Baby Panther Chameleon... gender/type?

Hi,

I just got a baby panther chameleon, but was not told what type it is. They had two adults in the store, one of which was very bright blue colours. I was told that my baby would look like that one when it gets older. Right now his colours pretty much are just browns, small bits of green, reds and whites. Is there a certain age when their colours become much brighter? I was told that mine's about 5 months old. I'm attaching a picture... can anyone identify which kind of panther he is? Also, I wanted a boy because I've heard that the females can have problems with their eggs.... they said this one's a boy, but is there a way to confirm this?

Lastly, we've been handling him a lot (with clean hands!) and he's always happy to jump onto our hands, and has only hissed once (when we first got him). He's eating like a little piggy... about 10 medium crickets per day.... but i really want to know if there are any signs of stress i should look for. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as i am very new to the world of chameleons.

Thanks!

Are you going to be at the NARBC show next weekend? There will be some Chameleon breeders there that can help you out.

Hard to tell what locale it is until it gets adult colors.
Althought the pic is grainy on my comp it appears to be female and won't get the color that males do.
The pet store telling you it will look like the the bright blue (possibly Nosey Be) is just a sales pitch.
Females can become egg bound if not given a place to deposit eggs but are no more harder to care for than a male.
Try not to hold too often and your hands don't have to be washed before handling but definitely after.
Good luck with her and for great info go to kingsnake.com chameleon forum.
Joel

By the way, they usually start showing color around 6 months but full color at year or older..

it's a male but i can't tell you what morphs it is. try to see the diffrent morphs on my homepage www.kamaeleoner.dk under "galleri" maby you can find your morphs there.

good luck

Thanks very much for the replies so far...

Junkyard: No, unfortunately we won't be at the convention ~ but sounds like a good opportunity to gain herp knowledge.

jusme: Thanks VERY much for the tip about getting colour around 6 mos and getting full colour by 1 year ~ this is exactly the advice i was looking for. am i correctly understanding, then, that if the info about my panther being 5 mos is correct, then it's almost guaranteed to show more colour soon, or at least within a few months?

neils: thanks for the link. wish i understood danish, b/c it looks like there's a lot of valuable info there in addition to the pics.

now the big question: which of you is correct about the gender? of course, i'm hoping it's neils, since i wanted a male and was told it's a male.... so what exactly differentiates the two sexes (visually, i mean)? i thought it was something about a point at the back of the feet, but that might be veiled only. if you can give me specific things to look for, perhaps i can make a better analysis.

one last thing about colour: based on the colours that this baby is showing now, is it possible that (s)he will be bright and rainbow-looking like some of the blues/red/greens that i've seen in the adult pics?

thanks again!

Unfortunately the spurs on the feet is only related to Veileds.
I do hope I am wrong about the sex also lol.
Color is an individual thing. You can buy a baby from the best colored male around but it's 50/50 on sharing the same great color as it's parent. Chances are better with a nice though.
Color is the way to tell sexes. As I said due to the picture looking grainy on my comp I can't guarentee. I usually can sex at 3 1/2- 4 months but 6 is good for novices.
Give it a month or two and see what the colors look like.

The best way to tell sex at a younger age would be the males bearing "humps" past the vent on the bottom of the tail. Ive had some males color up young and some not.

The color at 5 months looks to be female and the pic of the tail does as well BUT its not a good angle on the tail and SOME do not color up until 10 months or older.

The head casque also looks male but a good pic of the from of the face (tip of nose) and one of the tail would help more for sexing.

This is a female tamatave at about 6 months old, you can tell a difference between her and the Male Ill post next by looking at the head and tail. Her "nose" is shorter and the casque is shape a little different and not as prominate. She also has a tail that is thinner than a males:

He was also about 6 months in these photos, in one he is more fired up than the other. But again compare the tip of the nose area and tail thickness, its kinda hard to do without one of each sex but the pics may help you some.

Howdy,

Welcome from another So.Cal panther keeper!

My guess is male. A good face photo would help. A good tail base photo would lock-in the bet.

Take a peek at http://www.chameleonjournals.com/icham/icham.php and select Furcifer pardalis. There are male/female photos to give you a better idea of the face/nose and the tail base.

Don't hesitate to post info about your husbandry practices...