Juv Panther Chameleon Housing Size / drip system question?

[goettemm]

Hi,

I am looking at getting a juv panther and am curious if I can put it directly into its final home, a 24x24x48" enclosure or if I need a smaller enclosure first?

Also, what do people use in/below the cage to catch the drip from the water? If dripping it into a plant, is it too much water for a large plant?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[nightanole]

If you get a stock screen 24x24x48, it will come with a white tile for the bottom that fits in side. Use that to raise the cage floor to 24x24x24. For a drip tray alot of us use an over flow tray meant for washing machines. They are 32x27 or about that.

PS: if you cup feed or hand screen feed, you can pop them in the adult tank at the start. However if you free range the food keep him in a smaller tank till they can eat 3/4" crickets.

Post post script: If you free range the food, keep the bottom of the cage bare (not even stick ends) and raise the potted plants as high as you can. If you dont then all the food will just crawl under the pots, or in the pot water and drown.

 

[goettemm]

Thanks - awesome looking setup. I was looking at getting my 24x24x48" enclosure from LLLReptile as they have a cyber monday sale going on. Any other suggestions, or is this a good enclosure. I really appreciate your assistance.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[nightanole]

No the lll is a good buy. The three you can get are:
LLL reptile
reptibreeze
diycages

They are all around $100 when not on sale. You just pick your features. Some have diff style latches, or a diff front door.


LLL also has top shelf supplements if you havent all ready got them picked out. Good combos are:

Repashy SuperCal NoD + Repashy SuperCal HyD + Repashy Supervite (hint they are closing out their 8oz jars)

Sticky Tongue Minerall INDOOR + OUTDOOR + Vit All (ive been using indoor for 15 years)

Rep Cal Calcium WITHOUT D3 + Rep Cal ultra fine calcium with D3 + Rep Cal Herptivite



The normal supplemental regiment is this:

calcium +d3 2 times a month
vitamin (with d3 in it) 2 times a month
calcium without d3 the rest of the time

This is with LIGHT dusting, not little ghost crickets walking around.

 

[goettemm]

Good stuff. I'm going to get the water try to collect on the bottom. Figure natural evaporation will provide decent humidity as well. Thanks for the tip on supplements, I've not seen it spelled out so succinctly before

Mike

 

[Olimpia]

That's a photo of my set-up, actually.
The cages in that photo are the LLL cages in silver and I am very pleased with them. I much prefer them over the DIY cages I bought at the same time.

I think that depending on the size of the juvie, he will be fine in a cage that large. I've moved 4-5 month old panthers into their 4' cages and they found their food without issue. But I do keep my cages a little more minimalistic than others might (Even though the pothos in those cages needs to be pruned every few weeks because it has taken over). Working a little to find his food is not a problem, you just want him to find it before he's lost all his supplements. So you could cup feed some of his food items and release the others, etc. Up to you, really, and how you want to tackle that issue.

 

[kekulpac]

I have my panther running around in a 6 foot by eight foot shed I set up in my basement. Originally it was my grow house for my tropical fruit trees and plants. They don't like the winters here in the Cleveland Ohio area... But since the set up and climate was so similar, I decided to add the a panther. He's been loving it since he was 3 months old. Plenty of room and natural foliage. Stays about 82-84 degees during the day and gets down into the low 70's at night when everything goes off. Added a Mist King setup Which has done wonders for the plants also. He just watches me now when I tend to the plants, no longer tries to hide. Really a great place to go to ward off the winter blues, and Bagheera just makes it tha much better.

 

[Russy]

are the plants in your chameleons cages living

 

[Olimpia]

In that photo? Yes, all of them are live. Pothos are excellent (the bushy viny one) because they are very difficult to kill, do really well in chameleon cages with the water and lighting, and grow very quickly. The plants in that photo took over only 4-5 months later, reaching all the way down to the floor, and have needed trimming ever since.

If you can do live plants that would be better than using fake.