Male Carpet Acting Strange?

[JLP474]

Just picked up this guy on Sunday...7-8 weeks old...feeding on small crickets. All was fine till bout 20min ago he started moving his tail around and couldn't sit still, almost like a panic attack or something. Hes on a branch now just chillin...wondering if anyone ever seen this type of behavior...Some added info, dragon strand screen enclosure, 80-82 the basking spot, two pothos plants, humidity range round 50% up to 80% after a mist, mistking misting 3x /day 30sec in the morning, 1min in the afternoon, 30sec late afternoon. Light Your Reptile 36" T5 fixture, 1 Arcadia 12% 1 Arcadia Plant Pro(there are 2 more Plant Pros in the fixture that I leave off) 1 philips heat/plant bulb from home depot...Visually fecal looks good.

 

[JLP474]

Hes been in this spot for past 1/2hr maybe more.

 

[jpowell86]

The tail action you are seeing in the video strikes me as a chameleon searching for something to anchor his tail too. Very typical.

But after he falls, the tail continues. I think he may have burned himself.

How close are your lights? Chameleons introduced to a new environment patrol relentlessly....even the top. He may have got burned and was freaking out a bit about that.

 

[JLP474]

The tail action you are seeing in the video strikes me as a chameleon searching for something to anchor his tail too. Very typical.

But after he falls, the tail continues. I think he may have burned himself.

How close are your lights? Chameleons introduced to a new environment patrol relentlessly....even the top. He may have got burned and was freaking out a bit about that.

The T5 fixture is sitting on top of that angle bar behind the dome which is sitting on 1" square on top of the angle bar. When hes not moving he seems fine, when moving slow he seems fine...when he starts to pick up the pace its like he doesn't wanna wrap his tail around for balance...I'm uploading another vid, will post it when shortly.

 

[Andee]

In my opinion his tail movement is not just about anchoring, though I don't know what it's about. In general his body movements are stiff and agitated. Do you know his past?

 

[JLP474]

Hes 7.5 weeks old, picked him up from the breeder this past sunday and only started doing this this afternoon. Ugh I unknowingly hit the slow motion option on my phone by accident, turning a 1m 45s vid into 7min lol...but can get the idea...seems "unsteady" cause of whatever is going on with his tail.

 

[jpowell86]

I know I said earlier that he may have burned it. I have seen chameleons act this way after a burn. But in this video, it looks almost neurological.

Can you get some photos up close of his tail. In the video, it looks like there are some issues there. Also, has he had any bad falls?

 

[carol5208]

I agree that it might be something neurological also.

 

[Andee]

I agree, I wouldn't be surprised if it was something neurological either.

 

[JLP474]

No bad falls that I know of...couple small slips like the one in the first vid after he started acting up with the tail. I'll get close up pics tomrw....its lights out and hes curled up on a branch lol. What would/could cause a neurological issue out of the blue? I remember one min it was quiet then the next I hear something rubbing back n forth on the screen, look over and hes upside down on the screen and the tail going back n forth.

 

[Chameleomom]

Poor baby it's sad to watch

 

[JLP474]

Ok so just an update...he seems to be doing better...I think he might have been stressing out or something...yesterday after putting some crickets in I left him alone all day, he seemed to just wanna chill on the one branch for a good portion of the day...ate some crickets, drank some water off the misting...today a little more active, doing the "creep walk" checking things out...so far between yesterday and today I haven't noticed any erratic behavior. Hoping thats a good sign. I took a bunch of pics yesterday just to document his day.

Filenames in the corner
Cham1: rise n shine
Cham2: still chillin, warming up
Cham3: Breakfast, cricket lump in throat
Cham4: full belly
Cham5: just gonna chill here for an hour lol

 

[JLP474]

How does he look???

 

[cass737]

I'm not as much of an expert as the other people who commented and I'm not saying it isn't neurological, but my reaction to the first video was that he was alarmed/afraid and was desperately looking for somewhere to hide as quickly as he could (or he got burned and was freaking out about it)......and of course erratically trying to grab onto something with his tail. Are there a lot of places to hide in his new enclosure? I would say keep an eye on it, perhaps it is something neurological that is episodic in nature, but unless you see it again and it seems to be repeatable, I personally wouldn't be panicking.

 

[Vegas Chad]

Looks good - I would think that sassy tail wag is some sort of neurological problem which has been said before. So long as he is eating, drinking and pooping you really can't do anything other than to do what you would normally do. I don't see any scaring from a burn which I would expect had he been roasted to the point of damage. Cute lil feller.

 

[Andee]

The most you'd have to worry about if it was neurological and happens on a regular basis is just setting up to prepare for potential falls. So if you notice it happening again I would start trying to devise a catch net, just in case it worsens when he gets older or he has a harder time staying stable when he is larger and his tail flails. Either way he looks perfectly healthy otherwise, he just may have some weird quirks you made need to adjust to. In my opinion if it turns out to be neurological it is easily dealt with and he can live safely as long as precautions are taken to make life safe for him.

 

[JGuinan007]

You think it might be neurological from being inbreed?

 

[Carlton]

Unless the breeder bred parents to offspring or sibling to sibling I very much doubt there has been enough captive-produced generations to show inbreeding. The production of carpets is so low even these days. And, it would probably affect the clutchmates too. A responsible breeder would have seen it before selling them.

I've never seen a cham do that before, but somehow I don't think its neurological. Something severe enough to produce that type of motion would almost have to affect his ability to walk or keep himself oriented right-side up. His eye motions don't look confused which I would expect if he was that uncoordinated. My gut feeling is that he was overreacting to a new habitat that has very little small diameter branch networks (many twigs and leaf stems smaller than the span of his toes) for him to climb around in without fear of falling. Did he burn his tail? Can't tell, but after a couple of days a serious burn should be showing up.