advice??

[jn465]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info: reptibreeze 2 ft X 2ft X 4ft
Cage Type - screen
Lighting - Using a 160 watt bulb (dont remember the name) has uv lights and heating....
Temperature - the daily range is about 80-85, basking is about 90 - 95, and the night goes down to about 80, as i use nights lights, lights are turned off 9pm, and then turnd back on at 8 am
Humidity - I have a mister, and drip system that goes off 6 times a day at 1 min intervals. my cham also loves the shower... i also have a humidifer in my hallway...
Plants - i use a mixture of fake and real... using ficus and pothos as the real one...
Placement - is in my room. on a 3 foot stand.. not much traffic other than myself. when standing at the cage the top is taller then myself.
Location - hamilton ontario

Current Problem - have had my male veiled now for about a month, not my first lizard, been dealing with them all my life.. he is eating and drinking ok. he will take both food and water from my hand...he is going to the bathroom fine. he also love to come out of his cage and hang out on my head. but today i noticed some rather odd behaviour from him. he was holding on to a branch and was moving from side to side.. and staying on the eachh side for a few mins, also looking like he was laying on his side. im think makybe i should increase the heat?? im not sure... help i love my little man...

 

[Elizadolots]

Have you moved anything in the room around? I've read posts about chameleons seeing their reflections and behaving this way. It might be something as innocuous seeming as a new light that makes it so he can see his reflection on the TV screen.

 

[Carlton]

Current Problem - have had my male veiled now for about a month, not my first lizard, been dealing with them all my life.. he is eating and drinking ok. he will take both food and water from my hand...he is going to the bathroom fine. he also love to come out of his cage and hang out on my head. but today i noticed some rather odd behaviour from him. he was holding on to a branch and was moving from side to side.. and staying on the eachh side for a few mins, also looking like he was laying on his side. im think makybe i should increase the heat?? im not sure... help i love my little man...

It sounds like he's attempting to hide from something. Many chams will turn themselves on a branch to "hide" out of view.

 

[enigmacell]

I've seen one do that in a petshop before. Defo sounds like hes just hiding. Not being smart but it could be you hes hiding from. Does he do it when nobody is around.....have you tried looking into the room so he doesnt see you?

 

[PardalisGirl]

Powersun?

Your description of your light (160w with UVB) sounds like a Powersun mercury vapor lamp. I use those for my iguanas in floor to ceiling sized cages. They are way too hot and powerful for your chams cage. Your overall temperatures are on the high side too. He should be about 68 to 70 degrees at night. Not 80 degrees. You can use a plain old screw in house light bulb for basking. Are you using any other product for UVB? Could we get a picture of your entire cage set-up?

 

[jn465]

i havent moved anything in the room, but there is a glass tank beside him, but at the moment i covered it with bristal board so he couldnt see his reflection...
he moves around alright, and there are tons of places for him to hide, half the time i cant find him... but when he is out thats what he doing.
i also lifted the buld up higher so that it wasnt directly on his cage. the temps have dropped to what was said above. which is a good thing??

 

[unknown]

Maybe he is doing a mating dance? Don't they head bob when they're trying to mate? Maybe he's trying to woo his reflection?

 

[PardalisGirl]

Pictures please........

I would still like to see pictures of his cage set up to check the overall look and position of things for myself. I'm still concerned about that Powersun bulb. It would have to be at least 1 1/2 feet away from the top of the cage to work. To make that work on a cham cage you need a UVB meter to get the amount of UVB right. That bulb would blast him with UVB in addition to heat. I don't recommend trying to use it at all unless you are willing to get the meter. It would be so much easier to get something that easy to set right over the cage like a Reptisun linear UVB tube.

 

[Leilaskeeper]

Maybe he is doing a mating dance? Don't they head bob when they're trying to mate? Maybe he's trying to woo his reflection?

LOL .... sorry that was funny ... woo his reflection ... could he be attracted to the same sex?

 

[jojackson]

I think temperature/uv related this behaviour. Probably temperature. What species is it?
80f at night aswell isnt good, temps need to drop a little. Night lights not needed.

 

[Elizadolots]

LOL .... sorry that was funny ... woo his reflection ... could he be attracted to the same sex?

How easy is it for you to determine the sex of the animal? I'm guessing they mostly use pheromones and reflections don't give those so all the animal has to work with is a visual.

My guess would be he would be threatened by his reflection rather than being aroused by it, but either is possible.

I would make sure there are no reflections that could be bothering him (think broadly...picture frames have glass fronts). If there is a television in the area, I guess I would block his view of that. It might be that something unusual was on the TV that attracted his attention when he'd been ignoring it. Something loud and/or bright...now that he knows it's there, he might not be able to ignore it anymore. That's just a random thing to try.

 

[jn465]

its a veiled
i tried to get some pictures but my oh so lovely camera wouldnt connect with my computer...
i stopped the night light and moved the light higher... and temps have gone down...
ive also added a UV light and he seems to be perking up nicely

 

[PardalisGirl]

Still have question...........

its a veiled
i tried to get some pictures but my oh so lovely camera wouldnt connect with my computer...
i stopped the night light and moved the light higher... and temps have gone down...
ive also added a UV light and he seems to be perking up nicely

You've added another UV light? UVA and UVB? Which brand and strength? That 160 powersun mercury vapor light that you have moved higher is a super powerful UVA/UVB light. I'm not sure why you are adding more to the equation......Please keep trying with the pictures. They may clear up the confusion your words seem to be causing....

 

[kpritch17]

My 6 1/2 month old panther does this sometimes when he is trying to hide from something, but he also does it in the morning or right after he eats when he is trying to warm up in his basking spot. It's like he wants to warm up one side at a time