My panther cham's aim seems to be off.

[Ramsesrocks]

Hi, my 15-16 month female panther seems very unsure of her aim. She does miss a lot & wants to get up really close to her bugs. Even then she has problems because it seems that her tongue isn't very sticky & she drops the crickets & superworms. So sad. :-( Can somebody help me please? I don't think that she is dehydrated (in case that is related to an "unsticky tongue" Thanks in advance.

Lucy is a female Panther who is about 15-16 months old. I have had her for 2 months, I have been babysitting her for my son who has had her since she was a baby, (3 mos I think). He has gone to NZ for his Spring term & is not always reachable as they are out in the field everyday.

When she first came to my house (Cape Cod, MA) from NH she was only eating about 3-4 crickets/day every 3-4 days. I expect this was her adjustment period. At the same time she moved into my home we put her into a bigger screened enclosure, 18 X 18 X 36. It is placed in a very quiet corner of my living room. The top is 65" above the floor. She has live plants, all safe ones as per this site, pothos,

She also has assorted sizes of natural branches & an artificial vine. She never uses the larger branches, they have all been washed,rinsed,baked & had their bark cut off. Do you think they are too slippery for her grip? I thought the various diameter branches would be good exercise for her feet.

There is a basking light (60 w, I think) that has been at 80-90 F. There is also a 10.0 UVB (ZooMed-Reptisun). Both of these rest on the top of the screen & are on a timer for 12hrs/on & 12hr/off. The ambient temps are 60-70 F.
.
Originally I was only misting her with a hand sprayer 2-3X/day/1 min. Now there is a cool mist humidifier running 24/7 in order to keep the humidity to at least 50%. It will get to 80% once in awhile. . I put a dripper (hand made) on top 1-2 X/day. I have seen her drink every day.

To measure temp & humidity I am using: an "Analog Reptile Thermometer & Humidity Gauge, a "Precision Analog Reptile Thermometer (for basking light), & an "Economy Analog Dual Thermometer & Humidity Gauge". That is how the invoice lists them. The 2 dual meters are placed one at the top side & one midway down on the opposite side.

She has been eating mostly all cricketsaily w/ ZooMed: Repti Calcium w/out D3, 2/month w/D3 & 2/month w/Reptivite w/out D3. The cricket are gut-loaded w/Fluker's High-Calcium cricket diet & Zilla Cricket Drink w/calcium. Occasionally I'll give then some fruit slices.
She gets occasional superworms & I'm trying to find an affordable way to supplement her crickets.

Her droppings (both) appear normal but not as large as before I got her. Most of the urates are on the branches & I think the feces are hidden in the plants. There is very little left on the floor. Before I got her & she got the larger enclosure w/ more plants her droppings could easily be seen on the floor
of her cage.

Lucy gets handled very occasionally, just enough to keep her "connected" w/out stressing her.

My CONCERNS: In addition to the one mentioned above, I am concerned that she is 15-16 months & hasn't laid eggs. Not that we want to raise them We are afraid of her becoming egg-bound. I have an opaque 7" round Tupperware w/ washed beach sand 8" deep in her cage. I thought that when she was ready & showing signs then I would take her out, put her in a much larger laying bin, cover her up w/sheet & give her the 2-3 days she needs. I'd sneak a peek 1/day just to be sure she was OK. She does not seem stressed & she is eating ok. I think the laying bin in the cage is easy enough for her to get into. I have never ever seen her cute little feet even touch the floor!

I have many pictures to post for your observation but so far I haven't been able to figure that part out, even with the instructions here on this site. Any help will be appreciated. I hope this is enough info. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks so much.

 

[urawrath]

please fill this out so we can have a better understanding of everything that is going on.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[Trace]

Bumpity bump bump bump

Hi everybody! I got a PM from Ramsesrocks about her chameleon and other site business. I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary in regards to husbandry but I haven’t kept Panthers in a while. Can any of you pardalis gurus lend a hand here and give some advice about maybe what might be wrong?

Thank you kindly!

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Hello,

The branches may be too big and slippery. For young chams use very small diameter branches.

It would be beneficial to hone in your temps. 80-90 basking is too big of a fluctuation. I would aim for 83-84 basking and 70 ambient. A drop to 60 at night is good, but try and keep it at 70 during the day.

I have heard Vit. A clears up some tongue issues. I have never had this problem but heard a drop of liquid from a vit A pill on a feeder helps with the aim. Could somebody confirm this is safe and helps?

You also need to step up your gutload. Those flukers things are not good. I would go to leafy greens, kale, dandelion and fruits. As a baby, she should be eating much more than 4 crickets every 4 days. My females were pigs and would eat 10+ crickets a day if you let them. As she reached 8 months I curbed her eating to avoid eggs.

If she has not mated with a male the eggs will not be fertile and thus not hatch chameleons, so no fear there, but you most likely will have to deal with infertile eggs. The reason you have not yet may be because she eats so little.

In my opinion I like putting the laying bin in the cage so they can access it when they need, not when you think they need.

 

[odduc748]

Read Jim's entry (The Chameleon Company), which is entry #6 and located here:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/cham-keeps-closing-one-his-eyes-66576/

 

[dlegare]

Do you notice any problems with her eyes? Any signs of irritation?

All of my chameleons (all panthers) 2 males and 3 females have had issues with vitamin A. All of them now get a dose of preformed vitamin A.

I was running into problems with eye irritation as I was initially using vitamins with vitamin A precursors.

It seems that panther chameleons may not be able to convert Beta Carotene into active vitamin A.

As a result one of my boys is blind in one eye.

This is just a possibility and I had the advise of a veterinarian in dosing vitamin A.

 

[Ramsesrocks]

Gravida?

Thank you all. Djturna4thakidz: Her basking light is steady at 89-90 F during day & goes down to about 65F. at night. The gradient temp is 68-70F. I will beef-up the gutload as you suggested. She eats 3-4 crickets about 4-5 days a week. She's not a baby. My son told me that that was her usual eating pattern. I don't use a feeding jar of any kind, crickets roam free. My son did say she had an eye infection at one time & the Vet gave him something for it, I don't remember what. I hope he gets back to civilization soon so I can email him & get some answers/info on Lucy's history.

Yesterday she discovered how nice it is to sit in the cool mist coming from the humidifier. She spent all night and to 10 this morning there. She always went straight to her basking light first thing when she woke up. Do you think she's dehydrated? I can only get the humidity up to 70% w/ the humidifier going 24/7.

Again, I'm not interested in breeding her I just don't want her to get egg-bound IF she is already gravida. And THAT is the big question here. And now we have this problem with eating. I just tried to give her a superworm by hand, she was, literally, right next to it & missed. Whenever that happens (seems to be increasing) she turns & walks away with an ashamed look in her eyes. I feel SO bad for her. :-( Think I'll call the Vet today, now actually.

odduc748: Thanks for the link.Here's something I found. Just another thing to worry about. Man alive, my 4 children, all together, never gave me this much to worry about!!
"The first signal indicating that a female pardalis may be ready to breed will be her color. She will present a very uniform dull orange appearance. This condition indicates only a possibility that she is ready to breed, as she will appear this way for other reasons as well."

This quote is from The Chameleon Company. The color he describes here is my panther cham's color all the time, except when she's stressed. At night when she's sleeping she gets very light in color, almost pink. I have attached a picture of her. (I think). She is 15-16 months old so does that make her an adult? I also posted pictures of her eyes hoping someone could let me know how they look (no pun intended )

Doesn't look like these pics came out. Don't know what I did wrong. :-(
https://imageshack.com/i/idZatDbUj[/url]
https://imageshack.com/i/eysyFbNaj[/url]
https://imageshack.com/i/f0VVLjebj[/url]