general questions

[fiji2012]

i just recently bought a panther chameleon and i have a few questions
for starters i named him fiji (i believe its a him)

what do the different colors mean? my roomate was recently holding him and rubbing the bridge of his nose and he turned a bright neon green color
under his chin will turn bright red as well does this mean he can be angry or enjoy whats happening? iv also noticed his vertical stripes go a dark brown almost black color does this mean the same thing?

fiji loves to be held when you put your hand in the cage he generally climbs out onto it immediately and looks to get excited when he sees people. except once i realized i was grabbing him wrong (up over the back) and he puffed his chin and hissed at me. i already know that means he is offensive so after i realized it was wrong i stopped picking him up that way.

iv noticed when i do pick him up he feels cold, will he sit right under the heat lamp if he feels his temp go down? i know he will sit directly under the uvb but im not sure about the heat.

i know crickets are the best staple food but i was advised to feed him horn worms as well is this true? he seems to be scared of them. i dont think hes very old but the place i got him from couldnt tell me age or sex. i aslo dont know what sub-breed of panther chameleon he is.

i have also been advised to mist his cage at least 3 times a day i do that but it still seems to be really dry is there anything else i can do? (i also have a dripper in there for him) when i bought him i was also told to get a waterfall but i saw on a thread on this site not to get one, now im unsure whether he will benefit from it or not.

i believe that is all for now

thanks

 

[armyrec1]

Live plants in his cage will really help to keep the humidity up....we have the umbrella plants in our cage (sorry I am unsure of the real name) I know Pothos are safe too. There should be more plant information on this forum if you search for them
When we buy new plants, we wash their leaf's and then change them into a new soil....we just use plain dirt with nothing else in it, so not to hurt our Cham's, we wash the roots as well. Then we use large washed stones to put around the base of the plants to prevent them from shooting and digesting any of the dirt. Make sure they are large stones though.

Hope that helps.

 

[fiji2012]

cool thank you! i was told to buy a live plantv (ficus) but im unsure what to buy he seems to spend most of his time in the fake plants i do have in there im not sure if its because he likes the plants or because he is cold and its close to the heat lamp
i was also told he will eat parts of the live plant. he is still young and from what they told me he has never had live plants or anything other than crickets (hence why he is scared of the horn worm).

 

[carol5208]

as a rule Panther Chameleons do not eat plants and vegetation like the Veilds do. Maybe you are confusing the two. That is not to say that they might take a nip out of a plant(as they will chew on things from time to time) so you want to make sure the plants are not harmful or toxic to your chameleon. As far as the colors...bright colors do not always mean they are happy. It can also mean they are mad or scared. Normally if they stick out their chin they are not happy!!!

 

[fiji2012]

i knew that when he puffed his chin out he was unhappy and felt threatened, but when my roommate was holding him he was bright colors and did not have his chin puffed but his eyes were closed when he rubbed the bridge of his nose. usually when he sticks his chin out he is a darker color as well so im assuming bright colors mean happy and dark mean stressed with this little guy. and the reason i asked about him eating the plants is because when i bought him (petsmart in edmonton) i was told that the sales associate had several chams and thats the advise she gave me but it seems everything she has said seems to be advised against on this site. like the waterfall and the live plant for him to chew on she also advised to give him horn worms as a staple diet but everyone on here says not to do that.