I have a 5 month old veiled female and she keeps trying to escape. I have her in a cage I built where the highest she can get is about 6’6” and the cage is filled in with 5 plants and plenty of sticks. I’m trying to work on getting her more comfortable with handling and feeding from hand so I like to keep the cage door open when I’m in the room with her. However, for the past couple days, she’s been trying to escape from her cage whenever I have it like this. I’ll look away for a second and she’ll be at the bottom of the cage right by the door. Luckily I’ve been able to stop her and herd her back into the cage but one time I didn’t notice for a minute and she had gotten behind the open door and climbed up the wires for her heat lamp. Just today, I had to corral her back in after another attempt and then about an hour later, while the door was still closed, she was sitting on the floor of her cage looking at me like she was expecting me to open it for her. I tried looking this up but all I could find was about people’s charms screen climbing and nudging the top of the cage. I just think it’s peculiar that she has gone the same way at the same corner of her cage every time, which is honestly the main reason I have a problem with it because that side faces the wall and makes it almost impossible to get her back. I don’t think anything is wrong with her but it just seems odd how persistent she is. Any advice or thoughts are appreciated.
Chameleon trying to escape
- Thread starter Tiggrrr
- Start date
She crawls to the floor of her cage when the door is open and just walks out. It’s weird Bc she usually likes to stay by the top.
Fchamel
Chameleon Enthusiast
When are you opening the door? It should only be opened if you are feeding her.
PoseidonTheChameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
The entire enclosure should be closed completely unless you open it for feeding, misting, cleaning etc.
She was hiding and and running to the back of the cage every time I would open the door so for the past month I’ve had it open when I’m in the room so that it’s less of an event and she’s more used to it being open.
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Can you post pics of your chameleon and your enclosure please?
PoseidonTheChameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
Well then shes going to want to explore or get away bc shes scared.
Here’s the cage and the girl, I have a lay bin 12x10x18 full of play sand.
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So she is trying to get out because she is trying to find somewhere better hun. Can you tell me what type of UVB lighting your using and what the distance is to the branches directly below the fixture? While the laybin is a nice size if it is 18 inch deep you should remove about 9 inches. Females will dig and dig and tire themselves out. Typically we do no more then 8 inches of moist play sand.
It’s a 24” t8 5.0 and her basking spot is about 3 inches away. My bad lol it’s 9 inches deep and 12x18 length and width
Fchamel
Chameleon Enthusiast
Is this where she actually basks though? The reason why I ask is T8 fixtures do not push uvb as far as a T5HO. And with you using a 5.0 bulb she needs to be in within 3-5 inches below this fixture to even get the correct UVB levels.
I would add more horizontal branches for her so she can easily move around.
She tends to be a little farther away now that I think of it. I’ll add more branches for sure. It’s hard with how tall the cage is trying to fully furnish it, but it’s a work In progress
thanks
Ok so make sure with the 5.0 T8 that the branches are 3-5 measured inches away from the bulb. This is really important and she can choose her spot she prefers having the range.She tends to be a little farther away now that I think of it. I’ll add more branches for sure. It’s hard with how tall the cage is trying to fully furnish it, but it’s a work In progress
Personally I would switch out to either a 10.0 or 12% bulb for the T8... This will allow you to put branches farther down so she is not so close to the top screen. Your branches would be between 5-9 inches away with it. Giving her choices still for where she wants to be getting more exposure or less.
Okay thanks, I was curious about using the 10.0 cause I felt like it would be better for her given the cage but all I heard was people saying not to use it with chams so thanks for that!
So with a T8 fixture the 10.0 is perfectly ok to use. It is when your dealing with a T5HO fixture that the 10.0 or the 12% are too strong.
If it were my cham I would either go to a 10.0 T8 bulb or upgrade the lighting to T5HO fixtures with a 5.0 or 6% bulb.
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