Panting Panther Chameleon?

sqwkr

sqwkr

Member
Hello,
I have an Ambanja Panther Chameleon, I have had him for 5 days now. He has been eating and doing very well. Today I find him about mid to upper part of the cage closest to the bulb and he is sitting there with his mouth open and he closes it for a few minutes then opens it again for a lil bit and his stomache seems to be bigger than normal now I took him out of his cage for a bit and he did it for a lil while but stopped. I am wondering could it be that he was to hot or ate too much? I mean I have the 100 watt Reptisun bulb in there and they told me to put the thermometer as close as I could to the bulb so I know the hottest spot he could possibly at but never told me if I should turn it off if it gets too hot please help...Is it even possible for a chameleon to eat too much? He looked fat when I took him out and he hasnt looked that way even right after he ate. Oh and he is about 5 months old. Thanks much!:confused:
 
How close is the heat bulb to the cage?? You dont want it to close... he could get burnt..and his basking spot should be around 80-85..and the lower part of the cage in the 70's this way he can cool off if he chooses...and I would go with a 50 watt..not 100..thats to hot..
 
It sounds like he's hot. "Gaping" (opening the mouth for a bit like a yawn) is usually an effort to cool down.

I'm sure that you have places he can go get cooler, but he has conflicting issues...he needs to bask in the "sun" to process his food properly, but he needs to be comfortable. So, he gets into the basking spot and then tries what he can to cool down to comfort level.
 
Post a few pics of your cage if you can and also some pics of the chameleon. How much are you feeding him? So you are saying he looks skinny since you got him then?
 
Thank you!

I appriciate everyones questions and input...I looked and it seemed that he was hott so I raised the light up more because it was getting to hot right below the bulb but i cant raise it anymore and his basking spot is about 93 and the lower part is about 75-80. I couldnt find a all in one 50 watt bulb. He actually has gotten bigger and gained weight since I got him. Hes got a lil bot belly going haha. He is eating anywhere from 10-20 small medium crickets a day and Ive given him a few meal worms. I gut load the crickets in the keeper and dust them before putting them in for him. There is a few crickets here or there that are bigger but for the most part they are average sized. Since I raised the bulb he has stopped the panting/open mouthed. He is so opposite from what I have read because he seems to enjoy being handle and being ou of his cage. He doesnt seem to stress easily at all he seems to be just as comfortable out of his cage as he is in it.

This is my Turk at 5 months old (taken 9-12-2010)
100_4977.jpg
 
sqwkr said:
I appriciate everyones questions and input...I looked and it seemed that he was hott so I raised the light up more because it was getting to hot right below the bulb but i cant raise it anymore and his basking spot is about 93 and the lower part is about 75-80. I couldnt find a all in one 50 watt bulb. He actually has gotten bigger and gained weight since I got him. Hes got a lil bot belly going haha. He is eating anywhere from 10-20 small medium crickets a day and Ive given him a few meal worms. I gut load the crickets in the keeper and dust them before putting them in for him. There is a few crickets here or there that are bigger but for the most part they are average sized. Since I raised the bulb he has stopped the panting/open mouthed. He is so opposite from what I have read because he seems to enjoy being handle and being ou of his cage. He doesnt seem to stress easily at all he seems to be just as comfortable out of his cage as he is in it.

This is my Turk at 5 months old (taken 9-12-2010)
View attachment 27568
Click to expand...

You dont need an "all in one" bulb for basking. Just use a 60Watt household bulb. For lighting you should have a 18" reptisun UVB 5.0 linear flourescent tube to provide UVB and a regular household bulb for heat. The UVB light should be 6-12" away from the basking area so he gets UVB while basking. If the basking spot is too hot either raise it until you get the desired temp or change the wattage to a smaller wattage. You can get 25, 40, 60W at the grocery store. The thread link below has some good info on lighting.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/uvb-distance-45828/
 
sqwkr said:
I appriciate everyones questions and input...I looked and it seemed that he was hott so I raised the light up more because it was getting to hot right below the bulb but i cant raise it anymore and his basking spot is about 93 and the lower part is about 75-80. I couldnt find a all in one 50 watt bulb. He actually has gotten bigger and gained weight since I got him. Hes got a lil bot belly going haha. He is eating anywhere from 10-20 small medium crickets a day and Ive given him a few meal worms. I gut load the crickets in the keeper and dust them before putting them in for him. There is a few crickets here or there that are bigger but for the most part they are average sized. Since I raised the bulb he has stopped the panting/open mouthed. He is so opposite from what I have read because he seems to enjoy being handle and being ou of his cage. He doesnt seem to stress easily at all he seems to be just as comfortable out of his cage as he is in it.

This is my Turk at 5 months old (taken 9-12-2010)
View attachment 27568
Click to expand...

He's a nice looking chameleon! Maybe you could suspend the bulb from the ceiling, or put the cage lower to the ground if you aren't keen on switching over to the linear bulb. Is it a clamp light you are using currently?
 
I am using the zoo med powersun uv with the zoo med deep dome light, it did sit on the cage and it was making too hot before thats when I noticed him sitting with his mouth open. I have suspended it like 10-12" above the cage now, I was told that the uva, uvb, heat bulb was the best to go with so you dont have to have more than one thing for his cage. I am planning on raising it a little higher just to bring the temp down some more. Thank you for the complements, he is my lil buddy. It is funy because he loves just sitting on my hat whenever I take him out he will just sit on my hat. I think is a red bar because his bars have a redish color to them but then again it might change lol. His chest is soooo red and under his chin is sooo blue I havent seen any pictures where a panthers chest/underbelly is a different color than his neck/chin area. If he is favoring one color now will it change no one has told whether or not his blue can change or his red will become something different or is that really subjective? I want to do what is best for my lil guy but I cant spend a fortune, I have already spent quite a bit on all this stuff because I thought it was the best to get I even signed up for screameleons free 5 day crash course on chameleons. I know I am all over the place but I have so many thoughts and questions going through my head. Oh um how do you reduse the bad smell left from crickets? I have a cricket keeper so I can buy then in larger quantities but they hide in the bottom of his cage and the keeper smells soooo bad.

sitting on ppls heads is his favorite

100_4984.jpg

he is a character thats for sure.
100_4986.jpg
 
A lot of people stay away from the powersun UVA/UVB lights unless they have a UVB meter, which are expensive, to measure the output. You can do a search on powersun and see several threads where it has been discussed. You should be able to find what another keeper has done with their similar lights and try to set yours up with the same distance. You should be fine as long as you can get that figured out and keep it from getting too hot.
Unfortunately crickets smell but what you feed them may help keep the smell down a little bit. When I was feeding a lot of collards to gutload it seemed the smell got worse. I usually use yellow squash, carrots, slices of apple, orange slices and the smell is not quite as bad. You may want to clean out the keeper every couple of days to make sure there are no dead crickets. That should help too.
Personally I found that dubia roaches are so much better for that reason alone. The smell of crickets was the major selling point for getting my wife on board with me keeping roaches in the house. They cant climb smooth surfaces and are not nearly as fast moving as your typical German cockroaches that might infest your house. They require tropical conditions to breed so cannot infest your house if one or 2 get away from you. You might want to think about it for the long term. They are not that expensive for a small colony and will save you tons of money over time. I pasted a link to a good caresheet if you ever want to try dubias.
 
The roaches look kind of big could my little guy eat them? I HATE crickets they creep me out so I dont like having to clean the keeper with a bunch of live crickets in it no no no. And there was no link that you were talking about and thank you I will search it now and look into it. Thank you again.
 
Ditch the pwersun heat bulb. All you need is a 60 watt incandescent. It will provide plenty of heat without the worry of cooking your young animal. It is widely used by most members on here as a safe way to provide a basking spot.
 
The power sun is way too hot for a juvenile. As Texas said, a 60 watt heat bulb will more than suffice. Our 5 Day Care Course goes over why the power suns are only to be used on adult cages. You'll need a Reptisun 5.0 as well for your lighting.
 
Ok I got the reptisun 5.0 and am getting a 60 watt bulb but the only thing I have that I can put the bulb into is a wire clamp thing as in it will let heta out the sides its not only open on the bottom so will that be ok?
 
Any $5 clamp light from home depot will work. It helps to be able to raise and lower the light to adjust the temp. I screwed a small piece of wood to the wall behind the cage and clamped the light to it. just rotate the board to move the light up and down.
 
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