Daily routine for panther chameleons

[rmichaelk]

Hi Everyone,
Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

With just a week to go before my 6 month old male panther chameleon arrives I am trying to decide on my daily routine for its care. I was hoping that experienced keepers can share their routine based on what works best for their animals.

Do you let the animal warm up first before the first misting?

Do you feed the chameleon first in the morning or do you mist it before you feed it?

Do you spot clean before you feed and before you mist?

How often do you do a thorough cleaning of everything in the cage? Do you move your chameleon to a smaller temporary cage when the primary habitat is being cleaned or do you let the chamelon roam around in a plant?

How do you clean fake plants and vines?

Thanks for the feedback.
Michael

 

[pssh]

5:30- lights go on
6:00- mist then feed unless I'm hand feeding, then it may be reversed. I also fill the drippers.
gone at school.
3:45- mist again and spot clean. The order will depend on how the poop looks...
6:00-6:30 lights go off.

I will also use a pipet to hand water the chameleons when I have time and when they are willing. I clean the cages every three to four weeks. I clean the plants first and let the chams have free roam in them in separate rooms while I clean. I use boiling water and vinegar to clean the vines. I also use vinegar and a bleach solution to clean the actual cage.

 

[rmichaelk]

Thanks Kara. Couple of questions

1. What do you mean by 'use a pipet to hand water the chameleon'? Do you drip drops of water from the pipet in front of the cham and let it drink?

2. I have read that the dripper should not be left dripping all day because the cage should dry out between misting and that there shouldn't be standing water at the bottom of the cage. Do you let your dripper drip the entire time you are gone to school?

3. I assume you don't use any chemicals to clean the plants. Just hose them down?

4. Do you use the vinegar full strength or do you dilute it? White vinegar, right?

5. I assume that you spray the vinegar on cage and let it sit for a while and then rinse it down.

Thanks for all the feedback, appreciate it.

Michael

 

[hallenhe]

My light is on a timer, and is on ~ 7:15 am - 7:15 pm.
I come down for breakfast about 7:30; by the time I've eaten, it's right around eight, the lights have been on half an hour to 45 minutes, and the chameleon is moving.
Breakfast for Thaxter; he's an old cham and requires hand-feeding these days.
Water after breakfast; I fill his dripper (which will drip all day) and mist him five - ten minutes with warm water, depending on his response (longer misting if he's drinking, which he'll almost never start to do before four or five minutes; shorter if he moves away and shows no interest. I'll keep spraying for at least one minute after he walks out of the mist, because half the time he'll come back and start drinking).
Mine's free range and adult; he defecates about once every five days to a week, and in the same place, so I spot clean that as needed.
In the winter, he heads for bed early; he isn't asleep when we get home, but it's dark outside and he's usually settled down for the night. In the summer, with longer day lengths, he's up later and we'll often take him outside for some sun for an hour or so after work.

 

[pssh]

My drippers drip for most of the time I'm gone. I have drainage holes on the bottom so there usually isn't any standing water on the bottom aside from a few tiny drops. My house has a pretty high humidity and they both love to drink so misting twice a day doesn't seem to be problematic. I use a pipet or syringe to drip water on the tip of their noses until they open their mouths. When they begin to lick the water I make it drip faster and they happily drink it all up. When they don't want anymore they turn their heads away or hiss.

When I clean the plants I use a bit of dawn soap and wipe down almost all the leaves, especially favorite poop spots. Then I rinse for a good 15 minutes. I use white vinegar diluted in a 1:1 solution with water. I let it sit for a few minutes then rinse and if I'm cleaning the cage I use a 1:10 bleach:water solution to clean as well.

 

[sandrachameleon]

My basic routine:
Daily
Mornings
-Feed silkworms
-Feed crickets (remove any uneaten food from previous evening)
-Fill water drippers (and later empty the collection pan)
-spray water stick insects
-Feed chameleons (I feed small amounts frequently, about six days a week, rather than large amount every other day, and try for different feeder bug each day, and supplement according to routine and feeder choice)
-check silkworm eggs for new hatches (if eggs are out to hatch, which they usually are)
-check temp / humidity guages to see what the highs and lows of the night before were, and of course check current temps
Afternoon/Evening
-clean cricket bucket of droppings and old food, then add new food for them
-spot clean any recent droppings in cham cages
-check temps in cham cages and feeder bins
-mist chameleons
-fill water drippers (and later empty collection bowl)
-feed three roach bins
-feed and water isopods (every other day)
-feed multiple containers of superworms and beetles veg or fruit (every other day)
-feed mealworms and beetles (every other day)
-feed silkworms again (multiple times daily)
-possible second feeding for chameleons unless this is a skip feeding day
-update food journal (of what chameleons ate)
Weekly
-feed stick insects and clean tank(s)
-light cleaning of roach bins
-add bran/oats to supers and mealworms
-check superworm pupae, transfer beetles to beetle bin
-move large keeper silkworms to place for them to cocoon (move emerging moths to moth bin and enourage mating)
-make silkworm chow (if leaves not in season)
-collect veg from garden (romaine, kale, dandelion, squash, apple - whatever is in season)
-check plants (remove dead leaves, water, rotate...)
-check shoe boxes containing cham eggs (if incubating)
-in winter, if needed, check room humidifier (fill)
-launder/clean towels used on bottoms of cages under drip collection bowls
-clean drippers and dripper collection bowls
-attend to fruit fly cultures
every other Month or so
-make fresh batch of dry gutloads (one for the roaches, a different one for crickets and others)
-fully clean cages
-fully clean roach bins
-check/replace sticky trap (ease paranoia about escaped roaches or crickets)
-weight chameleons
-move supers/mealworms into new containers (fraz builds up too much otherwise)
as needed
-replace laying bin sand
-clip pothos vines, root new ones
-paint cages
-collect branches
-replace UVB tubes, heat lights

Lighting (both UVB and heat) is on automatic timers. Lights come on about half an hour to an hour before I come in to water/feed.

 

[rmichaelk]

Wow...looks like a busy day Sandra.

I see that you don't mist the chameleons until the afternoon so prior to that do they get water from the dripper or do you have automatic misting systems setup?

Michael

 

[sandrachameleon]

Wow...looks like a busy day Sandra.
I see that you don't mist the chameleons until the afternoon so prior to that do they get water from the dripper or do you have automatic misting systems setup?
Michael

Yeah, fairly busy. Add to the above the upkeep for the different frogs, birds and other lizards and I'm looking at a couple hours or so a day, a big chunk of the weekend. But that's all by choice.

My adult chameleons get 99% of their drinking water from the drippers. I still mist because I feel it helps with their skin condition and for cleaning their eyes. I dont need to mist to increase humditiy, Humidity is not an issue in that room due to a hermit crab tank, live plants, dripping water, a very nice relative humidity in my local environment most of the year, and a humidifier when needed in the winter.

Babies I mist three-six times a day. I dont like to use unsupervised drippers until they are at least 3 months old.

 

[Chamifornia]

Thought I would bump this thread I think it would be cool for newcomers like myself to see and share their daily routines.

8:30am lights on 8:30 pm lights on

Dust Roaches and cricks and Cup feed in the morning
dust cricks and free range in the afternoon
Hand feed worms when have time.

Mistking mistings 4 times a day
Dripper setup in the morning to drip one drop every 3 seconds and last all day

Spot Clean poop every night or day if home and see it

Night time wipe exess water from bottom and empty drainage water

Feed Roaches and crickets and wipe down dead cricks/poop everyother day

Fill reservoir with water when needed