General information

The scientifical name for panther chameleons is 'furcifer pardalis' and they originate from the humid forests of madigascar.

They come in all different colours and by the colour you can in some cases tell which part of madigascar they have originated from.we call these locales, for eg nose be blues are from a large town in madigascar called nose be and these are a blue/green colour.

In the mornings the dew collects on leafs and the chameleons will lick this off to drink.in the wild chameleons only have a life ecspectancy of a year maybe 2 but in captivity females cane live up to 3 years old and i have heard of some males as old as 7 years!

Baby housing

A suitable sized cage for a 3 month old panther chameleon would be 18" high X 1ft deep X 1ft long.this is the same size as a small exo terra terratium and we would recoment a exo terra terrarium for baby chameleons because the glass keeps in the humidity but the mesh top keeps them well ventilated.

Sub-Adult/Adult housing

Minimum size vivarium for any panther chameleon would be 3ft tall X 2ft X 2ft.some of our tanks are 4ft tall, bigger is definitly better.we have had good results with wooden vivs bt he downpoint to these is that they get damp, split and swell.

If you can use glass or plastic these materials are much much better.most of our setups have drainage but this is mainly to make things easyer for us, but are definitly worth thinking about for your own setup.

Heating and lighting

At night our chameleons are kept at 70f which is normal room temperature.in the day our tanks are heated with 60w spot bulb which brings the tank up to 80f-88f but the chamelens can regulate body temp by being higher or lower in there tanks.

we use repti-sun 5.0 uvb tubes for all our chameleons and recommend them to anyone.

Hydration

This is a very important subject as most chameleon deaths are caused by this.we mist out tanks up to 5 times a day for 2 minutes at a time using automatic misting systems.

if you are keeping just the 1 chameleons a mister wont be necassary but they will need to be misted by hand at least 3 times a day.personally if i was mising by hand i would do it once in the morning, twice when i get back in fom work around 5 and then again in the evening.

Feeding

Chameleons do like to eat and we like to watch. We feed our chameleons everday with about 5 apropriate sized crickets, once a week with waxworms and now and again with locust. Sometimes people will have problems with feeding because they are not giving them a good variety. If your wife gave you the same meal everyday I bet you wouldnt be too happy eh.

Breeding

When your female is ready to breed (at obout 10 months old)she will go a nice ornge/pink clour which means she is receptive and ready to breed.

Whe she does this you can try and introduce her to the males cage and if she stays that colour, doesent go black or gape her mouth this means its likely that she will accept he males courting.but keep your eye on them some male panthers and nasty and dont treat there women with much respect lol.

If the breeding goes to plan your female will fall gravid and totally change her colour to a very dark brown or even black.feed her lots and lost of fatty foods with calcium being given everyfeeding and after 3-4 weeks she will soon show signs of wanting to lay.she will be very active and be at the bottom of the tank alot you need to keeep your eye on her.

When laying the eggs she will need a big tub full of slightly moist sandy soil to lay her eggs in.laying can ake up to 2 days and is very stressful for the female.once she is done put her back in her cage and feed her up and ist the cage abit more than usual.

Incubation

There is more than 1 way to do this but this is how we do it.we keep our eggs in plastic containers filled with a ratio of 0.7 parts water to 1.0 part dry vermiculite and keep the eggs a constant 75f.