Looking for feedback and suggestions

FunkyMunkey80

FunkyMunkey80

New Member
Hey everyone,

new member to the group and the chameleon owner world. Recently got a 3 months old panther chameleon, would love to get some feedback on the cage. I have since changed the red infrared lamp to a ceramic heating element. I keep the UV B fluorescent on for 12 hours a day on a timer. And have a automatic mister, the Monsoon Solo, that runs every 4 hours for 60 seconds. Anything else that I might be missing? Also, any tips on handling my male chameleon? His name is Mochi ❤️
40D54B93-7801-4098-8C9B-D6CC1525E283.jpeg
40D54B93-7801-4098-8C9B-D6CC1525E283.jpeg
25E41229-D0E9-45F7-9C02-9A5D00DDD9DB.jpeg
0B1181F5-6028-4CD8-9D02-BC1FACA4759B.jpeg
 
the one big thing is the towels on the bottom of the cage, they should go, bacteria will grow fast, bare floor is better
 
Hello and welcome to the forums!

For a full husbandry review and feedback, if you could fill out this form it would be helpful for feedback.

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  • Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
  • Location - Where are you geographically located?
 
I don't see the problem with paper towels on the bottom, as long as they are changed daily, and you clean the base regularly/between changings.

The problem is with things like repticarpet. This will harbor bacteria because people don't change it everyday, and don't clean it well enough. Even when cleaned i'm sure bacteria would still be trapped inside.

Bare bottom is best unless you are going bioactive. But I don't see the problem with paper towels if you want to use them.
 
Welcome!

Filling out the help form posted above will give experienced forum members a good look into the husbandry/care and will open up potential improvements for your cute little fellas life.

I maybe can notice a little swelling of his gular area (neck/"armpit") that can sometimes be due to over dusting or over supplementation. This is often called gular edema. I recently went through this with my cham as I was initially misinformed with the proper dusting technique. How are you dusting your feeders and what supplements are you using? Again, filling out the help form should help answer these questions.

Now, there can be many other causes of this sort of swelling but it seems to be that cutting back on supplements for a few days to a week or two helps in a lot of the cases that I came across in my research on the matter.

I'd like to iterate that I am definitely not an expert and new to the chameleon hobby. I am just sharing the experience I had with my cham and it could be totally possible that I am misdiagnosing this as edema (it just looks very similar to what my cham looked like with some gular edema)

Edit: here is the link to the post I made about my cham's edema

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/edema.174923/
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Male Panther chameleon at about 3 months old. We picked Mochi up about 3 days ago from the local reptile shop.
  • Handling - We are currently handling him daily, up to an hour a day. Usually it's to take him outside to sit in the sun.
  • Feeding - He is on small crickets, about 10 to 15 a day. I usually put the crickets in a feeder around 10 in the morning, and the crickets are gut loaded for at least 24 hours prior with Fluker's Cricket Quencher and Zoo Med Natural Cricket Care, and with the occasional left over cucumbers as well.
  • Supplements - I dust the crickets in a cricket duster that catches the extra powder at the bottom of a sifter. I use Zoo Med's Reptivite on Sundays, and Zoo Med's Repti Calcium on Mon, Wed, and Fridays.
  • Watering - There is a automatic mister, Monsoon Solo, it is set for spraying every 4 hours for 60 seconds. And yes, I have seen him drink from the leaves.
  • Fecal Description - He almost pooped on me today when I had him out in the sun lol...but it looks like a solid brown poop close to 1/2 inch, I saw 3 pieces of poop at the bottom of his cage yesterday. No, he has not been tested for parasites, I've read a lot about parasites being a issue, should I take him to a vet to test his poop?
  • History - The only history I have was when we got him he was in a cage with several other chameleons, but he was the largest male out of all of them. So we decided to go with him.
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - I'm using the Zoo Med Reptibreeze cage in Large, I believe the dimensions are 18 x 18 x 36. It is all mesh, we have a plastic sheet that sits along the back of the cage to prevent overspraying on the rear wall.
  • Lighting - I'm using the Zilla Slimline Tropical Fixture with Tropical 25 UVB T8 Fluorescent bulb, but just ordered the Zoo Med Reptisun 5.0 UVB to replace the current bulb. The heating element is in a Zoo Med mini Deep Dome Fixture and I'm using a Fluker's Ceramic Heat Emitter at 100 watts. The UVB light is on a timer running at a 12 hour cycle, and the heat emitter is on 24 hours a day. I heard it's good to have a temperature drop at night, should I turn this off at night? See below for temperature range at night.
  • Temperature - The cage has a ambient temp ranging from about 85 degrees at the top of the branch right below the basking spot to about 72 at the bottom of the cage, and lots of foliage with wet and dry areas. We currently have the heat emitter on for 24 hours, night time temp drops to between 58 and 60 degrees currently. As we approach summer time, night time temps should get up to about 65 to 70 degrees. The temperature is measured by a temperature gun.
  • Humidity - At the top of the cage humidity level is at 51, and the middle of the cage where all the foliage is at is about 55. We are thinking about getting a fogger to up the humidity, thoughts? And what brand or DIY product works best? Humidity is measured by a hygrometer.
  • Plants - All the plants are live in the cage, we have a gardenia, porthos, begonia, wandering jew, and a dwarf braided umbrella tree. We treated the plants before introducing them to the cage by changing out the soil to organic soil, and potted into the cage with larger sized rocks covering the dirt. The leaves were all washed with a diluted antiseptic wash and repeated rinse before placing into the cage.
  • Placement - The cage is currently in our dining room, partially next to a double pane window so ambient lighting (no direct sun).
  • Location - We live in Dana Point in Southern California, close to the beach.
Wow, that was a lot of homework, but I also did a lot of reading prior to getting Mochi, since I know they're more of a advanced reptile to keep. Hope this info helps you guys in providing additional suggestions.
 
ajs said:
Welcome!

Filling out the help form posted above will give experienced forum members a good look into the husbandry/care and will open up potential improvements for your cute little fellas life.

I maybe can notice a little swelling of his gular area (neck/"armpit") that can sometimes be due to over dusting or over supplementation. This is often called gular edema. I recently went through this with my cham as I was initially misinformed with the proper dusting technique. How are you dusting your feeders and what supplements are you using? Again, filling out the help form should help answer these questions.

Now, there can be many other causes of this sort of swelling but it seems to be that cutting back on supplements for a few days to a week or two helps in a lot of the cases that I came across in my research on the matter.

I'd like to iterate that I am definitely not an expert and new to the chameleon hobby. I am just sharing the experience I had with my cham and it could be totally possible that I am misdiagnosing this as edema (it just looks very similar to what my cham looked like with some gular edema)

Edit: here is the link to the post I made about my cham's edema

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/edema.174923/
Click to expand...

So here's another picture from this morning, I'm not seeing the swelling today, maybe it was just the angle of the picture from last night. Let me know if you still see the swelling since I'm a new cham owner and not really sure if I'm missing the swelling. =) Thanks!

Angel.
IMG_0283.jpg
IMG_0284.jpg
 
Also, what are thoughts on this feeder that we made? Should we put all the crickets into the feeder or let it hunt int he cage?

IMG_0288.jpg
IMG_0282.jpg
 
Feedback in bold.

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Male Panther chameleon at about 3 months old. We picked Mochi up about 3 days ago from the local reptile shop. Anyone else think Mochi might be a girl?
  • Handling - We are currently handling him daily, up to an hour a day. Usually it's to take him outside to sit in the sun. I'd stop doing this for now. Your cham needs time to settle in and handling can be stressful and daily handling is not usually recommended. Give them like 2 weeks to get settled in and then try 1-2x week.
  • Feeding - He is on small crickets, about 10 to 15 a day. I usually put the crickets in a feeder around 10 in the morning, and the crickets are gut loaded for at least 24 hours prior with Fluker's Cricket Quencher and Zoo Med Natural Cricket Care, and with the occasional left over cucumbers as well. Cucumbers do not make for great gutload. Better things would be collard greens, squashes, and mango. Consider adding in other types of bugs
  • Supplements - I dust the crickets in a cricket duster that catches the extra powder at the bottom of a sifter. I use Zoo Med's Reptivite on Sundays, and Zoo Med's Repti Calcium on Mon, Wed, and Fridays. What specific kind of calcium? Does it have vitamin D3?
  • Watering - There is a automatic mister, Monsoon Solo, it is set for spraying every 4 hours for 60 seconds. And yes, I have seen him drink from the leaves.
  • Fecal Description - He almost pooped on me today when I had him out in the sun lol...but it looks like a solid brown poop close to 1/2 inch, I saw 3 pieces of poop at the bottom of his cage yesterday. No, he has not been tested for parasites, I've read a lot about parasites being a issue, should I take him to a vet to test his poop? What do the urates look like (the white part)? Never a bad idea to get a fecal test done.
  • History - The only history I have was when we got him he was in a cage with several other chameleons, but he was the largest male out of all of them. So we decided to go with him.
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - I'm using the Zoo Med Reptibreeze cage in Large, I believe the dimensions are 18 x 18 x 36. It is all mesh, we have a plastic sheet that sits along the back of the cage to prevent overspraying on the rear wall. You'll want a 24x24x48" enclosure eventually.
  • Lighting - I'm using the Zilla Slimline Tropical Fixture with Tropical 25 UVB T8 Fluorescent bulb, but just ordered the Zoo Med Reptisun 5.0 UVB to replace the current bulb. The heating element is in a Zoo Med mini Deep Dome Fixture and I'm using a Fluker's Ceramic Heat Emitter at 100 watts. The UVB light is on a timer running at a 12 hour cycle, and the heat emitter is on 24 hours a day. I heard it's good to have a temperature drop at night, should I turn this off at night? See below for temperature range at night. Good call replacing the UVB. Definitely turn off the heat emitter at night.
  • Temperature - The cage has a ambient temp ranging from about 85 degrees at the top of the branch right below the basking spot to about 72 at the bottom of the cage, and lots of foliage with wet and dry areas. We currently have the heat emitter on for 24 hours, night time temp drops to between 58 and 60 degrees currently. As we approach summer time, night time temps should get up to about 65 to 70 degrees. The temperature is measured by a temperature gun. Temp drop to 60F is totally fine. If it gets cooler than 58F than you may want to add in some heat.
  • Humidity - At the top of the cage humidity level is at 51, and the middle of the cage where all the foliage is at is about 55. We are thinking about getting a fogger to up the humidity, thoughts? And what brand or DIY product works best? Humidity is measured by a hygrometer. 51% isn't bad. Panther humidity should be 50-70%. I'll link a video below about ways to increase humidity.
  • Plants - All the plants are live in the cage, we have a gardenia, porthos, begonia, wandering jew, and a dwarf braided umbrella tree. We treated the plants before introducing them to the cage by changing out the soil to organic soil, and potted into the cage with larger sized rocks covering the dirt. The leaves were all washed with a diluted antiseptic wash and repeated rinse before placing into the cage.
  • Placement - The cage is currently in our dining room, partially next to a double pane window so ambient lighting (no direct sun).
  • Location - We live in Dana Point in Southern California, close to the beach.

- Your feeder cup looks good.
 
Gingero said:
Feedback in bold.

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Male Panther chameleon at about 3 months old. We picked Mochi up about 3 days ago from the local reptile shop. Anyone else think Mochi might be a girl? Really? You think it might be a girl? We specifically asked for a boy because we didn't want to deal with a girl laying eggs.
  • Handling - We are currently handling him daily, up to an hour a day. Usually it's to take him outside to sit in the sun. I'd stop doing this for now. Your cham needs time to settle in and handling can be stressful and daily handling is not usually recommended. Give them like 2 weeks to get settled in and then try 1-2x week. ok, we just followed the direction from the reptile store, he said to handle them daily to get them used to human touch. I will try to not hold him so often then lol...but he's just sooooo cute!
  • Feeding - He is on small crickets, about 10 to 15 a day. I usually put the crickets in a feeder around 10 in the morning, and the crickets are gut loaded for at least 24 hours prior with Fluker's Cricket Quencher and Zoo Med Natural Cricket Care, and with the occasional left over cucumbers as well. Cucumbers do not make for great gutload. Better things would be collard greens, squashes, and mango. Consider adding in other types of bugs. The cucumber but just something I threw in there since we had left overs. I will throw in some of the veggies and fruits you suggest =)
  • Supplements - I dust the crickets in a cricket duster that catches the extra powder at the bottom of a sifter. I use Zoo Med's Reptivite on Sundays, and Zoo Med's Repti Calcium on Mon, Wed, and Fridays. What specific kind of calcium? Does it have vitamin D3? Yes, both supplement shows D3 on the bottle.
  • Watering - There is a automatic mister, Monsoon Solo, it is set for spraying every 4 hours for 60 seconds. And yes, I have seen him drink from the leaves.
  • Fecal Description - He almost pooped on me today when I had him out in the sun lol...but it looks like a solid brown poop close to 1/2 inch, I saw 3 pieces of poop at the bottom of his cage yesterday. No, he has not been tested for parasites, I've read a lot about parasites being a issue, should I take him to a vet to test his poop? What do the urates look like (the white part)? Never a bad idea to get a fecal test done. It looks milky/yellow ish, is it normal? it's just on the tip of the fecal matter.
  • History - The only history I have was when we got him he was in a cage with several other chameleons, but he was the largest male out of all of them. So we decided to go with him.
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - I'm using the Zoo Med Reptibreeze cage in Large, I believe the dimensions are 18 x 18 x 36. It is all mesh, we have a plastic sheet that sits along the back of the cage to prevent overspraying on the rear wall. You'll want a 24x24x48" enclosure eventually. So the reptile shop was trying to sell us a even smaller cage, the 16 x 16, but we went with the larger. We will upgrade the cage to a larger enclosure when he gets bigger.
  • Lighting - I'm using the Zilla Slimline Tropical Fixture with Tropical 25 UVB T8 Fluorescent bulb, but just ordered the Zoo Med Reptisun 5.0 UVB to replace the current bulb. The heating element is in a Zoo Med mini Deep Dome Fixture and I'm using a Fluker's Ceramic Heat Emitter at 100 watts. The UVB light is on a timer running at a 12 hour cycle, and the heat emitter is on 24 hours a day. I heard it's good to have a temperature drop at night, should I turn this off at night? See below for temperature range at night. Good call replacing the UVB. Definitely turn off the heat emitter at night.
  • Temperature - The cage has a ambient temp ranging from about 85 degrees at the top of the branch right below the basking spot to about 72 at the bottom of the cage, and lots of foliage with wet and dry areas. We currently have the heat emitter on for 24 hours, night time temp drops to between 58 and 60 degrees currently. As we approach summer time, night time temps should get up to about 65 to 70 degrees. The temperature is measured by a temperature gun. Temp drop to 60F is totally fine. If it gets cooler than 58F than you may want to add in some heat. ok, I just wasn't sure so I've been keeping the heat on 24/7. He slept off to the side of the heat lamp the first night, then slept towards the bottom of the cage in the foliage the second night. See picture below.
  • Humidity - At the top of the cage humidity level is at 51, and the middle of the cage where all the foliage is at is about 55. We are thinking about getting a fogger to up the humidity, thoughts? And what brand or DIY product works best? Humidity is measured by a hygrometer. 51% isn't bad. Panther humidity should be 50-70%. I'll link a video below about ways to increase humidity. Looking into a fogger on top of the mister, hopefully that'll resolve the issue.
  • Plants - All the plants are live in the cage, we have a gardenia, porthos, begonia, wandering jew, and a dwarf braided umbrella tree. We treated the plants before introducing them to the cage by changing out the soil to organic soil, and potted into the cage with larger sized rocks covering the dirt. The leaves were all washed with a diluted antiseptic wash and repeated rinse before placing into the cage.
  • Placement - The cage is currently in our dining room, partially next to a double pane window so ambient lighting (no direct sun).
  • Location - We live in Dana Point in Southern California, close to the beach.

- Your feeder cup looks good. Thank you!
Click to expand...

See my response in red =) Thanks for the suggestions.
IMG_0277.jpg
 
FunkyMunkey80 said:
So here's another picture from this morning, I'm not seeing the swelling today, maybe it was just the angle of the picture from last night. Let me know if you still see the swelling since I'm a new cham owner and not really sure if I'm missing the swelling. =) Thanks!

Angel.View attachment 266932View attachment 266934
Click to expand...
Yeah I think I can still see it in the second picture. There are ways my cham would be positioned that would hide the edema better than others as well while he had it.

@Gingero's vids are good sources for supplementation schedule and how to properly dust your feeders (as well as many other facets of chameleon care). I would watch all of those asap

I had to stop giving supplements to my cham for 2 weeks for the edema to almost go away completely, but every cham is different
 
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