Chameleons JUMP!

[DesertChameleon]

Been a while since I’ve posted and I don’t have photos of the deed but Aquaman jumped off of his enclosure today. I thought he fell but I know what I saw, he leapt a few inches off the cage onto the floor emitting a soft thud. Although he fell on carpet, I was worried he may have hurt himself as that was a 6 foot drop.

I approached him and he climbed onto me as normal. I offered him a worm and he ate. Sprayed some water on his cage and he drank. Cranked up the heat in the room and he was bolting around as usual.

Why would he jump? Has he been doing this when I’m not home? He has a free range setup and mostly stays outside of his enclosure. Do chameleons normally just jump down from high places? It looked like he leapt forward with arms out and just softly thudded on the ground I kid you not it was like lizard parkour.

 

[DesertChameleon]

Aquaman enjoying a toasty 80 degrees in this gloomy weather.

 

[MissSkittles]

I haven’t heard of nor witnessed jumping without cause. When feeling threatened or very stressed, they will jump/fall as a last ditch attempt to escape the threat. A couple of mine have done that while walking thru the house to take them outside. (I rarely take them out as a result). They do know how to fall as safely as possible, and while injuries are a real risk, it isn’t as common as we fear.
Had you done anything that may have frightened him? Moved too quickly? Wearing red? Reached for him? Did he see another animal? Anything else at all that you can think of?

 

[MissSkittles]

I should add - both of my panther boys are ‘friendly’ and almost always will come out onto my hand when I open their enclosures. However, every now and then for no discernible reason they will fire up and karate pose like they don’t know me or are scared of me.