Hey everyone,
I Joined today finally just to start being part of the group that I have been learning so much from. I am a relatively new Panther Chameleon owner. Picked him up february 23rd. I have been looking for a good candidate for years. I have had most of my setup complete for many years but it has been empty. Part of it was a little concern if I really had everything ready to give the new addition a great home. The rest was the local breeder I used to deal with had some issues some time ago and actually got out of breeding. So it has been hard to find anyone I trusted to get one from. Although I ended up maybe rescuing mine from a local pet store that I felt was not going to do it any favors. I went ahead and typed up all the information from my setup for everyone to give me any advice or constructive criticism. I feel that my setup is atleast above average, and so far Picasso seems to be staying healthy. I just want to make sure I keep him that way. I will post pictures of my setup along with a few of him. I have not as of yet noticed any abnormal issues with him. No signs of dehydration that I can see. Eye turrets look good. Normal feces, Normal urate. Hunting actively, putting himself to sleep every night at almost the same time. But read below at my setup and take a look. Feel free to give me advice if anything is alarming. I have been learning for a long time. But I dont know everything.
Chameleon Info: Pablo Picasso
Cage Info:
I Joined today finally just to start being part of the group that I have been learning so much from. I am a relatively new Panther Chameleon owner. Picked him up february 23rd. I have been looking for a good candidate for years. I have had most of my setup complete for many years but it has been empty. Part of it was a little concern if I really had everything ready to give the new addition a great home. The rest was the local breeder I used to deal with had some issues some time ago and actually got out of breeding. So it has been hard to find anyone I trusted to get one from. Although I ended up maybe rescuing mine from a local pet store that I felt was not going to do it any favors. I went ahead and typed up all the information from my setup for everyone to give me any advice or constructive criticism. I feel that my setup is atleast above average, and so far Picasso seems to be staying healthy. I just want to make sure I keep him that way. I will post pictures of my setup along with a few of him. I have not as of yet noticed any abnormal issues with him. No signs of dehydration that I can see. Eye turrets look good. Normal feces, Normal urate. Hunting actively, putting himself to sleep every night at almost the same time. But read below at my setup and take a look. Feel free to give me advice if anything is alarming. I have been learning for a long time. But I dont know everything.
Chameleon Info: Pablo Picasso
- Your Chameleon - Male Panther Chameleon, I believe it to be an Ambilobe. Approximately 9 months old. Has been under my care since February 23rd, 2019
- Handling - I attempt to hold him maybe once every couple days, but he does not like to leave his habitat. So far he has only sat on my hand inside the terrarium. But has not been outside the cage.
- Feeding - I feed him gut loaded crickets daily. I have been feeding him around 10 to 15 medium crickets every day and make a solid attempt to remove any uneaten from the cage at night. However most of the time he eats all of them. I feed him in the morning before I leave for work. I am gut loading his crickets with orange and papaya slices, along with mustard green leaves and water pillows inside their cricket keeper. I clean it and change the gut loading supplies every two days. I have attempted to get him to eat hornworms, and waxworms. So far he won't touch either. He loves to hunt and is not interested in anything sitting still.
- Supplements - I am using all Rep_Cal products for supplementation. Calcium dusted daily with every cricket feeding, Calcium + D3 every other saturday, and Herptivite every other saturday alternating.
- Watering - I have several watering options in my setup. First, all water that goes into the setup is treated with zoo med reptisafe water conditioner. Primary: Mistking pro200 with digital cycle timer. 2 gallon reservoir in the base cabinet with fish tank heater to keep water at 82 degrees. 20s at 7am to simulate morning dew. 1.5m at 10am, 1m at noon, 1.5m at 3:30pm, and 30s at 6:30pm. The cage and plant always dry between cycles.
- I have a dripper on top of the cage that drips into the plant leaves. Set to roughly one drip per second every morning . No dripper/ misting of any kind at night.
- I also have a hand mister that I use to give him extra small amounts periodically. Mostly I use it to help wash and clean feces and other items inside the terrarium.
- At night I struggle with humidity levels in my house and with an open air cage it really mostly stays the same as ambient. I have a humidifier on the floor next to the cabinet the cage is on. It comes on once all his lighting and all other systems shut down for the evening. I have noticed that it is able to maintain between 48 and 50% humidity by the morning. But by the end of the day before it comes on its back to between 35 and 40%. Which is what my house stays.
- I also have a custom fabricated drain pan in the bottom of the cage that drains into a 2 gallon reservoir in the bottom of the cabinet.
- Fecal Description - So far, all of his fecal droppings look absolutely textbook. Formed and dark brown, Urate is white and hard. Sperm plugs have been present several times but not daily by any means. I have not seen any orange/yellow urate at all. And has not had an episode of diarrhea at all. Here's hope that I am doing my part correctly. I have never had any parasite testing done, nor did the place I got him from.
- History - I have been looking for a panther chameleon for several years now. I had a local breeder that stopped after some unfortunate events. I got wind that a local chain pet store “Petco” had ordered a Panther to stock in the store. I immediately went there to see what they were thinking. I was terrified to see the setup they had waiting for his arrival. Not anything a panther needs was inside this setup. It was a reclaimed snake tank. Glass, Water bowl, One vine, 94 degrees ambient and about 85% humidity. I asked what they were getting and they had no idea. They told me the “supplier” just sends a panther. No idea if male, female, locale, or any details. I told them it didn't matter what they got I had been looking for a healthy panther for years and I would take it. I put my name in and told them to hold it. The day he came in he was just finishing a shed cycle. But was just sitting on the bottom in the wood chips not moving. I took him home immediately.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - 18x18x36 open air screen cage, Custom floor pan drainage system. Elevated plant stand to keep bottom empty and cleanable. Multiple vines, and sandblasted grape vines. Live Ficus tree planted in ceramic pot with fully draining bottom.
- Lighting - Zilla 20 inch lighting hood. Completely gutted and rebuilt with dimmable t5 ho ballast, Repti Sun 5.0 18” t5 UVB, and 2 50 watt gu10 mini halogen basking lamps. The lighting is automated to simulate natural cycles as best as possible. UVB comes on at 8am, first basking light comes on at 10am, second basking light comes on at noon. Then they subsequently turn off in reverse order.
- Temperature - Cage floor stays between 65 and 70 degrees all day and night, top of cage ranges from 65 in the mornings and 85 degrees in the hottest part of the afternoon. Basking spot is monitored by its own temp probe and ranges from 70 to 90 degrees at the hottest part of the day. I measure temps and humidities with one top and bottom mounted temp/hygrometer , and have a temp meter with remote sensor that is mounted on the main basking spot.
- Humidity - My humidity is unfortunately lower than I want it to be. It likes to stay ambient to my house 90% of the time. Which is between 35 and 40%. At night I run an auxiliary humidifier on the floor and it brings it closer to 50%. I have lots of watering options trying to combat this but still struggle to overcome the houses low relative humidity.
- Plants - Yes, Live ficus tree inside in ceramic pot. The pot has many drain holes in the bottom, and has been potted in artificial ceramic media with a small bed of activated charcoal to filter any contaminants that come from the plant to the bottom of the cage.
- Placement - The cage is in the corner of my main living room. Next to an outside window. It is near a vent thats blocked off, and not near any fans. Its outside of the normal traffic path for the room. The cabinet is 30” tall and the cage is 36” tall. Putting the top of the cage 66” from the floor.
