Panther Chameleon Help - Is he Okay?

[Jayza92]

Hello users of Chameleon forums!

Today, I thought I would stop by to post my Chameleon and his setup, because honestly, i'm worried. I have a 30" x 18" x 30" enclosure for him but is there enough inside here for him or ideally he needs more? Also, today marks a week that i've had him, and most of the time his red is pretty dark but his green is very vibrant... The vine in the picture to the left is 90-92 degrees for his basking and the ambient temperature throughout the cage is just fine. He has a monsoon rs400 mister that mists every hour for 60 seconds. When I can (since I work so much) I manually mist him with a sprayer. He has a dripper that drips water for him all day to drink and I have been feeding him crickets with calcium and calcium without D3 along with 'super worms'. I'm just a concerned owner as I'm the idiot who bought him from the pet store (which you guys don't recommend but I needed one from a local store and I wanted to provide him with a better environment)


Do you guys think he's okay? Based off the pictures at least. I know the UVA bulb on the far right is zoo med (which i scrapped from a cage i bought from craigslist) but the big housing on the left houses a reptisun lightbulb or something like that that has both UVA and UVB light.. other than that, I don't have much information in regards to what lights they are but I can check when I turn them off next. PS, the picture of him when he looks really orange is at night, and he is always pretty bright orange when sleeping.

 

[JoCarp]

Welcome!!! Looks like you're on the right track, he's a very handsome guy! I would add more horizontal branches/vines closer to his lamps (not so close he will get burned though, leave ~6-8" or so from the light to the top of his back). The vertical vines are good for changing levels, but having multiple "levels" of horizontal perches allows him to pick his perfect basking spot for thermoregulation. Plus this way he can relax while basking on a horizontal branch versus hanging on to a vertical one more tightly.
Good luck with him!

 

[Jayza92]

Welcome!!! Looks like you're on the right track, he's a very handsome guy! I would add more horizontal branches/vines closer to his lamps (not so close he will get burned though, leave ~6-8" or so from the light to the top of his back). The vertical vines are good for changing levels, but having multiple "levels" of horizontal perches allows him to pick his perfect basking spot for thermoregulation. Plus this way he can relax while basking on a horizontal branch versus hanging on to a vertical one more tightly.
Good luck with him!

Thanks for the quick response, and thanks for welcoming me! I'm a first time reptile owner, so I want to make sure i'm doing it right as I know this may be a hard first time reptile lol. I want to get another plant to increase the overall humidity levels and eventually fill the cage with 2-3 bigger live plants.

Can you tell how old he is based off the color he's showing? I know eventually he will become more vibrant but honestly, i'm worried because he's not showing much to anything I feel like. I'm probably over concerned.

 

[JoCarp]

He looks about the same size as mine who's 8.5 months old, but this is also my first panther so maybe someone with more experience can give you a better estimate. As far as color, they will continue to develop until about a year and a half old and my guy was changing a lot more drastically when he was younger than he is now, so I don't think there is anything to worry about. Your guy looks like he's showing good color. Its really when they get dark for an extended period that something may be off.

I think once you get some more foliage in there, like you mentioned, he will feel a little more secure as well.

Here is the link to all the general care stuff that would be good to review if you haven't seen it. (https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...ts-caging-lighting-nutrition-and-more.104558/) This stuff helped settle my concerns the first few months as I was worried everything was a sign of catastrophic failure haha.

If you have questions, search or post it on here, this is a great community that is more than willing and able to help out!
Make it a great day,

 

[GrimCamel]

I want to get another plant to increase the overall humidity levels and eventually fill the cage with 2-3 bigger live plants.

Live plants are a great way to increase humidity AND if anything provide a place where he can hide. My cham preferably sleeps in the middle of the leaf cluster. And as previous comment says about vines and branches will those also provide excellent walk paths for your cham and even it sounds weird it will give him more space to move around.

Can you tell how old he is based off the color he's showing? I know eventually he will become more vibrant but honestly, i'm worried because he's not showing much to anything I feel like. I'm probably over concerned.

You didn't ask me but I would say he kind of hard to tell the age of since he seem to already have gotten all his coloration. He doesn't seem to have blackish areas that could be signs of undeveloped colors.
And I would say that is his relaxed coloration. When he fires up I'm sure he'll show some bright red or even yellow in the green areas. If he would have strong colors all the time that would be a sign of stress like having dark colors.

 

[Jayza92]

Live plants are a great way to increase humidity AND if anything provide a place where he can hide. My cham preferably sleeps in the middle of the leaf cluster. And as previous comment says about vines and branches will those also provide excellent walk paths for your cham and even it sounds weird it will give him more space to move around.


You didn't ask me but I would say he kind of hard to tell the age of since he seem to already have gotten all his coloration. He doesn't seem to have blackish areas that could be signs of undeveloped colors.
And I would say that is his relaxed coloration. When he fires up I'm sure he'll show some bright red or even yellow in the green areas. If he would have strong colors all the time that would be a sign of stress like having dark colors.

Here is a close up of him, still having the same thoughts?
http://imgur.com/RrNB39w

 

[GrimCamel]

Here is a close up of him, still having the same thoughts?
http://imgur.com/RrNB39w

Yeah. I'm no pro but I think that is as colorful as he'll grew to be and will show more red if fired up. I have a 1.5 year old ambanja myself, all blue with red dots but he loks kinda gray-blue when he's chilling and almost no red is visible then

 

[guanagator]

Nice looking guy, he's definitely mature or very close to it so I would guess in that 8-12 month range. I would add more horizontal branches near the top of the enclosure. All my panthers spend a significant amount of time in the upper 1/3 of their set ups. A few vining plants will help make paths for him to traverse around, males tend to roam around most of the day in my experience. If you do start adding more you'll need to adjust the hotspot accordingly so he can't burn himself. You mentioned the lights being questionable may be a good idea to go ahead and put a new UVB bulb in case the current one is older than 6 months, if you get an Arcadia they last longer then the 5.0s. Are you misting that frequently to keep humidity up? If not a couple longer sessions may be more beneficial, 5-10 mins will trigger a drinking response and also let him clean his eyes. A weekly 30 min shower can also do the trick. He looks really good for a pet store pick up, all the ones at my local herp store look more stressed than yours. Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[guanagator]

Also have you weighed him? That could help tell you if he's a young adult or fully mature.