Baby panther care

[Tyzoone]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - ambilobe panther approx 3 monhs old
Handling - once a day briefly.
Feeding - small crickets, fruit flies
Supplements - Calcium with vitamin d one time and calcium without vitamin d nearly every feeding
Watering - Misting system on timer and drip system
Fecal Description - Brown and white solid. Never been tested for worms
History -my lil guys was shipped from California to utah overnight to a reseller near my location. Panthers are hard to come by here....

Cage Info:
Cage Type - I have an all screen cage with three sides draped with plastic for humidity. It is 4 feet tall and 2.5 ft wide on sides. I do have the top partitioned off to give him closer access to food. It is roughly 14 in tall and 2.5 feet on the sides
Lighting - one heat lamp and one UV lamp
Temperature - 80 at basking and no less than 70 during day anywhere in cage. At night may reach 68 minimum
Humidity - Have nothing to measure humidity levels.
Plants - All live plants. Pothos, baby tears.
Placement - Against a wall (photos available) middle of room away from vents
Location - im in northern utah

Current Problem - Ive had my lil male panther cham for 3 days and have only seen him eat one small cricket, granted i work 9 to 5 and cant watch him all day. He does move around frequently but never while i am watching. Also, i havent seen him drink anything despite regular mistings every 2 hours for 50 seconds straight at a time. My worry is that the guy i bought him from said he was eating like crazy while he had him.... Also at what point do i determine a shower is in order for hydration?

Ive also heard that shipped chameleons should be a no go. But panthers are difficult to come by in my area so this was my option. Does anyone have success/negative stories of overnighted chams?

Cant get the photos uploaded from ipad but ill try when i get home....

 

[jamjam]

He might just need time to settle in try cup feeding so you know if hes eating and what not. I would set the mister to a longer duration of several minutes most chams dont tend to drink immediately when its offered to them. and i would up the basking temp closer to 90

 

[Tyzoone]

Awesome thanks jam jam. Ill give those suggestions a shot. Any other advice as far as hydration? Should i give him a mist shower?

 

[nick barta]

He might just need time to settle in try cup feeding so you know if hes eating and what not. I would set the mister to a longer duration of several minutes most chams dont tend to drink immediately when its offered to them. and i would up the basking temp closer to 90

I would agree with JamJam. If you don't cup feed, the crickets will hide and you will not know if your cham is eating or not. Place the cup under the branch you see him on that is not the basking branch. Cover the top of your plants so crickets can't hide in the top of the plant. Offer baby supers and baby horn worms (Great Lakes Horn worms has both-Sponser, top right corner of home page) Place the worms on the screen, under the cham and "herd" them so they climb up within reach.
To remove your worry, count how many feeders he is eating. This may entail lifting the pots of the plants to find "hiders."

 

[nick barta]

He might just need time to settle in try cup feeding so you know if hes eating and what not. I would set the mister to a longer duration of several minutes most chams dont tend to drink immediately when its offered to them. and i would up the basking temp closer to 90

I would agree with JamJam. If you don't cup feed, the crickets will hide and you will not know if your cham is eating or not. Place the cup under the branch you see him on that is not the basking branch. Cover the top of your plants so crickets can't hide in the top of the plant. Offer baby supers and baby horn worms (Great Lakes Horn worms has both-Sponser, top right corner of home page) Place the worms on the screen, under the cham and "herd" them so they climb up within reach.
To remove your worry, count how many feeders he is eating. This may entail lifting the pots of the plants to find "hiders."

Increase your misting to 4 times a day for 15 minutes, that may encourage drinking, some chams need stimulation before drinking. Some chams will refuse to drink while you are watching, so hide well, or don't watch, and if his eyes don't look sunken, he is drinking.

Shipping chams is not a problem, if there was a shipping problem, he would have not been active, eyes open, and moving around his cage.

All new parents worry about the first born...

Nick

 

[Tyzoone]

Nick this advice is golden! Sounds like this behavior isn't totally abnormal. I was also concerned my cage was too big thus liberating those rascally crickets from my little carnivore.

Im gonna start counting those bugs like they've never been counted before and get back to you.

You guys are great !

 

[Tyzoone]

Hey all,

As promised here's a pic of my setup and little Panther guy. The lights are currently elevated up off of the mesh on the top because I worried about cooking him. He is still active and appears healthy but I've been counting crickets and it appears he is still fasting. What can I do to stimulate him into eating? Try new types of foods? How long can baby chams go without food?

I found a bottle that is great in providing a fine mist. I tried misting him indirectly and he seemed to gulp the water that collected on him. Is misting him with a bottle frowned upon? I don't see a difference between this and the shower method.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Andee]

Misting with a bottle is fine ^^ just make sure the water is warm. It's not totally abnormal for them not to eat the first few days you might not want to handle him for a while and see if he settles in better. He might just be stressed. I would offer some worms if you could, have you yet? Worms seem to be there favorite treat.

 

[Tyzoone]

I have milworms and have tried showing them to him. I havent been very aggressive though about showing them to him. ill give it another shot! Thanks Andee.

 

[Tyzoone]

Panther baby Update

Hey guys,

So here are some images of Tobius. I am still a little concerned as I haven't personally seen him eat anything for the last several days....I've tried handing him milworms and have ket his cage loaded with pinhead crickets. Funny story though, I have 7 to 8 crickets free roaming and some in cups throughout his cage that he doesn't seem to notice. But when I was taking the attached photos a small house fly flew in and landed on a leaf next to him. He immediately got into firing position and his tongue went out slightly. Luckily the fly flew off and wasn't ingested. I worry about parasites in those pesky buggers. Does this mean I need to get back to fruit flies?

Take a good look at the photos and let me know if you think he's healthy... He gets real dark under the UVB and then really bright under the heat.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Andee]

He doesn't look unhealthy to me, I wouldn't feed mealworms either, they are hard to digest especially for little ones because of the exoskeleton. And are quite fatty. Perhaps you should try fruitflies? Especially if he shows interest in flies. Maybe he's just not ready for anything else but something that moves a lot. I don't think he would eat from your hand yet anyway because he is so new. He doesn't look like he's lost any weight... Have you seen any feces? I wish there was a way to get a small amount of hornworm eggs so you could raise some to feed to him, they rarely turn those down.

 

[kplatvoet]

You can order flies from mantisplace.com pretty cheap - I get 500 and keep them in the fridge- (bluebottle) they also have staple and house flies-(the blue bottle keep better the staples will not hatch as well after a week) I fed them to my Jackson when he (actually I'm thinking it might be she) was quite little and his fecal was after he ate them for a month and was fine. With my Panther I put them in his outside cage and gave him a bunch and he actually stopped hiding from me - I never saw him eat or drink except for the first day I got him until about 2 weeks later - I spent lots of time seaching for poop and it was white and brown the way it was supposed to look - I think he was just waiting till I went to work -
My Jackson never would eat out of a cup until recently the panther didn't think that hunting was something he should do until I got him some flies.
When I first got my Panther and was worried about never seeing him eat I got some hydei fruit flies at petsmart in the tube and put a slice of orange in the cage where he had cover and dumped them by it - I left him be but caught him eating them later -

 

[kplatvoet]

I had another thought which might be totally wrong- but my daughter's baby beardy doen't seem to notice really small crickets- he always goes for the slightly bigger ones - you have to be careful not to go too big but you might try something in a different size -

 

[Andee]

The post above is true, sometimes they don't notice small sizes as food and don't go after them. But he is so tiny so I'd be careful feeding him too much bigger sizes. Feed only the width of the bug that can fit between his eyes and nothing more. Try to get a little smaller if possible. Pin heads are really tiny if you are getting true pin heads so it might not be enough to stimulate him.

 

[Tyzoone]

You guys are angels sent from heaven. Thanks for your replies. I guess they arent pinheads in the technical sense but size small crickets. I have made sure that they arent going beyond the width of his eyes across his head. It is tricky though monitering every little one. Ill stay away from the worms and try fruitflies again. I figured ill buy tons and flood his cage with them (my wife wont be happy ha). Do yall recommend the flying and non flying kind? I hear the flightless ones will cross breed with the others...

I inspected his cage tonight and found 3 maybe 4 poops that look similar to bird poo with white and brown coloring in solid form. This is good right?

 

[Andee]

I would say he's eating then and not to worry ^^ feces shows he's eating and since there is a lot he's eating regularly then ^^ to add variety I would definitely add some fruit flies, no need to buy tons just a few. Like around 50 or so. I mean of course you'll have to buy more but you will only need to present him with that many, I would buy flightless especially since he's in a screen cage (I think if I remember the pictures correctly >.>) so if they escape they can't go far. Soon he'll be able to eat worms and roaches so finding variety won't be as hard anymore.

 

[Lathelia]

The best way to know if your baby is eating is checking for poop. Babies should defecate once a day, so if you see a new poop every day, then your baby is eating fine.

 

[Tyzoone]

Ill be a poop snooper for the next few days then! And after work its off to get some flies. Ill keep you all updated with the progress and some more pics! Thanks Again for all the advice!

 

[kplatvoet]

If you found poop and it's white at the front he's doing well - watch out if your wife's eyes start going in opposite directions and she be worried if she starts to change colors from the fruit flies in the house - It happened to my husband ..... It's normal for chameleons not to eat a lot or when you can see them at first he'll settle in. Watch for orange where the white is which will tell you if he's getting enough to drink -

 

[Tyzoone]

salvation!!!

Okay all,

Your help has paid off! Went and bought 2 tubes of fruit flies and dumped nearly all the flies of one of them in his cage. He immediately went to work and started shooting them like a lil Rango!

In summation it sounds like it was a combination of him being in a new place and NOT being ready just yet for crickets (although he did eat a few). I'll save the crickets for later and stick to flies for the time being.

Thanks all for the help and More pics coming soon!