New owner: My Panther is getting a bit thin.

[Mflower]

My chameleon, Leonard seems to be loose by weight (his tail seems less plump) and he is moving around less. I wanted to ask for help before he got too skinny.

Here are the answers to the basic questions asked...
I have a Panther Chameleon. He is 15 months old according to the breeder. I got him a month ago. He is handled every few days for a 3-5 minutes.
I have been free feeding crickets. He was eating 7-10 a day? We have calcium powdered a few every couple of days with Reptivite.
We have a "little dripper" dripping onto cork. He uses it to drink. I saw him drink yesterday. I mist once a day. (Do not know if he should be misted directly so I let reflected spray land on him.

Since I have had him, his feces seems to have more yellow than white but always seems to have some of both.

He's the teal variation. He's very personable. Seems like he's been more red between the folds, pink on his hands and knees and orange in his face Larry.


Screen cage. It's 18x18x40 at least. Using a 100watt zoo med light for basking up top as well as a good sized uvB (not sure which brand, I lost the box). I use a 12 hour timer.
Our house is set to 73 degrees, day and night. Not measuring. I'm guessing I should be.
I spray his enclosure once a day. Not measuring humidity. He has fake plants and clean grape branches to climb on.
His cage is on the floor and the top comes up to my chest. He is in front of a big window for extra evening basking in real light. The vent is a few feet away on the other side of decorative chests. He's in the living room but not in the traffic pattern. I have cats and kids who go out of their way to sit and watch him.

We live in Utah.

If you know why he might be acting offish and not eating as much, please help me out. I am trying to be really proactive in caring for the little guy and I'm new at this.

 

[Leo Chance]

We have panthers that we raised from eggs that we bought online. They need good humidity, in Utah you probably have very low humidity like we do here in Colorado. We run a humidifier constantly and spray the cages, chameleon and all, 3 times a day with a very fine mist. Artificial plants will not hold moisture like real ones do. All of our Panthers lick water from the screen on the side of the cage, so if the humidifier is close to the cage there is water droplets that form there and give them a constant source of hydration. Hope this helps, I am sure you will recieve a number of responses with helpful info.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

Please post some pictures. You might think he is losing weight though he could still be fine. He might have been overweight and is now perfect. Let us see some pictures please. Thanks!

 

[AnimalLovers]

You chammy sounds beautiful !
I know how hard it is to not worrie about your baby. If he isnt eating as much it might be cause it's winter. We just got our adult panther chameleon 2 months ago an he's done the same thing. For the past month his eating has changed drasticly. But considering he's loseing weight you should make a vet appointment just incase. I hope you have an exotics vet in your area. Just look for an (Exotics vet ) just to be safe. Please keep me/us all posted

 

[jcarlsen]

My chameleon, Leonard seems to be loose by weight (his tail seems less plump) and he is moving around less. I wanted to ask for help before he got too skinny.

Here are the answers to the basic questions asked...
I have a Panther Chameleon. He is 15 months old according to the breeder. I got him a month ago. He is handled every few days for a 3-5 minutes.
I have been free feeding crickets. He was eating 7-10 a day? We have calcium powdered a few every couple of days with Reptivite.
We have a "little dripper" dripping onto cork. He uses it to drink. I saw him drink yesterday. I mist once a day. (Do not know if he should be misted directly so I let reflected spray land on him.

Since I have had him, his feces seems to have more yellow than white but always seems to have some of both.

He's the teal variation. He's very personable. Seems like he's been more red between the folds, pink on his hands and knees and orange in his face Larry.


Screen cage. It's 18x18x40 at least. Using a 100watt zoo med light for basking up top as well as a good sized uvB (not sure which brand, I lost the box). I use a 12 hour timer.
Our house is set to 73 degrees, day and night. Not measuring. I'm guessing I should be.
I spray his enclosure once a day. Not measuring humidity. He has fake plants and clean grape branches to climb on.
His cage is on the floor and the top comes up to my chest. He is in front of a big window for extra evening basking in real light. The vent is a few feet away on the other side of decorative chests. He's in the living room but not in the traffic pattern. I have cats and kids who go out of their way to sit and watch him.

We live in Utah.

If you know why he might be acting offish and not eating as much, please help me out. I am trying to be really proactive in caring for the little guy and I'm new at this.

I'm not sure if anything you're describing is causing any health issues, but I think you should start monitoring the humidity somehow and spraying a few more times per day. This is gonna especially be important as winter approaches and humidity goes down. It'll make shedding easier as well.