Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If you don't want to read all this boring stuff then scroll down to the questions.
Hi. I'm relatively new to keeping panther chameleons, however I'm not relatively new when it comes to looking at them, reading about them, studying them...etc
It all began some years ago, I think 2000 or 2001 at the summer IRBA show in San Diego. This was the year when they held the show at the convention center, not the concourse. At the time I had been breeding leopard geckos and bearded dragons for quite sometime. At the show I was blown away by the panther chameleons I saw at Jim Nozaki's booth and at Jurrassic Reptiles booth. I desperately wanted one. Well, 3 years passed and I finally got one from Jim Nozaki this October at the IRBA show. So I'm only 15 years behind the game. I will be at the IRBA show in Pomona this weekend. By the way Tyler Stewart, my dad drove from Riverside to Las Vegas in 3 hours a couple weeks ago.
Anyways, I have some questions to ask all of you to better help me with my chameleons.
THESE ARE FOR PANTHER CHAMELEON OWNERS ONLY
1). What Suppliments do you use?
2). When/How often do you use the suppliments?
For adult males? Gravid females? Babies?
3). Do you dust lightly or thick?
4). What do you feed your crickets?
5). Do you use a medium at the bottom for the crickets?
6). How can I get the least die-off rate of crickets?
7). What kinds of bugs do you feed your chameleons?
8). What/How often do you feed them? Gravid females? Adult males? Babies?
9). What is the average weight in grams of a chameleon? Adult male? Adult female? Gravid female?
10).Okay, here's a long one:
What wattage light do you use if the cage is 30"by16"by16" and the temperature in your house is 70 degrees?
48"by24"by24" and 70 degrees?
30"by16"by16" and 85 degrees?
48"by24"by24" and 85 degrees?
11).How close should babies be to the basking light?
12).How close should adults be to the basking light?
13).How often do you water your ficus plants?
14).How often do you handle your chameleons?
Whew! That's all of them for now. Hope to hear from you.
PLEASE.....DO NOT LEAVE LINKS FOR ME TO GO TO.
Has anyone ever heard of a Soabana panther chameleon? I have a picture of one. Thank you all and I hope to talk to all of you in future posts.

WHOA! I think you have just set a record for the most information ever requested in one post.... For anyone to properly answer these questions, it would take about 3 hours worth of typing. But here's a very quick run through of most of them. I may skip a few to save time.

1. I use Rep-Cal brand and I have the regular calcium, calcium with D3 and Multivitamin. I also use Miner-All O, even though my chams are indoors, they get their D3 from the Rep Cal with D3.
2. This completely depends on age, sex, breeding situation. An adult male panther's supplements are completely different from a gravid female. I can't explain all of it without pointing you to a site I've written it too many times.
3. I dust insects EXTREMELY lightly. I dust more often than most people but I dust very very lightly. Half of what most of you consider light.
4. I feed my crickets a mix of vegetables. I buy about 8 differrent things frozen, mix them together and thaw and feed daily. I also throw in a leaf or two of collared greens and sometimes romaine or red leaf lettuce. I also feed this to my roaches, superworms and tortioses. I add a little multivitamin dust once a week or so.
5. No
6. Keep them properly.... Constant food, source of moisture and slightly warm. Keep them dry and have plenty of hiding spots. Or use Silkworms instead and make life simple and less smelly.
7. I feed crickets, silkworms, roaches, superworms and waxworms almost on a daily basis. I also like to use houseflies (smaller chams) and hornworms when I get them.
8. Adult males, feed 4 days a week. Gravid females, feed daily and make sure you've got it right. Babies daily also no dust until they're 6 weeks old or so only gutload.
9. Too many factors to give a real answer. An adult male should end up somewhere around 150 grams or more.
10. I'm not even gonna touch this one lol.
11.
12.
13. The drippers do it for me and I have to drain the dish every few days.
14. I handle them whenever they need to be. I don't take them out unless I'm cleaning or moving them to some natural sunlight or occasionally just to show someone. I don't take them out to look at them you can do that in their cage. If you're careful, handling them a bit won't do any damage.

What's with the comment on it taking only 3 hours for the drive? Sorry if I was a little off we can drop it now I think you're the 3rd person to say something LOL. Good luck with your cham.
-----
Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

i will give you an pat on the back for the "jab" at grandpa! LOL

dennis

Lets not be mean to tyler just because he does not have the need for speed. He helps us all out on this forum enough for us to over look his downfalls
-----
From Sunny Florida
Jovana's kids listed below
1.1 Veileds
1.0 Ambanja Panther
1.1 Tamatave Panther

Ok that's it.... I'm going to dig up the speeding ticket I got a few years ago going 104 in a 65 zone in a lifted F-150 and post it here tonight..... I DON'T DRIVE LIKE A GRANDPA!!!!!
-----
Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

Hey Tyler,

While you're digging out your speeding ticket... look for your camera, and pack extra batteries. I'd like you to take pictures at the show if you can.

Oh.... I saved a bunch on gas money - I used the phone to order 3 nosy kids from Amazing Blue and they should arrive tomorrow. Gotta love those blues! But I would like to see pictures of their booth and Kammerflage's booth too.

Thanks...
-----

Morgana,
Ok will do. I'll bring my digital camera with me. I don't think I have any space left on it though! I go to take more pictures and it keeps telling me it's full.... So I go to pull it up on the comp and have to decide out of 200 pictures which ones I want to delete. It's hard! Either chameleons or my 1 year old son.... The wife doesn't like it when I delete the kid's pics LOL! Which bloodline from Amazing Blue did you get? Seems like all of theirs are nice. My male Zeus is form their "Blue Mountain" line. I'm planning on picking up a few veileds from them at the show. I've been meaning to e-mail you... Are you still saving me that girl I asked you about a while back?
-----
Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

Tyler,

Can't you "download" those pics to your computer? I like our digital - just pop in a new disc (the new model is a CD).

We got from Denki's bloodline - bred to Mizu's bloodline. I think that is plenty of blue to go with ours... which was Zeus and ummmm... I forget. LOL

Yup.... still got a gal for your guy.
Will have to get her to pose for the camera, and get on the scale too. She is 5-1/2 stv. or so. Not small.

How are those sunburst doing? I think I can find you some help with homes if you need it.

Keep us posted...
-----

I will answer these questions based on my own experience. Don't take anything I say too seriously...
>>1). What Suppliments do you use?
I use Rep-cal and a vitamin supplement
>>2). When/How often do you use the suppliments?
Depends on how much natural sunlight they're getting. During the warm months, when they're getting lots of sunlight, I use VERY little. During the colder months (as in NOW) I use supplement about 2-4 times per week.
>> For adult males? Gravid females? Babies?
More for babies, a lot more for gravids, less for adult males.
>>3). Do you dust lightly or thick?
LIGHTLY
>>4). What do you feed your crickets?
A mixture of chicken lay mash and powdered milk, fresh veggies. I use this same mix for my roaches as well.
>>5). Do you use a medium at the bottom for the crickets?
no.
>>6). How can I get the least die-off rate of crickets?
Keep your crickets COOL, dry and festidiously clean. Remove any dead bugs ASAP.
>>7). What kinds of bugs do you feed your chameleons?
Crickets, superworms, roaches, houseflies, waxworms, silkworms
>>8). What/How often do you feed them? Gravid females? Adult males? Babies?
Generally feed them about 4-5x's per week. Babies get fed every day.
>>9). What is the average weight in grams of a chameleon? Adult male? Adult female? Gravid female?
I don't weigh my chams, except for gravid females. In my opinion, too much emphasis is put on getting a BIG chameleon. I feed a good variety of bugs, but I try not to overfeed. I go by appearance of animal. They should have a nice, full appearance, not too fat, nor too lean. Bones should not be too prominent.
>>10).Okay, here's a long one:
>> What wattage light do you use if the cage is 30"by16"by16" and the temperature in your house is 70 degrees?
>> 48"by24"by24" and 70 degrees?
>> 30"by16"by16" and 85 degrees?
>> 48"by24"by24" and 85 degrees?
I don't know if you're referring to the heat bulb, or the UVB bulb, but they both depend on chameleon's preferance, whether she likes it warmer or cooler, and just how far the actual bulb is from the cage. Lots of variables, so I won't say actual wattage. I would reccommend getting digital thermometer/light gauge to measure actual basking temp/lighting. Use the chameleon's reccommended basking temperature to guide you on what bulb to use.
>>11).How close should babies be to the basking light?
>>12).How close should adults be to the basking light?
Neither should be closer than about 4 inches, more if basking light is of higher wattage.
>>13).How often do you water your ficus plants?
Daily during warm weather. I don't worry about the plants, really. If the chameleon is happy, then the plant will adapt to the cham's environment. I'm raising chams, not necessarily plants!
>>14).How often do you handle your chameleons?
As little as possible! I 'handle' them (actually take them out of the cage, allow them to crawl on my hands, etc. for the sake of interaction, rather than out of necessity for cleaning) maybe twice a month. Females are never handled unnecessarily.
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

Well, I AM going to leave you links to read for several reasons. These are compiled by many successful keepers and will discuss all the topics of your questions more thoroughly than one post to this forum can. Forum responses to your questions might forget something. The sites will give you a RANGE of possibilities for keeping and make you aware of what is not set in stone. Your own setup in your climate and house condition might not fit with the approach someone on this forum might have. The sites also give natural history about the species that will help you understand their biological needs more than a mere caresheet will. These sites are the result of a lot of time and effort. Why not read them and appreciate the good will of the authors? Many of the authors give email contacts. These sites get updated and revised...always a good thing for exotic husbandry and you should check in with them occasionally. Finally, reading several good sites might make a point clearer as they are expressed slightly differently...what might be a bit confusing on one may be clear on another. I find I don't limit my reading to just one species as you never know where a great little idea will come from. So, all that being said, here are the sites I usually recommend as I know the info is good.

www.adcham.com www.chameleonnews.com www.chameleonjournals.com www.calumma.com www.geocities.com/ccicenter