baby ambilobe stressed?

[millerman6401]

I recently got a 2 month old male ambilobe panther and he has shown me some great green blue and a little red coloration, but 75% of the time he gets darker brown and the colors are visible but faint..ive owned a jackson chameleon but this is the first panther...why is he doing this?

your chameleon -2 month old ambilobe panther

Handling -only when taking him out of the bag he was shipped in and once more

Feeding - gut-loaded crix with carrots and left over vegis, fed by cup with a few free ranged, geats about 10 or so a day.

Supplements - repcal and herptivite 1-2 a week, calcuim with d3 twice /month

Watering - misting for 1-2mins 3-4x a day and dripper running for 15mins everyday

Fecal Description - normal color and white urate,never had a fecal

CAGE INFO

cage size - 18x18x36 screen cage

LIGHT - reptisun 5.0 and 50w heat bulb

Temp - ambient 77-80 basking 85, drops about 5degrees at night

humidity - try to keep around 60-80% but it varies depending on the day, never drops below 50%

plants - medium sized ficus that reached 1/2 way to the top from bottom. lots of diffrent fake vines and foliage.

placement - basement, no windows but low traffic except for me watching tv and or sleeping.

current problem? - possibly stress or maybe just normal colors? have a camera phone but pictures wont load onto comp for some reason. thanks!!!

 

[suzi]

It is very normal for a baby to not show colors, the older he gets the more brilliant colors you will see! Pictures would be nice

 

[millerman6401]

ill try o get pics .... he has shown what look to be his "happy colors" which is green body with small blue stripes and a while line like in ur avatar picture....but then he will be dark a few mins later and change back again!!!! idk if im doing somthing to stress him or if thats how baby panthers are when their colors get in. i just dont want anything to happen to em, as im sure you dont.

 

[suzi]

They do get darker when they ate stressed, and when they are trying to absorb heat and for a few other reasons. If he is doing it while being handled you could put him back in his cage and handle a little at a time until he gets used to you and you get to learn his body language!

 

[millerman6401]

well i guess im just being paranoid...ive only had em for a week so he is getting used to his new home... hes got a nasty aditude right now so hopefully i can start to tame em down in a timley fashion enough to where i can place em on his outside plant while cleaning his cage

 

[suzi]

I would just give him time to adjust, it takes them awhile, some of mine do that when I switch them there bigger cages. Your husbandry looks good. You may want to feed him some more if he will eat more and add a variety of more feeders. ( general rule with feeders is that they are no bigger than the space between there eyes) sandrachameleon has some excellent blogs on gut loading, you should look her up when you get a chance! At this age he will be eating mostly crickets though

 

[wendyeeeo]

My baby panther did the same thing you are describing. The only time he showed his "true" colors was when I took him outside or if he was hunting in his cage. Once he was big enough
I made him a free range habitat. Now he has his "normal" colors all the time. My Jackson didn't have this issue in this cage - so I'm baffled. At any rate, it seems to be a normal thing from what others are saying.

 

[millerman6401]

hahaha i had a jckson too that never did this! I do have multiple free range spots all through the house but im afraid he will fall or get lost... he likes to jump and he runs through his cage so he falls alot but his tail and back legs always catch him... im going to wait till he calms down to free range them, they seem so much happier when doing so tho.

 

[Bernie]

Dont worry - my little fella is the same.

Under the UV light his colours all show nicely. But when he goes under his basking lamp he loses all colour completely and looks like he has black stripes with a brown body. Its not stress, its just his basking colour. Mine is about 4months old.

 

[millerman6401]

been a few more days and he hasnt gotten any better. switched his cage to a smaller 18x18x20sumthing? he seemes to like it better but he is still very very dark and or black. he rearley changes from it. seems to be eating and drinking fine tho so you think hes okay or??