who say they live in a dry place, what is the average humidity in your city? I'm just wondering what is considered dry

 

[devynnogood]

To all the people who say they live in a dry place, what is the average humidity in your city? I'm just wondering what is considered dry

It's normally in the 30s where I live

 

[DomsChams]

To all the people who say they live in a dry place, what is the average humidity in your city? I'm just wondering what is considered dry

It is 50-60% where I live in Fresno, California.

 

[DomsChams]

It is 50-60% where I live in Fresno, California.

But I also have central air on almost all day because it feels like hell over here.

 

[DomsChams]

They don't need a constant humidity that high. As long as you keep it at 60 and above, they will be okay. 75 is like perfect. They may develop an upper respiratory infection you constantly have the humidity at 90. And then you need to let the cage dry out from time to time to also ensure no respiratory infections. And don't worry about night time. Chameleons are use to humidity and temperature drops during the night. With temperature 65 and a above for the night time will be okay.

I am getting tons of great ideas from everyone and I appreciate it all, I love this forum I think that I might just buy the half glass and half screen enclosure, it seems like it's the best way to go considering my conditions. I have a 13 watt tropical UVB/UVA bulb in a wide dome fixture. I have talked to several breeders in my area and said that this was fine until I upgrade to a bigger enclosure. Is this really okay? If not I will go an but the repti sun 5.0. The bulb I have not is from Zila.

For the cage situation, I was planning on buying dubia roaches at first and possibly hand/cut feeding so that I know he is eating. After that I will buy crickets and obviously other feeders to keep his diet variable. I will be dusting with rep-cal calcium w/out D3 every feeding, Herptivite multivitamin and rep-cal with D3 twice a month. Is this a good schedule for feeding? And when I get my baby panther how much should I be feeding him a day? 4 feeders 3 times a day. 8 feeders 3 times a day? I am haven't really been able to find a good schedule for feeding anywhere. Any recommendations would help.

 

[devynnogood]

But I also have central air on almost all day because it feels like hell over here.

Oh AC kills humidity. Sometimes we have to close our vents in our room because that's where we keep our cham. I live about 2 hours from Fresno. Are you going to the Fresno reptile show to get your baby? I'm going to Sacramento one at the end of September

 

[devynnogood]

I am getting tons of great ideas from everyone and I appreciate it all, I love this forum I think that I might just buy the half glass and half screen enclosure, it seems like it's the best way to go considering my conditions. I have a 13 watt tropical UVB/UVA bulb in a wide dome fixture. I have talked to several breeders in my area and said that this was fine until I upgrade to a bigger enclosure. Is this really okay? If not I will go an but the repti sun 5.0. The bulb I have not is from Zila.

For the cage situation, I was planning on buying dubia roaches at first and possibly hand/cut feeding so that I know he is eating. After that I will buy crickets and obviously other feeders to keep his diet variable. I will be dusting with rep-cal calcium w/out D3 every feeding, Herptivite multivitamin and rep-cal with D3 twice a month. Is this a good schedule for feeding? And when I get my baby panther how much should I be feeding him a day? 4 feeders 3 times a day. 8 feeders 3 times a day? I am haven't really been able to find a good schedule for feeding anywhere. Any recommendations would help.

I'm In no means a light expert. But when I picked up my baby Panther from his breeder he said it was very very important for us to specifically get the 5.0 UV light as soon as we could. I can't remember what brand it was, probably zoo med. They sell it at petco. When you get your Panther, I'm sure the breeder will go over all the things that you have to have for him.
When you get your cham home feeding is never the same routine. He's scared in his new cage so sometimes they eat and sometimes they don't. Chameleons normally will have one feeding time per day. Morning time after they've warmed up is recommended so they can digest through out the day. Our guy was eating in the morning for a few days then he decided he didn't want to eat in the morning anymore so now he eats around 4pm lol.
I haven't tried the Dubia roaches yet, are they small enough? We have to feed our chameleon small crickets, anthing else is still too big. The rule of thumb is, if it fits between their eyes then they can fit it in their mouth.

 

[DomsChams]

I'm In no means a light expert. But when I picked up my baby Panther from his breeder he said it was very very important for us to specifically get the 5.0 UV light as soon as we could. I can't remember what brand it was, probably zoo med. They sell it at petco. When you get your Panther, I'm sure the breeder will go over all the things that you have to have for him.
When you get your cham home feeding is never the same routine. He's scared in his new cage so sometimes they eat and sometimes they don't. Chameleons normally will have one feeding time per day. Morning time after they've warmed up is recommended so they can digest through out the day. Our guy was eating in the morning for a few days then he decided he didn't want to eat in the morning anymore so now he eats around 4pm lol.
I haven't tried the Dubia roaches yet, are they small enough? We have to feed our chameleon small crickets, anthing else is still too big. The rule of thumb is, if it fits between their eyes then they can fit it in their mouth.

That awesome, I am glad I can get some advice from someone in my area. Yeah I actually am going to get my cham at the reptile expo. I'll get more specifics from the breeder, thank you Thank you for the warning, I can understand that he will be scared and probably wont eat right away. I just hope that he doesn't go a long time without eating. If I have any major concerns I will post again to get some pointers.

My local petshop (not a petco) has baby dubia roaches and a lot of research says that they are the most nutritious fedders out right now. They should not be the only fedder given by any means, but i've been hearing it is one of the best. The roaches that the pet store showed be were way smaller than a baby chams head so it should be fine.

 

[devynnogood]

That awesome, I am glad I can get some advice from someone in my area. Yeah I actually am going to get my cham at the reptile expo. I'll get more specifics from the breeder, thank you Thank you for the warning, I can understand that he will be scared and probably wont eat right away. I just hope that he doesn't go a long time without eating. If I have any major concerns I will post again to get some pointers.

My local petshop (not a petco) has baby dubia roaches and a lot of research says that they are the most nutritious fedders out right now. They should not be the only fedder given by any means, but i've been hearing it is one of the best. The roaches that the pet store showed be were way smaller than a baby chams head so it should be fine.

Sounds like you're all prepped and have done a lot of research enjoy your little baby! This forum is great for asking questions, occasionally you'll get a rude response from some pompus know it all lol

 

[DomsChams]

Sounds like you're all prepped and have done a lot of research enjoy your little baby! This forum is great for asking questions, occasionally you'll get a rude response from some pompus know it all lol

Yeah I am sure there can be assholes on here but you have been a great help I really appreciate it. Ill post picks of the little guy when I get him

 

[devynnogood]

Yeah I am sure there can be assholes on here but you have been a great help I really appreciate it. Ill post picks of the little guy when I get him

Sounds good!