My New Blue Bar Ambilobe

[Jamie83]

Hi,

Quick one if anyone can help ... I have brought a new Panther chameleon a couple of weeks ago, wasn't eating anything initially but has now started to get his appetite, he won't eat anything apart from small locust (around 8-10 a day) and the very occasional wax worm, have tried small crickets and small mealworms. Have previously kept Veiled's and they would literally eat anything put in front of them and would go crazy for wax worms (know this should be an occasional treat), should I be worried or is this normal, can they be fussy eaters ?

Setup seems ok, temperature and humidty are pretty much spot on, mist twice a day and have a dripper ... Keeping him in a wood vivarium (90cm high x 50cm wide) 100w mecury vapour bulb ... also have a small mesh one with x2 compact 5.0 uvb bulbs and 100w basking bulb but he doesnt seem to like it in there, goes very dark and think this is down to unpredictable temperature in there as are currently having a few cold days.

Any tips appreciated ....

 

[joshuadh2310]

Congratulations on your new boy! some experts will comment later on in the day but ill help a little bit with what i know. Try and get some more cham safe plants in there like a pothos or something more where he can hide in and feel safe. you may have a bit too much uvb in there not exact on that so ill let an expert tell you for sure but when he gets dark while he is basking that is normal from what i understand they just get dark when they bask its a way of regulating heat as well as if he opens his mouth while basking he is releasing heat. try some dubia roaches for food or some other roach type and maybe some silkworms and occasional hornworms as snacks. im sure he will get a better appetite as he settles in more so dont worry too hard about it. how much do you handle him and are you leaving him alone enough to get settled in? its a stressful process for these little ones. but try and post more picture of him in every angle for everyone to look at in detail and see if everything checks out. one last thing, can you post the basking temp the humidity how long are your misting sessions and also you should try and get more branches in there as well as live plants you want a lot of perches and places to hide so your new boy will be happy! once again Congratulations and welcome to the forums!

 

[Jamie83]

Hi,

Thanks for your helpful reply... Will try the other live food you have suggested, otherwise will he be fine with just locust ?

Im misting him for 1-2 mins twice a day and leave a dripper on for around 7-8 hours on a slow drip, basking temperature hits around 30-32 and humidty is always 55+ but does fluctuate up quite a bit, invested in a humidifier to keep the room humidty up so should hopefully have a knock on effect for the little man .

I go to work so has no distraction during the days, do monitor his behaviour through a cam I got setup and does get more active when Im not there. I try to handle him every few days so he gets used to me, for the first week I had him I didn't handle at all but is slowly getting more confident. Got a nice big ficus to put in so will get it in there later today so should hopefully make him a bit more comfortable with another hiding place.

Interested on the UVB thing, I always prefered a basking bulb and seperate UVB source but was told this would be sufficient so would be good to hear more on that .

Thanks again for the advice !

 

[dboddy31]

I wouldn't feed him meal worms they can lead to impaction. I have a friend who was feeding his chameleon meal worms. He became impacted and died. Meal worms are hard for some chameleons to pass do to there hard shell. Good luck with your new buddy

 

[Jamie83]

I wouldn't feed him meal worms they can lead to impaction. I have a friend who was feeding his chameleon meal worms. He became impacted and died. Meal worms are hard for some chameleons to pass do to there hard shell. Good luck with your new buddy

Have heard this before, mixed feelings on it from people... luckily he's not taking to them anyway!

Thanks for the feedback

 

[WAMBO]

Meal worms also have less nutritional value than other recommended feeders.

 

[joshuadh2310]

not sure on the only locus diet but from my understanding its good to have a large variety in there diet. right now what i use is crickets, dubia roaches, silkworms, and on occasion i will feed hornworms and super worms.

your basking temp sounds great to me and the misting i mist about 5-6 times a day for about 2-3 mins each session but iv seen many people do many different successful misting patterns so i guess as long as your boy does not show any signs of dehydration and his poop looks good than you are doing fine on the misting and dripping. also the humidity sounds good to me but from my understanding dont let it get too high as in the upper 90s . from what i know you want it in between 50-70 wich it dropping and picking back up between each misting and such.

Handling sounds good to me and the plant is a good idea. if you want another plant idea what i do as i dont have any foam walls or anything is i use a planter ledge, it uses 2 magnets to hold it up and it allows me to put a pothos plant in it higher up in the cage. i have 2 in there and a umbrella plant and this is how mine looks with plant of perches and places to hide.

i have done some updates to my cage since these pics but you get the point of the ledges in them so they are useful.

As for the uvb like i said im not certain on it i would wait for someone with more experience to tell you but i was also using a mercury vapor and i was told by some experienced people that it was old school and unnecessary so i switched to a normal basking bulb so my girl can go to uvb as she pleases and go to heat as she pleases as well as hide in the plants if she wants.

I hope i am being helpful to you and more experienced people will chim in hopefully today.
Good luck!

 

[Jamie83]

not sure on the only locus diet but from my understanding its good to have a large variety in there diet. right now what i use is crickets, dubia roaches, silkworms, and on occasion i will feed hornworms and super worms.

your basking temp sounds great to me and the misting i mist about 5-6 times a day for about 2-3 mins each session but iv seen many people do many different successful misting patterns so i guess as long as your boy does not show any signs of dehydration and his poop looks good than you are doing fine on the misting and dripping. also the humidity sounds good to me but from my understanding dont let it get too high as in the upper 90s . from what i know you want it in between 50-70 wich it dropping and picking back up between each misting and such.

Handling sounds good to me and the plant is a good idea. if you want another plant idea what i do as i dont have any foam walls or anything is i use a planter ledge, it uses 2 magnets to hold it up and it allows me to put a pothos plant in it higher up in the cage. i have 2 in there and a umbrella plant and this is how mine looks with plant of perches and places to hide.View attachment 177337View attachment 177338

i have done some updates to my cage since these pics but you get the point of the ledges in them so they are useful.

As for the uvb like i said im not certain on it i would wait for someone with more experience to tell you but i was also using a mercury vapor and i was told by some experienced people that it was old school and unnecessary so i switched to a normal basking bulb so my girl can go to uvb as she pleases and go to heat as she pleases as well as hide in the plants if she wants.

I hope i am being helpful to you and more experienced people will chim in hopefully today.
Good luck!

Wow, your setup looks decent, definitley going to take a few ideas from that ...

Will be customizing the housing to get uvb & seperate basking lamp next week, done a bit more reading into it and like you said people say its unnecessary...

Thanks again for your help.

 

[joshuadh2310]

i am happy to help! yeah im pretty happy with my setup right now i am actually placing a free range right outside the enclosure to get my girl to come out on her own and be more comfortable. ill post a pic of that up here when its done tommorow if you'd like. but i really want to get started on her permanent build that i hopefully will be doing in a couple weeks, very excited for that.

 

[bobbydigital]

Nice looking fella you got there. I'm pretty sure one 5.0 light should be enough UVB