My Cham isn’t curling her tail while sleeping
- Thread starter Squill_4
- Start date
Please post some recent photos of her and answer the questions in this thread...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
My cham is a female veiled and she is about 4-5 months old no exact date. She has been in my care for just under a month. I don’t handle her because I want her to be completely comfortable in this new setting before that happens. I took her to a local odd pet vet when I got her and sometimes I will dribble water from a blunted syringe for her and she will catch and drink it. I feed her about 7 1/4” crickets a day, everyday, fed with yellow gel cricket food and I dust them with reptile calcium powder. At first she wasnt eating often but now I witness her eat some shortly after I release the crickets. I mist about 2 times a day heavily and then I have a little dripper set up on a tall pothos plant next to her frequently used section of vine. It is on all day and off at night. I also occasionally dribble her warm water from the syringe I mentioned. The vet looked her over and fed her some de worming liquid and her droppings are usually a formed but wet dark brown with a bright white droplet at the end. However she doesn’t go very often maybe once every few days? I cant see them all but I note the times I do see any. The vet noted when I got her she was slightly calcium deficient and slightly dehydrated but that my watering, proper lighting, and calcium dusting would make her healthy again. The cage is 18x18x24 and all screen. The lighting is 10.0 ubv tube light by exo terra and my house gets cold at night so I have a 75 watt red night heat light that stays on 24/7. The night temps are just getting too low up here in Mass for me to not use the heat light. The ubv light is on from when I leave at 9 to 9-930 when I lay down. The day temperature is about 70 degrees in the room and with the heat light the top gets to about 90 with roughly 3 inches of space to the top of the cage. The bottom is room temperature. At night is gets to about 55-60 degrees if its really really cold so I leave the heat lamp on so she can still maneuver find a comfortable temp to sleep at. The humidity is around 60 at most times if I just misted it goes up. If Im coming home after a longer day it may be between 55-60. I have a guage I bought that is on the inside wall of the cage. I have a tall large pothos plant and it grows vertically on a big support of like potato sack material and then I bread tied a thin fake bendy vine around the whole cage when the ties are on the outside but the vine is long stable and allows for a lot of travel. There are also three rather large fake branches with a few leaves from when I bought the setup. They are arranged to be be secure and 2/3 the height of the cage. I have a slightly empty corner of the cage and wanted to add a tiny indoor tree of some sort and another vine so she doesnt have to go all the way back around the cage to get down from the first vine. I could use some advise on what tree though. I really want to give her a lot of plants and places to hide and things to climb. The cage is located in my bedroom so the only traffic is me laying there on weekends and the time im home in the morning and then from 5 to 9 when the lights go out. I also have a cat with 0 aggression or desire to do anything because shes 10 and heavyset she just wants to sleep. Sometimes she will observe the cham from her food bowl across my room. I am from Boston, MA
devynnogood
Member
The red night time light will make it hard for her to sleep at night. That might be why she isn't curling her tail. Chameleons can sense that red light unlike other reptiles. They need complete darkness to sleep. Temperature drops at night are natural for Chameleons. If it is reaching below 60 degrees I would recommend some kind of heat rock or heat pad that will give the cage more warmth. Lack of sleep can lead to all kinds of problems, that might be why she is starting to get skinny. Also a 10.0 UV light may be too harsh for her. That's typically for dessert reptiles. 5.0 is the way to go. Reptisun has a great 5.0 bulb(compact or linear)
devynnogood
Member
Umbrella plants make good cage plants. Or "dwarf umbrella trees"
Graves923
Chameleon Enthusiast
As mentioned, get rid of the red night light. Chams need total darkness so their sleep cycle is not disturbed.
If your house gets below 60*F at night, invest in a ceramic heat emitter. They fit into the light fixture you have and will help keep the cage warm enough.
Youll need a proper basking bulb if you do not have one already. A normal incandescent house bulb puts out enough heat. You may need to play around with the bulb wattage to get the desired temperature which should be around 85*F max at her basking branch. 90*F is too hot for a young cham like yours and can cause it to become dehydrated more quickly.
Supplements need to be added to your chams diet as well. Dust your feeders at every feeding with plain calcium as you are doing. Twice per month dust using D3 and also add a multivitamin dust which can be used twice per month. What I do is pick a day of the week to dust with the D3 or vitamin and alternate which one I use each week. The rest of the week use plain calcium. Sorry if I explained it confusingly lol.
Start with these changes and see how your cham is doing. I recommend changing the lighting ASAP since interrupted sleep for a cham can cause stress which, in turn, can cause a host of health issues including loss of appetite and more.
Here is a link to the approved caresheet for veiled which is posted here on the forum in case you havent read it over: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
good luck
If your house gets below 60*F at night, invest in a ceramic heat emitter. They fit into the light fixture you have and will help keep the cage warm enough.
Youll need a proper basking bulb if you do not have one already. A normal incandescent house bulb puts out enough heat. You may need to play around with the bulb wattage to get the desired temperature which should be around 85*F max at her basking branch. 90*F is too hot for a young cham like yours and can cause it to become dehydrated more quickly.
Supplements need to be added to your chams diet as well. Dust your feeders at every feeding with plain calcium as you are doing. Twice per month dust using D3 and also add a multivitamin dust which can be used twice per month. What I do is pick a day of the week to dust with the D3 or vitamin and alternate which one I use each week. The rest of the week use plain calcium. Sorry if I explained it confusingly lol.
Start with these changes and see how your cham is doing. I recommend changing the lighting ASAP since interrupted sleep for a cham can cause stress which, in turn, can cause a host of health issues including loss of appetite and more.
Here is a link to the approved caresheet for veiled which is posted here on the forum in case you havent read it over: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
good luck
I apologize if I repeat anything that you've already been told...but here are my comments on your husbandry...
You said..."My cham is a female veiled and she is about 4-5 months old no exact date. She has been in my care for just under a month. I don’t handle her because I want her to be completely comfortable in this new setting before that happens"...are you aware that female veileds can lay eggs without having mated? You need to provide a proper egglaying bin IN her cage so she has a place to dig to show you when she's ready. It should be an opaque container at least 12" deep x 12" x 8" filled with washed playsand that is moist enough to hold a tunnel.
You said..." I feed her about 7 1/4” crickets a day, everyday, fed with yellow gel cricket food and I dust them with reptile calcium powder. At first she wasnt eating often but now I witness her eat some shortly after I release the crickets"...she should be eating more at that age IMHO the powder should be a phosphorous-free calcium powder to help make up for the poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous found in most feeder insects. It's recommended that you dust twice a month with a phosphorous-free calcium/D3 powder to ensure that she gets some D3 without overdosing it and leaving her to produce the rest of the D3 she needs from her exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system and lead to health issues but D3 produced from exposure to the UVB won't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it at will. I recommend that you dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A. PrOformed sources will not build up in the system like prEformed ones do....so this is safe but leaves it up to you to decide if/when the chameleon needs some prEformed vitamin A. It's also important to feed/gutload the insects well. I feed/gutload crickets and superworms with dandelion greens, kale, escarole, endive, collards, carrots, squash, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, zucchini and a bit of fruit such as apples, pears, berries, melon.
You said..."The vet looked her over and fed her some de worming liquid and her droppings are usually a formed but wet dark brown with a bright white droplet at the end. However she doesn’t go very often maybe once every few days? I cant see them all but I note the times I do see any. The vet noted when I got her she was slightly calcium deficient and slightly dehydrated but that my watering, proper lighting, and calcium dusting would make her healthy again"...did he says he would need extra calcium to get her back on track as well as the supplement schedule I gave you above? Using a worming medication without knowing she had parasites or which one she had seems to be what some vets do. To me it's kind of pointless because what he gave her would only kill some types of parasite and needs to be given twice a couple of weeks apart to be affective anyhow.
You said..." The cage is 18x18x24 and all screen. The lighting is 10.0 ubv tube light by exo terra and my house gets cold at night so I have a 75 watt red night heat light that stays on 24/7. The night temps are just getting too low up here in Mass for me to not use the heat light. The ubv light is on from when I leave at 9 to 9-930 when I lay down. The day temperature is about 70 degrees in the room and with the heat light the top gets to about 90 with roughly 3 inches of space to the top of the cage. The bottom is room temperature. At night is gets to about 55-60 degrees if its really really cold so I leave the heat lamp on so she can still maneuver find a comfortable temp to sleep at"...as was said change the red light out for an incandescent white household bulb and don't leave any lights on at night. For night heat if you need it, use a heat emitter "bulb"... NO heating pads or such...those are for ground dwelling lizards.
You said..." I have a tall large pothos plant and it grows vertically on a big support of like potato sack material and then I bread tied a thin fake bendy vine around the whole cage when the ties are on the outside but the vine is long stable and allows for a lot of travel. There are also three rather large fake branches with a few leaves"...and..." I really want to give her a lot of plants and places to hide and things to climb."...sounds good.
You said..."I also have a cat with 0 aggression or desire to do anything because shes 10 and heavyset she just wants to sleep"...but the chameleon may see her as a predator and she may surprise you and attack the chameleon one day. It's happened fairly often to people on this forum.
As for the tail not curling up...not sure what would be doing that. Could be she fell and hurt it or her muscles aren't strong or a number of other things. Muscles are also affected when a chameleon has MBD.
You said..."My cham is a female veiled and she is about 4-5 months old no exact date. She has been in my care for just under a month. I don’t handle her because I want her to be completely comfortable in this new setting before that happens"...are you aware that female veileds can lay eggs without having mated? You need to provide a proper egglaying bin IN her cage so she has a place to dig to show you when she's ready. It should be an opaque container at least 12" deep x 12" x 8" filled with washed playsand that is moist enough to hold a tunnel.
You said..." I feed her about 7 1/4” crickets a day, everyday, fed with yellow gel cricket food and I dust them with reptile calcium powder. At first she wasnt eating often but now I witness her eat some shortly after I release the crickets"...she should be eating more at that age IMHO the powder should be a phosphorous-free calcium powder to help make up for the poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous found in most feeder insects. It's recommended that you dust twice a month with a phosphorous-free calcium/D3 powder to ensure that she gets some D3 without overdosing it and leaving her to produce the rest of the D3 she needs from her exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system and lead to health issues but D3 produced from exposure to the UVB won't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it at will. I recommend that you dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A. PrOformed sources will not build up in the system like prEformed ones do....so this is safe but leaves it up to you to decide if/when the chameleon needs some prEformed vitamin A. It's also important to feed/gutload the insects well. I feed/gutload crickets and superworms with dandelion greens, kale, escarole, endive, collards, carrots, squash, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, zucchini and a bit of fruit such as apples, pears, berries, melon.
You said..."The vet looked her over and fed her some de worming liquid and her droppings are usually a formed but wet dark brown with a bright white droplet at the end. However she doesn’t go very often maybe once every few days? I cant see them all but I note the times I do see any. The vet noted when I got her she was slightly calcium deficient and slightly dehydrated but that my watering, proper lighting, and calcium dusting would make her healthy again"...did he says he would need extra calcium to get her back on track as well as the supplement schedule I gave you above? Using a worming medication without knowing she had parasites or which one she had seems to be what some vets do. To me it's kind of pointless because what he gave her would only kill some types of parasite and needs to be given twice a couple of weeks apart to be affective anyhow.
You said..." The cage is 18x18x24 and all screen. The lighting is 10.0 ubv tube light by exo terra and my house gets cold at night so I have a 75 watt red night heat light that stays on 24/7. The night temps are just getting too low up here in Mass for me to not use the heat light. The ubv light is on from when I leave at 9 to 9-930 when I lay down. The day temperature is about 70 degrees in the room and with the heat light the top gets to about 90 with roughly 3 inches of space to the top of the cage. The bottom is room temperature. At night is gets to about 55-60 degrees if its really really cold so I leave the heat lamp on so she can still maneuver find a comfortable temp to sleep at"...as was said change the red light out for an incandescent white household bulb and don't leave any lights on at night. For night heat if you need it, use a heat emitter "bulb"... NO heating pads or such...those are for ground dwelling lizards.
You said..." I have a tall large pothos plant and it grows vertically on a big support of like potato sack material and then I bread tied a thin fake bendy vine around the whole cage when the ties are on the outside but the vine is long stable and allows for a lot of travel. There are also three rather large fake branches with a few leaves"...and..." I really want to give her a lot of plants and places to hide and things to climb."...sounds good.
You said..."I also have a cat with 0 aggression or desire to do anything because shes 10 and heavyset she just wants to sleep"...but the chameleon may see her as a predator and she may surprise you and attack the chameleon one day. It's happened fairly often to people on this forum.
As for the tail not curling up...not sure what would be doing that. Could be she fell and hurt it or her muscles aren't strong or a number of other things. Muscles are also affected when a chameleon has MBD.
