Baby Panther Not Eating Much, Starting to Worry

Rawritsaaisha

New Member
Hi Everyone,

I am new to the site even though I've been reading other posts for weeks! I just got a female baby panther last Saturday from LLReptile from the Sacramento Reptile Show. I think she is 2 months old but I'm not sure since the people at the reptile show were too busy to tell me much about her other than that she should eat small crickets.

I think I messed up by putting her in a big cage too fast. She ate a few crickets since I got her, but not as much as I read she should be eating. Most days I'm lucky if she eats one, though she usually goes after medium/larger sized crickets. She doesn't hunt really unless I use the cricket tweezers to move one onto a screen near her or on the same branch as her. I tried cup feeding in a mug, but she's not going for it.

I have seen her drink every day and her poops are healthy so at least she is hydrated. I'm thinking of doing the milk jug idea to get her to eat, but I'm not sure. She is my first chameleon so I'm getting worried about everything haha. Any help would be great! Thanks!!!
 
Hi Everyone,

I am new to the site even though I've been reading other posts for weeks! I just got a female baby panther last Saturday from LLReptile from the Sacramento Reptile Show. I think she is 2 months old but I'm not sure since the people at the reptile show were too busy to tell me much about her other than that she should eat small crickets.

I think I messed up by putting her in a big cage too fast. She ate a few crickets since I got her, but not as much as I read she should be eating. Most days I'm lucky if she eats one, though she usually goes after medium/larger sized crickets. She doesn't hunt really unless I use the cricket tweezers to move one onto a screen near her or on the same branch as her. I tried cup feeding in a mug, but she's not going for it.

I have seen her drink every day and her poops are healthy so at least she is hydrated. I'm thinking of doing the milk jug idea to get her to eat, but I'm not sure. She is my first chameleon so I'm getting worried about everything haha. Any help would be great! Thanks!!!
Great job coming here! Could you fill out this form and snap a picture of her enclosure, please?
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Nosy Be Panther Chameleon. About 2 months old (I'm guessing). I got her a week ago.
  • Handling - I cleaned her cage once already and had to handle her. One morning I took her outside in the sun for a few minutes and she loved it. Other than that, she is left alone.
  • Feeding - I'm feeding her small to medium crickets. I put 3 to 4 in every day and she eats maybe one. I try and feed her around 9 but most days she will refuse to eat. A couple days I offered her a cricket around 3pm and she did finally eat. I'm gut loading the crickets with a calcium tablet, apples, and carrots.
  • Supplements - The pet stores around me only sell the calcium w/ D3 so I dusted the crickets twice this week with that. I have an order of calcium without D3 coming today or tomorrow. Then I will only use the calcium with D3 twice a month and will use the one without D3 everyday.
  • Watering - I bought her a mister that goes off every three hours for 60 seconds and about 2 to 3 times a day, I manually spray the enclosure down on the places the mister misses. I have seen her drink almost every day.
  • Fecal Description - I've not gotten her tested yet for parasite. Her poops look healthy. Clear/white cap on her stool.
  • History - Got her from LLReptile at a Reptile show.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Exo Terra Screen cage, 36" x 18" x 36".
  • Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 and a Zoomed 75 watt basking bulb. Her lighting schedule is 7am to 9pm.
  • Temperature - I have a digital infrared thermometer. The high basking spot ranges from 85-90 with the cage floor at 72. Overnight temp ranges from 63-68.What temp range have you created.
  • Humidity - I need to get something to measure humidity. I'm hoping constantly being sprayed down is keeping the humidity up.
  • Plants - She has a medium sized ficus, two small dracaenas and another small schefflera. She only really hangs out in the ficus and her fake plants.
  • Placement - The cage is three feet off the floor in front of a smaller window I have in my room. The window has wooden blinds that I draw in the afternoon to avoid additional heat sources. There is a ceiling fan in my room but it doesn't run often. And if I do run it, I make sure it's during the day when she has a basking spot available. My room is the quietest room in the house right now but eventually I want to give her her own room to free range in.
  • Location - I am located in the Bay Area in California, in the middle of Sacramento and San Francisco.

Current Problem - Baby panther isn't eating enough. Her name is Poussey for any Orange is the New Black fans :)

I have read multiple care sheets and everything I can get my hands on. I was thinking I was going to get a male which is why I thought the bigger enclosure the better, but I think it's too big for her to go hunting easily. I will post a picture of her enclosure soon when I get home from work.
 
My Cham is just over a month old and I have him in a large enclosure too. What I do is put his food in plastic tub that is not too deep for him, I also have a small bit of vine in the tub so he can climb inside and around the tub to get to the food.

I would suggest to set it up the same way so the food is placed in one spot for him and easy for him to perch in and around the tub.

Also my Cham only eats bugs that are moving, the micro silent brown crickets don't move much compared to the fruit flies so it usually takes him longer to eat these as he waits until they move about. That's worth noting so you can keep an eye out for this.

It might also be worth getting smaller feeders incase the size of them is an issue for him. I'm no expert but feeding medium size crickets to a 2 month old sounds a bit too big.

I don't have a great picture but just so you have an idea.
 

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Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Nosy Be Panther Chameleon. About 2 months old (I'm guessing). I got her a week ago.
  • Handling - I cleaned her cage once already and had to handle her. One morning I took her outside in the sun for a few minutes and she loved it. Other than that, she is left alone.
  • Feeding - I'm feeding her small to medium crickets. I put 3 to 4 in every day and she eats maybe one. I try and feed her around 9 but most days she will refuse to eat. A couple days I offered her a cricket around 3pm and she did finally eat. I'm gut loading the crickets with a calcium tablet, apples, and carrots.
  • Supplements - The pet stores around me only sell the calcium w/ D3 so I dusted the crickets twice this week with that. I have an order of calcium without D3 coming today or tomorrow. Then I will only use the calcium with D3 twice a month and will use the one without D3 everyday.
  • Watering - I bought her a mister that goes off every three hours for 60 seconds and about 2 to 3 times a day, I manually spray the enclosure down on the places the mister misses. I have seen her drink almost every day.
  • Fecal Description - I've not gotten her tested yet for parasite. Her poops look healthy. Clear/white cap on her stool.
  • History - Got her from LLReptile at a Reptile show.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Exo Terra Screen cage, 36" x 18" x 36".
  • Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 and a Zoomed 75 watt basking bulb. Her lighting schedule is 7am to 9pm.
  • Temperature - I have a digital infrared thermometer. The high basking spot ranges from 85-90 with the cage floor at 72. Overnight temp ranges from 63-68.What temp range have you created.
  • Humidity - I need to get something to measure humidity. I'm hoping constantly being sprayed down is keeping the humidity up.
  • Plants - She has a medium sized ficus, two small dracaenas and another small schefflera. She only really hangs out in the ficus and her fake plants.
  • Placement - The cage is three feet off the floor in front of a smaller window I have in my room. The window has wooden blinds that I draw in the afternoon to avoid additional heat sources. There is a ceiling fan in my room but it doesn't run often. And if I do run it, I make sure it's during the day when she has a basking spot available. My room is the quietest room in the house right now but eventually I want to give her her own room to free range in.
  • Location - I am located in the Bay Area in California, in the middle of Sacramento and San Francisco.

Current Problem - Baby panther isn't eating enough. Her name is Poussey for any Orange is the New Black fans :)

I have read multiple care sheets and everything I can get my hands on. I was thinking I was going to get a male which is why I thought the bigger enclosure the better, but I think it's too big for her to go hunting easily. I will post a picture of her enclosure soon when I get home from work.
Thank you! Try some other types of appropriately sized feeders. Give her as many food items that she’ll eat as multiple times a day, her basking is a tad high. Did you get a multivitamin? It could be too cold at night, get a low wattage heat emitter. Is your uvb linear or compact? Get a temp/humidity gauge combo for Walmart/a hardware store to measure overall humidity and ambient temp.
 
Thank you! Try some other types of appropriately sized feeders. Give her as many food items that she’ll eat as multiple times a day, her basking is a tad high. Did you get a multivitamin? It could be too cold at night, get a low wattage heat emitter. Is your uvb linear or compact? Get a temp/humidity gauge combo for Walmart/a hardware store to measure overall humidity and ambient temp.
Also, mix in some more variety of fruits and veggies for gutload. A picture of her enclosure would be greatly appreciated, too!
 
It might also be worth getting smaller feeders incase the size of them is an issue for him. I'm no expert but feeding medium size crickets to a 2 month old sounds a bit too big
The crickets sound a little big to me, downsize them. It’s better for her to eat tons of smaller food than possibly choke on one too big
 
Thank you! Try some other types of appropriately sized feeders. Give her as many food items that she’ll eat as multiple times a day, her basking is a tad high. Did you get a multivitamin? It could be too cold at night, get a low wattage heat emitter. Is your uvb linear or compact? Get a temp/humidity gauge combo for Walmart/a hardware store to measure overall humidity and ambient temp.

I want to get some worms but I keep reading that she may be too young for them. Would meal worms be good? I need to buy the multivitamin still but the calcium without d3 came in today so it on some crickets and and trying to feed her out of a small white container like April mentioned. I was thinking about getting a night bulb or something to keep her warm at night but I also heard temp drops at night are good for chameleons? My uvb is linear. I will get a multivitamin and humidity gauge this weekend.
 
I want to get some worms but I keep reading that she may be too young for them. Would meal worms be good? I need to buy the multivitamin still but the calcium without d3 came in today so it on some crickets and and trying to feed her out of a small white container like April mentioned. I was thinking about getting a night bulb or something to keep her warm at night but I also heard temp drops at night are good for chameleons? My uvb is linear. I will get a multivitamin and humidity gauge this weekend.
No ‘light’ bulb at night, a ceramic heat emitter is the way to go, you want complete darkness at night. Mealworms are fine as a baby but don’t feed too much and replace them with superworms when she gets older. Get some silkworm eggs to hatch and raise for her, they’ll be small enough, then.
 
And here is a picture of her enclosure.
Okay, so she needs WAY more horizontal branches everywhere, it’s how they get around, the more, the merrier. That looks to be a compact fluorescent uvb to me, a linear is a long skinny horizontal tube. I recommend going online and getting a dual Arcadia fixture with a daylight plant growth bulb and an Arcadia 6% uvb bulb from lightyourreptiles.com Pick up some fake plants to cover some of the branches for hiding, too (or get vining/hanging/leafy plants instead/also).
 
Hey @Rawritsaaisha, just so you know you won't need to use a heat emitter unless your night temps drop below 50F, which is pretty rare for most people. A drop in temp overnight is actually a good thing. I would definitely not add supplemental heat if I were you. 63F overnight is not a problem at all
 
For feeding, would you prefer her to hunt the insects down or eat them out of a cup? If it’s a cup, get a plastic cup/solo cup/feeding dish/feeding cup/small plastic jug or make your own out of PVC pipe (or buy premade at fullthrottlefeeders.com) or a 1 gallon water jug and wedge it between some vines or secure it to the screen about halfway/three quarters of the way up her cage
 
Hey @Rawritsaaisha, just so you know you won't need to use a heat emitter unless your night temps drop below 50F, which is pretty rare for most people. A drop in temp overnight is actually a good thing. I would definitely not add supplemental heat if I were you. 63F overnight is not a problem at all
That’s for veileds, not panthers. Panthers are 68*
 
Hey @Rawritsaaisha, just so you know you won't need to use a heat emitter unless your night temps drop below 50F, which is pretty rare for most people. A drop in temp overnight is actually a good thing. I would definitely not add supplemental heat if I were you. 63F overnight is not a problem at all[/QUOTE}

That's what I read! I think it's healthy for them but I didn't know if it was different because of her age. Thank you!
 
Okay, so she needs WAY more horizontal branches everywhere, it’s how they get around, the more, the merrier. That looks to be a compact fluorescent uvb to me, a linear is a long skinny horizontal tube. I recommend going online and getting a dual Arcadia fixture with a daylight plant growth bulb and an Arcadia 6% uvb bulb from lightyourreptiles.com Pick up some fake plants to cover some of the branches for hiding, too (or get vining/hanging/leafy plants instead/also).
I'm going to be adding some bamboo branches this weekend as well. Thank you so much for all the advice!
 
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