my 7 month old male cham seems to be scratching at his side, his face and then scratching his feet on a vine. almost like a dogs kicks dirt ontop of their poop (pardon my french). what the hell could this mean?
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - veiled, was told to be 7 months, brought home 4 days ago, male.
Handling - havnt handled it yet. trying to make it comfortable.
Feeding - i use orange cubes to gut load my crickets, and i feed him once a day. maybe 12 crickets a day and 4 king worms.
Supplements - i use repcal calcium with d3 to dust my crickets
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? i mist his cage once in the morning before i turn on his basking light(7pm). another misting around lunch (1pm) and another before lights off (10pm)
Fecal Description - brown with white. sometimes tinted (very slightly) yellow.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - home made screen cage. 24x24 wide 36 tall
Lighting - 1 100 watt heat lamp, a uvb bulb, and a red heating lamp rests on top of the cage. all lights turn on around 8ish am and turn off around 10 pm.
Temperature - at basking spot 84-80F at night 70s to mid 60s.
Humidity - my humidity level is currently at 40%. I mist 3 times a day and have a drip system.
Plants - I have live and fake plants.
Placement - he is in the corner of my room where there is low traffic with the exception of a few peekers.
Location - Bronx NY
not sure about his behavior but there are a few things in your husbandry that could be corrected to help your chameleon stay healthy. First off, you should be gutloading your crickets with nutritonal fresh veggies and fruits. The orange cubes are not enough. Try some Kale, romaine, collard greens, mustard greens, apples, oranges, carrots, squash, melon etc just to give you an idea. Also, you need three supplements to dust your feeders with. A plain calcium with NO d3 at every feeding. The calcium with d3 use twice a month or so and also use a multivitamin twice a month. Also, do not mist that late at night. You want your cage to be dry when the lights go out. 100 watt is high for a basking bulb but if you are maintaining that basking temp that you are ok. Lastly, what type of UVB bulb are your using?