Sekcan
New Member
A few days ago my girlfriend and I purchased a (what we believe to be female) panther from an individual selling their 9 m/o panther, the pictures she posted for the sale were upclose and a bit misleading. When we picked up the little chameleon we instantly noticed issues with her housing and lighting.
First off, she's 9 months old and looks like 3-4 months size wise, with VERY skinny legs and frail feet. Shes in a 24x24x48 inch cage which is outrageously large for her size, hunting would be harder and more scarce. If she's frail and weak, she's fallen from the top of the cage before (we got her home and in a 16x16x30 cage and the first night she slipped off the branch which she shouldve been able to easily hold onto, much shorter fall than the other cage and onto bedding, safety net was added after first incident). TL;DR Small and malnourished in huge cage
Second, her ONLY water supply was a small cave waterfall at the very bottom of the cage, no humidity gauges or temp gauges, no spraying of any sort (even bottle). Her overhead light fixture was a red nocturnal light and a UVB. She has very apparent eye issues (keeps them closed, rubs them occasionally), I suspect vitamin deficiency, I've treated it in my other chameleon before and he has since recovered, but I am curios as to the damage a permanent red light could potentially cause to her eyes, and the lack of moisture affecting her skin (skin looks in decent condition, she's been given a fogger and is sprayed 3 times daily). TL;DR horrible environmental conditions, bad lighting, poor humidity/water access
Finally, she has only ever been fed crickets, and guessing by the care of the previous owner, un-dusted and poorly fed crickets. The owner said she simply never tried giving her anything else, she's currently scared of the worms, tiny ones included, as well as feeding tongs. Thankfully she's a trooper and can still shoot her food and eat large crickets. She's now been giving appropriate vitamins and calcium, and is hopefully on her way to recovery. She'll take water directly from me given to her on a leaf. She's become more active over the last few days and can now hold herself upside down on the stick she couldn't even hold onto a few days ago. I try to tong feed her worms each day, going excruciatingly slow for her comfort and i'm sure she'll come around eventually. TL;DR only fed poorly kept crickets and probably dirt
Previous owner said she's bitten her before, but being slow and gentle, we've gotten her to walk out of her cage and let us hold her without her flaring up or anything stress-indicative, we even showed her a glimpse of our other chameleon Billie (see profile picture) and she was comfortable being within a foot of him (he's 10 m/o and MUCH bigger than she is, well outside of the sexual dimorphism scale). This brings me to the final point, we bought her to breed with Billie, but it seems as though she may never be able to given her size, so to sum up my questions:
1) Could having a daily red light for 9 months affect her vision? (she see's well enough to hunt and shoot, at least in her small cage)
2) I've read with good care malnourished and neglected chameleons can survive even at their small sizes but wont grow, but at 9 m/o could she still be able to grow?
3) IF she can grow to an appropriate size, will her eggs be suitable?
Whether she can breed or not we're happy to have her and provide her with a safe space to grow, any answers would be appreciated.
We've had a male Panther since July who is growing so big and colorful, he's probably about a foot to a foot and a half long from nose to tailtip, and nice and plump. He lives in a nice 24x24x48 enclosure on a tree.
Attached several photos of the rescue for reference
First off, she's 9 months old and looks like 3-4 months size wise, with VERY skinny legs and frail feet. Shes in a 24x24x48 inch cage which is outrageously large for her size, hunting would be harder and more scarce. If she's frail and weak, she's fallen from the top of the cage before (we got her home and in a 16x16x30 cage and the first night she slipped off the branch which she shouldve been able to easily hold onto, much shorter fall than the other cage and onto bedding, safety net was added after first incident). TL;DR Small and malnourished in huge cage
Second, her ONLY water supply was a small cave waterfall at the very bottom of the cage, no humidity gauges or temp gauges, no spraying of any sort (even bottle). Her overhead light fixture was a red nocturnal light and a UVB. She has very apparent eye issues (keeps them closed, rubs them occasionally), I suspect vitamin deficiency, I've treated it in my other chameleon before and he has since recovered, but I am curios as to the damage a permanent red light could potentially cause to her eyes, and the lack of moisture affecting her skin (skin looks in decent condition, she's been given a fogger and is sprayed 3 times daily). TL;DR horrible environmental conditions, bad lighting, poor humidity/water access
Finally, she has only ever been fed crickets, and guessing by the care of the previous owner, un-dusted and poorly fed crickets. The owner said she simply never tried giving her anything else, she's currently scared of the worms, tiny ones included, as well as feeding tongs. Thankfully she's a trooper and can still shoot her food and eat large crickets. She's now been giving appropriate vitamins and calcium, and is hopefully on her way to recovery. She'll take water directly from me given to her on a leaf. She's become more active over the last few days and can now hold herself upside down on the stick she couldn't even hold onto a few days ago. I try to tong feed her worms each day, going excruciatingly slow for her comfort and i'm sure she'll come around eventually. TL;DR only fed poorly kept crickets and probably dirt
Previous owner said she's bitten her before, but being slow and gentle, we've gotten her to walk out of her cage and let us hold her without her flaring up or anything stress-indicative, we even showed her a glimpse of our other chameleon Billie (see profile picture) and she was comfortable being within a foot of him (he's 10 m/o and MUCH bigger than she is, well outside of the sexual dimorphism scale). This brings me to the final point, we bought her to breed with Billie, but it seems as though she may never be able to given her size, so to sum up my questions:
1) Could having a daily red light for 9 months affect her vision? (she see's well enough to hunt and shoot, at least in her small cage)
2) I've read with good care malnourished and neglected chameleons can survive even at their small sizes but wont grow, but at 9 m/o could she still be able to grow?
3) IF she can grow to an appropriate size, will her eggs be suitable?
Whether she can breed or not we're happy to have her and provide her with a safe space to grow, any answers would be appreciated.
We've had a male Panther since July who is growing so big and colorful, he's probably about a foot to a foot and a half long from nose to tailtip, and nice and plump. He lives in a nice 24x24x48 enclosure on a tree.
Attached several photos of the rescue for reference
