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I know that the night temps should drop a bit. BUT when Orion had surgery the vet said her insides were black. He said it could be from being too cold at night, and that I shouldn't let her cage drop below 80*F at night. I was letting it drop to around 70...
She's in my room right now. I was just keeping my room hot, but I'm starting to have trouble sleeping b/c I'm not feeling well. WHen that happens making it cooler helps. So... I know that a lot of you let the temps drop at night, but I was wondering the long term effects of this. Can of you who've have had chams for full life spans let me know what temps you've kept them at? Specifically panthers. Thankyou!
There are so many ways to keep chams. What my vet said is probably right, but not necessarily the ONLY right way. Also, I'm not sure if he knows much about the different species of cham, or just one (ie veiled, or something with higher temp needs). Thanks again
~Lindsay

I think your vet is way off base. There's no way that night time temps of 70F are too liw for as panther, assuming that he gets access to a nice warm basking site during the day. That being said: I can imagine if the cham's been sick (you said it had surgery) it might need higher body temps for heightened immune function. But under normal circumstances a night time drop to 70F is perfectly fine.
Ed

I have noticed that some vets are great at treating animals but don't always know the husbandry of all the animals they treat.
Your vet did a great job with Orion so I hate to contradict anything he said but I have always let my temps go down a bit at night. I keep my panthers in the low seventies at night.
Letting the temps drop down around 10 degrees or so helps the animal drop down it's metabolism so it can get the proper rest it needs and I have never heard of it causing damage. The oldest panther I have is Salvador who is approx 5 years old.
I have him for three years and have always let his temps drop at night.
Also I was reading in a book about chameleons (I can't remember which book but I will try to find it and re-post) so don't take this as 100% true since some of the books are outdated or have misinformation in them. I think the section was about Panther chams and it said their digestive systems were pigmented black I read this not too long ago and when I did Orion came to mind. I am not sure if this is correct or not but am curious about it so I wonder if anyone who had done a necropsy on a panther cham might know if this is true. If Orion had necrotic insides I find it hard to believe that she made it. I have noticed that the farthest back area of my chams tongue looks very dark. I can only see it when they shoot their tongue way out at something far away and in a photo of a cham shooting its tongue you can see it sometimes looks dark twards the back of the tongue. I think back when I had pygmie chams I remember their tongues being very dark.

OK thankyou! He had seemed very surprised that she had made it... maybe he was expecting the insides to be a different colour. That makes me feel better about the temp drop. Now that she close to completely healed I'll let them drop again at night. i like it warmish, so I'll only drop to about 74 or so.
Thanks again!!