New baby Nosey Be Panther

Tyler36

New Member
Hey everyone,
I just recently purchased a baby (probably around 1 month old) panther chameleon and have a few questions. First I haven't really noticed him eating too much, I've been giving him gutloaded crickets smaller than a 1/4 inch so I guess pinheads and he's been slightly reluctant to eat. He ate the first few days and then begun to shed and then has eaten noticeably less, I haven't really seen him eating but the crickets are disappearing and he's active and pooping the healthy long brown fecal matter with a white cap. I go to school during the day so he might just be eating them throughout the day. I put the crickets in a cup and a few I let go free range in the cage. I've been reading some stuff about fruit flies so I'll see if I can get some today.
His cage is the small screened zilla habitat with a live pothos plant, fake vine-like plant that he likes to sleep in, and some twistable vines. He is under a repti-sun 5.0 and a zoo-med 75 basking light. I run a dripper on him every other day when I'm at school and mist him 3 to 4 times a day. He has the proper temperature gradients throughout the cage with a basking spot in the upper 80's and the rest of the cage around the low 80's maybe upper 70's in some spots near the bottom. His terrarium is about 4 1/2 feet up in the air on my dresser and isn't under any direct drafts. I also live in Florida so the house remains pretty humid.
I work at a pet store have have cared for multiple veiled and jackson chameleons and I currently own turtles, a tortoise, snake, a large reef tank, and a dog so I've been around animals my whole life as well as I am a biology major so you don't need to dumb anything down for me.
He seem's healthy and I can't find anything wrong with the cage, is he still just adjusting? Should I try the fruit flies?
 
Nothing wrong with varying feeders. As long as he's pooping, he's eating. Since he's still adjusting to his home he just might be secretive about it.
 
I mean that's what I was thinking, should I just stay away from the cage while just feeding and misting? Keep him low stress? Also the fruit flies, would they be something to try
 
It could probably help to leave him be as much as possible, or at least not stare at him too much. They're very visually oriented, so they know when you're looking at them. You can definitely try the fruit flies, and maybe some of the other small feeders out there. If you scroll down a bit in this thread https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/feeder-insects.148323/ you'll see some smaller beetles that might be interesting to try.
 
He ate the fruit flies today, in fact I'd be lying if i say he did anything other than devour them. I think he just prefers the smaller prey
 
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