Chameleon acting strange

LHoward23

New Member
I bought a female veiled chameleon from a pet store about 2 weeks ago. They are unsure about the age, but i know she is at least 4 months old by how long they have had her and how long it took us to set her cage up. We are currently in the process of finishing her permanent large cage. Here is her set up:

Cage 16x24x24 screened except for the back Food: crickets dusted with calcium w/vitamin d 3 x a week, multivitamin 1x month. Lighting: repitsun uvb 5.0 and reptisun basking lamp. No heat source at night Water: dripper for most of the day and misting 3x day Plants: mostly artificial vines and small croton plant. Moved most of live plants to new cage already Temp: 87-90 basking depending on time of day, 72 in cool area.

My issue is she has been fine as far as activity and eating until yesterday. I noticed a change to darker green yesterday and she seemed sluggish. Today she drank first thing this morning but has only eaten 2-3 of her crickets. When I checked on her 2 hours later, she was laying on a branch with her front legs dangling and her head laying on the branch. I took her out, cleaned her cage and she is moving fine but when she is in her cage she only wants to lay around. Her grip strength seems fine. She only acts like that inside her cage. When I got her out to clean it and to get her in a warm shower (incase she is dehydrated), she acts alert and moves around good. This happened all of a sudden. The first pic is from 2 days ago. The rest are from today.
 

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i don't think its spurs, but I will look closer when I feed her again. I'm pretty sure that she hasn't fell but I can't be 100% sure because I'm not in the room with her cage all the time. I will post some more pics of her today.
 
She doesn't have spurs. She seems fine today. She's eating, drinking, pooping and moving around. Maybe she was just having a bad day or was tired and moody. Am I correct in the fact that I am supposed to mist 3 to 4 times a day depending on the humidity level? The humidity level stays between 55 to 65 with 3 to 4 mistings a day. I just got told in a forum (not here) that I am not to mist, to give her a "drinking glass" because according to this person missing is bad and she will not drink from the leaves enough even with the dripper. She is not my first reptile (I have a Beardie named Toothless that is almost a year old - which I know has totally different care needs), but she is my first chameleon. I keep saying "she" because we have not named her yet. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.
 
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The reason I asked about the spurs is that in a couple of the photos the casque looks tall for a female and I can't see the pattern well enough to see if it's make or female. Male and female veileds need slightly different husbandry once they are mature.

Females can lay eggs without having been mated and so they need to have a proper place IN the cage to dig to lay the eggs at all times once they are sexually mature. They also need their diet to be controlled more than a male does so they won't produce huge clutches, maybe become eggbound, maybe develop MBD, etc because of it.

Both sexes need proper supplements to make up for things they lack in their captive diet, appropriate basking temperatures (from a white basking light not a colored one) so they can digest their food properly, and thus absorb the nutrients they need, gutloaded/well fed insects and goodmhydration, etc.

Both misting and using a dripper are ways recommended to hydrate a chameleon...not a glass. They need to run long enough to stimulate the chameleon to drink.

As for bearded dragons and chameleons being different...I have had beardies too and I always supplemented them exactly the same as I did my veiled chameleons...fed/gutloaded the insects the same greens, veggies and fruits...fed the same greens, veggies, fruits to the beradies that I've offered to the chameleon and to crickets, super worms, roaches, locusts, etc. I've used the same UVB lights for both and the same basking lights but the beardies had a warmer basking temperature. The beardies also had a substrate but my chameleons didn't. Not as different as you might think!
 
She doesn't have spurs..i checked again just to make sure. She is back to to her old self today. Our beardie seems to like fruit and veggies now more than crickets so she doesn't eat as many now but loves the super worms and we can't use substrate because she wants to eat it. I'm waiting on my next shipment of them and I am planning on giving one to the chameleon to see how she likes it. We have her an egg bin set up in the enclosure we are finishing up, but I have been watching her and hoping that I don't have to put one in the current one. Like I said the place I got her from couldn't tell me how old she is but she is at least 3 months old because I had been looking at her every time I went since the end of September.
 
Glad she's back to her old self. Go easy on the fruit for the beardies and the veiled...veggies and greens are better for both IMHO.
Superworms are fine as part of the diet for the chameleon but a variety of insects is important.
 
We don't have anywhere locally that we can get the dubia roaches so I am going to have to order them like I do the super worms and hope that my husband will feed them because they freak me out. I can do all the worms and insects but those. Have you ever tried to raise your own super worms? I have thought about trying it.
 
I "accidentally" raised superworms in my tortoise cages, my prehensile tailed anoles cage....but I've never done it on purpose.
 
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