Who free ranges panthers?

[pssh]

Hello all!

Just curious as to who free ranges their panthers and how it works out for them? I free range my beautiful and friendly panther Hyperion. He refuses the caged life and likes to hang out with me sometimes. He pretty much never wanders from his territory. He's a pretty cool guy.

 

[jessica]

Hi Kara,

I really tried with Songbird! I REALLY tried lol he hates being in a cage. When I did though I would find Songbird on my couch, in the kitchen, in my clothes hamper, heading towards the back door lol

Needless to say he is just too curious lol For his safety he gets supervised free range visits

 

[Stephikins]

I half free range my 6 month panther. I have paths leading out & around his cage but I usually only let him out for a couple hours. He has made it all the way across the room once & sometimes he goes back into his cage by himself. So far it's working out but sometimes it can take a full 5 minutes to find the sneaky guy - good thing he is getting bigger & brighter. It seems to make him less aggressive about being taken out of the cage. That & half the time I take him I take outside into the sun.

 

[KingJulien]

I have been thinking about setting up free ranges, but I have issues to contend with. Mostly my dog. He's a big old love of a pit bull, but I wouldn't trust him for a moment unsupervised with any small animal.

I have this spare bedroom I'm calling "the zoo", and maybe I can set it up so my two chams have a sort-of free range area? I could put a baby gate in the doorway I suppose, but if the chams can climb out then that could be a problem too.

Maybe I could use a plaxiglass barrier on the floor for each of them around their tree? I suppose it wouldn't have to be very tall. Has anyone done this?

 

[pssh]

Maybe I could use a plaxiglass barrier on the floor for each of them around their tree? I suppose it wouldn't have to be very tall. Has anyone done this?

yes, that would work. It only has to be as tall as the chameleon can rach while standing on it's back legs. 15-18 inches should be good. I don't have to enclose my guy, but that's how I would do it if I had to

 

[Dsignrguy]

Khumbu loves his freedom

I freerange one of mine. he used to explore a lot.....never know where I'd find him when I got home. His favorite spot was up on the cords on the back of the TV. As he's gotten older, he's slowed down a bit, and now the only time he leaves his freerange is when he falls out of his ficus. He's kind clumsy and his grip isn't that great anymore. Once he passes on, I'll probable start to freerange the other.

 

[ijmccollum]

I have been thinking about setting up free ranges, but I have issues to contend with. Mostly my dog. He's a big old love of a pit bull, but I wouldn't trust him for a moment unsupervised with any small animal.

I hear ya. I have a 75lb terminal puppy that is notoriously curious. I do have free range areas in the house but my guys/gals are always supervised when out and return home when I'm not at home.

 

[Garrett]

I freeranged my panther this summer in my apartment. He frequently roamed around 800 square feet of space getting into everything! His favorite spot was the very top of the screen door opening out to my deck. If you're willing to setup a spotlight and dripper somewhere, it works pretty well if the ambient temps in your home aren't too low. Just gotta watch where you step! I don't have dogs\cats\kids so he only had me to worry about.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I used to free range my ambanjas yrs ago. I have too many to free range now. And the males I have are too curious and love struck to remain in their trees. So maybe when i get to a large home with a seperate room for the free range area. But for now, I'd be scared to step on someone. Or have Angus/English bulldog step on or scare the crap out of one.

 

[KingJulien]

I hear ya. I have a 75lb terminal puppy that is notoriously curious. I do have free range areas in the house but my guys/gals are always supervised when out and return home when I'm not at home.

"terminal puppy" I like that description, it fits my dog perfectly too.

I freeranged my panther this summer in my apartment. He frequently roamed around 800 square feet of space getting into everything! His favorite spot was the very top of the screen door opening out to my deck. If you're willing to setup a spotlight and dripper somewhere, it works pretty well if the ambient temps in your home aren't too low. Just gotta watch where you step! I don't have dogs\cats\kids so he only had me to worry about.

I think there's just too many places he could hide in my house so it freaks me out that he could get lost. Plus there's the dog and the kid that would freak him out.

I used to free range my ambanjas yrs ago. I have too many to free range now. And the males I have are too curious and love struck to remain in their trees. So maybe when i get to a large home with a seperate room for the free range area. But for now, I'd be scared to step on someone. Or have Angus/English bulldog step on or scare the crap out of one.

I'm lucky enough to have a spare bedroom, so I'd like to set it up there. Now I just have to convince the hubby. "You get the garage, and I get the spare bedroom, right?" haha! We saw that show on animal hoarding and he asked me if I was going to get that way. We only have 3 pets!

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

From about 2003-2007 I used to free range my Ambanja in my greenhouse. I had to make precaution to prevent him from finding his way into the propane heater or other hazards. However it was great he would cruise over bamboo poles that I used to make a highway for him to go from one tree to the next. He also did some wild foraging and would see him zap a spider every now and then.

 

[Thompson]

I free range my nosy be. He has been free ranging for about 2 months now. He has never ventured away from his free range though

 

[krbshappy71]

I have been thinking about setting up free ranges, but I have issues to contend with. Mostly my dog. He's a big old love of a pit bull, but I wouldn't trust him for a moment unsupervised with any small animal.

I have this spare bedroom I'm calling "the zoo", and maybe I can set it up so my two chams have a sort-of free range area? I could put a baby gate in the doorway I suppose, but if the chams can climb out then that could be a problem too.

Maybe I could use a plaxiglass barrier on the floor for each of them around their tree? I suppose it wouldn't have to be very tall. Has anyone done this?

My spare bedroom is a zoo but I keep the door closed. Baby gates can fall with a determined dog. Mine will respect the baby gates in the house during "normal business hours" but when something is out of the ordinary those gates can come down. (i.e. excessively excited over company) I wouldn't risk just a baby-gate if you have a dog.

Swyft is free-ranged to a specific area. He could get out of the area but so far he has been pretty good staying in that location since it meets his needs of the lush plants, humidity, uvb light (not that he knows he needs that) and basking light. I really hated to keep putting him away, he resisted it more and more each time. It takes baby-proofing and planning but so far so good and has been worth my effort.

 

[KingJulien]

My spare bedroom is a zoo but I keep the door closed. Baby gates can fall with a determined dog. Mine will respect the baby gates in the house during "normal business hours" but when something is out of the ordinary those gates can come down. (i.e. excessively excited over company) I wouldn't risk just a baby-gate if you have a dog.

Swyft is free-ranged to a specific area. He could get out of the area but so far he has been pretty good staying in that location since it meets his needs of the lush plants, humidity, uvb light (not that he knows he needs that) and basking light. I really hated to keep putting him away, he resisted it more and more each time. It takes baby-proofing and planning but so far so good and has been worth my effort.

I hear ya about the determined dog thing, mine goes to his crate a lot of the time when we're not supervising. Maybe if I'm not paying attention or if company comes (mine is a spaz when friends come over too) I can close the zoo door if he's not crated. If I already have a barrier along the back or the room then the chams won't be able to get to the door anyway. I was concerned that opening the door inward but I guess in that case it's not an issue.

One more question. do I need to provide a visual barrier between my chams if they can't get to each other? I'd like to set them up in their own trees at seperate corners of the room, a good 15 feet away from each other. They are male and female. Will this stress them out?

 

[hallenhe]

I've always free-ranged (except when they're very small; I start free ranging at about 3-4 inches SVL), but I don't have any inquisitive furry creatures. Since August, I've had two chameleons, a male panther and a female veiled. They're both young yet; she's bigger than he is and scares him when he sees her, so their ranges are in separate rooms, with a closed door between them. McGinty the panther sticks to his range (Chameleon Condo hooked up to a Schefflera with a bendy vine, with a curtain rod he also likes to climb on); Bea the veiled goes everywhere she gets the chance. Bea's room (shown second) looks pretty stark; a second plant, as tall as the Ficus has been added alongside the Ficus since I took the picture.

 

[krbshappy71]

I don't know about the "seeing each other" thing as I only have 1 chameleon but I do know that he can get off his tree and travel so I would not count on them ALWAYS staying on their locations. Unless you put up some sort of barrier, they will find each other eventually if either of them starts exploring.

I have had to baby proof the entire room, one time Swyft was on my computer keyboard. How did he get up there? Climbed the computer cords from the floor. How did he get to the floor? Climbed down off his tree, down the side of the 4 foot hedgie cage bars, and off he went. He's quite the explorer so I would like to suggest that you analyze the entire area. If it goes up, they climb it, I knew that, but I didn't think about him heading downwards! (stupid me)

 

[pssh]

I would have a visual barrier of some sort. It would probably stress them out to see eachother. I was thinking I might make a two sided 'enclosure' so that I can have both of my chams free range. I want to make a base for drainage so I can set up a mistking, and have one wall shared between the two as a barrier and another wall on both sides to keep water in. It would probably be pretty large, and hopefully tastefull if I can make it right.

 

[KingJulien]

One more thing to take into account. I'm sure it will be a while before I get all the details sorted out and actually start building. Thanks for all the tips ya'll.

 

[trd1215]

I think for me and for the chams free ranging is the best. I have one free ranging in my patio and he loves to walk all over the place and not enclosed to a four wall screen cage ...wish i had more room to free range the rest of my panthers...

 

[KingJulien]

I wish I had a screened in patio, that would be perfect when the weather is good. It would keep out the predatory birds, and keep the chams from escaping. They were common in NC, but out here in CA I never see them. It's probably because there just aren't nearly as many bugs.