Amberbluefrog
Established Member
Hi all!
I have an almost five year old male panther Cham named Yoshi. He’s been in my care for 4.5 years. He’s moved states with me and helped me find a sense of stability through COVID, a new job, and moving to a new city.
What has slowly been building up for the last few weeks has been a slow decline of tongue whips and balance. Preferring to eat directly from the bird feeder rather than whipping his tongue out. Balance wise I’ve been describing it as reptile Parkinson’s with shaky movements or repetitively trying to grab a branch. None of this seemed to affect his hunger though or desire to crawl around.
I would say overall I have tried to be the best owner as possible especially due to him being my first reptile at the age of 25. I replace his T5 light, heat bulb, AND his humidifier tube frequently; dust his bugs with supplements; give him at least three types of bugs a feeding if I can; outside time when I had a balcony (and it was warm rip New England); and relied heavily on this forum. So for all the things I have learned, thank you!
I started to get worried recently when I noticed Yoshi would grab his front arms with his back legs instead of a branch. For the past few weeks he seemed to self correct, but this week he doubled down and began to grab his arms fully believing they were branches. This causing fully losing balance, and going “koala” style unexpectedly. Again for the most part okay bc he was still able to fix himself once upside down. But yesterday he had his first few falls from doing this, or trying to lunge for his food, over shooting it, and “diving” off a branch.
My fiancé and I didn’t want to risk another. After a long debate, some Taco Bell brainstorming, we created what I’m calling the duplex. We used our dragon ledges to create essentially a shelf, took the bottom screen as the floor, and pushed all our plants up. It really pained me to do as he was a huge roamer, but he’s been slower and it seems to take him awhile to move up/down now without a little elevator hand up.
So I welcome your thoughts on his new home. Or even other ideas. i wanted to still keep him up high to not stress him out through all this, so the penthouse apartment was what we came up with. I hope to find some more small plants to put in the corners and give more hiding spots. (We also have covers for the sides, they’re not that exposed irl it’s just still under construction)
I have an almost five year old male panther Cham named Yoshi. He’s been in my care for 4.5 years. He’s moved states with me and helped me find a sense of stability through COVID, a new job, and moving to a new city.
What has slowly been building up for the last few weeks has been a slow decline of tongue whips and balance. Preferring to eat directly from the bird feeder rather than whipping his tongue out. Balance wise I’ve been describing it as reptile Parkinson’s with shaky movements or repetitively trying to grab a branch. None of this seemed to affect his hunger though or desire to crawl around.
I would say overall I have tried to be the best owner as possible especially due to him being my first reptile at the age of 25. I replace his T5 light, heat bulb, AND his humidifier tube frequently; dust his bugs with supplements; give him at least three types of bugs a feeding if I can; outside time when I had a balcony (and it was warm rip New England); and relied heavily on this forum. So for all the things I have learned, thank you!
I started to get worried recently when I noticed Yoshi would grab his front arms with his back legs instead of a branch. For the past few weeks he seemed to self correct, but this week he doubled down and began to grab his arms fully believing they were branches. This causing fully losing balance, and going “koala” style unexpectedly. Again for the most part okay bc he was still able to fix himself once upside down. But yesterday he had his first few falls from doing this, or trying to lunge for his food, over shooting it, and “diving” off a branch.
My fiancé and I didn’t want to risk another. After a long debate, some Taco Bell brainstorming, we created what I’m calling the duplex. We used our dragon ledges to create essentially a shelf, took the bottom screen as the floor, and pushed all our plants up. It really pained me to do as he was a huge roamer, but he’s been slower and it seems to take him awhile to move up/down now without a little elevator hand up.
So I welcome your thoughts on his new home. Or even other ideas. i wanted to still keep him up high to not stress him out through all this, so the penthouse apartment was what we came up with. I hope to find some more small plants to put in the corners and give more hiding spots. (We also have covers for the sides, they’re not that exposed irl it’s just still under construction)
