New membeer, and my new Ambilobe

blackhawk007

New Member
New members, and our new Ambilobe

Hey everyone. I have been following the site for some time now, just reading though. I don't have any experience of my own to provide so I have just stayed quiet and tried to learn from you all. I had built my own enclosure(a hobby all in its own) its 24X36X48 tall. I know this is not exactly a small cage but I thought it would be better to go bigger than smaller. I hope it works out. The cage was made from aluminum angle and aluminum screen. So far we have a gardenia, and a schefflera in the cage, along with multiple branches and bendable vines of all sizes. Lighting is a 36" 5.0 bulb, and a 160w mercury vapor bulb until my next delivery arrives Tuesday.

In the bottom of the cage I made an 8" tall planter the size of the bottom and filled it with (from bottom to top in layers) gravel, carbon, vermiculite for soil and covered with larger size reptibark. I went with a size sub straight that would be too big to fit in his mouth when eating, just in case he misses his target I did not want him eating small wood. In the center I have a drain to prevent draining issues. I still have a few more items coming to help with the landscaping. But the photo was what it looked on Friday when checking temperatures at different locations. The cage is kept in our garden seedling room so the environment should be warm enough and humid enough.


This weekend I was finally able to locate an Ambilobe that I was looking for. Our local fairgrounds holds a reptile show twice a month so I was able to get a 3.5 month old F4 captive bred blue bar male. I have to be honest, I misted the cage before I put him in there and he started drinking just after he was placed. Very happy to see this for the first time. I then let him relax for a bit and then tried to see if he would take some food. Yep, he snagged a cricket right from my fingers. He then went up to the 5.0 bulb and hung out (literally upside down) for a while. I have been using a pump mister and pump dripper. I can already tell that he will be getting a more elaborate watering setup over the next few months. Its only been a few days and he seems to be pretty active. Here are some pics we wanted to share.

We are open to suggestions that you may have, being first time caregivers over here.

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Basking
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Hello again! I'm the half-owner of this little guy. You may have seen my post about the dry gut load recipes. Anyway, we're very excited about him and continuing to learn about how to care for him so yes, any and all tips and recommendations will be greatly welcomed. Excited to get to know you all and thanks in advance for all of the tips and tricks!

Jenna
:D
 
Also, we would love an opinion on his age. I believe we were told roughly 3.5 months, but after seeing the comments on MadSince95's thread... well, I'm very confused.
 
Congrats on the new Cham and I'd say from my minor amount of experience that age seems about right
 
Oh also I'd suggest taking out the mulch in case he snatches a cricket off of it he could get some of it in his mouth and choke on it but other than that it looks great maybe a little more foliage up top to hide in but thats about if from what I see it looks good! ;)
 
congrats on the new cham!! He looks quite healthy which is good. Also a lot of people recommend not having any sort of substrate because they can eat it and it makes keeping the cage clean that much harder.

Do you have a basking bulb for him? From the first photo I can't see one and they need a basking temp of about 90-95 degrees to make sure they get enough heat.
 
The basking lamp is the bright yellow glow on the top right side of the photo. The bluish light at the top of the pic that runs from left to right is the 5.0 bulb. The basking temp at the screen level is 93.8. Right now he spends a lot of time on the screen and I did not want the temp there to get high enough to burn him.

Any suggestions on how to get heat to the basking area and not heat up the screen? What I mean is, as he gets bigger and climbs on the screen less I would like the "wooded" area on the right to be the basking area. But so far the only way I can heat that area up is to lower the basking light. This in turn heats the upper screen to over 107 degrees. I am open to suggestions on this, but as of yet I am not willing to let anything that he comes in contact with get that hot.
 
The basking lamp is the bright yellow glow on the top right side of the photo. The bluish light at the top of the pic that runs from left to right is the 5.0 bulb. The basking temp at the screen level is 93.8. Right now he spends a lot of time on the screen and I did not want the temp there to get high enough to burn him.

Any suggestions on how to get heat to the basking area and not heat up the screen? What I mean is, as he gets bigger and climbs on the screen less I would like the "wooded" area on the right to be the basking area. But so far the only way I can heat that area up is to lower the basking light. This in turn heats the upper screen to over 107 degrees. I am open to suggestions on this, but as of yet I am not willing to let anything that he comes in contact with get that hot.

Is the basking light suspended or siting on top of the cage?
Mine has in the past climbed right under the basking lamp hanging from the screen etc but never long enough he ever got burnt adding more foliage up toward the top will help calm his nerves and he'll probably decrease the amount of time he spends screen climbing
 
The light is suspended by wood, with metal brackets holding it in place to prevent the wood from getting too hot. I cant hang the light by normal means because it is closer to the ceiling than the bracket will allow.

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The light is suspended by wood, with metal brackets holding it in place to prevent the wood from getting too hot. I cant hang the light by normal means because it is closer to the ceiling that the bracket will allow.

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Yeah I'd move it over to where he has a flat place to
Kinda lay out to bask as that's how panthers like to bask like this
 

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Nice cham!! By the way...... You can fix the typo by editing that post...Just have to hit the go advanced button;) Welcome here!! Both of you!
 
Yeah I'd move it over to where he has a flat place to
Kinda lay out to bask as that's how panthers like to bask like this

Sorry for the miss information. The photo was taken when I was moving it around to check temps. I thought the photo would be good to show the height of the light away from the screen. It is now on the right side of the cage where it has been since he arrived. Again sorry about not stating that when I posted it. My first photo shows where it currently sits to the right.
 
BTW nice looking cham Whatcamo

Davonat - Thanks!

Your welcome!:) Your cage is the same size as the 1 I just built.....Perfect size once they get bigger. that wont take long either;) If there is a feeding issue you can always cup feed for now.
 
Feeding is going well. I feed crickets by hand, awesome btw. And I do the worms by bowl. It generally takes about 20 seconds to feed him. At times it makes me feel that he is not getting enough because of this. The breeder said 5 crickets every other day. But this seems way low. I gave him that both yesterday and today. I have read so many different things as to how much he should be eating. After looking at the pics for size, are there any suggestions on how much to feed him each day?
 
Feeding is going well. I feed crickets by hand, awesome btw. And I do the worms by bowl. It generally takes about 20 seconds to feed him. At times it makes me feel that he is not getting enough because of this. The breeder said 5 crickets every other day. But this seems way low. I gave him that both yesterday and today. I have read so many different things as to how much he should be eating. After looking at the pics for size, are there any suggestions on how much to feed him each day?

At that size feed him as many as he wants...I dont know what suppliments you are useing ....I use Repashy Calcium plus and gut load with Bug Burger & Dino Fuel Raptor mixed together.
 
At that size feed him as many as he wants...I dont know what suppliments you are useing ....I use Repashy Calcium plus and gut load with Bug Burger & Dino Fuel Raptor mixed together.

I'll second the give him all he wants at that age and the calcium plus and I don't know about the other stuff as I use my gut load haha ;)
 
OK, that is what I thought. I will keep feeding him till he is done. Or at least until he stops chasing after it.

I am using calcium so far but that is all I have until tomorrow, since the stores were closed today and we got him only yesterday. The crickets have been eating the gut load that they came with and romaine that Jenna tossed in. She has been all over this site looking into gut loads. That's is kinda the best part. We are both researching and looking into everything instead of just one of us making a hobby out of this. Its so much easier to care for pets when everyone is into it just as much as you are.
 
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