Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello! So I've been doing research into keeping a Panther Cham and have been confused about the enclosure and lighting mostly. The book I have says to build a cage with a screen bottom so that feces and such falls through like a bird cage for instance and I haven't seen anything like that so far. I had thought about building a rather large mesh cage from PVC and attaching wheels to the bottom (and having a solid bottom to it) so that I could move it outdoors when I needed because I read on here that Chams need natural light every day. The main problem with that is, I live in Louisiana and the temp here has been into the 100's (115 heat index so far that I've heard of) and I didn't think it would be good to leave a cham out in that for any extended period so would taking the Cham outside be absolutely necessary or can it be replaced with UV lighting? At least I know the humidity here wouldn't be a problem! lol..

Thanks and I hope it wasn't confusing!

Most of us use a combination of UV indoor lighting and outdoor basking when the weather permits. It can work well. You can use a portable cage such as a Reptarium for outdoor basking and build the permanent cage for indoors. A good, safe, trusted UV light that doesn't produce a lot of extra heat is the ReptiSun 5.0 fluorescent. Use a regular house light bulb for basking heat. Many so called "full spectrum" bulbs on the market don't produce the UVB necessary. Check out some cage ideas on adcham.com or chameleonnews.com