Panther chameleon tongue

[lurker9090]

No i havent do you think I should with him not using his tongue to eat? He’s still eating just taking him much longer to catch the bugs.

no tong feeding can cause injury, i was just making sure him not using his tong was caused by tong injury

 

[Lexiharvey68]

See my answers in red

My chameleon is a male panther chameleon I’ve only had him since April of 2023. He’s and adult but the breeder wasn’t able to tell me his age guessing between 1-2. Interesting that the breeder did not know his age, out of curiosity, where did you get your guy from?

I handle him frequently. Probably everyday at some point he’s active and likes to climb on my indoor plants. Just a word of caution, chameleons are very shy lizards, frequent handling is often highly stressful for them. If your chameleon is 'friendly' we often look at the enclosure first to ensure baby has everything it needs to feel safe and secure before agreeing that a chameleon is friendly. It took me a while to be able to read my chameleon's body language. You could very well have a friendly chameleon, but because it is not common, I just wanted to share that.
Listen to this podcast, this helped me learn more about chameleons, stress & their body language: https://chameleonacademy.com/ep-6-chameleons-stress/

I feed him large crickets from pet supply plus and give him 6 crickets every morning before work. Also gut loading with cricket food from the pet store. If your guy is 1-2 years old you can now start to move him to 4-5 feeders every other day. Feeding an adult daily is overfeeding and he could become overweight. When they are young and are still growing we want to feed them as much as they can eat every day so they get what they need, however adults eat far less. With the crickets, the more variety of bugs you can feed him the better, I am attaching a document with other good feeders in case you can get some for him. What kind of gut load do you use? I'll attach a good gutload you can use as well.

I dust the crickets with repti calcium with D3 every morning when I feed him 5 crickets. Ok you are missing some things in his supplementation. You need phosphorus free calcium WITHOUT D3 for every feeding. What you are currently using you need to use every other week and then you need a multi vitamin to use every other week.
Get this calcium: https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Reptile-Calcium-without/dp/B000UJPHL8/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1H90CKSI3TWD9&keywords=reptile+calcium&qid=1694103191&sprefix=reptile+calcium%2Caps%2C222&sr=8-3
Get this multivitamin: https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Reptivite-without-Vitamin/dp/B00167S5GC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1K9W9UZQAQC8V&keywords=reptivite+without+d3&qid=1694103273&sprefix=reptivite+wit%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-1
With those 2 supplements and the one you already have use this schedule:
Calcium WITHOUT D3 - every feeding
Calcium WITH D3 - 1x every other week
Multivitamin - 1x every other week - use on the week you do not use the D3 calcium

I use the dripper, mist his cage 3x a day and use a little humidifier throughout the day and night. Your baby needs high humidity at night with LOW temperatures below 68 degrees and then LOW humidity with higher temps (72-78) during the day. High temps and high humidity will result in an upper respiratory infection. You have all the right stuff for hydration, you just need to make a few adjustments. This is what I do, keep in mind I live in a dry state, so you may have to make adjustments according to where you live

7:30 am - mist enclosure
8:00 am - lights come on
9:00 am - basking light comes on (basking temp 80-85 degrees, no higher)
1:00 pm - basking light turns off (again, this will need to be adjusted to where you live, if its hotter in your area maybe you only use the heat lamp for less time)
3:00 pm - dripper is used for about 10-15 minutes, if I see my chameleon drinking, I know I need to adjust my humidity at night and increase drinking opportunities so they do not become dehydrated
8:00 pm - lights turn off
9:30 pm - mist enclosure
10:00 pm to 6:00 am - fogger runs for 1.5 hours on, 30 min off

Humidity during the day 50-60%
Humidity at night 80-100%
Temps during day 72-78
Temps at night 68-65

His pee is white and poop is just a sack not dry always looks hydrated. Excellent!

His cage is screen and I basically have the chameleon starter kit that everyone says is not good. However he is place near 3 south facing windows and gets a lot of sunlight along with the day lights. Unfortunately the chameleon kit is not sufficient for an adult chameleon. Your baby needs a minimum cage size of 2ftx2ftx4ft. The other concern is the UVB that comes with the kit, that UVB is not efficient and we often see chameleons develop MBD with the chameleon kit due to the lack of UVB they get. Windows block UVB so even though he is by windows he still is not getting any UVB. I would also caution being by a window, you just want to make sure your sweet little guy isn't getting too hot with the sun coming in.

Minimum size for enclosure: https://www.chewy.com/zoo-med-reptibreeze-reptile-cage/dp/344873

Temp range during the day is anywhere from 70F to 85F gradient. I measure with the temp readers and humidity readers. I also use a temp gun to better see the gradient. Over night it doesn’t go below 68 degrees. As I mentioned earlier, the ambient temp of your boys enclosure should be between 72-78 degrees, his basking temp should be 80-85 degrees. The night temp is great

My humidity levels are usually 50% and up. great! 50% during the day is perfect, just a reminder at night if your temps are low enough having a high humidity is awesome, this is how chameleons get hydration in the wild

I do use live plants. I have a ficus and a pothos in the cage. Perfect!

I am located in Pittsburgh PA

Lastly, this is the care sheet I use https://chameleonacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Panther-Chameleon-Care-Guide-2023.pdf

Wow this was incredibly helpful and I will do all the adjustments and don’t worry I didn’t forget the picture I should have a picture in about an hour!! I got him from a breeder that goes to Pittsburgh’s monthly reptile show. He was odd. When I was asking questions for example I asked if he handled my guy before and his reply was “I have 800 chameleons no I don’t know if I handled that one” “I also leave them in my trunk sometimes between the shows” keep in mind the shows are MONTHLY. Can’t say he was the best to buy from.

 

[elizaann2]

Wow this was incredibly helpful and I will do all the adjustments and don’t worry I didn’t forget the picture I should have a picture in about an hour!! I got him from a breeder that goes to Pittsburgh’s monthly reptile show. He was odd. When I was asking questions for example I asked if he handled my guy before and his reply was “I have 800 chameleons no I don’t know if I handled that one” “I also leave them in my trunk sometimes between the shows” keep in mind the shows are MONTHLY. Can’t say he was the best to buy from.

Yikes

 

[Lexiharvey68]

He is such a cutie! I'll wait on feedback with his enclosure set up until you are able to share a photo of the whole enclosure including the lights on top.

here is the current set up

 

[elizaann2]

here is the current set up

Thank you for sharing!

Unfortunately that is not the correct UVB. You'll need to get him the correct kind asap. Here it is again for your convenience

The blue light - what is that for? Basking? You don't want any of those color lights in their enclosure, it can hurt their eyes. If you need a basking light you can actually use the bulbs we use in our house. Here is a video on what to use.

I would get rid of the reptile carpet. Its been known to rip out reptile's nails and is a breeding ground for bacteria.

If you are going to actually fog I would recommend this one, I am not sure the one you have in your enclosure is going to get you what you need for humidity levels at night. This is what I have.

Lastly, baby boy needs more sticks to get around on and lots more coverage. You can get sticks from outside just make sure they dont have a strong odor, and are not from sap producing trees. Give them a good scrub in your bathtub, rinse really well and let dry in the sun. I'll attach a photo of some of my enclosures so you have a visual of what I mean. For my enclosure set up I followed the set up taught by the Chameleon Academy. To attach branches you can buy dragon strand ledges Or you can use this method here

For plants you need to add more, if you can look in your enclosure and immediately spot your chameleon, you do not have enough plants in there. Attaching a list of safe plants for your chammy baby.

Lastly height = safety for chameleons. How high up is the top of the enclosure? My enclosures are all on tables or shelves so that the top of the branch is above my head. For me to make adjustments on my lights on the top I have to get a chair to reach them. You may need to raise up baby's enclosure as well.

Let me know what other questions you have!

 

[Andrew1283]

This was him 4 days ago! Still looks the exact same. And thanks for letting me know I will definitely go to the pet store today and correct that powder.

He’s beautiful! Thanks so much for reaching out on the forums. Asking for help is what good cham parents do.