Hello, my name's Nick while I'm not new to reptiles, this is my first chameleon. I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to keep him healthy and happy. I recently purchased a 5/6 month old Panther Chameleon from a semi local private breeder about a month ago. Since then he's been very active eating 7-10 med/large crickets a day. He's very active during the day from when his light comes on ~ 7am till around 9pm, about an hour before his lights go off. about 10 min after his lights go off he's sound asleep.
FIRST SETUP:
Repti breeze medium enclosure
2X flukers large fake vines
1 fake aquarium vine plant
Sheffileara ? abricola
Repti sun 5.0 twist bulb in large flukers sundome
100 watt flukers basking bulb in small fixture
100 watt ceramic heater in small fixture
Misting bottle, with repti safe
feeding crickets with reptical w/ d3 feeding crickets the yellow gel stuff and potatos.
I would mist heavy 3 times a day, 7:30AM, 2pm, and 7pm, 1-2 light mistings in between I would feed him right after the first misting @ around 7:35am. His enclosure would get around 95deg. warmest and about 75-80deg at the bottom with just the reptisun 5.0 and 100watt basking light. at night his ceramic heater would kick on and would keep the cage around 73/4deg.
****PROBLEM**** about a week ago, i noticed some scales barely sticking out on his bottom lip about midway to the rear of his mouth. At first I thought it was just dry skin and he was about to shed. I investigated, the skin was dry and a few days later he shed. I thought everything was fine, until a day ago and the scales were still out just barely. I took him to the vet and after 3 hours of waiting was told that he had bacteria in his mouth and that is was pretty serious. She gave me Baytril to give him once a day, and Nystiatin to rub on him 3 times a day.
****Will this help him or just make things worse**** I know these animals are delicate and he DOES NOT like this. It takes two ppl to give him these meds and I'm really worried about stressing him out. He's still eating, but less than he was before starting him on this. They told me to ditch the live plant, lower his basking area temp to 85-90deg. max, and that I'm feeding him too much, and giving him too much d3. They also told me to get a hygrometer and keep his humididty around 50-60%.
SECOND SETUP CHANGES:
NO MORE LIVE PLANT
2X fake pieces of plastic wood/ stumps to fill the void
1 more flukers large vine
1 large flukers fake Pathos vine
analog hygrometer
retivite multi vitamin with d3 (told to do this 1-2 times a week)
reptical without d3 (told to do this every day 5-6 days a week)
RECEPTION:
He doesn't seem to like his new enclosure. I tried a 60 watt basking light bulb and the cage would not get hot anymore, and my humidity would not go above 40% on the Hygrometer. I put the 100 watt bulb back in and now my cage will not get higher than 91deg and stays about 72-75deg. in the bottom. I'm guessing that since there isn't a live plant in there anymore there isn't anything to hold the heat. Additionally, I have to keep my ceramic heater going all the time now. where with the first setup it only came on at night. I've also covered the big openings in the top of the cage. with this about 5-10 min after a heavy mist, the temp drops to around 83deg. and as it raises back up to 91, it produces a max of 95% humidity for about 30 minutes falling to 60% an hour later and then settling back to ~35% 2 hours later. If I lightly mist the cage though it bumps right back up to 60% so i'm thinking i should lightly mist the cage every 2 hours.
At night the cage drops to between 69-71deg with the ceramic heater and 30% humidity. With the new setup it seems more difficult for him to hunt, but i suppose he isn't used to it as much.
Please, advise needed, I really want him to do the best he can. I can't go spending 1000's of $ but I'm not opposed to spending some money to make life better for him (obviously) I believe my next purchase will be a Mist King ultimant value setup and making a metal cage topper panal that the light and heat domes will sit on top of to prevent the heat from just going straight out of the top of the cage.
Thanks already for your advise.
-Nick
FIRST SETUP:
Repti breeze medium enclosure
2X flukers large fake vines
1 fake aquarium vine plant
Sheffileara ? abricola
Repti sun 5.0 twist bulb in large flukers sundome
100 watt flukers basking bulb in small fixture
100 watt ceramic heater in small fixture
Misting bottle, with repti safe
feeding crickets with reptical w/ d3 feeding crickets the yellow gel stuff and potatos.
I would mist heavy 3 times a day, 7:30AM, 2pm, and 7pm, 1-2 light mistings in between I would feed him right after the first misting @ around 7:35am. His enclosure would get around 95deg. warmest and about 75-80deg at the bottom with just the reptisun 5.0 and 100watt basking light. at night his ceramic heater would kick on and would keep the cage around 73/4deg.
****PROBLEM**** about a week ago, i noticed some scales barely sticking out on his bottom lip about midway to the rear of his mouth. At first I thought it was just dry skin and he was about to shed. I investigated, the skin was dry and a few days later he shed. I thought everything was fine, until a day ago and the scales were still out just barely. I took him to the vet and after 3 hours of waiting was told that he had bacteria in his mouth and that is was pretty serious. She gave me Baytril to give him once a day, and Nystiatin to rub on him 3 times a day.
****Will this help him or just make things worse**** I know these animals are delicate and he DOES NOT like this. It takes two ppl to give him these meds and I'm really worried about stressing him out. He's still eating, but less than he was before starting him on this. They told me to ditch the live plant, lower his basking area temp to 85-90deg. max, and that I'm feeding him too much, and giving him too much d3. They also told me to get a hygrometer and keep his humididty around 50-60%.
SECOND SETUP CHANGES:
NO MORE LIVE PLANT
2X fake pieces of plastic wood/ stumps to fill the void
1 more flukers large vine
1 large flukers fake Pathos vine
analog hygrometer
retivite multi vitamin with d3 (told to do this 1-2 times a week)
reptical without d3 (told to do this every day 5-6 days a week)
RECEPTION:
He doesn't seem to like his new enclosure. I tried a 60 watt basking light bulb and the cage would not get hot anymore, and my humidity would not go above 40% on the Hygrometer. I put the 100 watt bulb back in and now my cage will not get higher than 91deg and stays about 72-75deg. in the bottom. I'm guessing that since there isn't a live plant in there anymore there isn't anything to hold the heat. Additionally, I have to keep my ceramic heater going all the time now. where with the first setup it only came on at night. I've also covered the big openings in the top of the cage. with this about 5-10 min after a heavy mist, the temp drops to around 83deg. and as it raises back up to 91, it produces a max of 95% humidity for about 30 minutes falling to 60% an hour later and then settling back to ~35% 2 hours later. If I lightly mist the cage though it bumps right back up to 60% so i'm thinking i should lightly mist the cage every 2 hours.
At night the cage drops to between 69-71deg with the ceramic heater and 30% humidity. With the new setup it seems more difficult for him to hunt, but i suppose he isn't used to it as much.
Please, advise needed, I really want him to do the best he can. I can't go spending 1000's of $ but I'm not opposed to spending some money to make life better for him (obviously) I believe my next purchase will be a Mist King ultimant value setup and making a metal cage topper panal that the light and heat domes will sit on top of to prevent the heat from just going straight out of the top of the cage.
Thanks already for your advise.
-Nick
