Panther chameleons make excellent first time chameleons. Chameleons are different from leopard geckos and require more specialized care. They require a large arboreol style cage made entirely out of screen to ensure proper ventilation. Chameleons require a similar diet to leopards, but it must be more varied because chameleons will quickly become bored of any one kind of food that is given to them for a long period of time, therefore crickets will make a good food source, but you will have to use other foods as well. These may include silkworms, meal worms, giant mealworms, roaches, and grasshoppers (if using field collected grasshoppers, make sure that the area has had no chemicals sprayed.) As for heating and lighting, an incadesent bulb would be fine for heat, but you will need a uv light as well. Zoo med makes an ecxellent tube u.v. light (use the 5.0). Also you can use a mercury vapor bulb that produces light and uv Both zoo med and T-Rex make these bulbs. Nothing of course can beat natural sunlight whenever available. Chameleons can tolerate a small amount of handling, but can become stressed very quickly from handling, so frequent handling is not good. Life spans vary by species, but also depends on its enviornment. The less stress in its life (other chameleons, improper temps and humidity, etc) the shorter the life span, however if kept in a good enviornment with very little stress, they can live for 7 or more years. This is just the tip of the iceburg, make sure you fully resarch your chameleon species specific needs. Try internet searchs, and look in as many books as posible. The more you know, the happier both of you will be. Good luck!

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