Stressed baby panther chameleon please help

Martythechameleon

Martythechameleon

Member
My panther Marty is about 3 1/2 months old now and I am keeping him in a reptibreeze cage 24x24x48 inches the biggest one I have the back plexi glasses to help with humidity. I have a solar-bright 100w light bulb. And I most of the time run another uv buld not a tube light just a standard light u could screw into a normal slot with the three round prongs I don't know the name or brand. I have a monsoon misting system that goes off every 2 hours for 120 seconds and even sometimes give Marty a little hand spraying when I think he looks thirsty. His basking spot ranges between 80-89 I'm checking this with a digital thermostat that also checks humidity which I don't trust sometimes it acts up and I have an analog one stuck on the side of the cage in the middle portion that reads 70-77or so depending I also check the basking spot with a inferred gun that usually reads about 81-85 in basking, and an ambient temp of 75 -80 throughout the cage. Humidity on my analog reads in the 70%while on the digital it ranges mostly reading 40% but I don't know if I trust ether. I have a humidifier That I run most of the time turned about half way up. And he is very good at eating I dust once a week and feed him gut loaded crickets and meal worms a mixture of the two and would love some other feeding options I usual leave some fruits in there for him and haven't seen him take to any yet. I have had him for a week and a half now. If any other questions about the enclosure feel free to ask.

Now the main issue I'm running into with him now is he has been displaying darker colors during the day most of the time when I feed him he seems to brighten up and look beautiful but other times when I walk into the room he is a darker brown and black or sometimes will just get black lines and spots on him, is this a sign of stress? If so how could I fix this I am a new chameleon owner so I need as much help as I can get I just want to make the little guy have a perfect life. Now he was opening his mouth at one point so I turned off his heat lamp and left it to the solar bright bulb now giving him heat in the 80s rather than 87-96 because I heard that was because he was too hot. So is he stressed or is this normal for him to get darker
 
Hi, many 3 month old panthers can be brown or dark colors naturally. As long as he is eating and active. Good urates, defecates frequently, i dont think you have anything to worry about.

Note: You could try a smaller cage. Well planted. I dont know the brands of your lights either. Be sure he is getting adequate lighting (uva/uvb).
 
Okay cool thank you so much for the fast reply I was really scared and it is a new home also so that could be another factor. But he has a really pretty color display sometimes I mean his color isn't fully developed but he will show allot of blue green and red sometime then others brown I'm just not sure why sometimes he will bring this dark green or brown and black color sometimes so it's because he is young not stressed?
 
It's normal for chameleons, especially baby ones, to be a little stressed while settling in to a new environment. Also, when you notice the darker colors, is he under his heat lamp? they do go darker when basking to absorb more heat. Since he is eating well that means he's probably less stressed than you think. Mealworms are not a great feeder, as they do not have good nutritional value, and are high in fat. You also want a variety of feeders. Silkworms, hornworms, superworms, fruit flies,butterworms are all great. Your dusting schedule is off as well. You want this to be your new dusting schedule:
Calcium WITHOUT D3 everyday
Calcium WITH D3 twice a month
Multivitamin twice a month.
As for lighting, I like to use bulbs specifically designed for the needs of reptiles, even though you can use regular house bulbs. I have zoo-med basking spot lamps, and reptisun uvb tube lights. Take a look at this care sheet:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/
you'll want to follow it pretty closely, although you can tweak certain things to fit your chameleon specifically. Also, if you upload one picture of your chameleon with his bright colors on, one with his dark colors on, and one of your whole enclosures, I can give you more specific tips.
 
This is his color allot of the time then he will bring out that brown others if this helps any
 

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Martythechameleon said:
Okay cool thank you so much for the fast reply I was really scared and it is a new home also so that could be another factor. But he has a really pretty color display sometimes I mean his color isn't fully developed but he will show allot of blue green and red sometime then others brown I'm just not sure why sometimes he will bring this dark green or brown and black color sometimes so it's because he is young not stressed?
Click to expand...

Wow, he is pretty advanced in coloring for 3 months. Give him some time. Keep reading/learning as much as you can and enjoy your little one. :)
 
This is the coloration he will put on sometimes the darker green with black stripes then the other one is tan and dark brown with some black but I don't have a picture of it. Now I'm using a solar bright light for UVB and heat it was recommended to me is this not good?
 

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These are the two bulbs I'm running during the day is this too much UVB or not enough or am I just totally wrong?
 

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Those are fine.

Edit: I dont have any knowledge/experience with the first bulb though. The package does state what most mercury vapor bulbs do. I would try it.
 
This is what I dust with it's a mixture idk if that would make a difference and they told me once a week is that wrong information? Or should I do it less or more
 

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most pet stores should have them. I use rep-cal calcium powder without d3, reptocal (calcium with d3) and reptolife for the multivitamin. You can also order them off amazon too.
 
This is his cage set up right now I haven't put in his hibiscus yet waiting to repot it. Am I doing anything wrong? To make him stressed
 

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Miner-all is a good product. I would recommend minerall outdoor formula.

Your boys colors are normal. Hes not going to be a bright rainbow all the time.
 
He's looking good. He will get dark when basking. I use Miner-all outdoor formula with my other supplements.
 
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