Like Janb said if you can’t cham proof the room then baby sitting is going to be a must, especially if they are intent on wandering. Here are a few suggestions that may help to minimize his undesirable exploratory nature. In my experience wandering has to do with the availability and quantity of desirable territory. In practice I find the more pathways I create interconnecting valuable territory like your trees the more content they are to stay in the free range. Also if the cage is going to be apart of the free range and he has already figured out that he can get up there, make sure to give him a proper place to hang out on top instead of on the lights. Then of course connect this to your trees as well. If a male cham doesn’t have access to warmth, water, food, and girls. He is going to go look for them, no matter how elaborate your free range is. I suggest making a few of these available to him, the easiest being a secondary basking spot in the tree. The more of these you can provide in the free range the more valuable the territory becomes. I’d just like to point out that providing access to the ladies would not only be impractical but could result in undue stress and/or injuries and should not be regarded as a viable option. With that said he is always going to have some urge to get out there and strut is stuff, which is why I say minimize and not prevent lol. Another thing to consider Chams have an amazing ability to visually map and recall the “safe zones” in their environment. If they have been there before and didn’t see/taste anyone else they will go there again. Some even get this “old man” way about them, where they get into the habit of frequenting certain areas during certain times of the day. I believe they are patrolling their territory, and it can be difficult to break this habit once it’s established. One way in which I have had success deterring this behavior is by resetting their territory. In other words make all the pathway and hangout spot additions I suggested and rearrange as much of the room and cage as practically possible. This should force him to visually reestablish his territory, most of it will still taste like it’s his so it shouldn’t cause any undue stress. I know rooms that are completely new freak my cham out… he’s got some quarks lol. I free range my cham 24/7 and since employing these techniques I have never caught him on the ground once! Hopefully this helps you out too, best of luck!
