Highly Active Panther Cham

[pascalpappi]

I'm experiencing some behaviour changes with my male panther cham. He's about 8 months old, has a 2x2x5 sized cage with lots of natural plants and climbing branches, I give him a range of food but he wants to spend most of his time outside the enclosure climbing anything in the house that he can find. He is fearless of people, will clamber onto anyone within range, and has been eating a lot less than normal these last couple weeks.
He is due for a shed but I don't think that's the reason.

Maybe as he's reaching sexual maturity he's on the hunt for a female???

Pics of enclosure below.
He has two levels he can bask, one at about 9inches and one at 16inches.
Ambient daytime temp at top gets to about 85-90F depending on location and bottom of the cage 75F. Night time it comes down to about 65-70F

Main light sources.

And the man himself… Pascal.

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi again. Pascal is very handsome! I still will guess that he is probably starting to think about passing on his genes, but I do have some important feedback for you about his enclosure.
The first and perhaps most important is his uvb. The coil or screw in uvb lights aren’t able to provide the levels that chameleons need. Over less time than you might think, he will develop mbd. You need to invest in a linear T5HO with either Arcadia 6% or ReptiSun 5.0 bulb. I do see a linear light fixture, but you don’t say what it is. Then place his basking branch at a distance of 8-9” below it. This will give him the uvb levels he needs. My other advice is to caution against the woven vine and the black Exo Terra vine. For the woven one, it’s very easy for him to get a claw stuck and have it pull out. The black Exo Terra ones are notorious for shedding tiny particles that somehow always end up in the eyes and cause problems. The Fluker’s vines are pretty good. https://www.amazon.com/Fluker-Labs-...ines&qid=1731370193&sprefix=r,aps,1749&sr=8-8 I also like these. https://www.amazon.com/Helidrago-Su...id=1731370193&sprefix=r,aps,1749&sr=8-25&th=1
I’m quite curious about the ventilation of your enclosure too. It’s fine to use a solid enclosure, but there needs to be some good ventilation. Usually there are some vents at the bottom and then an all screen top, which provides the chimney effect ventilation. It could be that Pascal is wanting out because he is wanting fresh air. I don’t know what type/brand of enclosure that is, but you may need to add some modifications. High heat plus high humidity is a big risk for causing respiratory infections. If you add poor ventilation to that mix, it is almost a sure thing eventually.
If you don’t have any other animals, like cats or dogs, and it would otherwise be safe to do, you may want to think about setting up a nice free range area for Pascal, including a uvb light with it. Some keepers don’t even have enclosures and their chams live full time on free range areas. Something to think about.

 

[pascalpappi]

Thank you so much for such a detailed reply.

I did have the linear UVB but I couldn’t mount it on top so had to mount it inside and he kept climbing on it and I suspected he may have burnt himself a couple times so I tried to find an alternative. Will have to think about how to solve this differently.
Could multiple coils work you think if I can’t fit a linear?

Great tip on the vines, I didn’t think of that, I’ll get them replaced.

For ventilation I have a decent fan that pulls in fresh air at the bottom vents and seems to push it out the top reasonably well. I also leave the doors open quite a bit during the day so I think it’s ok.

Good call on the UVB external area. He has an external branch I put him on for brief periods but it’s not UVB lit so I try to keep him in the cage most of the day.

Thanks again

 

[MissSkittles]

The problem with the coil uvb lights is that they reach very high uvb levels in a very short area and then after about 2-3”, there’s basically no uvb. This will help explain and demonstrate what I mean.

There’s no cut out area that would fit a linear uvb?

 

[pascalpappi]

I see.
The cut out area is only 10x10” and I need to fit the heat light there too. Cage is PVC custom build from Toad Ranch.

Are these LED style ones an option?
https://a.co/d/cRm8IzY
They are a bit more flexible in sizing options.

 

[MissSkittles]

I’m afraid my knowledge on that is limited, but I do know that if you contact https://www.lightyourreptiles.com/ he will certainly be able to help you figure it out better than I can.

 

[pascalpappi]

Thank you!

This has been immensely helpful.

 

[jamest0o0]

Agreed with everything @MissSkittles said. The behavior definitely sounds like mate/territory searching. Mine would often do this in the late spring/summer and slow back down in the winter. My one issue with panthers was always this, they can be too active lol and at times would eat very little for weeks or more. Made me feel like the space we give them isn’t enough. Plus I love watching chameleons eat, who doesn’t… so it’s a bummer when they never want to.