first time chameleon owner

[lori p]

Hi, I just got my first chameleon a couple weeks ago and am having a hard time with conflicting care information, including from the person I got her from. She is a panther chameleon, but that is as much as I know, she seems to be happy but I'm not entirely sure, her color has changed quite a bit since I've had her, she was a darker color before, now she goes between light green with darker triangles, more often a light soft green with blue color around her face
Is this good or bad? I want to take care of her right and keep her happy. Advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums! If you would post a photo of your girl and her enclosure that would be helpful. I'm attaching some blogs or you below that you should find helpful. Since you have a girl by the age of 4 t 5 months yo will need to set up a laying bin for her. Females can and often do lay eggs and without the proper place to lay they can become egg bound and die.

My blog for new keepers.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

Female care and egg laying info.
This helps with panthers also.
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/chameleon-breeding/

 

[lori p]

I don't know if the pictures went through, not sure how this works, I was told she was a year old.

 

[lori p]

I don't think it will let me put any more pictures, it's giving me an error.

 

[Carlton]

Hi, I just got my first chameleon a couple weeks ago and am having a hard time with conflicting care information, including from the person I got her from. She is a panther chameleon, but that is as much as I know, she seems to be happy but I'm not entirely sure, her color has changed quite a bit since I've had her, she was a darker color before, now she goes between light green with darker triangles, more often a light soft green with blue color around her face
Is this good or bad? I want to take care of her right and keep her happy. Advice is greatly appreciated.

First thing I noticed from your pic is that this is NOT a panther chameleon. She looks like a jackson's, and a dehydrated one. So, I would not follow any of the care information provided by the seller. They were clueless! If you look under the forum tab "Resources" there is a lot of good detailed husbandry info available. You will want to pay attention to care info for "montane cham species", not panthers.

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Yes that is a female Jackson's chameleon. It looks a little dehydrated as previously stated. It is also a bad sign if they are sleeping during the day. Jackson's require different care than panthers. They need lower temps and higher humidity.

 

[KrazyZen]

If it is a female jackson keep in mind they are live bearers not egg layers. The seller should have told you these exotic pets are not really for anyone new to keeping these type of reptiles since they are not really the handling type and demand more care then lets say a bearded dragon. The one good news is if it is a jackson female since males would have horns is that they are probably the easiest to keep regarding chameleons in my opinion.

 

[lori p]

Oh no, wow. I was originally looking at a veiled chameleon so I didn't do any research on others, poor thing she came with her cage which I know has to be redone from reading the forums here. She must have been not happy at all when I got her, in the picture I posted she looked 100 percent better than when I got her home. I work at home so she has been getting misted several times a day. I set up a dripline as soon as I read the information from your post, thank you.

 

[lori p]

Actually that picture was taken late evening, I had the lights on so I could get the picture, she was not amused.

 

[Carlton]

Actually that picture was taken late evening, I had the lights on so I could get the picture, she was not amused.

I think you'll find that no cham has much of a sense of humor.

 

[lori p]

Well I'm not sure if she is feeling better, or if I just made her Mad went in to shut down her lighting for the night and she poos up and gaped at me, she has not done this before. Is this a good sign? Thank you in advance for your help