This is Part III in my three part documentation of my first successful panther chameleon breeding. This one will focus primarily on the hatchlings, from the time they first piped out of the egg to when the babies went to their new homes at 3 months old. These are my tips and techniques regarding the experience.
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| Tiny baby, only 3 days old. |
The first baby panther from this clutch broke through the egg on October 5th, 2012 and remained there overnight until it finally hatched the next day. Babies will often break through the egg and lie there motionless with just their nose out for hours, if not days, at which point concerned owners think that the babies are dead. This is not necessarily the case, they are in the egg absorbing whatever may be left of their egg yolk and preparing themselves to emerge completely. I recommend not pulling or cutting them out of the egg, in case you injure them or tear their umbilicus, which could lead to an infection.
After the first neonate (or hatchling) emerged the others quickly followed. It is not unusual for baby chameleons to not eat for a few days after they hatch, so I did not immediately throw food into their cage, which for the first few weeks was a butterfly cage.
HOUSING | I love the butterfly cages because they zip closed and are of a very fine soft mesh, which means that their primary food source - fruit flies - would not be able to just climb out through the screen. I placed a tiny pothos plant in the center with a few small twigs and the babies lived happily in here for the first 3-4 weeks of their life. Because babies are so sensitive to temperature extremes, the butterfly cage mesh keeps the air circulating gently but does not allow it to dry out too quickly. Babies dehydrate faster than adult chameleons, so this is another reason you do not want to allow the temperatures to get too high.
I keep babies at an ambient room temperature of about 75F. No basking bulb at ALL at this point. But they did have a UVB bulb (a linear Reptisun 5.0 bulb) suspended above their cage (make sure there is shade in the baby cage to hide from the light if they need to, in my case I provided plants they could hide in.)
I keep babies at an ambient room temperature of about 75F. No basking bulb at ALL at this point. But they did have a UVB bulb (a linear Reptisun 5.0 bulb) suspended above their cage (make sure there is shade in the baby cage to hide from the light if they need to, in my case I provided plants they could hide in.)
The next step was to switch them over to a different cage once they were older, one where small insects like crickets or roaches would not be able to climb the sides to escape, so I chose to use a very large storage container without a top and provided a small ficus and twigs. I chose this method because I could move the whole container outside and the babies could stand on the ficus and get direct sunlight but their food could not escape.
WARNING: If doing any type of open top baby cage, make sure that everything is nice and far from the sides of the container! Babies are very light and have a surprising amount of reach, so they may be able to reach over and climb right out if sufficient care isn't taken.
You could very well use a traditional screen cage or a terrarium from the beginning, but I like the butterfly cage system and liked that small feeders could not escape the bin. An Exoterra terrarium would be fairly escape proof as well, however.
TEMPERATURE | Once the babies were older, about 2 months or so, I provided very gentle heat with a low-wattage incandescent bulb (about 25-40w), which was placed at an angle in one far corner of their cage, so they could get a proper temperature gradient. Even with the light their temperature never reached higher than 80F on the branches closest to the light, and the rest of the container stayed at about 73-75F, but it provided the extra heat if they needed it.
Like I said, babies are very sensitive to dehydration and high temperatures, so you want the ambient temperature to stay moderate. Forego a basking bulb entirely if your ambient temperatures are not in the 70-75F range, as a high ambient temperature can quickly kill an entire clutch from stress and dehydration. And keep any basking spot temperature very moderate as well, about 80F, but definitely not higher than that.
FEEDING & WATERING | The babies had access to food nearly all the time, as I would add feeders to the cage about 2-3 times a day, providing a multitude of pinhead crickets, fruit flies, and tiny roach nymphs. They were not given any worms because babies that eat worms may nip at their siblings' tails, confusing them as food. As they got older the size of their food also got a little bigger. I would supplement their food with a very light dusting of plain calcium, but at this point they were not getting any vitamins. They were also taken outside for natural sunshine nearly every day in the early morning and late evening, so between this and their UVB bulb they were getting all the vitamin D they could need.
I would mist them several times a day, taking care not to spray the hatchlings directly, getting the leaves of their little plants nice and wet. I would always check all the urates (the white part) on their poop to make sure that it was indeed white and not orange, which signals dehydration.
WARNING: If doing any type of open top baby cage, make sure that everything is nice and far from the sides of the container! Babies are very light and have a surprising amount of reach, so they may be able to reach over and climb right out if sufficient care isn't taken.
You could very well use a traditional screen cage or a terrarium from the beginning, but I like the butterfly cage system and liked that small feeders could not escape the bin. An Exoterra terrarium would be fairly escape proof as well, however.
TEMPERATURE | Once the babies were older, about 2 months or so, I provided very gentle heat with a low-wattage incandescent bulb (about 25-40w), which was placed at an angle in one far corner of their cage, so they could get a proper temperature gradient. Even with the light their temperature never reached higher than 80F on the branches closest to the light, and the rest of the container stayed at about 73-75F, but it provided the extra heat if they needed it.
Like I said, babies are very sensitive to dehydration and high temperatures, so you want the ambient temperature to stay moderate. Forego a basking bulb entirely if your ambient temperatures are not in the 70-75F range, as a high ambient temperature can quickly kill an entire clutch from stress and dehydration. And keep any basking spot temperature very moderate as well, about 80F, but definitely not higher than that.
FEEDING & WATERING | The babies had access to food nearly all the time, as I would add feeders to the cage about 2-3 times a day, providing a multitude of pinhead crickets, fruit flies, and tiny roach nymphs. They were not given any worms because babies that eat worms may nip at their siblings' tails, confusing them as food. As they got older the size of their food also got a little bigger. I would supplement their food with a very light dusting of plain calcium, but at this point they were not getting any vitamins. They were also taken outside for natural sunshine nearly every day in the early morning and late evening, so between this and their UVB bulb they were getting all the vitamin D they could need.
I would mist them several times a day, taking care not to spray the hatchlings directly, getting the leaves of their little plants nice and wet. I would always check all the urates (the white part) on their poop to make sure that it was indeed white and not orange, which signals dehydration.
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| One baby enjoying the Florida sunshine. |
By the time they turned 3 months old in early January they were ready to go to their new homes. As chance would have it, all but 1 of the offspring turned out to be female, and all of them grew relatively slowly. It is believed that Nosy Faly panthers take longer to grow and mature, so perhaps that percentage of their lineage was keeping them smaller. But I am certain that once spring comes they will really take off in growth. Below are a few photos of them as they were growing up.
Since I had so few hatchlings I never had to separate them into smaller groups, but if you find yourself with a large clutch it is better for their development to be divided into smaller numbers so that each one has less competition for resources. Keeping 30 hatchlings together, even with abundant food and water, always means that there will be bullying and stress for at least the smaller, weaker individuals. It is far better to divide them into groups of 10 or smaller, and keep dividing as they continue to grow and get bigger (and show attitude towards one another!)
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