Help with Sexing Ambilobe Panther
- Thread starter ChrisHibs
- Start date
ChrisHibs
Member
Hi, thanks for the welcome and thanks very much for confirming! No this is him here at home.
You might fill out the husbandry review and post pics of your enclosure. Then we can give you feedback and ensure you have a positive experience raising and keeping him. Let me know if your interested and I will post the form.
ChrisHibs
Member
Yeah I'm happy to do that. One mistake I will admit to making straight away is the enclosure itself, I was looking at vivariums and saw on reddit someone had used an ikea cabinet to create an enclosure. I really liked the look of it so I bought one and set it up. I hate it and the bars inside are slippy when he climbs on them. It honestly wasn't me trying to skimp or save money, I have large and small reef tanks so I'm no stranger to spending money on my pets. I just like the look of it and thought it would go better in the house. I've already ordered a viva exotic+ chameleon vivarium which will be here on Monday:
Here's a pic of the current set up.
I have the arcadia Pro t5 7% uvb, exoterra heat lamp and a fogger for night time when the temperature drops an hour or so after the lights go off. I am feeding him crickets and I'm alternating between dusting with calcium, exo terra multivitamins and I gut load the crickets with repashy superload.
Basking spot temp is around 34 degrees and I've been misting by hand ALOT, he'll drink right in front of me and he comes right up and tries to drink straight from the spray bottle. I had read they are shy drinkers so this worried me that he might be really thirsty if he's so keen to drink from the spray bottle so I've been making sure he's got plenty opportunities to have a drink!
Sorry for the long post, just thought I'd try and cover everything!
Thanks, Chris.
Here's a pic of the current set up.
I have the arcadia Pro t5 7% uvb, exoterra heat lamp and a fogger for night time when the temperature drops an hour or so after the lights go off. I am feeding him crickets and I'm alternating between dusting with calcium, exo terra multivitamins and I gut load the crickets with repashy superload.
Basking spot temp is around 34 degrees and I've been misting by hand ALOT, he'll drink right in front of me and he comes right up and tries to drink straight from the spray bottle. I had read they are shy drinkers so this worried me that he might be really thirsty if he's so keen to drink from the spray bottle so I've been making sure he's got plenty opportunities to have a drink!
Sorry for the long post, just thought I'd try and cover everything!
Thanks, Chris.
Ok so first off you are going to battle quite a bit having the lights inside. It is going to get far too hot. 34 will bake and dehydrate him. You need to drop basking temp back to 26. You can do this by using a lower wattage regular bulb. Secondly the uvb issue. You should not be using the 7% bulb it is made differently then the 6%. You want the 6% but you need a full 12 inches to the closest basking branch to prevent over exposure. So this now reduces the height of your enclosure and usable space by quite a bit.
The problem with fogging a cage like yours is that there is no air flow. This then becomes a perfect storm for the cham to develop a respiratory infection. A hybrid enclosure would be better. screen top and screen intake on the bottom to create the chimney effect for air movement.
Avoid reddit at all costs lol. You want accurate info and you will get alot of bs there. Here is an accurate site for info. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
Fill this out and be detailed in your feedback. copy and paste it into your response then fill out.
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
- Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
- Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
- Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
- Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
- Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
- History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
- Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
- Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
- Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
- Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
- Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
- Location - Where are you geographically located?
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Please Note:
- The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
- Photos can be very helpful.
The UV-A is different in them because it is made for crepusular species like geckos. So UV-A output is about half of what the 6% bulbs output is. They need UV-A for basic behaviors such as feeding along with other things.
https://www.arcadiareptile.com/shadedweller/prot5-shadedweller/
https://www.arcadiareptile.com/lighting/lamps/forest/
Will it work while you order a new bulb, absolutely. should you use it long term, no.
Are you going to modify this one and cut out the top panel to add screen for lighting to sit on top of the cage?
bruce the cham
Avid Member
its a boy you can tell cause of his colors
bruce the cham
Avid Member
add more live plants
ChrisHibs
Member
The top has a mesh section to place the heat light above it but doesn't have anywhere for a t5 uvb, it comes with fittings to place the uvb unit inside.
Would a Mercury vapour all in one type bulb work better for this or should I really try to cut a bigger hole in the top to have the uvb outside?
Are compact UVB bulbs any good if I get the dual dome fixture?
ChrisHibs
Member
On it
I've got a big Swiss cheese plant ready to be added to the new enclosure and I'm still looking to add more, if there's any other specific types you'd suggest that would be great!
So you really do not want to mount the lights inside. you will loose 12-14 inches of your enclosure because you can not have the branches any closer than 12 inches away from the bottom of the light. If this is your only choice then make sure the heat bulb is on the outside and make sure your using a 6% bulb with the correct distance mentioned above. T5 is still the best choice for uvb when it comes to chams.
The mercury vapor bulbs are extremely dangerous for chams. They are typically only used on large free range set ups and only with the use of a solarmeter 6.5 to know what the UVI output is.
They not only produce temps that are far higher than recommended for chams they have a higher UVI output. Both of these make them dangerous on cages like yours.
Compact bulbs are another one that is not recommended. Either producing to little UVI or way too much. So you get either MBD or overexposure.
ChrisHibs
Member
OK cool, thanks for all your help!
The heat lamp will sit above the mesh openening on the top so its just the uvb thats a problem! Is my fixture itself OK if I can find a 6% bulb to fit it?
Fixture is fine... What size fixture did you buy? Because you would buy the 6% bulb that is 2 inches shorter than your fixture. So 24inch fixture is a 22 inch bulb etc.
ChrisHibs
Member
I've got a whole new 22w Arcadia unit coming this week. This one I have is only the 8w one and I couldn't find 6.0 bulb for it. It's probably not powerful enough anyway.
I took your advice and cut a hole in the top of this new enclosure, there are now no lights inside the enclosure and the basking spot is now sitting at 26.5°C.
Ok now tell me about the distance to the branch on the top from the fixture? The material you are using will not reduce output on the bulb. So this means you still have the 12 inch distance needed to the branch . You can raise the fixture to accommodate this. ANOTHER option is buying aluminum window screen material. Must be the metal type not the fabric type. If you use this then you can go with the 8-9 inch to basking because it reduced the UVI level.
You will need to add more branches so the cham can fully utilize the space. You could build out a frame system with dowels to put into the cage so you can attach branches.
I can not tell but the fake plant on the back wall, is there tape holding it up? If so remove any and all tape from the cage.
ChrisHibs
Member
The UvB unit sits 27cm above the branch. It's only an 8w unit until the bigger one comes so will I need to keep it a bit closer for now?
Yeah I would like more branches but struggling to find anything big enough. Hadn't thought about building a frames system, that's a good idea!
No there's no tape holding it up
They are permanent hooks made for bathrooms, I've used them around my reef tanks for years with no issues even with saltwater so I'm pretty confident they'll be safe to use.
Yeah I would like more branches but struggling to find anything big enough. Hadn't thought about building a frames system, that's a good idea!
No there's no tape holding it up
They are permanent hooks made for bathrooms, I've used them around my reef tanks for years with no issues even with saltwater so I'm pretty confident they'll be safe to use.
bruce the cham
Avid Member
i would add more branches
