New cham owner Hybrid panther

[Chalu]

He's 3 1/2 months old & is a hybrid between an Ambanja & Ambilobe, he looks fairly healthy and I just got him yesterday. He is very happy in his new environment
yesterday he was drinking right away & ate only two or three crickets, Today he only ate one but it was from a feeding cup thing. then he stopped. I was told first few days he would not eat much but would drink more and to wait hell get hungry. but I noticed I was not misting long enough and he started munching on the plants I have. I put lettuce in the terrarium and he won't eat them.


I was curious as to what to watch out for this type of hybrid if anyone ever owned this breed of hybrid before.
If being a hybrid is that big of a deal.
Any tips for him would be awesome.

Thanks guys!

 

[dacrazycanadian]

Welcome to the forums! Cute cham. I'd take the lettuce out, panthers are insectivores they won't eat plants (usually). Here's a link to on chameleons, be sure to read the panther section very carefully.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

As far as your question on difficulty, a cross or hybrid shouldn't be any harder than any other panther.

Edit: Make sure you know if the plants you currently have in your terrarium are non-toxic to chameleons (if you're speaking of live ones of course). Also consider getting a screen cage soon and taking the paper off the ground so his tongue doesn't stick to it.

 

[SolidSnake1]

Very handsome !

 

[Chalu]

Hey funny you say that about the napkins I actually removed them earlier.. Didn't really like how they looked and they would get soaked I felt they served no purpose other then a pooper scooper lol didn't know that about the tongue though thanks!
I was thinking of putting a layer of river rocks.. they would look nice and still absorb water a bit and would look very nice in the terrarium. I didn't see anything wrong about doing this in my research.. Any objections?

And thank you! I think he's super pretty he's gonna be so colorful

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

I always leave my floors bare. It makes it so much easier to clean up dirt, poo and dead feeders. River rocks would be ok but then you are going to have to root through the rocks everytime you want to wipe the enclosure down. seems like a lot of extra work but as long as he cannot ingest the rocks, your fine. The rocks may also make it harder to drain the water from the enclosure.

 

[carol5208]

If you are going to use rocks, just make sure they are large enough. Personally I would use nothing, The rocks are just going to be places for poop to hide as well as feeders and even water that may seep between them which may not dry out.

 

[Chalu]

You guys are the best .. I appreciate the input.. I'll think twice about the rocks.. its almost his bed time here in south FL.. really excited to see him full grown.. gonna post pictures every month for progression lol

 

[Chalu]

Also what about moss? would that be a good idea? I wanted more naturey look in my terrarium.. and if I was to use moss what type would I use? i saw this green moss at repticon but wasn't sure about it so I didn't purchase it.

 

[Captive Creations]

Welcome to the Chameleon Forums, its the BEST place to get information on chameleons. Lots of dedicated keepers always willing to answer questions.

I would not use moss either. Keeping it bare is best. Anything you put in there you will run the chance of him eating it accidentally.

If your looking for a more natural look I would get lots of plants to cover his enclosure. Just make sure they are safe non toxic plants. I use Pothos, Shafferia, ficus and hibiscus to name a few. Hibiscus tends to do better outside then inside the house though, just a heads up.

Keep us updated on him. He sure is a cutie!

 

[dacrazycanadian]

Basically a lot of us just leave the floor bare in order to let it adequately dry out, also so no crickets hide and come out to pick on the cham while he sleeps, and for the easy clean up, and lastly to avoid having the cham swallow any bedding/substrate and cause some sort of impaction.

It's a bummer I'm sure we'd all like our terrariums to look as natural as possible but we want to keep the little guys as healthy as possible. (like I couldn't install a waterfall like I would've liked to).

Howeverrrr you can take a look at panther chameleon safe plants and turn it into a natural jungle in there! We all love seeing each others terrarium setups. We like to bounce ideas off one another also.

 

[Chalu]

Yeah I'll think of something lol thanks for all the advice guys very helpful. I just feel like it needs to be a bit bushier. you guys should post your chams!

 

[Chalu]

Good News

Goober looking good! likes when I handle him & mist the tank!
also started eating a lot more crickets with calcium no d3