My panther chams seem to prefer roaming free in the house?

[BarnabyBlack]

Hi,

I'm new to having reptiles and have two 4/5 month old panther chameleons. One is female and really curious and calm. The other is a male who is far more wary and can be aggressive because he is afraid.

From virtually day one the female, Yuko, has climbed on us, eaten from our hands etc but the male, Loki, had been more wary but slightly tamer the past few weeks.

When we open the door to the Viv to spray or feed dusted locusts etc Yuko comes running to my hand, climbs up my arm and onto the sofa where she roams around checking things out. She seems to like a plug socket with a plug in and holds the wire and goes to sleep!

Just today, the male has also started to come out of the viv.

Is this normal? Will they be harmed
Allowing them to do this?

I'm in the uk so it's winter here so was worried they might get cold?

They are in a small room which has nothing they could escape to where we couldn't get them and we tend to let then out for an hour or so then return them.

Any advice greatly appreciated

 

[CarlC]

I think you were misinformed on the age of your chameleons. The male appears to be a full grown adult. Hard to tell with the female with the pictures you've shown.

The male also appears to have sunken eye's. Can you provide some more information on how you are keeping them.

 

[Kate]

Are you keeping them together? If so it could be that the female is being dominant and intimidating the male. If this is so it looks as if you need to separate them. I'm in the uk also and as long as your temps do not drop below 55f they will be ok overnight without heat. It's good for them as it slows down the metabolism allowing them to sleep. If your temps do drop below 55 you can use a heat emitter. It can be set on a thermostat and it does not give off any light. Welcome to the forum.

 

[BarnabyBlack]

Hi, he was doing a big blink in that pic, his eyes are very pronounced.


Ok they are in a wood, glass fronted vivarium 120cm by 60cm.

He has recently had a big growth spurt, the lump under his tail has got bigger. When we got him 2 months ago he was the same size as the female and less colourful.

We feed them daily with locust, mealworms, crickets etc after dusting with calcium (D3 free). We have a big reptifogger and I use a pressurised sprayer twice per day.

There's a 50w heat lamp in a cage plus a IV strip with reflector.

They are eating, drinking and pooping normally, bright white bit plus brown moist bit seems normal.

They have both she's once since we've had them. So looking at the pics online and checking out the features (he had no nasal ridge when we first got him) I think it's the right sort of age - I'd say 6 maybe nearly 7 months now.

Loads of vines, leaves to shelter behind and rocks to climb on. They are atill housed together at the minute as I was advised it's ok until 12 months?

They hang about together, sleep in the same corners and seem to get in/neutral towards each other.

Hope that helps

 

[BarnabyBlack]

 

[BarnabyBlack]

Ps thanks Kate.

He seems the dominant one in many ways, he climbs over her and kind of barges past but they are never aggressive towards each other.

She is not intimidated either as still climbs over him so they are pretty calm with each other.

Was just hoping letting them roam with us supervising is ok.

 

[BarnabyBlack]

Ps the thing I just remembered is that sometimes when we get the female out, he puffs up his throat and goes very red, sometimes for ages after.

He watches her climbing on us and seems angry, like almost jealousy or something?

 

[Kate]

Your girl is not really old enough for mating and keeping them together you run the risk of her becoming gravid before she is mature enough. Do you have a laying bin in there and are you prepared for many eggs/ babies?

 

[Kate]

There are many on here who free range their chams and yes as long as they are safe I don't see anything wrong in supervised roaming.

 

[BarnabyBlack]

No laying bin! And I would like them to have babies but we are getting a new viv so we can separate them soon, prob this weekend.

Then we could try and mate them in a few more months?