Chameleonfanatic345
New Member
Hi all, I am fairly new to keeping panther chameleons, but have been an avid reptile enthusiast for 20 yrs now, so before being berated, I have done quite a bit of research on these beautiful animals in books as well as this forum. I have a juvenile female panther who was doing magnificently in the outdoor enclosure I built using wire mesh and mist king system. She was looking magnificent until yesterday, when she had fairly bad cuts to her lower tail as well as small lacerations on her feet. She is outside where we currently are having a rodent problem. This is ongoing in the area and neighborhood cats have done some control, but not enough. I purchased rodent poison as this is the only way to kill the smartest of the varmint IMO. Tell me it's cruel, but I've had enough and tell me you want them living in your house ) anyways it has been cool at night so I have ceramic heat emitters suspended above cages to provide extra warmth. Last night I kept waking up to noises sounding like rodents scurrying in the yard, and more poison was definitely eaten by morning. Reason I mention this is that normally she sleeps all tucked in schefflera plant in the cage interior. Tonight, I wanted to provide extra protection and heat, so while placing a blanket over her cage I noticed she now was roosting on side of cage higher up next to heat lamp. All of the toes she had injuries on were now sticking outside of cage ( I hope that poison kills the rodents, but has anybody ever heard of something like this. I HATE rodents, other than snake food!! Sorry, I am very upset about my baby and really would appreciate if someone could comment on their experiences with this. Sorry for the long rant, but I am extremely stressed, and I feel you all understand more than others would. Thanks again for all the good work put into this site and the knowledge of the users!!