Hi my name is Vicki.
I have a nosy be panther chameleon.
I live in Orange, California.
I bought him in October ’07 at the Anaheim Reptile show from Amazing Blue Reptiles, Mari Nozaki...
is still active has been doing very good still eats well, just very grey now.
...It is aluminum wire and 18” d x 12” w x 22”l
I have a reptisun 5. I leave lights about 15 hours.
...high is 83dgs F and low is 73dgs F.
...75-watt bulb on top of his cage I assume in the 90’s...
48% and 27% humidity in the room.
Plants - One ficus that I bought with the chameleon.
Eats crickets... Use sticky tongue farm’s vit all and min all. Have also gut loaded crickets flukers orange cube stuff. I dust the crickets every other feeding and have the min all in with the cricket food.
Watering - Have drip jar.
He poops big black elongated blob with a white end.
...He is still quite active roams around his cage.
Worried if the Chameleon is sick because his coloring is off from his normal self.
Howdy Vicki,
Small world. I have a Nosy Be' Panther from Amazing Blue that I got back in 9/2004 at the Anaheim show too
.
Part of the trick of successful chameleon keeping is eliminating possible sources of stress, health issues, and general husbandry problems before they turn into killers.
1.) It is quite possible that he's feeling cramped in his original baby enclosure, creating stress. It's time to upgrade his enclosure to something larger like a 24x24x48. I've got a spare one if you want to borrow one for a while. Also, LLLReptile isn't too far of a drive if you want to buy one right away
.
2.) Try lighting/heating for 12 hours a day tied to similar daylight hours, maybe 6am-6pm or thereabouts. Is that a Reptisun 5.0 compact or 18" long tube?
3.) A basking spot of 90F should be ok. Confirm the temp by either using a low-cost infrared temp gun (LLLReptile!) to measure his skin temp or stick your hand right where he basks and see if it gets too hot for you to hold your hand there after a minute.
4.) Above 40% humidity is reasonable. 40%-60% is good providing he is kept well-hydrated.
5.) Look into a Schefflera (Umbrella) plant. They are pretty good plants for even full-grown chameleons to climb around in. Fairly cheap and readily available at Home Depot etc. You could get one or two and that would do nicely in a big enclosure.
6.) Vit-All is gutload. Minerall is for calcium and trace minerals. Do you have Minerall (I) or (O)? You actually want both. You'll also want to get Herptivite (also available at LLLReptile) for all of the other vitamins needed. The usual way to deal with crickets is to feed/gutload them and then lightly dust them (shake in a bag or other container) and then place them in the enclosure either in a feeder cup or free-range.
7.) A dripper alone is often not an effective method for keeping a chameleon fully hydrated. He is obviously taking in enough water to survive but he may need more in order to thrive. Many keepers have found that hand misting for 5-20 minutes twice a day works well at fulfilling the goal of complete hydration. Try using one of those $7 handheld, pump-up plant misters from Home Depot. They hold about a quart of water. Try warm water (90-110F) direct misting as well as soaking the plant leaves too. All of this will also increase the overall humidity in the immediate area. Someday you may even joins the ranks of us with fully automated misting systems like the ones sold at
www.herpmist.com .
Eliminating as many possible sources of stress and other health problems will go a long way towards sorting-out why his colors are out of whack.
You are welcome to bring a poop sample here for parasite testing (trinocular microscope). I do it for fun for lots of other keepers' chameleons all of the time. It doesn't replace a qualified vet's analysis but it will give you insight into to what's going on.
