Cham digging at bottom of cage

[DomsChams]

Hey everyone,

I hope this is the right spot for this discussion. For about a month now my chameleon, Chance has been traveling throughout his cage, going up and down, more than usual and will go to the bottom of the cage at least 10 times a day and start digging at the corners into the substrate. He is 6 months old and is really healthy. I took a video of him today but I can't figure out how to upload it to this thread.

The only logical reason that I could come up with is that maybe his enclosure is to small and he is just trying to find a larger place to move around. I just got him an adult enclosure and I am already starting to set It up, but before then I would just like to have some closure on this issue and to make sure he is okay. Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thank you everyone!

 

[Jevin]

Possible you actually have a female, not a male. Post pictures of his rear heels and fill out this form: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

 

[Graves923]

to upload video or photos click " Upload file" next to "Post Reply" which is below the text box on this thread.

Its quite possible you have a female since at about the 6-7 month age range they can start becoming gravid and lay infertile eggs. What species of cham? If its a veiled, take a photo of the back of the rear foot. If there is a spur or bump, its a male. No bump, female. If you have a panther, we need a side view of the base of the tail.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/

Heres a link to caresheets so you can read through the appropriate one based on your cham in the mean time. Has info on sexing and laying bins in you do have a female.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

Do you have a laybin for her? As stated above, she is probabbly a female, and if she has been digging for over a month now, she might get eggbound and die. Please post a picture quick.

 

[DomsChams]

I didn't mean to startle everyone with the lack of information, sorry. He is definitely a male though, He has the bulge at the base of his tail and he has a spur on his back heels. Here is a pic of him for reference! Also, for some reason it still wont let me upload the video, it is saying the file is too large. I've tried to trim it to 7 seconds but it still didn't work. Either way, here is the info about Chance:


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon – Panther Chameleon, Male, 6 months. He has been in my care since 3 months old.
• Handling – I handle my chameleon usually once a day maybe twice a day.
• Feeding – I feed him a mixture of gut loaded dubias, crickets, hornworms, black solider fly larve and flies. I feed him 6 large dubias a day and about 10 crickets a day alternating. 3 times a week I will feed him hornworms as a treat. I feed him once a day in the morning before I go to work around 8 am. I gut load my feeders with carrots, oranges, bananas, and sometimes sweet potatoes and Kale.
• Supplements – I dust all of my feeders in repashi calcium plus everyday and that is it.
• Watering – 3 times a day via a monsoon mister for 30-second intervals. This keeps the humidity spikes at 80% and the ambient at 50-60%. I also have a dripper that he drinks from occasionally but he usually drinks from the leaves. I don’t usually see him drinking but I know that he is hydrated because his stool and urate are brown and white.
• Fecal Description – As I state above his poop is a healthy color. It is brown and white. He goes every morning around 8:30-9:00 am.
• History – He has been in my care since 3 months and has been very healthy and happy. There aren’t any other things that I can think of that could shed light on this issue.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type – I live in Fresno, CA where we have central air and our humidity is very low. Because of this I had no choice but to get a glass enclosure. It is an exorterra 36x18x18 enclosure. However I just bought him a 42x24x24 reptibreeze mesh enclosure and I am getting it ready for him as we speak.
• Lighting – I am using an exoterra 50w daylight from 8 inches away. I also have a Zilla 13 watt UVB/UVA that he sits underneath a lot of the time. I will be getting him a reptisun 5.0 soon though and a 100w basking bulb for his new set up. I should have everything ready for him in about a month. His schedule for all lights in 7 am to 7 pm.
• Temperature – Basking temp is 90- 95 degrees and the middle is about 70 degrees. The lowest it gets overnight is 60 degrees in his cage.
• Humidity – Monsoon mister, 3 times a day for 30 seconds. This keeps the humidity spikes at 80% and the ambient at 50-60%
• Plants - I am using a golden pothos and a croton. The rest are fake vines and branches for him to climb on.
• Placement – His cage is in my room, but it does not get a lot of traffic. Its just me and my girlfriend most days. He seems fine with us being around. I am 5’ 7” and the cage is a bit taller than me. So his is about that high at the tallest point of the cage.
• Location - I am located in Fresno , CA

Current Problem - The current problem is that about a month ago he started traveling to the corners of the cage and digging looking like he is trying to get out of his enclosure. Another thing is that every morning when I go to feed his he sits on his perch and stars at me as if he wants to get out. Once I put my palm out to him he runs onto my hand and wants to be handled. This is EVERYDAY thing!

 

[Graves923]

Sounds like hes ready to get a bigger home. My veiled always tried escaping his small enclosure before I built his current home. That and your guy is around they age where they start maturing so he is probably trying to cruise around looking for a girl.

 

[DomsChams]

That's exactly what I thought, thanks you for the help
Yeah he looks like he would be a player so i'm pretty sure he is just trying to find some cuties lol.

In all seriousness though, if I put him into an adult enclosure at 7 months old will he be okay in there? I usually cup feed him and and then I also put a lot of food in his enclosure so he can hunt as well. I figured a bit of both would be good for him.

 

[Jevin]

That's exactly what I thought, thanks you for the help
Yeah he looks like he would be a player so i'm pretty sure he is just trying to find some cuties lol.

In all seriousness though, if I put him into an adult enclosure at 7 months old will he be okay in there? I usually cup feed him and and then I also put a lot of food in his enclosure so he can hunt as well. I figured a bit of both would be good for him.

I think he'll be okay. My 4ish month old male panther is in a 18"×30"×30" enclosure and he refuses to eat from a cup so he gets around 15-20 crickets free range and he hunts them down and leaves none uneaten. He's soon going to have a 24"×30"×72" diy enclosure.

 

[DomsChams]

I put crickets in the change for him but I feel like they always hides before he can get them. It's so frustrating. Does anyone have recommendations to solve this issue? I think part of the reason is because I am using substrate and the feeders like to dig holes in it and hide. Substrate is the only way I can keep humidity so I can't really afford to take it out.

 

[Jevin]

I put crickets in the change for him but I feel like they always hides before he can get them. It's so frustrating. Does anyone have recommendations to solve this issue? I think part of the reason is because I am using substrate and the feeders like to dig holes in it and hide. Substrate is the only way I can keep humidity so I can't really afford to take it out.

I keep my humidity up by using a cool mist humidifier in my room to maintain humidity at 50-55%. However, in my chameleon's cage there are two live plants and I do hand misting sessions so the humidity usually doesn't drop below 60%. I have no substrate at all in my cage and it's a mesh cage. I also don't have an auto mister, but I do use a homemade dripper. I basically have made my setup more automated, so that I can effectively and properly take care of my chameleon, in addition to my bearded dragon, while taking two university degrees as a full time student and working full-time hours to pay for rent.

I will be moving the heat lamp off the mesh, still in the process of building a rack for it.