Panther Cham Not Basking

[Chameleon_mama]

Hello!

Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed that my male panther doesn’t want to bask for some reason, which then makes him too cold (dark colors). He’s still eating but I can tell he’s not 100%. Pictures attached of the ambient temp, basking branch, and him hiding in the plants. The ambient temp is around 80F but when I use a heat gun, the actually branch is closer to the recommended 90F.

Any reason why he might not be basking? Thank you!

 

[janjan20]

Hi, just off the top of my head, I’m thinking 90 is probably too hot for him. Even though the branch is 90, we have to account for their height so he would be sitting up closer to the light, therefore getting hotter. The max recommended temp is 85 for panthers. What is the bulb wattage? Have you changed the UVB bulb recently? New bulbs can sometimes be a little too strong and they can sometimes stay lower in the enclosure due to it.
Also, from the pic his eyes do look a little sunken in. Could be from you taking the pic…can you provide full a body shot of him so we can see all of him?

 

[Chameleon_mama]

Hi, just off the top of my head, I’m thinking 90 is probably too hot for him. Even though the branch is 90, we have to account for their height so he would be sitting up closer to the light, therefore getting hotter. The max recommended temp is 85 for panthers. What is the bulb wattage? Have you changed the UVB bulb recently? New bulbs can sometimes be a little too strong and they can sometimes stay lower in the enclosure due to it.
Also, from the pic his eyes do look a little sunken in. Could be from you taking the pic…can you provide full a body shot of him so we can see all of him?

Interesting, I was thinking he was consistently too cold so I actually put a second heat lamp on to keep temps up. The ambient temp in my house is about 68. I’ll try turning off the second bulb to see if that makes him feel better.

In terms of his eyes being sunken in, I think it might have just been the angle of the phone. I wasn’t able to get a full body shot because he was hiding all day, I’ll try again tomorrow. His eyes look pretty good to me though. Thanks for your input!

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

I would experiment some with the placement of a basking spot. I reccomend placing multiple branches as basking spots at multiple heights. Then move the basking lamp over places with other heights and observe what height basking spot is most used for your chameleon and go from there.

Give that idea a go!

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich