Cham hanging upside down

[GarynTampa]

After almost 3 weeks of nothing but good behavior, my sub-adult Ambanja has changed some of his habits.

He is spending a lot of time on his favorite vine with his head facing down.

He still basks on his favorite spot, and climbs all over the cage as usual.

He is still eating good (8-10/day gutloaded and dusted crickets), drinking regularly from 4x daily misting AND drinking from the hand-held misting bottle.

Cage temps and humidity are about as close to "perfect" as I can keep them.

Fecal color/urate is normal.

Could this be pre-shedding behavior? I am seeing some indication of a head molt coming on, as a few of the head scales are showing a little hint of white.
This is the first "odd" thing I have seen him do.

Any feedback would greatly be appreciated.

Gary
Tampa, FL

 

[camimom]

Sometimes, they just like ot hang upside down.

 

[Ulrich]

They can be pretty weird sometimes, isn't it? There will be more strange habits coming as they mature. Some of them tend do do certain things for a certain time only. But to be safe a picture might help.

 

[GarynTampa]

THANKS for the replies, and I hope to see more throughout the day.

I am taking the "husbandry" part of his care VERY SERIOUSLY and just want to make sure that there is nothing going wrong that I can correct in the early stages if necessary.

I just went in to take a look at him again, and he is doing what he often does this time of the morning...lounging under the basking light, absorbing the heat, waiting on the next misting cycle to come on...and a few more crickets...GEEEZ, what a life!!!

Since my last post, he has eagerly taken another 2 crickets from my hand.

I'll take a photo later today when I catch him in the angle/head down position. It's NOT a 180 degree "head-down" facing the cage floor position, just a little past the 140 degree position (if you can visualize that. He's not upside down either...just to avoid any confusion.

I don't want to sound "alarmed", it's just some odd behavior I've never seen before.

Gary
Tampa, FL

 

[Wykd]

better to ask than ignore when it comes to pets.

Wait till he starts shedding and blowing up ti stretch the skin off. I was like WTF did I do, why is he so pissed at me. lol

 

[GarynTampa]

Wykd:

I'm hoping that this behavior is related to shedding, but have not witnessed that event yet (from him). I've kept other reptiles and seen this many times, and I do know that there are some pre-shed behavior.

I'll continue to look for other "wierd" behavior signs, but as I have mentioned, he is actively eating, drinking, pooping and still drinking directly from the spray bottle nozzle (cool to see in itself)!

I wrote a post last week where he ate 16 crickets in 1 day. I guess that too is a good sign of feeling pretty good, although he did poop a lot afterwards!

These Chams are FANTASTIC to watch and enjoy...

Gary
Tampa, FL