Panther Chameleon

[stealth80]

Hi, I visited my local reptile store today and was quite impressed with the panther chameleons. We already have a Desert Iguana which I bought around 2 months ago after my Beardy died.

Anyway, the store has 2 Panthers, one is older I guess around 6 months old, but it is the colouring i'm not sure of. It's very pale and I guess a cream colour with a few minor orange markings. I was under the impression that they should start displaying some of their colours at this point?

The other is a baby and small, mainly cream and brown colours around 2 inches long maybe 3 including the tail.

I don't have pictures unfortunately, but could anyone have stab at what local the 6 monther is?

thanks

 

[Wowbango]

It sounds like you're looking at a female Panther. Most female panthers, regardless of their locale, will tend to have cream and orange/pink coloring. It's very hard to know their locale unless the breeder or retailer has an idea of it. Females will not get the typical locale colors like male Panther chameleons do. At 6 months, a male would have had plenty of locale colors coming in.

 

[stealth80]

So we went back to buy one after I set up the viv last night and came back with both. The big one (around 7 inches) is female for sure. The baby is around 3 inches total length.

 

[zlew]

Did you do all of your research? That sounds like a bit of an impulse buy. Those two should not be kept together, they are solitary animals and you can see in the pic that the bigger one is stressed way out by the other one. Please read through this carefully:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/

Chameleons can deteriorate very quickly without the proper care.

 

[stealth80]

I researched and some say yes and others say no. I asked the breeder and he said it would be fine as long as one is male. This picture was taken literally as both were put into the viv, a stressful time anyway

I've read the document and i'll keep a close eye on them for any of those signs, thanks for the heads up

 

[Seiryu]

Agree with zlew. Males amd females should never be kept together. Especially with that size difference. Do them a favor now and get them their own enclosures.

 

[NHenn]

Those two need to be separated. As stated above, chameleon are solitary animals and should never be housed together. Add into the mix that one if twice the size of the other and you are just asking for trouble.

For reference, you won't see anyone on here tell you it is "Ok" to house them together. The only time you will hear it is fine will be from someone trying to sell you two chameleon instead of just one.

 

[stealth80]

Hi, thanks for the replies. I put both chams on the basking branch this morning and they weren't happy. We contacted the seller and he was happy for us to return one so we returned the baby just now.

 

[NHenn]

Great, glad to hear it is all worked out!