cats & chameleon?

Hi all,

I'm a bit worried about the environment for my 3 month old panther chameleon. I got him less than a week ago.

I have 3 young cats (all of them about a year old) and they are very active and right now, very curious about the chameleon cage. They walk/run around the entire home all day. When the cats are around, I witnessed that the cham's eyes moving crazy looking at the cats' movement. I put the chameleon cage on an end table that fits the bottom of the cage so the cats can't get him or get on the cage but would he be stressed to see all the cats walking around?

I saw from other posts that their chameleons died because of the stress from cats. I've isolated my panther in the bedroom and kept the door closed all this time but this cannot go on forever. Does anyone here have cats? Can they coexist?

I had an old cat when I had gotten my first 6 mo old Panther. I never noticed an issue but I could definitely see where several young spunky cats could be stressing to your little guy. Especially in a small space. It will be best for him to be isolated in a part of the house where he can't see the cats.

Yes, he could be very stressed out. My chameleons do not like my dog at all. They get very upset at the sight of him so I try not to have them interact at all. Some chameleons get along well with other animals, and some do not. We have one member on here who photographs his dog with his chameleon, but that is not the norm. I would be very careful so your cats have no access to the cage, especially when you are not around. We have had member's chameleons die from the cats getting in the cages, jumping on the cages and knocking them over.

I have 2 cats and 3 chams... My veiled Stanley could care less about the cats, I've had him since he was 3 months old and he's used to seeing them running around.
I don't trust them so I've always made double sure that they can't get on top of the cage or knock it over. At this point they seem more interested in the feeders in the cage than the chams.
And if I want to take Stanley out and let him roam around the cats go into a room with the door shut..
It can work you just have to be careful.. Good luck

Here's my bad boys checking out the feeders in Stanley's cage..

this is only gonna end bad, have your chameleon on a place where the cats don't have access too

I was thinking of this problem for someday in the future when I get a cham, I have a cat and a dog who are quite... uhhh... "energetic". An idea I had was if the cham cage is in a corner, to get one of those curved shower rods that fits into the corner, and hang a shower curtain up so the cham can't see the cat and vice versa. And the great thing about the shower curtain is, when you need to access your cham or if your cat is not in the room, you can easily just open the curtains and voila! (I think I'm going to do this when I get a cham and then when people want to see my cham I'll go into my room, dramatically throw open the curtains, and say "voila!" )

chameeeleon said:

I was thinking of this problem for someday in the future when I get a cham, I have a cat and a dog who are quite... uhhh... "energetic". An idea I had was if the cham cage is in a corner, to get one of those curved shower rods that fits into the corner, and hang a shower curtain up so the cham can't see the cat and vice versa. And the great thing about the shower curtain is, when you need to access your cham or if your cat is not in the room, you can easily just open the curtains and voila! (I think I'm going to do this when I get a cham and then when people want to see my cham I'll go into my room, dramatically throw open the curtains, and say "voila!" )

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Haha, great idea. I actually thought about getting a room divider this morning. I reserved to have a boxer puppy in a few months and I am quite worried about that too, since boxers are hyper-active..

lisagr07 said:

I have 2 cats and 3 chams... My veiled Stanley could care less about the cats, I've had him since he was 3 months old and he's used to seeing them running around.
I don't trust them so I've always made double sure that they can't get on top of the cage or knock it over. At this point they seem more interested in the feeders in the cage than the chams.
And if I want to take Stanley out and let him roam around the cats go into a room with the door shut..
It can work you just have to be careful.. Good luck

Here's my bad boys checking out the feeders in Stanley's cage..

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Thank you for sharing your picture! My two boy cats are like that too. I think if I get a high table like yours and put the cage on top of it, cats won't be able to get there.

modernjamie said:

Thank you for sharing your picture! My two boy cats are like that too. I think if I get a high table like yours and put the cage on top of it, cats won't be able to get there.

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You are welcome. The stand is 36" tall and the cage is 53" tall so the tip top is 7'5", just far enough away for the lights and to fit and the cats not to fit...

As stated my Cham has been looking at the cats since he was 3 months old... He has no fear of them and now there more interested in feeders than him!!

My cat isn't always interested in my Cham, and visa versa. But the feeders he is. He isn't allowed in the room with my Cham when I'm not here, as the cage is mesh no matter what it's on or how high, my cat has climbed it using his nails. Luckily nothing happened, but that's why he's not allowed in same room unless I'm there.
Kath.

My veiled is fine with our 7 cats and 2 dogs. Doesn't stress out about them and the dogs and cats leave the cham alone.