thanx for your info ill lookinto that ...he doesent do it quiet often but iv seen him do it about 2 times...wat do u mean by mites? like little insects or wut?
mites are little spider like arachnids that are almost always present to some degree in reptile keeping. they can inhabit feeders, cultures, soil, furnishings, or even chams themselves. depending on species (of which there are thousands), they arent usually a problem in smaller #s, this is just one of the reasons that lighted viewers and cage (also feeder cage) cleanliness is important.
mites can usually be seen by the naked eye when in large enough #s, but often go un-noticed in smaller #s. petstore ff cultures invariably have excessive mite loads. its another reason that the health/cleanliness of of your feeders is just as important as the health/cleanliness of your chams environment.
mites are usually the size of a single grain of sugar or smaller, they often appear as little white, yellow or red specks that move if you watch long and close enough. individual mites are usually hard to spot by the naked eye, but are huge and unmistakable under a good lighted viewer. ff and mealworm cultures are almost always overun with mites unless special precautions have been taken.
http://www.google.com/search?q=mites&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&ei=NE-mTpChAqPk0QHY6cm0Dg&start=0&sa=N
a cham that frequently wipes its face, either with its paws or on a branch, is usually a sign of excessive or problem mite infestation. also, a good reason to never let your cham crawl on your face or in your hair and to wash after handling your animal.
some of the more problem varieties are often attracted to excessive fecal or feeder debris, there are others like grain or mold mites that are more attracted to things like mealworm or ff cultures, but some of the more problem mites feed off of other mites, so keeping all mite populations under control should be considered an issue.
just to be clear, your description leads me to believe that the twitching you describe is more of a territorial issue, than a mite issue. territorial assertion is a good sign, ime, its not something that overly sick chams usually concern themselves with. jmo
