Male Veiled Chameleon Digging?

[Sinisteroy]

I know, you're probably going to tell me that it's a female, but he has very pronounced spurs and a pretty high cask/helmet. He's about 6 months young. Today I woke up to my chameleon sitting all proud over a whole he dug in the ground of his vivarium. He also had a lack of apetite which I pinpointed to him getting bored of eating crickets, so I started giving him more yellow mealworm larvae. He eats them but it's supposedly unhealthy for him so I try to find other sources of food. I need guidance. What's the digging? Why isn't he eating? Sometimes he looks really thin and sometimes he's bloated.

He has a UVB 5.0 light and a warming mat. I sprinkle his vivarium every day, and he drinks the water off the walls and branches.

 

[Sinisteroy]

And now he's walking on the ground of the vivarium, which is unusual for him.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

First off, welcome to the forums!

You should remove the substrate immediately. The fact that he is so interested in it and sometimes appears bloated concerns me greatly that he is actually eating the dirt. They can become impacted from eating dirt and people have lost their chams to this. Perhaps his lack of appetite correlates to a gut full of dirt. If it's not a female there is absolutely no reason to have any dirt in his cage exposed where he can get to it due to the risk of impaction. Get it out of there asap before he gets worse!

Chameleons do not seek heat sources from below, they are baskers and need heat to come from above. They seek sunny spots while they are sitting in the trees. They do not go to ground to look for a warm rock as some other lizards would so having a heat mat is very unnatural and potentially dangerous because it could burn his feet is he gets too close to it. If you don't have a heat source from above (UVB lights don't give off much heat at all) he may at the bottom near the heat mat trying to get warm, which is unnatural and now encouraging this bad substrate behavior. They need to be able to warm up and cool down periodically throughout the day for proper growth and digestion so it's very important to have a heat source from above that they can utilize.

Could you please give us the answers to these questions so we can help you identify any other problems and figure out what this one is?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.


Pictures are helpful

 

[Sinisteroy]

Ok but aren't they supposed to have the substrate?

 

[ShortStack]

No substrate or heat mat.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Ok but aren't they supposed to have the substrate?

Only females need substrate and only when they need to lay eggs. There's no good reason for it to be in a male's cage at all. Chameleons stay up in trees, they don't really walk around on the ground so they don't really need dirt for anything. They eat bugs that crawl around in the trees as well so they don't need to dig up worms or anything. They don't even go to the ground to drink - they drink dew on the leaves from rain.

One of the problems with captivity is that although we try to recreate nature, we do it on such a small scale that it's not always as representative of nature as we would like. In a cage that's 3 feet tall we can't really replicate an entire forest canopy all the way down to the roots. We can only replicate a very small part of that, so we try to recreate the best area for them where they would normally be found. They're normally found in the middle to upper layers of the forest, not down at the base of the tree where the ground would be. The small cage is forcing them to be closer to dirt that they usually would be in nature. And since they don't need dirt for anything and it poses a significant risk for major health problems, why even take the risk?

There have been stories posted on here of chameleons dying from dirt and sand impactions. Some people can keep them in big cages with some substrate successfully but in your case it is already causing problems so it is not going to work. Can you please fill out the health form?

 

[kinyonga]

Can you post a photo of him please?

 

[Sinisteroy]

Species: Veiled Chameleon
Sex: Male
Age: 6 months young

How long has it been in your care?
5 months

How often do you handle your chameleon?
As often as I have to. 1 time a week or less. Just when I need him out of his cage.

What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
As I don't feed him from hand I don't have a schedule. I give him more when I see he ate the earlier ones. I'm feeding him mostly crickets and yellow mealworms. Sometimes an ocasional barn funnel weaver/domestic house spider (which he eats almost instantly) and flies. I feed the crickets with fruit and lettuce. And yellow mealworms get flour, as it's their preferred food. Supposedly.
He used to eat 6 half-inch crickets a day. Now it's chaos. He refuses to eat them. He eats a few mealworms per day.

Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
JBL MicroCalcium and JBL TerraVit. They're both powder. I used to dust at least one a day with calcium. Used TerraVit sometimes. Once a week maybe and when did it was mixed with calcium.

Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
I mist and mist and mist. Chameleon drinks off of walls, branches and leaves. Walls preferably. And I sprinkle the wall until he's done drinking. I mist the cage everyday at least once. To keep the humidity at least at 60%.

Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings.
Black and white. Or dark brown. Well there are big ones 1 cm x 0,5 cm black droppings. And those little white with a spot of yellow ones. Both rather hard.

Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
I don't think so.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Glass with grille for ventilation. Bought at a shop. 50cm x 30 cm x 40cm. At the moment building a bigger one. Cause this one's getting too small.

Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
ExoTerra: SunGlo 50W, ReptiGlo 13W 5.0 UVB. I use the SunGlo in mid day for few hours. All the other time I use the ReptiGlo. Used to turn it off for night, but as I was afraid he was getting sick I left it turned on during night, the last few days.

Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Have a small thermometer. It ranges from 19 during night to 34 celcius in basking spot. Don't know about temp range in the cage...

Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
60-70% sometimes 80% and rarely 40-50%. I mist. And there's a small humidity meter.

Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
I bring some Buxus branches with leafs from the outside.

Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
On the window sill. No high traffic. 2 meters.

Location - Where are you geographically located?
Central Europe- Poland.

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Lack of apetite and interest in substrate.

 

[Sinisteroy]

I removed substrate. Left a bit of it covered with a net and branches. He has no more access to it. Left it there because it keeps cage humid. But really. No more access.

I will take a photo when he's done sleeping. He's hidden in the branches right now.

 

[Ekaj13]

I've heard chameleons sometimes dig to find humidity or to cool off. I would re evaluate your temps and humidity levels.

 

[Ekaj13]

I just re read your post... You are leaving the fluorescent light on all the time?! He is probably trying to sleep!

 

[Sinisteroy]

He sleeps no problem. But I turned it off. Just was worried that his weird eating disorder was caused by the metabolic bone disease. Was afraid it started so i increased the time he gets the UVB. Maybe wrongfully.

 

[Sinisteroy]

Sorry for the poor quality. Had to use built in Mac camera.

Some more pics.

 

[Ace]

thats def a male...might be the temps are too high, trying to find cooler areas, and maybe trying to escape from the cage, because of it might not be a "comfortable place" to be in...just a guess

 

[Sinisteroy]

Actually at the time he was digging the temperature was in mid 20's celsius.
So I guess he decided to jailbreak.