Anthony Hendrick
New Member
Chameleon Info:
Species - Panther, male
Born - April 2008
Location - Ireland
House - Has been in a glass viv 1m x 1m x 50cm since February '09 with the following decor:
- 2 big Real Ficus Plant the height of the cage , 1 dracaena Bi-colour and two smaller ferns
- A lot of fake hanging Ficus and Hibiscus for back drop
- plenty of appropriately thick vines with a good basking spot
- pebbles on bottom for drainage (recently removed orchid bark substrate and put in pebbles in order to install a basic drainage system
- basking spot is at eye level.
* Handling - All the time. He is very relaxed with contact. I take him out all the time and he likes it.
* Feeding - He gets 3 to 4 crickets every two days. The crickets are gut loaded with the following:
carrot
cucumber
parsnip
banana
almonds occasionally
apple
Red and yellow peppers
peas occasionally (will start giving them more peas for greens)
orange
blueberries (just started gut loading them over the past week with these.
kiwi
steamed potato occasionally
grapes occasionally
I put a soaking wet tissue into their tub every two days for a water source.
I also store them near the vivs heat bulb which makes them a lot more active causing them to eat a lot lot more!
I used to give him locusts because he stopped eating crickets but he has since started eating crickets again so happy days as crickets are easier to gut load and are a lot cheaper. I don't know about other countries but in Ireland you pay 4 euro for 8 crickets which is bloody ridiculous.
* Supplements - I dust almost every cricket he gets with Nutrobal. He used to get every cricket dusted and he used to get fed 3 or four a day but over the past year I have calmed down a bit as he is getting older.
* Watering - I use an automatic misting system called Namiba Terra "Tropical Rain System" It produces very fine spray from two nozzles
this is controlled by a timer which activates the system 5 times a day for 3 minutes at a time. I also have a hand held pump sprayer which I use to shower him with about once a week ( I understand I should do it more often and over the past two weeks I have been spraying him three times a week. I will keep this up)
* Fecal Description - He has a problem with passing feces. This a has been thoroughly investigated by a vet and from x rays they conculded that the reason he is passing only once a week is a result of an old bone fracture at his lower spine near the base of the tail. He has had a few falls (from bed to floor) so this was obviously my fault. As a result he goes once a week. The feces is quite moist and healthy looking but the urate is always slightly yellow with an orange patch at the end. this orange patch can sometimes be quite large and I have asked the vet about this but she tells me it is a result of the urate sitting in his bowels for so long.
* History - there is no other information.
* Lighting - 90cm Repti sun bulb left on 12 hours/day (bulb is always replaced after 6 to 8 months)
- 100 watt basking bulb also
Temperature - 150 watt ceramic bulb with semi-circular fitting positioned outside the roof of the vivarium for safety (hooked up to a habistat "pulse proportional" thermostat
The cage is kept at 25 degrees celcius during the day (near the topof the cage) and 22 celcius at night.
Humidity - The himidity in the cage ranges from 40 percent to 90 percent. i am having trouble regulating the humidity as it seems to fall quite quick (any advice would be much appreciated)
Placement - the cage is in my room. It's quiet, there's no sound or view of traffic. I have a drum set in the room but he doesn't seem to mind this and it never gets played for more than an hour at a time (I know this seems really irresponsible but I made sure that this wouldn't be a problem before I bought him by consulting an expert)
current problem - My cham has two problems.
1. He has patches of shedding skin on his back and head. He hasn't she in at least 6 months so I presume his body is trying to she but no matter how much I spray him or apply shedding aid his skin won't shed. I then reviewed the viv temps and decided that the heat sensor was positioned too low in the cage which would result in higher temperatures being obtained so I moved the sensor more towards the heat bulb. The temps are now what they should be.
2. Over the past week or two he has started to gape a lot. The temps aren't too high but from past experience I have noticed that when he is about to shed he gapes occasionally. I don't know if this is due to stress or from feeling uncomfortable.
So basically he has had signs of a shed starting for over two months now and has started gaping quite a bit over the past two weeks.
One other thing. We have had a really bad cold winter with a lot of snow. Temperatures were down around - 8 to -10 degrees celcius at night. as a result he started to sleep under the ceramic heater (about 25cm away from it and it is above the viv so there is a wire mesh between it and him)
Perhaps the direct heat at night caused parts of his skin on his back and head to die???
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks guys
Anthony
Species - Panther, male
Born - April 2008
Location - Ireland
House - Has been in a glass viv 1m x 1m x 50cm since February '09 with the following decor:
- 2 big Real Ficus Plant the height of the cage , 1 dracaena Bi-colour and two smaller ferns
- A lot of fake hanging Ficus and Hibiscus for back drop
- plenty of appropriately thick vines with a good basking spot
- pebbles on bottom for drainage (recently removed orchid bark substrate and put in pebbles in order to install a basic drainage system
- basking spot is at eye level.
* Handling - All the time. He is very relaxed with contact. I take him out all the time and he likes it.
* Feeding - He gets 3 to 4 crickets every two days. The crickets are gut loaded with the following:
carrot
cucumber
parsnip
banana
almonds occasionally
apple
Red and yellow peppers
peas occasionally (will start giving them more peas for greens)
orange
blueberries (just started gut loading them over the past week with these.
kiwi
steamed potato occasionally
grapes occasionally
I put a soaking wet tissue into their tub every two days for a water source.
I also store them near the vivs heat bulb which makes them a lot more active causing them to eat a lot lot more!
I used to give him locusts because he stopped eating crickets but he has since started eating crickets again so happy days as crickets are easier to gut load and are a lot cheaper. I don't know about other countries but in Ireland you pay 4 euro for 8 crickets which is bloody ridiculous.
* Supplements - I dust almost every cricket he gets with Nutrobal. He used to get every cricket dusted and he used to get fed 3 or four a day but over the past year I have calmed down a bit as he is getting older.
* Watering - I use an automatic misting system called Namiba Terra "Tropical Rain System" It produces very fine spray from two nozzles
this is controlled by a timer which activates the system 5 times a day for 3 minutes at a time. I also have a hand held pump sprayer which I use to shower him with about once a week ( I understand I should do it more often and over the past two weeks I have been spraying him three times a week. I will keep this up)
* Fecal Description - He has a problem with passing feces. This a has been thoroughly investigated by a vet and from x rays they conculded that the reason he is passing only once a week is a result of an old bone fracture at his lower spine near the base of the tail. He has had a few falls (from bed to floor) so this was obviously my fault. As a result he goes once a week. The feces is quite moist and healthy looking but the urate is always slightly yellow with an orange patch at the end. this orange patch can sometimes be quite large and I have asked the vet about this but she tells me it is a result of the urate sitting in his bowels for so long.
* History - there is no other information.
* Lighting - 90cm Repti sun bulb left on 12 hours/day (bulb is always replaced after 6 to 8 months)
- 100 watt basking bulb also
Temperature - 150 watt ceramic bulb with semi-circular fitting positioned outside the roof of the vivarium for safety (hooked up to a habistat "pulse proportional" thermostat
The cage is kept at 25 degrees celcius during the day (near the topof the cage) and 22 celcius at night.
Humidity - The himidity in the cage ranges from 40 percent to 90 percent. i am having trouble regulating the humidity as it seems to fall quite quick (any advice would be much appreciated)
Placement - the cage is in my room. It's quiet, there's no sound or view of traffic. I have a drum set in the room but he doesn't seem to mind this and it never gets played for more than an hour at a time (I know this seems really irresponsible but I made sure that this wouldn't be a problem before I bought him by consulting an expert)
current problem - My cham has two problems.
1. He has patches of shedding skin on his back and head. He hasn't she in at least 6 months so I presume his body is trying to she but no matter how much I spray him or apply shedding aid his skin won't shed. I then reviewed the viv temps and decided that the heat sensor was positioned too low in the cage which would result in higher temperatures being obtained so I moved the sensor more towards the heat bulb. The temps are now what they should be.
2. Over the past week or two he has started to gape a lot. The temps aren't too high but from past experience I have noticed that when he is about to shed he gapes occasionally. I don't know if this is due to stress or from feeling uncomfortable.
So basically he has had signs of a shed starting for over two months now and has started gaping quite a bit over the past two weeks.
One other thing. We have had a really bad cold winter with a lot of snow. Temperatures were down around - 8 to -10 degrees celcius at night. as a result he started to sleep under the ceramic heater (about 25cm away from it and it is above the viv so there is a wire mesh between it and him)
Perhaps the direct heat at night caused parts of his skin on his back and head to die???
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks guys
Anthony