Horrible accident

[Picasso123]

I had put his cage outside to enjoy the hot spring day today. The cage was weighed down with a watered hibiscus with rocks in it to keep him from eating any dirt. Had to be at least 20-30lbs. The wind gust was apparently just a little stronger and knocked the whole 4' cage off the table with the hibiscus inside.

One of the smaller rocks ended up on a front leg and I'm sure he got a wallop when the cage hit the cement porch floor. He's moving and using the leg but I feel so bad as I was only trying to help him get a little sunshine.

 

[K9Luvn]

Awe I feel so bad for how badly you feel over this. Remember it was an accident. You were dong a good thing to let him get some wonderful sunshine. We too have had some terrible wind gusts and it will help me to know that this too can happen and I will have to find a way to anchor things down. Please do not be hard on yourself

Please do keep us updated on how he is doing.

 

[PantherEnvy]

Devastating. Keep a close eye. Something might be broken. It must hurt you cuz you were just trying to do good...

 

[Picasso123]

30 mins later he's got his usual iron grip on the cage and he appears to be soaking up the sunshine. He's a bright yellow and any more yellow I think he's gonna start emitting back sunshine.

 

[suzi]

Glad to hear he is doing well

 

[HolyToledo]

Devastating. Keep a close eye. Something might be broken. It must hurt you cuz you were just trying to do good...

I would watch him pretty closely for about a week.

My veiled had a broken front leg and barely showed it at all for 3 days. His grip was still strong and he still moved around and used it. Then, things got bad quickly because he also was at the beginning of a bone disorder. So I'm not trying to freak you out...

Since they have been built to fall out of trees in the wild, I hope yours is just fine and all is well. Just keep an eye out for not moving around as much or him acting unsure of where to grab with the foot on that leg cuz if it is broken, it won't work quite right for him and will hurt to use. And they are REALLY good at hiding stuff like that.

And, if it is broken, it will probably heal up just fine in the end. Good luck!

 

[BocaJan]

I use a zillion bungi cords to hold down my outside cages. They are attached to my patio chair which is heavy. It gets pretty windy here in Florida (wind is blowing now) and nothing has moved. Think about buying a couple packages of bungi's.

 

[Picasso123]

Little did I realize the cage is expose above the porch rail anyways. I was simply trying to get the whole thing exposed. NEXT TIME I'm just gonna wedge it between the railing and a table.

While resetting up the cage I also tried to replaced my bulb which had been giving me a horrible time removing. It probably went 9mths and now it's outta here guess it needs several hours to cool down to contract.

 

[maxttu]

My cage blew over in March and I lost my Maynard! The pvc bottom came loose and he crawled out. I went inside for an hour and when I went to check on him he was gone... I have since drilled holes in that pvc and zip-tied them to the cage. This will never happen again!

 

[Chameleonmaster]

thats good that hes not hurt or anything

 

[laurie]

Those kind of accidents are awful for us and our chams. I live in a place where the wind is almost constant. Not a breeze but tomorrow again says winds up to 30mph. I have to be so careful taking mine out. I have a removable 2x4 that slides across my cages and keeps them in place. It is secured to the deck. I have always had to stay out with my cages as they could go over easily. The wind is part of why I can't just set up outdoor cages for summer.

 

[DekuScrub]

cages are like sails. its ridiculous. i set up an extra two outdoor enclosures (since i have such an excess of cages) and had my jacksosns out for a few days a few weeks ago when it first warmed up consistently.

i moved them back in when the the night time temps dropped to 50 and left the cages outdoors. within the next day or so we had an extremely windy day. i had to drag one of the cages home from the neighbors yard twice, and the other one i couldnt find i figured it was gone. a week or so later i took my son for a walk and a few streets down in a stream, low and behold, i found it.

i have a pretty funny story about my brother out in a thunder storm trying to hold down like 8 cages while i was on vacation, but thats kind of a long one.

you know what work well? tent spikes, or pegs. whatever you call them. and if you plan on keeping them outdoors for the summer, or have the luxurry of multiple cages you can bury the bottom an inch or so and put flagstone around the bottom to kind of hold it in place. it actually ends up looking really nice.

speaking of which i just had an idea, are morning glories toxic? i know you can eat the seeds for unsavory purposes, but it takes a lot. i was just thinking theyd look nice on an outdoor cage.

anyways. i hope the rock didnt do much damage, theyre small and have a very large surface area i dont think the fall would hurt.

 

[Picasso123]

I found him walking on the bottom this evening and i hope he didn't fall down there either I helped him back to the top with a dowel and gave him a good drink and he's now nestled in his foliage.

I hardly see him eat (19mths) so I wonder how he's alive actually. I don't think I've heard the "crunch" sound froma poor cricket in awhile. I see him drink alot though.

I'd hate if he didn't make it but I have learned for the next one for what it's worth to him.