New to the site, Baby bluebar panther, advice appreciated

Damus

New Member
Hello my name is Dane, recently (3 days ago) my GF bought something that she has always wanted, a panther chameleon. She went all out at the pet store, she bought everything that they sold her, and $500 dollars later im making sure that her purchase lives!
So anyways, ive been reading on yalls forums and have found lots of good info, like the fact that you arent supposed to use substrate in a chams enclosure cuz it ill jam him up. I wish the guy that sold us the cham only knew that cuz he had us buy some bark substrate to "help keep the humidity up". I have since learned that that is totally wrong, great advice, but i could always use more.
Which brings me to the enclosure, i want to make sure im doing it right. So i went out and bought an umbrella plant to put in there and rearranged his vines to give him multiple spots to bask from. Im posting a picture of the cage, and one of him :D Im just concerend that at such a young age that everything is going well so any constructive criticism would be great.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from yall. I will be checkin the forums periodically, and would also be willing to provide more info/pix if need be.

PS. The breeder didnt tell us how old he was, but im guessing less then 3 weeks. Anyone think they kno better?

SAM_0520.jpg

Here is the enclosure with the plant and vines.
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And here is our little guy, still unnamed
 
best advice i can give you is to listen to most of the people on this forum, learn from their mistakes and successes..so far from what i can see you have a good set up..i would just go ahead and add a mister system( since you have spent the money, 100 bucks more is nothing..)..make sure you read and read some more..even read random posts..people will talk about just even behaviour, and you will be able to determine if your cham is "chillen" or not..good luck!!!!!
 
what kind of lighting do you have in there???? He is awfully little!!! What about supplements and gutloading of your feeders? Do you know about this?? And your temps and humidity? Is that a cricket on the left of the screen? If so, that is way too big to feed to him! BTW that plant is a pothos, not an umbrella, but it is safe!!
 
Hey thanks for the quick response, i walked away to put some clothes in the laundry and already got a hit. So is a misting system better? cuz the guy at the pet store was trying to sell us a fogger? they do pretty much the same thing right?
 
what kind of lighting do you have in there???? He is awfully little!!! What about supplements and gutloading of your feeders? Do you know about this?? And your temps and humidity? Is that a cricket on the left of the screen? If so, that is way too big to feed to him! BTW that plant is a pothos, not an umbrella, but it is safe!!

yeah is is really little thats why i thought he was only so young. but to answer you questions, my GF bought the crix and i told her they were too big, i guess the pet store close to us doesnt have pinhead and only 1/8" crix, but even i think that some of the ones she got were a little too big. Temp is good in there, we have one of those Temperature guns (which is pretty sweet) that helps us regulate the temp. Im trying to fix the humidity with the "pothos" not umbrella :p . And we went all out on the lights so im sure they are the right ones, i kno the baskin light is a 5.0 like people have suggested, and i think she got a good bulb for the day light one.
 
your 5.o should be the UVB light. That is the tube one you got from what I can see from the pic. What were you told were the correct temps for that youngster? The temp gun is great but you gotta make sure the temps are right? Just get a regular housebulb for basking. That is all you need. Get one of those silver domes to house the bulb. Like a 20 watt for that little one. I would keep your basking in the 80 deg range and your overall cage temp in the low-mid 70's. Also, no light on at night, you know that right?
 
your 5.o should be the UVB light. That is the tube one you got from what I can see from the pic. What were you told were the correct temps for that youngster? The temp gun is great but you gotta make sure the temps are right? Just get a regular housebulb for basking. That is all you need. Get one of those silver domes to house the bulb. Like a 20 watt for that little one. I would keep your basking in the 80 deg range and your overall cage temp in the low-mid 70's. Also, no light on at night, you know that right?
Yeah we make sure that the temp is right, we have a bearded dragon and that is one of the most important things with him. On his top branch there its about 93f or so, and the vines right above the plant are between 70 and 80f.

We have a timer set to 9 and 9 just like our BD. and to answer the multiple bulb question ill simply post a pic :D
SAM_0522.jpg
 
I believe 93 degrees would be much too hot for that little guy. Hottest point in his enclosure should be in the 80 degree range. Btw, he is adorable
 
I believe 93 degrees would be much too hot for that little guy. Hottest point in his enclosure should be in the 80 degree range. Btw, he is adorable

So i checked it out closer, I was getting funny reading cuz of the cage and i was measuring right under the light, i put the gun in the cage and it read 84 right at the top of the vine. but makes me wonder. He likes to crawl along the outside of the cage alot, it unsafe for him too grab onto the mesh right below the lights. The light fixture sits about 3/4" away from the mesh itself not right on the mesh.
 
i see you have the new reptisun 5.0 flourecesent bulb...so far havent heard people have problems with it , but it could be because no one has tried it before...

if you notice your cham to close his eyes durign the day or any other eye problems, the light on the right could be the problem.

you might need a LINEAR tube 5.0 reptisun uvb bulb, the sizes available 15in, 18in, 24in, and 48in and you need to change the bub every 6 months....you might need a nother fixure too.

hope this helps , he looks good too

i agree with carol on how the basking bulb should be
 
I'll tell you what I think. I would take the light fixture back, and get a single fixture to hold either a reptisun 5.0 or reptiglo 5.0 linear tube bulb for your UVB, and would get a 8 1/2 clamp lamp, and use the lights separately. This will keep him away from the bulb when he climbs so he doesn't get burned.


Also, what are you feeding him? Are you gutloading your feeders, and using supplements? If so, what are you using to gutload, and what supplements/how often?
 
i see you have the new reptisun 5.0 flourecesent bulb...so far havent heard people have problems with it , but it could be because no one has tried it before...

if you notice your cham to close his eyes durign the day or any other eye problems, the light on the right could be the problem.

you might need a LINEAR tube 5.0 reptisun uvb bulb, the sizes available 15in, 18in, 24in, and 48in and you need to change the bub every 6 months....you might need a nother fixure too.

hope this helps , he looks good too

i agree with carol on how the basking bulb should be

Every time i attempt to find him in his cage, usually takes a couple minutes lol. he is well aware of me and has both his eyes open and look all over the place. he is also very active in his cage, earlier i saw him rubbing his head on a a leaf that was nearby the drip. I am going to assume these are all good signs, so im going to stick with the light setup for now.
 
Also, what are you feeding him? Are you gutloading your feeders, and using supplements? If so, what are you using to gutload, and what supplements/how often?

As far as feeding, that's kind of been up to my GF, i think the crix she bought were too big, she doesn't. And to be honest i haven't seen him eat one yet, but i saw him moving his mouth and throat like he was digesting, mighta been water, my GF said she saw him doing the same thing yesterday but also couldnt confirm it was a cricket.

Edit: we have been doing the free range technique so he can hunt them down, and we also don't like to watch him a lot as I've heard that's bad to do if he is hungry cuz they like to be sneaky and have no one watching them.
 
Every time i attempt to find him in his cage, usually takes a couple minutes lol. he is well aware of me and has both his eyes open and look all over the place. he is also very active in his cage, earlier i saw him rubbing his head on a a leaf that was nearby the drip. I am going to assume these are all good signs, so im going to stick with the light setup for now.

that doesnt sound normal, but keep an eye on that, they shouldnt to that often, personally i rather do what chamchick posted just before you and keep the lights seperate. since he is still a little guy especially about 3 weeks anything wrong can take a toll on him, like the temp 93 can scorch him(burns on skin and make him dehydrate

oh yeah you should see nice darkbrown/black poo....the white stuff next to it is the urates (pee), if its yellow, a little dehydrated needs more water, if its orange and almost crystal, the cham would be described as severely dehydyrated...

here is a good link to care for your cham and should make you feel a little more comfortable , for the most part you are okay

her you go https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
 
As far as feeding, that's kind of been up to my GF, i think the crix she bought were too big, she doesn't. And to be honest i haven't seen him eat one yet, but i saw him moving his mouth and throat like he was digesting, mighta been water, my GF said she saw him doing the same thing yesterday but also couldnt confirm it was a cricket.

Edit: we have been doing the free range technique so he can hunt them down, and we also don't like to watch him a lot as I've heard that's bad to do if he is hungry cuz they like to be sneaky and have no one watching them.

if they are too big , he wont eat, and the rule of thumb for size bugs like crix is to not pass the length across your chams head between eye to eye...

might need smaller crix, as far as moving his tongue most likely drinking
 
that doesnt sound normal, but keep an eye on that, they shouldnt to that often, personally i rather do what chamchick posted just before you and keep the lights seperate. since he is still a little guy especially about 3 weeks anything wrong can take a toll on him, like the temp 93 can scorch him(burns on skin and make him dehydrate

oh yeah you should see nice darkbrown/black poo....the white stuff next to it is the urates (pee), if its yellow, a little dehydrated needs more water, if its orange and almost crystal, the cham would be described as severely dehydyrated...

here is a good link to care for your cham and should make you feel a little more comfortable , for the most part you are okay

her you go https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

Hey i really like your advice, defiantly just informed me about the whole poo thing. They light fixture has 2 different on and off switches which should avoid me having to buy another fixture as ive been suggested like 3 times :p, but you think i should just use the 5.0 one for now, until he is about 4-5 months old?
 
Hey i really like your advice, defiantly just informed me about the whole poo thing. They light fixture has 2 different on and off switches which should avoid me having to buy another fixture as ive been suggested like 3 times :p, but you think i should just use the 5.0 one for now, until he is about 4-5 months old?

hey man its understandable that its may appear convienent, but in my opinion i say return it or sell it and get the seperate fixtures...

another reason why is that the uvb light fixture should go across your cage,
this ensures that your cham gets uvb even when its not near the basking area or any part of his cage

while the baksing light, put in a top corner of the cage and he can freely choose to go under it and move away from it, thats how they regulate temp themselves and helps for digestion.

both lights on during the day and off at night.

i would feel its best you need both lights, not just the uvb

the uvb doesnt produce much heat
 
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