Juvenile female temperatures, feeding, supplimentation etc.

[TCMontium]

Hi,

I have a juvenile female Panther Chameleon, hatching date was listed as 05/2025, so about 3-4 months old.
She is about 2 and a half inches, or 3 inches long (excluding tail).

I have read about people talking about keeping females in lower temps than males, often even without a basking lamp, just with a UVB flourescent bulb. And I have also read that people feed females less than males, unless they want to breed them.

But they almost never mention the age of the females they treat this way. Do females not need as much heat and food as they can when they are juveniles, to grow properly?
Or would giving as much heat and food as she wants cause an early batch of eggs that might shorten her life, or risk it even?


So, I was wondering what the ideal basking, ambient and night time tempuretures would be as she grows. And whether she needs basking at all other than the UVB light?

And if I should just feed her as many insects as she wants, dusted with calcium daily and dusted with d3 or multivitamin biweekly (interchangably), as usual for most chameleons.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Hi,

I have a juvenile female Panther Chameleon, hatching date was listed as 05/2025, so about 3-4 months old.
She is about 2 and a half inches, or 3 inches long (excluding tail).

I have read about people talking about keeping females in lower temps than males, often even without a basking lamp, just with a UVB flourescent bulb. And I have also read that people feed females less than males, unless they want to breed them.

But they almost never mention the age of the females they treat this way. Do females not need as much heat and food as they can when they are juveniles, to grow properly?
Or would giving as much heat and food as she wants cause an early batch of eggs that might shorten her life, or risk it even?


So, I was wondering what the ideal basking, ambient and night time tempuretures would be as she grows. And whether she needs basking at all other than the UVB light?

And if I should just feed her as many insects as she wants, dusted with calcium daily and dusted with d3 or multivitamin biweekly (interchangably), as usual for most chameleons.

There are many theories of how to properly raise baby Furcifer pardalis. If a technique does the job for you I would not overly worry about the techniques. Keeping Furcifer pardalis males and females at different temperatures is new for an old timer such as me and to me is a new technique and I think is not excessively important. However the one thing I would be concerned about is using a basking light for Furcifer pardalis babies. I think the Furcifer pardalis babies would not require a basking bulb till they are 4-5 inches long and tube light (Arcadia or ZooMed) should accomplish the job of heat and UV source till then.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[TCMontium]

There are many theories of how to properly raise baby Furcifer pardalis. If a technique does the job for you I would not overly worry about the techniques. Keeping Furcifer pardalis males and females at different temperatures is new for an old timer such as me and to me is a new technique and I think is not excessively important. However the one thing I would be concerned about is using a basking light for Furcifer pardalis babies. I think the Furcifer pardalis babies would not require a basking bulb till they are 4-5 inches long and tube light (Arcadia or ZooMed) should accomplish the job of heat and UV source till then.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

I have read about keeping females colder temps, or at least same ambient temps but with no basking light, or a low temp basking spot; to not encourage egg production and extend the females lifespan. Alongside the advice to feed them not as much as a male (proportionally), unless you want to breed the female soon.

I have seen these advices for many years now, but it was never specified at what age, or size, this low temp treatment and the diet of reduced feeding amounts was supposed to be started.

Also I have seen this advice given for veiled and other chameleon species females too, not just female panthers.


And thanks for the advice!
Then I will not install a basking light until she almost doubles her size. Unless maybe if my uvb source is not as warm as the examples you gave.

Exo terra 25w uvb 100 is the only available suitable uvb bulb we have in this country (alongside the 13w version). So I have that model of 25w compact flourescent type uvb bulb.
(I know the compact flourescent lights are said to risk some health issues and not be as potent as some other lighting options for UVB radiation, but, sadly this is the only option I am allowed to have in this country right now.)

The bulb is about 4 inches above her basking spot. She is almost always sitting under it so far, as long as the light is on.(but it has only been 1 full day since I got her, I will need to observe her behavior for a bit longer to make sure)

 

[MissSkittles]

Female panthers are a bit different than veileds in that they don’t grow so fast, so you do provide them more time to grow and mature before limiting food. Since babies and young chameleons temperatures shouldn’t exceed 78-80F anyhow, you don’t need to reduce basking temps. It’s been a few years since my panther girl was young, but I didn’t worry about cutting her food back for quite some time. With my young male, I didn’t even really bother much to count how many feeders I was giving him. If he was supposed to have 10-12, those were the numbers I stopped counting at but still gave more than that. With my female, I did count and if I did go over, it was just by 1-2.
Regarding your mention of only having Calcium Plus available for a multivitamin/D3…if that is all you have available, there’s no choice but to use it. I would still use it for one feeding every other week, but I would make sure to dust very lightly and maybe dust only a few of the feeders instead of all of them. You do have a phosphorus free calcium without D3 available for use at every feeding?
I don’t know what to tell you really about having only a compact uvb bulb. Your girl is at high risk for metabolic bone disease without better uvb. Are you anywhere that it is warm year round and you can take her outside for some sunshine a few times a week? Never leave a chameleon unattended outside - not only are they fast when they want to be, but there are many predators which are even faster. When I take any of my animals outside, I hold them.

 

[TCMontium]

Female panthers are a bit different than veileds in that they don’t grow so fast, so you do provide them more time to grow and mature before limiting food. Since babies and young chameleons temperatures shouldn’t exceed 78-80F anyhow, you don’t need to reduce basking temps. It’s been a few years since my panther girl was young, but I didn’t worry about cutting her food back for quite some time. With my young male, I didn’t even really bother much to count how many feeders I was giving him. If he was supposed to have 10-12, those were the numbers I stopped counting at but still gave more than that. With my female, I did count and if I did go over, it was just by 1-2.
Regarding your mention of only having Calcium Plus available for a multivitamin/D3…if that is all you have available, there’s no choice but to use it. I would still use it for one feeding every other week, but I would make sure to dust very lightly and maybe dust only a few of the feeders instead of all of them. You do have a phosphorus free calcium without D3 available for use at every feeding?
I don’t know what to tell you really about having only a compact uvb bulb. Your girl is at high risk for metabolic bone disease without better uvb. Are you anywhere that it is warm year round and you can take her outside for some sunshine a few times a week? Never leave a chameleon unattended outside - not only are they fast when they want to be, but there are many predators which are even faster. When I take any of my animals outside, I hold them.

Thanks for all the advices.

I have a calcium powder without d3 to feed daily, but it has no information about whether it has phosphorus or not. The brand is a local brand named Petcalvit. I assume since there is no mention of phosphorus there is none in it.

For the multivitamin, Repashy Calcium Plus is my only option yes, but for d3 there is several products available. Calcium + d3 powders of local brand, Exo terra and Zoo Med.
There is one supposed german brand available for all 3 types of the powders, with and without d3 and the multivitamin powder. However, I have not been able to find any online information on this brand so I am refraining from using it with the suspicion of it being a counterfeit item, not an actual german brand. Here are images of what is supposedly in the suspicius brand (these are photos of expired products but there are newer ones available):

No, I do not have much direct sunlight where I live, except in summer. And when we do get it, I would be at away at work anyway.

Also,
Is there a specific reason that you mentioned that a chameleon is at a high risk of getting MBD under the type of light bulb I own? According to this site, Exo Terra compact UVB bulbs have a proper UVB reach comparable to many T5 options out there (with a reflector at least. I couldn't see where they compared them without reflectors). And my chameleon seems to sit below the bulb all the time so some T5 prosucts having a much further reach of UVB light seems irrelevant in this case for MBD, unless I am missing some important key point? :

https://chameleonacademy.com/uvb/

 

[MissSkittles]

Thanks for all the advices.

I have a calcium powder without d3 to feed daily, but it has no information about whether it has phosphorus or not. The brand is a local brand named Petcalvit. I assume since there is no mention of phosphorus there is none in it.

For the multivitamin, Repashy Calcium Plus is my only option yes, but for d3 there is several products available. Calcium + d3 powders of local brand, Exo terra and Zoo Med.
There is one supposed german brand available for all 3 types of the powders, with and without d3 and the multivitamin powder. However, I have not been able to find any online information on this brand so I am refraining from using it with the suspicion of it being a counterfeit item, not an actual german brand. Here are images of what is supposedly in the suspicius brand (these are photos of expired products but there are newer ones available):

View attachment 366130View attachment 366131View attachment 366132View attachment 366133


No, I do not have much direct sunlight where I live, except in summer. And when we do get it, I would be at away at work anyway.

Also,
Is there a specific reason that you mentioned that a chameleon is at a high risk of getting MBD under the type of light bulb I own? According to this site, Exo Terra compact UVB bulbs have a proper UVB reach comparable to many T5 options out there (with a reflector at least. I couldn't see where they compared them without reflectors). And my chameleon seems to sit below the bulb all the time so some T5 prosucts having a much further reach of UVB light seems irrelevant in this case for MBD, unless I am missing some important key point? :

https://chameleonacademy.com/uvb/

The Repashy Calcium Plus is a great product which contains vitamin D3, so no other source of D3 is needed (other than thru UVB). You would use the calcium without D3 at every feeding except for one feeding twice per month, in which you would use the Repashy. As I said previously, if that was my best option, I would still use it twice per month, but in less quantity (very lightly dusting only 1/2 to 3/4 of the feeders). It contains preformed vitamin A, which is known to be able to be utilized by chameleons, unlike the other form of A.
Is this the light which you have?

While the standard and ideal is a linear T5 with either 6% or 5.0 bulb, if you have this uvb, it is better than the first in the chart, which is what I automatically assume all cfl bulbs are. I apologize for my wrong assumption. So this doesn’t quite give the range as a T5 does, but does appear close. I don’t know the lifespan of these bulbs, but I would change it every 6 months just to be safe.
Chameleon Academy is up on the best and latest husbandry and all else related to chameleons. Have you seen this part of the site? https://chameleonacademy.com/panther-chameleon-care/ He does show the Calcium Plus as an option.
Can you post some pics of your little one? Give me my baby chameleon ‘fix’ for the day?

 

[TCMontium]

The Repashy Calcium Plus is a great product which contains vitamin D3, so no other source of D3 is needed (other than thru UVB). You would use the calcium without D3 at every feeding except for one feeding twice per month, in which you would use the Repashy. As I said previously, if that was my best option, I would still use it twice per month, but in less quantity (very lightly dusting only 1/2 to 3/4 of the feeders). It contains preformed vitamin A, which is known to be able to be utilized by chameleons, unlike the other form of A.
Is this the light which you have?
View attachment 366134
While the standard and ideal is a linear T5 with either 6% or 5.0 bulb, if you have this uvb, it is better than the first in the chart, which is what I automatically assume all cfl bulbs are. I apologize for my wrong assumption. So this doesn’t quite give the range as a T5 does, but does appear close. I don’t know the lifespan of these bulbs, but I would change it every 6 months just to be safe.
Chameleon Academy is up on the best and latest husbandry and all else related to chameleons. Have you seen this part of the site? https://chameleonacademy.com/panther-chameleon-care/ He does show the Calcium Plus as an option.
Can you post some pics of your little one? Give me my baby chameleon ‘fix’ for the day?

Alright. Thanks a lot!
Yes that is the exo terra bulb I have.
I have seen the pages in the academy site and read much of it, though I still have a little more left to read. I have kept several chameleons before and bred panthers, but it has been about 10 years since, so I need some refreshment of information.

I didn't ever see information about different forms of vitamin A when I was keeping chameleons 10 years ago for example. I definitely need to reread and full understand that part of the academy site. All I knew 10 years ago was Vitamin A and Beta Carotene, and Beta Carotene products like Rep-Cal Herptivite was just the best vitamin product as far as I knew. Especially for Jackson's and other more sensitive species.
I really need to do a lot of research since I definitely will get species like Trioceros species, Kinyongia species, other Furcifer species, and leaf/dwarf chameleon species if I can ever find them available here.


Here is your dose of pure sweetness I still need to name her, will take a few days to decide...
My first reptile ever was a female panther chameleon that I kept for 3-4 years, but then I had to move abroad, so I gave her to a friend who also kept chameleons. Now it feels right to restart with a little babygirl again.

 

[MissSkittles]

Thank you! Beautiful baby girl!