Hello! rescue op could use some advice!

[XDX]

Hello all!

(First off, this is my first post here, I am not super familiar with this forum, so please feel free to move this posting as needed.)

So, this winter, I received a mixed blessing! Long story short, I have become the new caretaker for 5 chameleons, in somewhat of an unexpected rescue situation. I have raised various reptiles and amphibians for 20+ years, although I am completely new to the chameleon world, and I am slightly overwhelmed. I've been doing as much research as I can, but I am fairly busy, and would rather devote as much as my time actually helping and making necessary changes in their environment/my care of them, than spending hours on the internet reading information. Also, there were a few other types of animals adopted in this rescue, so my attention is a bit divided. But I care a lot about all animals, and these guys are super cool, so I want to help them out. Like I said, I do have a lot of general herp experience, so I figure I can handle it. I just need to understand all of these guys needs, and set up a good routine. I am hoping that some folks on here may be willing to share some detailed advice about how to best care for these guys, recommended equipment, etc.

So, what I have are:

an older male panther (ambilobe, I believe)
younger male panther (nosy be, or some mix possibly?)
2 female panthers (?)
1 male crested

Will post pictures, probably tomorrow.

the older male panther is kind of sick. they had not been properly cared for in who knows how long, and were brought to my house to care for them. there was also a Jackson's who didn't survive the transit, DOA. I've had them now for almost 2 months, and all seem pretty healthy except the older male panther. From my research, it looks like he might have some sort of respiratory infection (a lot of mucus build-up around the mouth, general "sick" look, trouble catching prey sometimes). I think he is doing a bit better, I feed him mixed diet of roaches, silkies, crickets, etc, and mist him extra, clean his cage as soon as he dirties it. Unfortunately, I don't think I cant take him to the vet for antibiotics at this time; this was already an unexpected rescue, and because I don't have all the heating/lighting set up for everyone in the most effective manner, my power bill has gone through the roof! 2-3x my normal bill! which brings me to my next challenge.
How do I best set up heat/lights/lighting schedule, for the chameleons, and my wallet? Right now I am using these dual-bulb halogen+cfl fixtures that use one small cfl for lighting and one little halogen bulb for heat, all in one fixture. I seriously think these are putting some serious numbers on my power bill. Chameleons do not need their heat-basking light on all day correct? I can run cfl normal day hours, then use a separate heat fixture for the halogen bulbs for maybe 3-5hrs like high noon sun? does heat tape or other heating element prove any benefit or efficiency with chameleons? Its pretty cold where I live, so I've had to run room heaters just to keep the ambient temps up at night etc, which is probably the other half, if not more to my power bill. I don't mean to sound cheap, but something cant be right. I try to be conservative, and my power bill usually isn't much at all, even with few lights and heaters I already run, bout $150-250 in the winter, less in the summer. My last two bills are $500 each! Is that typical? am I freaking out over nothing? seems like a significant jump to me...
Which brings me to my 3rd challenge, If those sound like standard bills and use of power, well, I'm going to need to get a bit more involved in order to support the hobby! How do I get everyone in best shape and then initiate some breading? How different is care from when breeding and when not? How do you tell what locality females are from, and is it frowned upon to mix up localities when breeding?

Any and all other info will be greatly appreciated by me and all these lizards!

Thanks a lot!

~XDX~

 

[KLowery88]

There's a great caresheet for Panthers here that will answer a lot of your questions: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/

For basking you can use a basic incandescent bulb, at whatever wattage keeps a proper basking temperature. They do need that light on during their entire light cycle so that they can choose to raise their body temperature. You'll also need to use a UVB bulb in conjunction with the basking bulp. There's a range of choices, I personally use the Reptisun 10.0 T5 bulb, though I'm looking to upgrade to the Arcadia 12% bulb in the future.

What temperatures are you keeping them at? They can handle drops down to 50 F, so you might not need to run the heaters at all. That jump in electricity cost does sound high.

The care sheet should get you started on the right track, and I recommend reading a lot of threads in this forum. I also had to take in an unexpected rescue, so I understand how overwhelming everything is.

As for breeding, more experienced members will have to chime in, though I would let them settle in and recover for a good long while, especially if they are in poor health.

 

[Andee]

Depends on how poor of health they are in if you want to breed. I would consider doing A LOT more research before you even consider jumping into breeding. Breeding chameleons is NOT an easy thing. The babies will need 4 months of care before they are ready to be sold/shipped. That means feeding them every day in order to accommodate their growing bodies. That you also need to think about where you'll keep the babies, the extra lighting for the babies. You will probably eventually want to get an automatic mister. If your worried about money right now think about looking into solar power? It will cut costs on your electricity a lot. Even your everyday use. Then you need to be prepared for vet bills for the babies if need be, or vet bills for the mama's because laying eggs doesn't always come easy. You also need to make sure your mom's don't show any sign of MBD. Otherwise breeding them is completely out of the question.

 

[Jpatter123]

Perhaps a bit crude but why not try to rehome at least a few of those to someone who is financially able to care for them ? Going to sound rude, but a rescue isn't a rescue if you can't afford the proper care too. Sometimes our hearts and wallets don't match.