New Panther Chameleon - 5 month old male named Jack

[foshizzle11]

Hi all,
Just thought I would share a couple pics of our male panther chameleon. He is about 5 months old now and we have had him in his cage since the beginning of December.

I bought him from a local breeder when he was about 3 months old. We met at a reptile show in our city (Calgary, Canada) and clicked right away. His breeding male was beautiful and he was full of excitement and experience. He wasn't selling babies and such at the show because he didn't want to promote impulse buys. So I respected that right off the bat.

This is the first chameleon that I have ever owned and my first reptile (I have one adopted, who belongs to my stepson). So this is a completely new world for me. We also have 5 fish tanks, 3 dogs and 1 bearded dragon. It is a bit of a houseful but we love it.

Jack has a sweet home, we custom built a cage to fit on our kitchen counter. It is 48" tall, 48" long and 22" deep. It has a wood frame, two doors that open completely for easy access to all parts of the cage and We have 2 live plants, both recommended by our breeder, 1 is a ficus and I don't know what the other one is.

We also have added silk plants to the cage and fake vines from the pet store. We have a dripper for drinking water and we also manually mist from a water bottle. The cage is misted a few times in the morning between 7 and 9am, then again around 3pm and a couple more times before the lights go out at 7pm. The dripper lasts the whole day so he always has drinking water.

We try to hold him daily because we want him to get used to the kids holding him and so it is easy for him to be handled for any reason, like going to the vet or moving/vacation, etc.

So far so good, I attached a couple pics. He looks pretty little here but he has grown a lot. I will post more pics once I get home!

 

[Kath44]

Welcome. He looks cute, and a great name! My horse is called jack.
Kath.

 

[foshizzle11]

Thanks Kath, he is very cool.

I've always liked that name, one of my favorites.

 

[Jamire]

Seems like a big cage for such a baby? No?

I have heard that you should have smaller sizes for babies, but I think you can get around this by using several feeding cups so they can always find food. Lots of plants so they can hide and feel comfortable.

Whats the consensus on that?

 

[Chameleon Creator]

I have my 4 month old chameleon in a cage recommended for adults fully grown, I'm sure he wishes he had more space, he is constantly crawling around and exploring.
They say you should use a small cage for young chameleons because it's harder for them to find food, mine has no problem with this.
You have to figure that they are in the wild and have all the open space to explore and they thrive in that environment, so I personally disagree with small cages.
They survive on finding food so I'm sure they will be fine when the food is limited in their own personal cage.

 

[qdude46]

I do somewhat agree with his but I'm sure not being able to find food affects some wild chameleons so it's best to try and make it easy. Replicating their natural environment I agree is very good for just about any animal but they don't eat crickets in the wild and crickets can be some very good hiders.

 

[Chameleon Creator]

I do somewhat agree with his but I'm sure not being able to find food affects some wild chameleons so it's best to try and make it easy. Replicating their natural environment I agree is very good for just about any animal but they don't eat crickets in the wild and crickets can be some very good hiders.

True. The crickets I throw in his cage usually find their way up to the top, I assume because it's hot? Maybe the light attracts them. Not sure, but mine has no trouble finding them; as soon as one moves for a split second he hunts him down. I think he is just obsessed with crickets lol. He could care less about the Dubia

 

[foshizzle11]

Jack has no problem eating. I think we go through 100 crickets (5 week old) a week easily. I agree that a small cage isn't that great for him. He was in one before we finished his new home and he seems to thrive in the large one. He moves a lot and has no problem cleaning out the cage of crickets.

 

[foshizzle11]

He also knows where to find the dripping water for drinking and has a couple favorite basking spots. I really don't think having a smaller cage is necessary. So far, he only gets a little mad when we hold him at first, the he realizes we aren't going to hurt him.

 

[foshizzle11]

And a couple more pics.

 

[foshizzle11]

And another, iphone won't let me post more than one at a time. Blah!

 

[qdude46]

If You want to upload more pics at once, download the free app tapatalk and go to chameleon forums through the app, reply to this thread and just add as many photos as you would like.

 

[foshizzle11]

Ya, I tried that. It wants me to create a new profile or sign in with Facebook, not a fan of that.

 

[foshizzle11]

When ever we hold him he flares up and puffs out his neck/chest and tries to make himself look super big, sometimes he even opens his mouth. Once we have held him for about 30 seconds or so he just wants to climb and get to the top of our head as quickly as possible. But he seems completely calm after the initial holding. We have tried to hand feed him when we hold him but he isn't interested.

Will he get used to us picking him up or will he always flare and look angry with us?

Just curious.

 

[Chameleon Creator]

When ever we hold him he flares up and puffs out his neck/chest and tries to make himself look super big, sometimes he even opens his mouth. Once we have held him for about 30 seconds or so he just wants to climb and get to the top of our head as quickly as possible. But he seems completely calm after the initial holding. We have tried to hand feed him when we hold him but he isn't interested.

Will he get used to us picking him up or will he always flare and look angry with us?

Just curious.

Mine I have to get out by having him climb on a stick, he hates being held. Well for now anyways. Try and get him to associate good things from being held, such as when you have him out, give him a waxworm (don't give too many wax worms, they are not good for your Cham but they are a nice treat) then put him back in his cage and let him be. You always have to give them time to adjust and every chameleon is different. I seemed to pick an aggressive one. He won't climb off his stick onto my hand, so I out my hand in between the cage and the stick and he really thinks about it before attempting to use my hand to get back in his cage. Baby steps.

 

[foshizzle11]

 

[foshizzle11]

Those are some pics if his home. It is 48x48x22. It sits in our kitchen counter in a high traffic area and he seems to be doing just fine. He eats a lot and moves all around his cage.

We have a combo of live plants along with some silk/fake plants. He always sleeps in the ficus and spends most of his day at the top of the cage on the vines and sticks basking.

We built his cage ourselves to fit snug on our counter top. We used metal mesh on the top so the lights wouldn't burn the cage and then just a heavy patio screen on the sides. We heard that they can rip it when they get older so we will hopefully think of a better way on our next build.

 

[foshizzle11]

And a couple more pics of him from last week. He is about 5 months old right now. We are hoping his colours start to pop soon!

 

[Trace]

And a couple more pics of him from last week. He is about 5 months old right now. We are hoping his colours start to pop soon!

Judging by the photo in post #10 you might actually have a female. The hemipenal bulge isn't very prominent, nor is the rostral process. The photo isn't super clear so I won't definitively say so at this point. If you could get a clear side view photo of the tail (like the one in post #10) the sexing experts can weigh in.

 

[foshizzle11]

Ah shoot. Funny if we do have a female. The breeder was sure it was a male. I guess we will have to ask again.