Help please, sexing and health!

[xkarfase]

I was given this cham and told it was a male panther and that they had had it for about 10 or 11 months! It seems a bit small and drably coloured for a male panther, but I’m no expert so I was hoping somebody here could help me. I am quite worried for his/her health (these colours and size for a male of that age?) so any constructive comments on his apparent state/age/sex would be most helpful, Thank you.
Below is some information about how he was held before me;

Caging - I am informed he was being kept in an exo-terra vivarium with glass sides and a mesh top, and ventilation holes on the front lower panel.
Lighting – a 20W as a baby then 40W then 60W basking bulb, and a 5%UV strip tube (arcadia d3)
Eating – always ate healthily, on supplemented crickets and wax worms.
Watering – misting several times a day, with drippers on top of the mesh.
Temperature – basking spot about 85, room temperature at night.
Humidity – about 70% usually.
Plants – 1 live ficus benjamina, a fake exo terra vine as well.
Locale – Picasso apparently.

Heres a few pictures

And a couple of tail end shots for the sexing

 

[Julirs]

You have a beautiful girl there!

 

[lbesok]

She is very pretty, and looks/sounds pretty healthy to me!

 

[stevereecy]

Is she about to lay eggs? Generally they aren't that dark until they are getting close. And they get more snappish too.

 

[Kent67]

Is she about to lay eggs? Generally they aren't that dark until they are getting close. And they get more snappish too.

Good call, check out her belly in the third pic. I think getting a container of soil for her to dig in would be a real good idea to do as soon as possible. You'll want the soil to be at least 8 or 9 inches deep and the container large enough for her to dig a tunnel at a comfortable decline.

 

[xkarfase]

Ok so I take it she is a girl....this is bad news, I have no experience with female panthers! I need help ASAP.
Can someone please help me with this egg laying thin? I have a fairly large enclosure, 24"x24"x36", so I assume I need some sort of large container to place inside and filled with some sort of sand/dirt substance at some level of dampness. As you can see, I need help with,
- the size of the container
- what to put inside it (sand, soil etc)
- how damp it should be
- any other steps I should take (take her out of the cage perhaps and put her in the 'sand box'?)

How do I know if she is about to lay eggs?
I am extremely worried that she will become gravid or suffer some other form of detriment....I need to take care of her!

 

[lbesok]

Ok so I take it she is a girl....this is bad news, I have no experience with female panthers! I need help ASAP.
Can someone please help me with this egg laying thin? I have a fairly large enclosure, 24"x24"x36", so I assume I need some sort of large container to place inside and filled with some sort of sand/dirt substance at some level of dampness. As you can see, I need help with,
- the size of the container
- what to put inside it (sand, soil etc)
- how damp it should be
- any other steps I should take (take her out of the cage perhaps and put her in the 'sand box'?)

How do I know if she is about to lay eggs?
I am extremely worried that she will become gravid or suffer some other form of detriment....I need to take care of her!

Right now we have a 12x9x10 filing Rubbermaid container that we use for our female to lay, that is inside her cage. It has a 50/50 mix of sand/soil. Another method would be using a trash can outside of the cage filled with the 50/50 mix. You just make sure that the soil is damp, but not too saturated so that when the female digs, the dirt does not collapse on her.
Females can produce infertile eggs without being with a male. You can sometimes palpate the eggs in her stomach, they feel like little jelly beans. Most of the time females will stop eating a couple of days before they lay, although last time ours ate the same day she laid . Good luck.