Just making sure I'm doing this right..?

[Yamajee]

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forums and I hope I can have a good stay here . I recently bought a panther chameleon because I've had a thing for chameleons and always wanted to have one so I was lucky enough to find a panther here in Dubai and brought it back home. His name's Hyde and he's around 3-4 months old as the shop owner has told me. I just want to ask a few questions and state a few things to see if I'm doing this right or not, he's fully healthy, eats, drinks, climbs and does everything normal.

Diet:
I'm giving him an average of 8-10 mealworms per day (feed him normally in the morning and at night). I couldn't find any crickets in here or nearly anything other than mealworms so I'm sticking to them since we don't have a lot of reptile shops in here and it's annoying me. Is this diet okay or should I increase-decrease the number of worms or try to change his diet in some way?

I dust his food with JBL Microcalcium (that's the only supplement I can find in here too and nothing like Calcium with D3, without D3 or multivitamins unfortunately) is it ok if I can continue with this supplement or...?

His cage is an exo terra (couldn't find the size but I think it's the biggest size, it's the screened terrarium not the fully glassed one just the slide doors on front are glass, the sides are mesh and the roof of the cage is mesh too so plenty of air flow for him). Plenty of foliage, branches, leaves and a fake grass bedding, heating rock which I then read about being dangerous for him so it's just there as decor and not switched on, a dripper system with a pipe from above and he seems to know where it's placed so it's good) and I mist him around 3-6 times a day.

Lighting is a Daylight basking spot lamp (100w) and I think it's either an exoterra or sunglo. I'm not sure if this is too much but the light is placed around 10 cm's higher than the roof so I don't think there are any burning/eye issues for him plus I regularly monitor the cage's temperatures and they all seem good. Do I need another type of light or change the current bulb or get an infrared light for nights because I just turn off the lights for him at night whenever I go to sleep (usually around 11pm everyday).

He's shedding right now and he seems to be healthy and happy, never handle him at all, hand feed him myself and never ever seen him puff or get stressed. Handled him once that day because he was eager to get out of the cage for some reason and handled him for around 10 minutes then put him back in the cage. I've been also watching and checking him for any de-hydration (swollen eyes), fractures, MBD, etc. and nothing I hope I'm doing this right and nothing is wrong with the setup, diet, etc.

I attached the only pictures I got of him and hopefully you guys can also identify which specific type of panther is it? (Nosy be hopefully!!? I really want a blue chameleon).

 

[studio2eight]

Hi, Welcome to the forums - there are some amazing people here and you will learn a lot about how to care for your new chameleon

He looks to me to be older than 3-4 months, maybe it's just he looks big in your photos, especially the one of him on your arm. He is a very pretty boy, but he's definitely not a Nosy Be. He's got some great blue bars though Maybe Ambilobe...

As far as diet goes, it's very important to have variation. I can't believe they don't have shops for you to get what you need You should only be feeding him in the mornings/brunch-time as they need the heat/light to help them digest. If you feed him in the evenings/night then his lights go out, he doesn't get to digest fully. Especially with the mealworms, you don't want him to get impacted. Can you look into purchasing crickets in bulk from another country? You can then breed your own. You can also get other bugs that way - try the hornworms (I get mine shipped from across the country). I'm sure someone else will chime in soon to give you more info about diet.

On the supplements - now this you should be able to order online and have shipped to you. Get the calcium with D3, Calcium without D3, and a multivitamin. Very important.

Can you post photos of your cage set up? Good on the heating rock - you don't need it & it could burn him.

Lights - Do you have a UVB light as well? I didn't see you say anything about one - so that is also really important. It's also good to get him out in the real sun as much as possible. You don't need any lights at night. They need the total darkness. Chameleons love a schedule - do you have your lights on a timer? If not, it's a great idea so they go on and off at the same time every day. 12 hours on, 12 hours off typically.

Good luck caring for Hyde

 

[Yamajee]

Hi, Welcome to the forums - there are some amazing people here and you will learn a lot about how to care for your new chameleon

He looks to me to be older than 3-4 months, maybe it's just he looks big in your photos, especially the one of him on your arm. He is a very pretty boy, but he's definitely not a Nosy Be. He's got some great blue bars though Maybe Ambilobe...

As far as diet goes, it's very important to have variation. I can't believe they don't have shops for you to get what you need You should only be feeding him in the mornings/brunch-time as they need the heat/light to help them digest. If you feed him in the evenings/night then his lights go out, he doesn't get to digest fully. Especially with the mealworms, you don't want him to get impacted. Can you look into purchasing crickets in bulk from another country? You can then breed your own. You can also get other bugs that way - try the hornworms (I get mine shipped from across the country). I'm sure someone else will chime in soon to give you more info about diet.

On the supplements - now this you should be able to order online and have shipped to you. Get the calcium with D3, Calcium without D3, and a multivitamin. Very important.

Can you post photos of your cage set up? Good on the heating rock - you don't need it & it could burn him.

Lights - Do you have a UVB light as well? I didn't see you say anything about one - so that is also really important. It's also good to get him out in the real sun as much as possible. You don't need any lights at night. They need the total darkness. Chameleons love a schedule - do you have your lights on a timer? If not, it's a great idea so they go on and off at the same time every day. 12 hours on, 12 hours off typically.

Good luck caring for Hyde

Firstly thank you for replying!

That's what I was told at the shop, he was around 3-4 months old. Gotta double check with them then!

Oh trust me I've had a hard time finding this guy and had a lot of people search for me and I finally I was to find someone who has just imported it and didn't even put in the cage and I bought it off him for around more than triple the price for what the price is for you guys in the US. Exotics, yes yes I'll buy any exotic reptile for any price haha. Oh, didn't know about that! Usually at around 2 hours before lights out I'd feed him at nights but other than that in the daytime is when I feed him mostly. I wanted variation too but the problem is that I can't find any here and I'll look at buying them in bulk or ordering them online, talked to someone who would try to get me a huge load of crickets in around 8-10 days. Hornworms? heard they were trouble to chameleons?

I'll do so then, so that microcalcium thing is nothing or is it good temporarily?

I'll try to post photos of the cage set-up as soon as possible.

I think the sun in Dubai is way too hot for him, are you sure it's okay? you can take a look at our average temperatures and see what I'm talking about.

Not really was just checking youtube today and checking websites and saw that, since I'm not taking him out often I'll probably end up buying him one, any brand/watt recommendation please?

Yes, 12 hours on and 12 hours off.

Plus I forgot to ask, how many mealworms should I be feeding him and how many each feeding? I always worry that he gets hungry because whenever I offer him the worms he never says no.

Thank you again.

 

[ReptileLove18]

Welcome to the forum!
this is a caresheet for panthers, has great info on what panthers need(goes over lighting, humidity, enclosure, and more) https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/
this is a blog about feeders, how chams need a varied diet to be healthy and all different kinds of feeders you can try https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
this blog tells you how to gutload your feeders so that they are as nutrituous as possible for your chameleon https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
if you are unable to find a good variety of feeders, i agree with studio about seeing if you can buy several kind of bulk feeders and breed your own!
mealworms are alright but arent the easiest to digest or the most nutritious. it is best to have a varied diet of well gutloaded feeders
he doesnt need any heat source at night unless the temperature drops below 10 degrees C, any light at night disturbs their sleep.
do you have a hygrometer to measure the humidity? humidity is important for chams so if you dont have one, try to find one online when you look for the supplements you need.
anyways, check out the links i gave you, they give you tons of info you need for your new friend and have a great time with him! he is gorgeous!! cant wait to see more pictures of him as he gets older if you have more questions just ask us and feel free to private message me anytime if you want to!

 

[Kate]

Hi and welcome to the forum. There is another member here from Dubai perhaps she could help with supplies. However I think she had to get them online. Perhaps you could message her. It's PenelopeLove. Good luck

 

[Yamajee]

Welcome to the forum!
this is a caresheet for panthers, has great info on what panthers need(goes over lighting, humidity, enclosure, and more) https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/
this is a blog about feeders, how chams need a varied diet to be healthy and all different kinds of feeders you can try https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
this blog tells you how to gutload your feeders so that they are as nutrituous as possible for your chameleon https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
if you are unable to find a good variety of feeders, i agree with studio about seeing if you can buy several kind of bulk feeders and breed your own!
mealworms are alright but arent the easiest to digest or the most nutritious. it is best to have a varied diet of well gutloaded feeders
he doesnt need any heat source at night unless the temperature drops below 10 degrees C, any light at night disturbs their sleep.
do you have a hygrometer to measure the humidity? humidity is important for chams so if you dont have one, try to find one online when you look for the supplements you need.
anyways, check out the links i gave you, they give you tons of info you need for your new friend and have a great time with him! he is gorgeous!! cant wait to see more pictures of him as he gets older if you have more questions just ask us and feel free to private message me anytime if you want to!

Will take a look and thank you so much for the help!

Hi and welcome to the forum. There is another member here from Dubai perhaps she could help with supplies. However I think she had to get them online. Perhaps you could message her. It's PenelopeLove. Good luck

Oh ! I'll message her right now and thanks again.

 

[ReptileLove18]

Will take a look and thank you so much for the help!

You're very welcome, we're glad to have you here

 

[Yamajee]

You're very welcome, we're glad to have you here

Read her topic about her chameleon, so sorry to hear that, she did mention that the diet of chameleons in here that she was able to find are crickets and meal worms only. Everything she said in her topic is true about feeding him other things, the insects/bugs we have in here could possible upset his stomache or be dangerous to him so it's better to stick to mealworms and/or crickets rather than doing that.

I think worrying too much is what chameleons love to do to us haha!

 

[Kate]

Worry comes with the Cham.LOL Welcome to the club

 

[Yamajee]

Worry comes with the Cham.LOL Welcome to the club

Been doing some reading and thankfully I've been doing everything properly except I need to add a UVB light which I'm getting tomorrow since it's late night in here and just need to vary his diet for him (hopefully crickets as a start).

For the terrarium I'd say about the same size as the link I've posted except the sides are mesh and not glass. Is it okay for him or? plenty of foliage for him to hide and just left one little corner where nothing is placed in there in case he wants to see the outside world haha.

 

[Kate]

Not sure about the size of your viv. For an adult he will need preferably one 48"x24x24. They need hight rather than width. It looks as if it will be ok for a few months.

 

[Yamajee]

Not sure about the size of your viv. For an adult he will need preferably one 48"x24x24. They need hight rather than width. It looks as if it will be ok for a few months.

Yeah obviously until I'm able to locate an enclosure like the ones you guys have, for now this is really hard, maybe the hardest pet I've ever had, reptiles are really not the best pets in here in terms of keeping and even supplies, pff.

 

[Yamajee]

Alright so here's a picture of his viv, as I said I left out the left corner of the viv for him as a basking spot with the branch if he wants to get closer to the lamp. Getting the UVB light today (thinking of going for a ExoTerra 10.0 UVB florescent bulb?) and the hygrometer.

The pic looks like the viv is small even though I think it's good for his age until I'm able to get a hold of a viv that you guys set up, might have someone custom make one for me.

PS: hyde perfectly posed for the camera.

 

[arnau666]

from the pictures i think ur panther is older than what you have been told .
for his size you need to get a larger terrarium . 24x24x48 inch
especialy taller with a lot of branches so he can climb on.
in ur viv i only see 2-3 braches that dont look very comfortable.
if you can't get a reptibreeze or other brand mesh terrarium i recommend you build it yourself its pretty easy .

 

[Yamajee]

from the pictures i think ur panther is older than what you have been told .
for his size you need to get a larger terrarium . 24x24x48 inch
especialy taller with a lot of branches so he can climb on.
in ur viv i only see 2-3 braches that dont look very comfortable.
if you can't get a reptibreeze or other brand mesh terrarium i recommend you build it yourself its pretty easy .

Getting a really huge one soon custom made so that's all good.

There are behind the fake plants but you can't see the, comfortable? you sure know how a chameleon feels.

 

[Yamajee]

Update:

Forgot to update the thread, Hyde has a much more bigger enclosure now
(around 180cm x 60cm x 60cm). Everything seems healthy, got him a schefflera plant and vines/branches to climb on, getting a mistking soon, got a UVB light too. Got all the calciums and the multivitamins I need. Thank you all for the help and a special "THANK YOU" to PenelopeLove who is really really awesome and a great friend of mine! she helped me a lot with him!

Posting pics soon of the enclosure (it has a storage drawer under it and is made out of aluminum, had a fabricator guy do it for me custom).