Behavior - Horizontally shaking head

[eppcheck]

Today I was rearanging/cleaning my female veiled's enclosure. I had brother hold her while I made some adjustments. While she was being held she confortably layed on his hand and showed no obvious signs of being stressed but....

typically she just stands still doesn't move and occasionally she'll try to make forward progress up his arm to higher ground which is expected, no biggie. This time she just layed down belly resting on my friends wrist and would shake her head side to side for a few seconds. I thought nothing of it at first. The process of cleaning her enclosure took about 10-15 min and she shook her head side to side roughly 4-5 times. Almost as if she was trying to shake something off. She had Just finished shedding so my assumption is it was an attempt to remove the remaining shed. It wasn't violent but was a behavior I've never seen her do in her enclosure when shedding before. She was showing her calm green colors and wasn't puffed up or hostile at all. Should I be concerned? I've read that they will do similiar head movement when they eat something to large that blocks their throat. After putting her in her cage she was back to her normal self but I do have some natural soil in one of her plants and am a little paranoid she might have injested some of it with a feeder. Is this something I should be concerned about?

Anyways let me know if I need to fill out the Help form. I hope I'm just being too worried

 

[chameleonneeds]

I think it could be a matter of concern but its good shes back to normal, I would fill out the help form just incase so we can see whats up.

You know what MBD is right? Does she show any visual signs of having it? When my female had mbd she would lie with her legs pushed up and her tummy would be on my hand, and she would rest her head on my hand to.

 

[eppcheck]

Yes I'm familiar with MBD. Infact I'm probably way too paranoid than the average new keeper when it comes to MBD. The pictures I've seen and stories i've heard make me feel horrible. I figured the help form would be needed so here goes...be gentle...

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Veiled Chameleon, female, 5-6months old. Been in my care almost 3 months now

Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
My first 2 weeks I handled her almost every day because I thought she would get use to me. The third week after browsing the forums I decided to handle only if needed which is once every 1.5 - 2 weeks for cleaning, rearanging enclosure, etc... (she is only tolerant of my hand in her cage if i'm hand feeding)

Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
The first months I fed her 6 crickets a day. Currently I feed about 5-6 crickets and I also provided 1-2 worms as a snack (Either 1xsuperworm, 2xsilk, or 1xhornworm). The crickets have dry gutload from premiumcrickets.com, Fluckers calcium fortified water gel, and I also make a wet gutload with my juicer (carrots, potatoes, apples, oranges). The worms are just gutloaded the chow I bought with them. Superworms are also provided carrots for hydration. I stopped feeding hornworms because the one I have grew so huge that I'm afraid she will choke on them.

Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
I currently use rep-cal calcium phosphorus free without d3 every 2-3 days on the crickets. I use the calcium w/d3 once every other week and do not currently use a multivitamin (So she has been without since I've had her, sorry). I will be getting some with my next shipment from LLLreptile actually tomorrow.

Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
I use a habbamist as an expensive dripper...(yeah i said it). It sprays for a min every hour. I also mist 2-4 times daily for 2-3 minutes. Infact she use to drink out of a bowl my dripper dripped into her first month (yeah weird), but have not seen her drink since then. She apparently does it when I'm gone since her urate is white and she shows no signs of dehydration.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
She has a 24x24x48 Reptibreeze.

Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Reptisun 5.0 18", 75 watt incandescent bulb for basking, and I also have a 100 watt glow bulb for the plants.

Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
90 degree basking spot and the ambient temperature is always above 70. 65 degrees is the lowest my house reaches.I use a thermometer with a probe (the yellow one) i forgot the brand.

Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Humidity is between 35 and 50 regularly. I use a humidistat with a probe. I maintain these levels with the combination of manual misting and automatic misting/dripping from my habbamister.

Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
I have a umbrella tree and pothos. I also have a few plastic plants in the top corners where my tree doesn't reach just to provide some privacy when basking near the top.

Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?

First first months the cage was sitting on the floor therefore no higher than 4'. Currently I have it on a 3' table so it sits pretty hight 7' at the top.

Its in my room where it is alone from 7:00am to 6:00 pm. My room can be high traffic when I have company over who want to see my reptiles but that usually lasts only 40 min or so and then Its just me sneaking in to watch what shes doing.

Location - Where are you geographically located?
I'm in Salem, Oregon. Pacific northwest baby oh yeah.........I'm trying to move

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Behavior with her shaking her head side to side described above. I've never read/heard/or seen this before.

 

[eppcheck]

pictures

In all her glory

The Enclosure

 

[Julirs]

She looks good-a big girl so make sure she has a laying bin. I have a few chams that do the side to side head toss thing-one threatens me like that and another few hate getting misted on the head and will do it. To keep her from laying some mega-clutches I would back her heat off some to about 80-85 in the basking spot.

 

[eppcheck]

She looks good-a big girl so make sure she has a laying bin. I have a few chams that do the side to side head toss thing-one threatens me like that and another few hate getting misted on the head and will do it. To keep her from laying some mega-clutches I would back her heat off some to about 80-85 in the basking spot.

Thanks you, your response is reassuring. I've just never seen or heard of a cham doing it and thought it could be either a respiratory issue, those big hornwormse, and possible a little soil being consumed with her feedin causing her to choke. Since she has been in her enclosure she has stopped. So, I'm just going to check it off as no big deal.

Oh and yeah, she has been getting pretty large. I ordered some medium sized hornworms and didn't expect them to get so large so fast. She absolutley loves them though and I can't help but give her one every now and then. I'm started to free roam her crickets to get her at thmuch needed movement to burn those extra calories. thanks for the tip i'll definanently implement a lower basking temp. She is about that age...

 

[jpm995]

I would guess while she wasen't really stressed, maybe she was warning him to not make any sudden moves.

 

[chamlover]

I have a couple of panthers that will do that, sometimes quite violently, if i dare get any water on their head. llol.

 

[freeflymedina]

Mine does that too!

My Female veiled does that too but she is quite healthy and very bright green.

 

[cantgetagoodsn]

My Jackon's does that as well from time to time...

 

[Elizadolots]

Yeah...that just seems like grumpy chameleon letting you know she's not okay with what's going on. If she didn't flare up on colors, she wasn't overly stressed by it.

 

[Maurer3D]

A good portion (25%ish) of the chameleons I have ever had did the same thing whenever I had to pick them up for cage cleaning or vet visits. Its nothing to be worried about, perfectly normal.

Shes looks great......