Is my setup okay for a young panther?

[Bitilda]

Hello!
I'm going to buy my first young nosy faly panther chameleon in a few months time and I'd just like to see if my setup is suitable please!
The viv includes a 60watt bulb and t8 UV 5%, both with reflectors on a metal mesh lid and two live plants.
The mesh doesn't seem to be allowing much light in, is that acceptable?
I'm experienced with Reptiles with heatmats, not so much with diurnal Reptiles that need lamps.
I know that the viv will need to be changed to a bigger one when the chameleon grows.
Thankyou!

 

[trickedoutbiker]

how big is the cage (dimensions) and how old is the chameleon going to be that you are planning on getting? being all glass and only a mesh lid, that won't allow as much airflow as an all-screen cage - so you will need to clean it out a little more frequently to prevent the buildup of bacteria and stagnant water. speaking of water.... does it have a water drain? how are you planning on taking care of all the excess water from when you mist him 2-3 times a day? chams are pretty fragile and need lots of fresh air and a pretty clean environment. do you have temperature gauges and humidity gauges to measure the temps and humidity? research all the possible info you can before you buy: what the basking temps should be, what the ambient temps should be, how often to feed, what to feed and how often, what NOT to feed, what kind of live plants you can and can't use (what kind of plants are the two that you mentioned you have?)

 

[Bitilda]

how big is the cage (dimensions) and how old is the chameleon going to be that you are planning on getting? being all glass and only a mesh lid, that won't allow as much airflow as an all-screen cage - so you will need to clean it out a little more frequently to prevent the buildup of bacteria and stagnant water. speaking of water.... does it have a water drain? how are you planning on taking care of all the excess water from when you mist him 2-3 times a day? chams are pretty fragile and need lots of fresh air and a pretty clean environment. do you have temperature gauges and humidity gauges to measure the temps and humidity? research all the possible info you can before you buy: what the basking temps should be, what the ambient temps should be, how often to feed, what to feed and how often, what NOT to feed, what kind of live plants you can and can't use (what kind of plants are the two that you mentioned you have?)

Thankyou for your reply!
The viv is approx 18x18x15 and the chameleon is going to be a few weeks old I think, I've put a deposit down for the next nosy faly that my local breeder hatches (February approx) which is why I didn't go for a huge viv to start off with.
Which brand and size screen cage do you recommend? I didn't realise that glass wasn't suitable
I have humidity gauges and thermometers and I know all the husbandry and temperature details
The live plants are a small Hoya exotica and a large Stephanotis floribunda

 

[Bitilda]

Also how do you attach the bulb and UV tube to a nylon screen vivarium?

 

[trickedoutbiker]

that cage size is good for his age. a little bigger than recommended, but being that chameleons grow faster than most reptiles, he will be just fine. glass can be suitable, but it's deff more maintenance, as it doesn't provide as much airflow as an all-screen cage. it's your call really on what you want to do - it just all depends on how much you want to be wiping off glass walls of a cage when they start to get all yucky - and how much you might be worried about stagnant air. too much humidity or stale air in his cage might cause him to get an upper respiratory infection. not good. that's why screen cages are recommended. as for the brands if you really wanting to get a screen cage - Zoo Med, Exo Terra, LLL Reptile, Dragon Strand.... there are lots of brands out there. but a screen cage is just that - a screen cage. nothing really fancy. so buying a relatively cheap one will suffice as long as it's not TOO CHEAP, you know?

as for the plants.... the Hoya exotica (Hoya carnosa 'exotica') is good, that is known as a "Wax Plant" . as for the other one, Stephanotis floribunda, I'm not sure. I haven't heard of that one before. Google it and see if you can find the answer? or maybe another one of the members here can provide input on that one....?

here is a great link with lots of good plants that are safe to use in a chameleon enclosure. I reference this link to anyone wondering about plants
http://www.tikitikireptiles.com/pages.php?id=8

how is your watering going to work? with the live plants, that will hold water droplets really well after a good mist session - so that's good. although some will, chameleons don't typically drink out of standing water dishes (and those can be breeding grounds for all sorts of bacteria anyways), so you will need a way to provide his water to him.... do you have a water dripper you could use for his water along with misting him, or is misting him a few times a day going to be the only chance he has to drink? if that's the case, make sure the misting sessions are a few minutes long at least to stimulate him to drink. you definitely want to make sure he drinks at LEAST a few times a day. I personally have a dripper dripping at all times when my cham's lights are on, dripping onto a few plants every 15-20 seconds - and I turn off the dripper valve at night. I also hand mist with a pressure mister 2-3 times a day to add humidity. these two methods combined, gives him water available to drink, whenever he wants. that's just my preference. you definitely don't want him to dehydrate. I also have an automatic mister, set on a timer, that I use when I am not home for long periods during the day and can't be home to manually hand mist. just don't OVERDO it either and soak his cage too much.... TOO MUCH humidity can also give him a respiratory infection over time. give the cage time to dry out a bit between misting sessions, and make sure to check his stool samples - his droppings are one of the quickest ways to tell a few things about his health. his poop should be brown, with white urate on the end of it. a pretty good white at the end of the brown means he is getting enough water. if the urate is yellowish, he is not getting enough water. and if it is orange, then he is probably dehydrated and you need to act quickly to save him. a lot of hydration also comes from the food you give the chameleon, so make sure you have a variety of insects to feed him. the more safe feeders you got, the better. and make sure you properly gutload them as well.

with your prior experience with reptiles, I'm sure you will be a successful chameleon owner.

 

[trickedoutbiker]

Also how do you attach the bulb and UV tube to a nylon screen vivarium?

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this? You have them sitting on the top of the screen of the cage.... Where they should be..... Where exactly are you "attaching" them? You have them exactly where they should be: UVB light across the middle/majority of the cage, and the heat lamp to the side/in a corner of the cage. Explain a little more what you mean by this?

 

[Bitilda]

that cage size is good for his age. a little bigger than recommended, but being that chameleons grow faster than most reptiles, he will be just fine. glass can be suitable, but it's deff more maintenance, as it doesn't provide as much airflow as an all-screen cage. it's your call really on what you want to do - it just all depends on how much you want to be wiping off glass walls of a cage when they start to get all yucky - and how much you might be worried about stagnant air. too much humidity or stale air in his cage might cause him to get an upper respiratory infection. not good. that's why screen cages are recommended. as for the brands if you really wanting to get a screen cage - Zoo Med, Exo Terra, LLL Reptile, Dragon Strand.... there are lots of brands out there. but a screen cage is just that - a screen cage. nothing really fancy. so buying a relatively cheap one will suffice as long as it's not TOO CHEAP, you know?

as for the plants.... the Hoya exotica (Hoya carnosa 'exotica') is good, that is known as a "Wax Plant" . as for the other one, Stephanotis floribunda, I'm not sure. I haven't heard of that one before. Google it and see if you can find the answer? or maybe another one of the members here can provide input on that one....?

here is a great link with lots of good plants that are safe to use in a chameleon enclosure. I reference this link to anyone wondering about plants
http://www.tikitikireptiles.com/pages.php?id=8

how is your watering going to work? with the live plants, that will hold water droplets really well after a good mist session - so that's good. although some will, chameleons don't typically drink out of standing water dishes (and those can be breeding grounds for all sorts of bacteria anyways), so you will need a way to provide his water to him.... do you have a water dripper you could use for his water along with misting him, or is misting him a few times a day going to be the only chance he has to drink? if that's the case, make sure the misting sessions are a few minutes long at least to stimulate him to drink. you definitely want to make sure he drinks at LEAST a few times a day. I personally have a dripper dripping at all times when my cham's lights are on, dripping onto a few plants every 15-20 seconds - and I turn off the dripper valve at night. I also hand mist with a pressure mister 2-3 times a day to add humidity. these two methods combined, gives him water available to drink, whenever he wants. that's just my preference. you definitely don't want him to dehydrate. I also have an automatic mister, set on a timer, that I use when I am not home for long periods during the day and can't be home to manually hand mist. just don't OVERDO it either and soak his cage too much.... TOO MUCH humidity can also give him a respiratory infection over time. give the cage time to dry out a bit between misting sessions, and make sure to check his stool samples - his droppings are one of the quickest ways to tell a few things about his health. his poop should be brown, with white urate on the end of it. a pretty good white at the end of the brown means he is getting enough water. if the urate is yellowish, he is not getting enough water. and if it is orange, then he is probably dehydrated and you need to act quickly to save him. a lot of hydration also comes from the food you give the chameleon, so make sure you have a variety of insects to feed him. the more safe feeders you got, the better. and make sure you properly gutload them as well.

with your prior experience with reptiles, I'm sure you will be a successful chameleon owner.

Thankyou so much for all the information, I'll definitely exchange glass for screen as soon as I can and I already checked with my breeder and lecturer about the plants before I bought them [:
And with the water, I was going to mist him myself with a spray bottle three times a day since I'm home a lot but will definitely look into getting a dripper just incase.
Thankyou about the stool colour info, will keep an important note about that!

 

[Bitilda]

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this? You have them sitting on the top of the screen of the cage.... Where they should be..... Where exactly are you "attaching" them? You have them exactly where they should be: UVB light across the middle/majority of the cage, and the heat lamp to the side/in a corner of the cage. Explain a little more what you mean by this?

Sorry I meant do the bulbs burn or melt the material that the mesh is made of (eg nylon) if rested on top?

 

[Cheeky]

The plants to me they look like Madagascar Jasmine and Ivy.

The jasmine is native to madagascar and thrives in the same conditions as panthers, high humidity, mid 70s, indirect sunlight and misting, therefore it is something they should commonly meet in the wild. I am intending to add one to my enclosure as well unless somebody has bad experiences, I cant find any concerning information online after a good search.

As for the light fixtures people tend to elevate them just above the mesh to avoid your cham getting burnt if he climbs onto the mesh. You can either suspend the light or or place it on something just to lift it off the mesh.

 

[trickedoutbiker]

Thankyou so much for all the information, I'll definitely exchange glass for screen as soon as I can and I already checked with my breeder and lecturer about the plants before I bought them [:
And with the water, I was going to mist him myself with a spray bottle three times a day since I'm home a lot but will definitely look into getting a dripper just incase.
Thankyou about the stool colour info, will keep an important note about that!

regarding the cage: you don't HAVE to rush out and get a screen cage, but again, that's your call. did you already have the glass viv from another previously owned reptile, or did you spend money to buy a new glass vivarium? To avoid the hassle of taking everything out of it and taking it back to the store (assuming it's brand new), I would just keep it until you get him a bigger cage, then go with screen cage. glass would just be a little more maintenance until that time comes, which would be about 8 months to a year, since that is around the time you will want to move him to a bigger enclosure. then it's recommended to go with a screen enclosure. just make sure it's well cleaned until then. it's ultimately your choice what you decide to do.

as for the dripper - it's probably cheaper to make your own dripper with a 1-gallon milk jug or something similar that you can poke a small hole in for water to drip. there is the ZOO MED Little Dripper and ZOO MED Big Dripper, but all those are, are containers with a lid and a water control valve (and the water control valves on these suck. I own a ZOO MED Little Dripper and should of just made my own. would have been cheaper. but since I already spent the $7 on it, I decided to keep it, but I had to go out and buy an aquarium gang valve to attach to the ZOO MED valve, because the ball valves that comes with their units just suck and can't keep a good drip speed. now, with my aquarium gang valve, the drip is much much easier to control and fine-tune)

as for the info about his poop, no problem. lol. you can tell a lot about a chameleon from his poop: such as if he is getting enough water, if he has parasites or not, etc. here is a good link dealing with dehydration and it shows you some pics of good/bad stool samples as well: http://chamworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/health-section-dehydration.html

here is another link that provides a little basic info on some other common things that can go wrong: http://www.chameleonsonline.com/illness.php

even with proper husbandry and doing everything right, things can still happen. you just got to educate yourself as much as possible and be fully aware of your chameleon and his habits so that you may notice anything out of the norm.

 

[Bitilda]

regarding the cage: you don't HAVE to rush out and get a screen cage, but again, that's your call. did you already have the glass viv from another previously owned reptile, or did you spend money to buy a new glass vivarium? To avoid the hassle of taking everything out of it and taking it back to the store (assuming it's brand new), I would just keep it until you get him a bigger cage, then go with screen cage. glass would just be a little more maintenance until that time comes, which would be about 8 months to a year, since that is around the time you will want to move him to a bigger enclosure. then it's recommended to go with a screen enclosure. just make sure it's well cleaned until then. it's ultimately your choice what you decide to do.

as for the dripper - it's probably cheaper to make your own dripper with a 1-gallon milk jug or something similar that you can poke a small hole in for water to drip. there is the ZOO MED Little Dripper and ZOO MED Big Dripper, but all those are, are containers with a lid and a water control valve (and the water control valves on these suck. I own a ZOO MED Little Dripper and should of just made my own. would have been cheaper. but since I already spent the $7 on it, I decided to keep it, but I had to go out and buy an aquarium gang valve to attach to the ZOO MED valve, because the ball valves that comes with their units just suck and can't keep a good drip speed. now, with my aquarium gang valve, the drip is much much easier to control and fine-tune)

as for the info about his poop, no problem. lol. you can tell a lot about a chameleon from his poop: such as if he is getting enough water, if he has parasites or not, etc. here is a good link dealing with dehydration and it shows you some pics of good/bad stool samples as well: http://chamworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/health-section-dehydration.html

here is another link that provides a little basic info on some other common things that can go wrong: http://www.chameleonsonline.com/illness.php

even with proper husbandry and doing everything right, things can still happen. you just got to educate yourself as much as possible and be fully aware of your chameleon and his habits so that you may notice anything out of the norm.

I'd recently bought the glass cage but I'm going to sell it and buy a screen one instead anyway, really don't want to risk any sort of respiratory issues
and that homemade dripper idea is excellent! Thankyou!
Thankyou for the links too and for all the help!

 

[Micky23]

I would strongly recommend you not to use glass cage for a panther chameleon they seem to do better in a screen cage, if you decide to use a screen cage reply to this message of how old your Panther chameleon is and I will reply With a good size Cage for him/her, thanks for reading this message.