Vizzini
New Member
HI Everyone, new to posting on the forums (I've been reading them for about 2 months now). I finally got my baby panther cham, breeder says he is about 3 months old. Picked him up yesterday. He seems to be healthy, ate and drank twice yesterday. My question has to do with daily cleaning for crickets etc.
My cage came with eco carpet, on which I have a shefflera plant sitting on a dish, which itself is somewhat elevated, allowing the plant soil to aerate some. I plan on creating a drain under the plant sometime soon instead of using this dish. (Wanted to give him some time to acclimate to his new home before putting him under more stress). Anyways, while feeding him yesterday I notice 1-2 crickets falling to the bottom and crawling under the plant/dish at the bottom of the cage. I was unable to get them out from under the dish. I know it is bad to leave feeders in the cage overnight because of the risk of them biting him and bothering him in his sleep. I'm wondering if me slightly lifting the plant to slide the dish out so I can clean out crickets underneath will stress him a whole bunch. When I went in to do it last night before his lights went out at about 7pm he was nestled in his plant ready for sleeping, I didn't want to move it then and disturb him. I plan on waiting for him to climb to a basking spot (not part of the live plant) today and then cleaning out the dish under the plant. Will this stress him out a ton? I'm worried I will really stress him out if I move his plant daily in order to clean out crickets for the night. Any suggestions as to what I could do to help this process until the drain is set up (should be in a few days, about a week at the most.)
Also for people who use live plants with larger rocks on top of the pot to prevent consumption of soil, Do you check under these rocks daily for feeders that could have escaped... seems like it would be easy for them to crawl under these rocks.
My cage came with eco carpet, on which I have a shefflera plant sitting on a dish, which itself is somewhat elevated, allowing the plant soil to aerate some. I plan on creating a drain under the plant sometime soon instead of using this dish. (Wanted to give him some time to acclimate to his new home before putting him under more stress). Anyways, while feeding him yesterday I notice 1-2 crickets falling to the bottom and crawling under the plant/dish at the bottom of the cage. I was unable to get them out from under the dish. I know it is bad to leave feeders in the cage overnight because of the risk of them biting him and bothering him in his sleep. I'm wondering if me slightly lifting the plant to slide the dish out so I can clean out crickets underneath will stress him a whole bunch. When I went in to do it last night before his lights went out at about 7pm he was nestled in his plant ready for sleeping, I didn't want to move it then and disturb him. I plan on waiting for him to climb to a basking spot (not part of the live plant) today and then cleaning out the dish under the plant. Will this stress him out a ton? I'm worried I will really stress him out if I move his plant daily in order to clean out crickets for the night. Any suggestions as to what I could do to help this process until the drain is set up (should be in a few days, about a week at the most.)
Also for people who use live plants with larger rocks on top of the pot to prevent consumption of soil, Do you check under these rocks daily for feeders that could have escaped... seems like it would be easy for them to crawl under these rocks.
