Producing Rainbow Panther chameleons!
A little about us here @508Chams..
Why i do what i do?
At 508Chams Chameleon Breeders , I'm just a guy whos passionate about chameleon's. I fell in love with these animals at a young age after watching the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin wrangle one out of a tree! In 2010 I purchased a rescue which fanned the flames of my fascination with them to another level. Ever since then I've dedicated alot of my time to learn as much as i can about how they live! You see To me a chameleon is more than just a pet animal – they are part of the family. That's why I treat every cham as if it were my own.
Our Experience
With over 10 years of experience in keeping and caring for chameleons. With everyday being a learning experience, we have the knowledge to handle almost any situation cham related that you may have concerns or questions about. And if I don't know I'll go out my way to find the right information you may be looking for!
The Breeders here @508Chams
YbBb Ambilobe
El Niño
El Niño is our premier yellow body blue bar ambilobe breeder. An absolute stunning animal with bright yellows and deep blue bars. He's a tropical storm of colors! He was produced by Framschams. We currently have 5 clutches of his offspring incubating, which should hatch around the beginning of 2024.
Chameleon care
Caging
Most Chameleon's are arboreal reptiles, living up in tree canopies. Juveniles up to around 8-9 months and adult females can be housed in an 18x18x36 inch enclosure. An adult male chameleon will need a minimum 24x24x48 inch enclosure that's well ventilated. I've always gone with the XL reptibreeze screen cage, but there are lots of options when it comes to enclosures now a days. There are hybrid cages that combine solid and screen sides which is great for holding in humidity and will still allow ventilation. A small computer fan will help with airflow. You can even try a DIY and build your own, or you can get a custom enclosure built for you. There are several options based on the budget your working with.
Cage setup
Setting up an enclosure varies. It can be all up to your creative imagination! Key things you want to provide is a perch that's at least 6-8 inches from the top of the screen And live plants. You want a good amount of vertical and horizontal branches for your Chameleon to get around on. Aside from the visual esthetic, The use of Live plants should provide a place for your cham to hide out and also for shade when it needs to get away from its basking area. Chameleons also occasionally eat plant leaves to aid in digestion. * If you have a female chameleon you want to add a laybin in the enclosure. Once they're mature females will lay eggs even if they haven't been with a male. There are different ways to setup a laybin, some keepers will do 50/50 mix of a topsoil/playsand mix. I personally just use playsand. Make sure whichever you might use is moist enough to hold its form when the female is digging, If it's too wet the tunnel may collapse on the chameleon.
Lighting
Chameleons require uvb lighting along with a heat lamp to bask in. It is an ABSOLUTE necessity to provide a uvb light for your Chameleon to produce D3 which is needed for calcium absorption. Without it your cham can develop MBD (metabolic bone disease) which is fatal if untreated. The proper uvb lighting for a chameleon is a T5 HO (high output) lamp. 24 inch is the minimal size lamp. If you use the XL reptibreeze a 36 inch lamp can be used as well. You can place it diagonally on top of the enclosure. As far as brands of lamps, the zoo med reptisun and Arcadia lamps are the go to. Uvb bulb strength for a panther chameleon are either zoomed 5.0 or if your using Arcadia then you want the 6% bulb. As far as basking lighting a 50-75 watt incandescent bulb should provide adequate heat. I use 65 watt BR30 halogen flood light. Don't use a BR30 led flood light, led's don't put out heat. Basking spot temp should be 80-85 degrees. Use a digital thermometer gun to check basking spot. Zoomed digital thermometer can be used as well. Lighting schedule should be a 12hr on 12hr off. 7am on 7pm off would be an example of that schedule. A timer outlet will make it easier to keep a set schedule.
Temps & humidity
Generally in the daytime you want to achieve an ambient cage temperature around 70-75 degrees and the basking spot around 80-85 degrees. Daytime humidity should be around 40-60%. At night the temperature should drop into mid to low 60's, and humidity be over 70% up to 100%. Getting it to a 100% can be tricky depending on where your located, but with proper misting and the use of a fogger at night, you should be able to achieve required humidity.
Misting/ fogging
There's a few ways to go about misting. A spray bottle from a dollar store will do just fine or a 1/2 gallon - 1 gallon garden spray bottle which can be found at most local pet stores, if not try amazon or Walmart. This method works if you have one or two chameleons and the time to manually mist 2x a day (morning&night). If you don't have the time to manually spray your animal because of work, school, etc.. then you want to consider an automated misting system that can be programed to mist at certain times. Automated systems can be pricey but definitely worth it. I personally use the Mistking system. They offer a starter system, the ultimate system and the advanced system. You can also find similar systems to the Mistking on Amazon. Schedule for misting should be done 2x a day once in the morning before lights come on and at night when lights go out or a couple of minutes before they go out.
Fogging should be done in the middle of the night into early morning hours. I suggest researching fogging schedules, as there are alot of different ways to go about it, and I personally do not use a fogger. So I don't want to give any misinformation about fogging.