4mo old baby often dark or pacing

[ChameleonClem]

Hello, new cham owner here, my cham is pretty terrified of us, even seeing us across the house seems to upset him.
He will not eat off tongs so ive been trying to work on trust via sitting on the floor somewhere near his cage or within sight during feeding, usually the door is closed but i sometimes ill leave it open. Him eating reluctantly infront of me is the only progress ive made so far. He is aggressive if i reach in the cage near him, if i get too close to the cage or open the door he hides behind the brand hes standing on.
He is almost always a med grey color w stripes and white spots visable. Sometimes he is dark (see photo) for seeming no reason other than us passing by. His cage is sparse in the top so i have covered the outside in faux plants.
Im worried he may be too cold so i used my gun yesterday he was at 82 under basking lamp.
And he paces in vertical circles after feeding, and he consistently eats 6-7 crickets a day around 4 pm.
Automatic misting twice a day and as needed in between.
12 hour light cycle from 7:30a-7:30p
When summer comes and more plants become available i plan to pack the cage with plants.

What am i doing wrong? Am i causing unnecessary stress on him?

Ill include a picture of him today at noon, he was dark as i have seen him get, all thats happened to him was my boyfriend walked past the cage a few times.
He is rarely a light tan color but usually just when he is asleep.

Edit; he did just finish shedding yesterday so that has put him in a lovely mood but the last little pieces fell off yesterday morning

 

[kinyonga]

Please post some photos of the cage including the lights.

 

[ChameleonClem]

The folgers can if to list the pothos untill my local stores carry an adequate big plant. My only choices right now are poisonous things and figs so i figured the coffee pot would do untill spring.
He never leaves the top 5in of his cage unless he goes to sleep, he then will move to the plant and get settled for the night

 

[ChameleonClem]

Update; i decided to temp him after these pics and he then made it his life mission to murder my temp gun; photos included. It was maybe six inches away from him and below him when he decided it needed to die. Did the color scare him? His body temp is 87-90.
I continued holding it the cage close enough where he could reach it (pictured) so that he would learn aggression is not the answer to him being afraid. And 7-10 minutes into it he was getting tired and still at it. So i swapped for a short dowel rod and lifted him up onto a branch and he was not aggressive at all towards the dowel. But if i slowly brought the gun back he went right back to hissing and lunging.
I do not handle him, i handled him to get him from the mailer to his cage for a brief couple seconds,
I handled him and got him onto a dowel rod and put him on a plant for cleaning a couple weeks after getting him.
And ive “handled” him today as described above.

Im fine with not handling him but this level of aggression today was crazy. I know hes scared but how can i fix it. Do i just need more plants?

 

[MissSkittles]

Your temp gun is orange and looks like a predator.

 

[Beppo]

I would definitely give him more plants. He’s feeling insecure and exposed im sure, im still learning as well, but one thing I know is then feeling safe is EVERYTHING

 

[jcarlsen]

I think when they're young they're going to be prone to being scared anyways, but I agree with the feedback given so far about adding plants for security. I might also suggest eventually finding a different solution for draining the water that collects at the bottom. It looks like it kind of pools at the bottom based on your photos. If you can put some kind of bin under the enclosure and maybe drill some holes into the bottom panel so it can drip out it'll allow the bottom to dry out more during the day it won't be as much of a breeding ground for bacteria. Just my two cents.
Also if it's any consolation, my panther also hates my temp gun lol:

 

[ChameleonClem]

I think when they're young they're going to be prone to being scared anyways, but I agree with the feedback given so far about adding plants for security. I might also suggest eventually finding a different solution for draining the water that collects at the bottom. It looks like it kind of pools at the bottom based on your photos. If you can put some kind of bin under the enclosure and maybe drill some holes into the bottom panel so it can drip out it'll allow the bottom to dry out more during the day it won't be as much of a breeding ground for bacteria. Just my two cents.
Also if it's any consolation, my panther also hates my temp gun lol:
View attachment 336673

Lol thanks, i held it in there to teach him violence is not the answer but i felt like i was abusing him i think ill paint mine green like the plants lol

 

[kinyonga]

@ChameleonClem said…”Lol thanks, i held it in there to teach him violence is not the answer but i felt like i was abusing him i think ill paint mine green like the plants lol”…holding the temperature gun in there will not teach him that violence is not the answer.

I’ve seen the odd case of a person scaring the chameleon to death (accidentally) by having a camera or some other item in their face…sadly.

Do you really want to scare your chameleon to death?

 

[ChameleonClem]

@ChameleonClem said…”Lol thanks, i held it in there to teach him violence is not the answer but i felt like i was abusing him i think ill paint mine green like the plants lol”…holding the temperature gun in there will not teach him that violence is not the answer.

I’ve seen the odd case of a person scaring the chameleon to death (accidentally) by having a camera or some other item in their face…sadly.

Do you really want to scare your chameleon to death?

Im not intentfully harming my chameleon. I am doing my best; thats why i have asked for help. Now that i know better i would not do it again. I have recognized a problem and understood that i am not solving it fast enough; so i have reached out to the chameleon community.
Id understand why someone wouldn't want to ask for help when people react in the way that you do.
I was not raised around reptiles it will be a learning curve to understand how they process things; just like im sure you had to go through as well.

 

[kinyonga]

The only question you asked was…”What am i doing wrong? Am i causing unnecessary stress on him?”…holding the temperature gun near him is causing him unnecessary stress…so you are harming him whether it’s intentional or not. You reached out and I gave you my opinion. I was not rude or disrespectful…I simply gave you information. I hate to see peoples chameleons die when it can be avoided.

When I started keeping chameleons back in the 80’s, I had an even steeper learning curve than you should be having because there was no information on them at all then…it was all a learning curve. There was no internet, no books on chameleons, no information anywhere about them…and to top it off, chameleons all came in wild caught which meant most were in bad health when they arrived, carried parasites, had diseases and infections, injuries and many other issues…and we had no proper caging or lighting or supplements. We had very few insect species to feed them…no automatic misters and other equipment…and yet some of us figures things out.

Hopefully someone else will chime in and give you the help you are asking for as well as the help and understanding you need for your chameleon to survive.

 

[elizaann2]

I think when they're young they're going to be prone to being scared anyways, but I agree with the feedback given so far about adding plants for security. I might also suggest eventually finding a different solution for draining the water that collects at the bottom. It looks like it kind of pools at the bottom based on your photos. If you can put some kind of bin under the enclosure and maybe drill some holes into the bottom panel so it can drip out it'll allow the bottom to dry out more during the day it won't be as much of a breeding ground for bacteria. Just my two cents.
Also if it's any consolation, my panther also hates my temp gun lol:
View attachment 336673

I surrender!

 

[elizaann2]

Chameleons have a very different view of the world from us. They are prey animals and anything bigger than them they will most likely think is trying to eat them.

It’s defiantly a big learning curve learning to take care of these guys but lucky for us there is a lot of awesome information easily available for us.

Check out the Chameleon Academy podcast, episode 6. It talks about chameleons and stress. It might be helpful to you.

I do think your little guy will improve with more coverage. It will help him feel safer. I’ll share some photos of my enclosures to give you an idea of what that looks like.