Can someone tell me if this is normal feeding behavior?

AReptile

AReptile

New Member
Lately my veiled chameleon has been demonstrating different feeding habits than he did previously. He used to stay on his plant waiting for crickets to get into range to eat but the other day i left the room and when i came back every cricket was gone and i found him on the floor and didnt know what to think because i had never seen him on the floor of the enclosure since i've had him. So just a little over 10 minutes ago i put a cricket in for him and me and my friend observed him. At first he was weary of us but then he actually came off the branch and went to the floor and then ate on the floor. Also when he was swallowing the cricket he changed colors? I'm wondering if both of these things are common in cham behavior, I do know that some of them do go after their food but my question is about the color change, if that meant anything i need to be concerned with.
 
How old is he? Are you sure it's a male? Females go to the bottom looking for a place to lay eggs. Could you post some pictures of your cham please.
 
I'm not sure it's a male at this point but it's a baby cham around 4 inches in total length, the pet store told me it was 3 months old when i got it last month. Don't have any pictures available yet though
 
I'm going to watch my cham eat again today and see if he does it again but does anyone know if this is normal or not?
 
He may just be hungry...I know that if my cham is really hungry-like I feed him a little later or don't feed him too much the day before-he likes to hunt them out more. Also, he gets really bright colors when I give him silkworms or something new that he likes :)
 
So you have witnessed a color change during feeding. Lol I thought he was like choking on the cricket or something, he turned colors i haven't seen before. Turned like a dark army green color as opposed to the usual light green he shows most of the time.
 
Oh, well I'm not sure about turning dark colors. Mine just sometimes gets more bright and vibrant right after he sticks a crix or silkworm..
 
Ok he's on the floor hunting again... He IS eating and finally ive gotten him to drink on a regular basis. He actually produced a white urate for the first time since i've had him today. But he used to hunt from the plant now he goes after the crickets on the ground. It makes no sense to me..
 
When I saw him eat firsthand yesterday from the floor he shot his tongue out, dunno bout today cuz he did it when i left the room
 
AReptile said:
I'm not sure it's a male at this point but it's a baby cham around 4 inches in total length, the pet store told me it was 3 months old when i got it last month. Don't have any pictures available yet though
Click to expand...
Look for spurs on the back of its feet to tell if its a male. If non, its a girl but I wouldnt think it would be laying eggs at that young.
 
I really honestly cannot tell if it's a male or a female even when i look at the back feet because I've never actually seen a good picture of what the spurs look like on males. I'll try to get a good pic on here of my cham been trying since i got em lol. I also don't think it's 4 months old but i do know its at least a month old because he/she has been with me since mid january.
 
Here's a link to a rare "everyone agrees" thread on "what sex is my chameleon" (one that did not, in fact, just get silly).

https://www.chameleonforums.com/male-do-you-agree-36944/

There are pictures of a veiled they all seem to agree is male. Maybe that will be helpful.

Also, if you can get pictures, that would be best...if not, can you give an idea of size? Nose to base of tail is the most helpful.
 
I can give you an estimate that is probably close to correct. I would say from snout to tail 4 inches, possibly 5 at the most. 2 weeks ago when i took the cham's plant out to replace the paper towels I tried to measure the length but can't do it accurately without pissing the cham off lol. I have looked at the link you supplied in your last post and i just might be too much of a novice at sexing chameleons to know what mine is because I still didn't see anything on that cham's feet. I really dont think that there are anything on the feet of mine so perhaps it's a female. Which sucks because i gave it a boys name already lol. I am going to try and put the pictures i have up hopefully later so i can get a verdict on the gender.
 
Ok with that I'm 95% sure Curtis is a girl now =(. I'm pretty sure i see nothing on the back feet but i'll still get pics up.

Edit: Just went to the floor again and ate a cricket. Did certainly shoot the tongue out and bagged it. Then the cham goes back on the plant after eating. No color change this time around. The only time i witnessed a color change during feeding was when i originally posted this thread.
 
Alright I feel the need to update this as my cham keeps eating at the bottom of the enclosure. It snowed like crazy over here and when i come home i look at my cham and noticed (s)he seemed to have its foot tangled in between the branches of my fake plant. I helped the foot out and then my cham proceeded to wolf down 3 crickets like it was nothing and then went back on its plant. However I just woke up from taking a nap after all of the shoveling i did today and i find my cham at the bottom again? I don't know if it fell off (which it never has since I've had it) or it's looking for more food and i don't know what is going on. It should be sleeping right now but I'm unsure if i should try and put it back on the plant or let it sleep on the floor. Oh and i gave it another cricket a few minutes ago to see if it responds to food and it was eaten in a few minutes. My cham seems to be eating and drinking fine so I'm clueless what's going here but I think my cham has MBD setting in or something.
 
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