This Chameleon with its beautifull colors oringated from the islands near the coasts of Madagascar. Their colors often depends on the island originated from (Mitiso, Be, Faly... ). Mine are from Nosy Faly (Nosy meaning island in the native tongue). In the wild they can often be found basking in tree's or searching for prey. They are only active during the day. I observe that even before the lights go out in their enclosure they already search a suitable branch to sleep on. In Madagascar they have about 12 hours light a day, try to mimic this in their enclosure. The Furcifer Pardalis, like most chameleons, has a fairly limited life expectancy. Males will live for about 5 - 7 years, females even shorter. It is a common misconception that chameleons change their color to blend in their surroundings, the color of their skin change according to their mood. When they are stressed they will often become more dark or even black. Sometimes they also change their color to absorb or reflect more heat depending on their needs at that given moment. Some specimens can get really tame and used to people others will always be afraid. Don't try to force them in being something they are not. Also I see a lot of people handeling their chameleons quit often, I wouldn't recommend this as chameleons are pretty fragile animals when it comes to health. 

 

The panther chameleon also is really territorial, do not put multiple animals in one enclosure (except when you are attempting to breed them).

 

Lighting and Heat.

My enclosures are supplied with UvB bulbs with a ballast, there are different opinions about this. Some will say these bulbs give to much UvB (where my logical concent would be that the real sun probably gives loads more), and use fluorecent bulbs. In the end I think it all depends on the way your enclosure is setup. Respect the distance from the lamp to the animal and give your animal the possibility to hide from direct UvB light. As for heat, the overall temprature in the enclosure is 23-26 °C and 30-32 °C underneath the hotspot. At night I keep a minimum of 23°C (I do  this with a ceramic heat emitter connected with a thermosensor controlled by a PLC).