Reptile & Amphibian Forums

haha, please looks like a funny word now..

Anyhow, I have been doing my research, but have found very little detailed information. So I was hoping you experienced keepers could look over what I have found and tell me if it looks good.

This is for panthers:
temperature: range 70-90*
humidity: differing opinions anywhere from 40% to 100%
misting: 4x a day
dripper: once a day for 15 minutes
for juveniles: 5-6 medium to large crix a day, calcium 6 days of the week and vitamins one day of the week
for adults: 4-5 large crix a day, calcium dust 3-4 times a week, vitamins one day
juveniles are 4-10 months old and adults are older than 10 months

I read that for babies you can feed them as many crix as they want, but when they are juvys you should hold back cause they grow slower. Too many crix then might help cause MBD.

Thank you so much for responding, I really want to make sure I do everything right.

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~Melissa

As far as making them grow slower, there isn't much you can do about it. With all that calcium supplementation the cham probably won't get mbd. But, underfeeding would be more of a cause of mbd than overfeeding. As long as they have the nutrients, they'll grow healthily into beautiful, large adults. This subject has been touched here before but was pretty controversial, if i remember correctly.

Your temps and humidity are good, and be sure those temps are 70-80 for the ambient temp, and 90-95 for the basking spot (change the bulb to a lower wattage if the ambient temp is highger, say in the summertime). Four mistings a day really isn't necessary, one in the morning and one about an hour before lights out is fine. Dripper is good, but some chams (including two of mine) don't drink from them, although it is good to try, so please do.

A cham is an "adult" when it refuses to eat more than the usual juvenile diet of up to 20 crickets a day. This being said, refusing to eat can also be very bad. I should say, I guess, when the cham is eating much much less, but is still ehalthy in every other way, is at or is near the proposed adult size of the species, and they are a bit over 8 months old, then the cham won't be doing any more growing.

Don't supplement every day, this can cause huge overdoses of calcium and D3, which can lead to kidney stones/kindey failure. For a juvi, every two days is fine. The multivitamin can be used every 2 weeks. When adults, the supplement should be used MAXIMUM every three feedings, and multivitamin MAX every 3 weeks, even every month if you gutload the crickets and other feeders properly (be sure to read up about gutloading before you get your cham).

I think that's everything...oh well good luck with your cham!
(be sure to have a properly sized all-screen cage with REAL plants, fake ones are good additions but real ones are so much better, and cheaper!). AS for lighting, I don't remember you mentioning it, so you should have a normal house bulb of proper wattage (60-75 watts if the temp is 70-75 in the air) in a reflector lamp, and you should have a UVB light of some type, like Reptiglo or Reptisun 8.0's.

I've posted a picture of my cage on here before, it's a 24x24x48 wood and screen cage. I have a ficus, pothos, and umbrella plant inside, along with a few fake vines for extra cover. Lots of sticks and vines for perching too. I'm using a ZooMed Powersun for UV as they penetrate further than the fluorescent bulbs, and a regular light bulb with reflector dome for heat. Oh, and a dripper too.
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~Melissa

What is the proper protocol for introducing your new (just arrived via UPS) cham to his home? I read the article on the Ezine about shipping animals, so I have an idea of what to expect when I get the package, but haven't seen anything about the receiver's end.

I assume he will be thirsty and hungry, but also pretty stressed out. I can put some crix in the cage, no big deal, but what to do about misting? Should I mist the cage before I put him in it to reduce stress? Should I wait until he's been in there for some amount of time before misting? Or is it okay to mist him right away?

I assume the dripper won't bother him too much so I will let that run.

Thanks! I'm so excited...
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~Melissa

Hiyas Mel!

Since Chams are attracted to the "rain" action of droplets, here's what I would do:

1. When he/she arrives, carefully inspect him if he is in a see-through container for any damage/abnormalities you can see.
2. Put it in the cage and start the dripper and a pretty good rate of droplets where it is obvious to the cham and easy to reach.
3. Wait a half hour or so and then come back and give the cage a good spraying down with HOT water (it cools down as soon as the mist hits the air). Chams respond better to warm water than cold water.
4. The Cham probably wotn want to eat right away on account of being stressed. This is a good time to cup feed train him if you plan on going that way. Place a few crix in a cup within easy access for the cham. If you're gonna free range the crix, put a few (3 or 4) in the cage and see if the cham shows interest. Dont linger too long because that adds to the stress.
5. Come back a coupld of hours later and check on teh dripper and re-mist the cage (5 minutes of fine misting with hot water should be fine)

Thats pretty much it! If the crix are all gone it's good. If theyre not gone, get em out of the cage before the night comes so they dont bite the cham. Chams may go a few days before theyre comfy enough in their new house to start eating so dont fret. Keep up the misting and the food offerings and eventually the cham will come around.
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Raf

1.2 Jacksons Adults (Frank, Patty 2, Lucille)
0.0.17 Jacksons babies
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Diego and Consuelo)
1.1 Adult Sulcattas (POOPIE and George)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY)
0.0.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis)
1.0 Yellow Footed Tortoise (Alfred)
1.1 3 toed turtles
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

..
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~Melissa