Cham laying down??

[Cham1807]

Hey guys, the last day or so I've noticed my chameleon laying down once in a while throughout the day. He's still really young so I'm not sure if it's normal..everything I've read says it's not normal though..the first time I noticed it, it was a few hours after he woke up and his food dish was empty (the crickets got out over night) so I gave him a few more in his dish and he got up and almost ran down and ate them all up and then went exploring his cage..it happened again today and again I gave him a few crickets and he was fine but now he's back laying down/relaxing....Help..is he sick? I'm so worried because I've only had him a week

 

[rambonerzilla]

Seems to me like he is just in a basking kinda stance. What is his temperature right there on that limb? Do you have a temperature gun to take is temp reading in that spot. He probably (and I'm assuming) is just sitting there trying to get warm. Chams sit and (uvb and chill) get warm all day while they digest there food from the early part of the day. But like everyone always says.... don't just take my word ...other people will chime in too. But he doesn't look to be sleeping or anything... I'd guess he's just being a chameleon. They don't do much most of the time unless they are hunting, changing body temperature (by moving to a different temperature level) , or running away from us big ugly apes

 

[rambonerzilla]

Hope that helps assure you and welcome to the forums @Cham1807

 

[WAMBO]

He's adorable. I was also gonna say it looks like basking.

 

[Nursemaia]

I agree with rambonerzilla. He looks fine. I wouldn't call it laying down. It looks like he's basking. A picture of the whole setup and your temps would give us a better idea though. Check out the care sheets on here too

 

[rambonerzilla]

I agree with rambonerzilla. He looks fine. I wouldn't call it laying down. It looks like he's basking. A picture of the whole setup and your temps would give us a better idea though. Check out the care sheets on here too

I was gonna say that too @WAMBO ! But I'd already posted to it twice and it was an after thought. Great minds think alike lol (listen to me trying to talk my self up lol).

 

[rambonerzilla]

I was gonna say that too @WAMBO ! But I'd already posted to it twice and it was an after thought. Great minds think alike lol (listen to me trying to talk my self up lol).

Oh crap I'm sorry I meant @Nursemaia . So sorry! Great minds can mess up too obviously lol.

 

[rambonerzilla]

Send a pic of his entire enclosure so we can get a feel for exactly what he's up to. Oh and get a temp gun and shoot him regularly until you know what temps he is usually at at what areas of his enclosure. Hope this helped bud

 

[Nursemaia]

Oh crap I'm sorry I meant @Nursemaia . So sorry! Great minds can mess up too obviously lol.

You can get a pass, blame the cold germs. Go check out the "my cham is an ahole" thread. It's a hoot

 

[Nursemaia]

Oh crap I'm sorry I meant @Nursemaia . So sorry! Great minds can mess up too obviously lol.

Are you trying to say I have a great mind

 

[Andee]

I honestly wouldn't worry unless he's resting one of his feet a lot. I mean I wouldn't want to be constantly standing especially since they climb all day. They need to just rest sometimes.

 

[Remkon]

Resting in a tree is ok, resting on the floor is reason for concern.
Resting with eyes open is ok, resting with eyes closed )mid-day) is reason for concern.

I think he needs some netflix with that chill.

 

[Cham1807]

Thanks everyone! All your responses have been very helpful. At that time in the spot he was in the temp was 80-82°..he's been a lot more active since. After reading everything you said I'd say your right, he's fine..just a concerned first time owner and want to make sure I'm doing everything right here's a picture of the full enclosure

 

[Andee]

Trust me we've all been there and for the true chameleon fanatics we will be there again and again

 

[Remkon]

Trust me we've all been there and for the true chameleon fanatics we will be there again and again

Been there yesterday... I found my Wurma at the foot of his ficus laying with his eyes closed displaying stress colors.
So naturally I panicked and took out wurma to see what's wrong.
Wurma just acted fine, relaxed and started climbing my body and eventually back to his cage.

Then it dawned on me...
Wurma was patrolling his enclosure and I was working on the nozzles of the misting and tested the system to see if everything was ok.
Sometimes when misting Wurma goes relax-mode and will close his eyes and chill until misting is over, so it happened to be he was on the foot of his ficus when he got misted and he was pissed at me because I was disturbing him. Took me a while to add things up and I still kept a close eye but he was behaving just fine.

(His enclosure is elevated 120cm from the ground so even near the bottom he still feels like he's pretty high up.)