Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was reading in the Chameleon keeping book and it said that an outdoor keeping situation is preferred especially if you want to breed due to more regular exposure to the sun. But can one do this with Panthers in Southern CA wheather? 40-100 F., Definately not enough Humidity. OR do we here in CA keep outdoors by season, and or do a mixture of indoor outdoor keeping? I think I'd do the latter(outdoor only when I am around to supervise, and indoor otherwise). Please help clarify the issue. Thanks! Maggie

Maggie,

When I lived in San Diego, I built an outdoor enclosure similar to what John has on his website. I used to bring my Jacksons outside in the morning and back inside to their reptariums in the evening. I did the same thing with my tortoises. Even though we had relatively warm temps in the summer evenings, I did not want to chance it. I installed a timed misting system that I bought at Home Depot. It was an outdoor mister that cost $20.00. I bought a battery operated timer that went between my outside spigot and the mister for another $20.00. The timer allowed me to start the misters every 1,2,3, etc hours for anywhere from 3 minutes to 1 hour. I had mine set to go off every hour for 3 minutes. That took care of the humidity needs (as close as I could, anyway) and the watering needs. I had 3 larger ficus trees in the enclosure and my 3 chams would each pick a fav spot. They got plenty of sun and shade and plenty of water. They hated coming insise at night and would try and hide from me LOL!! They loved going outside in the mornings and readily came to me when I opened their reptariums. I think Victor kept his outside 24/7 in the summer so I'm sure he can give you some other tips. He was in San Diego too.

Hope this helps. Go check out John's enclosure and see what you think. I found it rather easy to build and modify to my needs.
-----
Raf

1.2 Jacksons Adults (Frank, Patty, Lucille)
0.0.1 Jackson's baby (George, R.I.P. 11/17/2003)
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Veiled - No Names Yet
0.1 Adult Sulcatta (POOPIE,I bought it from Victor at Kobey's in SD)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY, From Victor as well)
1.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis and Dorkus)
0.0.1 3 toed box turtle - No Name Yet
0.0.1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle - No Name Yet
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
0.1 Black Lab (Krissy)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

As long as the night time low stays above 60, you can keep your panthers outside all day and night. I keep mine in partial shade and plenty of live plants in cages to ensure chameleon does not become overheated when the weather permits. When it starts getting colder, they start to come inside at night. When it finally gets too cold for them (not that long in San Diego), that's when they stay inside all the time and I break out the UVB lights and timers.
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com