My cham looks angry and eating dirt?

[KiwitheCham19]

Kiwi is an 8 month old pied veiled chameleon.

Over winter my sun room gets too cold at night so I moved his cage into the living room. During this time he acted fine in his cage and would run to my hand knowing I usually let him roam free in my plant room (aka sun room). He loves to sit and look out the windows all day and would not want to go back in his cage.

Now that it’s finally warming up again I moved his cage back into the plant room. I upgraded his cage from a homemade 2x2x4 to the reptibreeze due to some water leaking issues. All the plants are the same. He seems happy to look out the window, does his rounds in the cage, good appetite, and poops daily.

The noticeable change is I have been catching him puffing up/gaping just sitting in his cage alone? His color doesn’t change but he looks noticeably angry at something. I’ve also caught him eating dirt a few times, I’ve put rocks in the soil but I still find little specks of dirt around his mouth. I work in the sun room during the week (WFH) and he will stare at me for a while. Since moving him two weeks ago he refuses to leave the cage, doesn’t want to go near my hand like before.

Has anyone experienced this? How do I make him happier/get him to want to leave the cage like before? Any idea why he eats dirt?

 

[KiwitheCham19]

Some husbandry info:
-Linear T5 UVB bulb and 75watt heating bulb (on from 7am-7pm)
-he has a dripper/auto mister/fogger (at night)
-staples are crickets and Dubai roaches, super worms as a treat - dusted with calcium w/o vit d. Twice a month dusted with reptivit
-like stated he poops daily, likes to munch on plants, very active in cage.
-temp by basking is usually 77-80. Ambient temp in the room is 68-72.
-last shed was in January

 

[Thompson]

You've been moving him around quite a bit and he needs time to settle into his surroundings and explore them so that he can make sure he is safe. It looks like your set-up could use some more foliage and branches as well, specifically, more foliage in the middle of the cage w/ branches and you should be fine. The eating dirt might be due to a mineral dificiency, what're your supplements and what's your feeding/dusting schedule like? How're you gutloading his feeders, and what are you feeding him vs. how much at a time? How have you determined what height to place each branch underneath the basking/uvb bulbs?

 

[Beman]

So first off welcome to owning a maturing Male Veiled. Everything is on their terms. The puffing could be anything from reacting to birds flying by the window to seeing his reflection.

Your T5 is really far away from your branch. What UVB bulb strength are you using?

Make sure your layer of rocks on the dirt are larger in size 1 inch or bigger so he can not ingest them. I have a 2 inch layer on top of my dirt to keep my male out of it.

 

[KiwitheCham19]

So first off welcome to owning a maturing Male Veiled. Everything is on their terms. The puffing could be anything from reacting to birds flying by the window to seeing his reflection.

Your T5 is really far away from your branch. What UVB bulb strength are you using?

Make sure your layer of rocks on the dirt are larger in size 1 inch or bigger so he can not ingest them. I have a 2 inch layer on top of my dirt to keep my male out of it.

Unfortunately he has a tendency to screen climb to the top of his cage, causing him to have minor burns from the heat bulb which is why the branch is so low :/ it’s a 5.0 uvb bulb. And I’ll add more rocks layers to the dirt! Thank you!

 

[KiwitheCham19]

You've been moving him around quite a bit and he needs time to settle into his surroundings and explore them so that he can make sure he is safe. It looks like your set-up could use some more foliage and branches as well, specifically, more foliage in the middle of the cage w/ branches and you should be fine. The eating dirt might be due to a mineral dificiency, what're your supplements and what's your feeding/dusting schedule like? How're you gutloading his feeders, and what are you feeding him vs. how much at a time? How have you determined what height to place each branch underneath the basking/uvb bulbs?

I added a reply to the thread with feeding/supplements. I gut load using fresh fruits + veggies (strawberries bananas kale carrots romaine lettuce etc) and add some high cricket calcium food as well. I usually throw in a bunch (total of ~20 insects) of crickets/Dubai’s into a feeder cup in the morning (9am Ish) then pick up any leftovers around 4/5pm before the lights go out at 7. I had more foliage but like I mentioned in my other reply he loves to screen climb + climb as high as he can, so any hanging plants I’ve added previously he uses to climb to the top way too close to his lights :/ There are branches through the middle of the cage, the leaves just cover them in the pic. I can try adding taller plants to give more places to hide and add a few more branches tho, thank you!

 

[Beman]

Unfortunately he has a tendency to screen climb to the top of his cage, causing him to have minor burns from the heat bulb which is why the branch is so low :/ it’s a 5.0 uvb bulb. And I’ll add more rocks layers to the dirt! Thank you!

Right but with a 5.0 bulb in a T5 single bulb fixture... Once you are farther then 8-9 inches from the fixture almost all the UVB is reduced and gone. So you either need to adjust height or get another bulb strength. I do not know what your total distance is just that it looks way to far away.

Switching out for a 10.0 bulb would mean you could have a distance of 11-12 inches between to get the same proper UVI levels.

Without the correct UVI levels you will have a cham that develops MBD.

 

[KiwitheCham19]

Right but with a 5.0 bulb in a T5 single bulb fixture... Once you are farther then 8-9 inches from the fixture almost all the UVB is reduced and gone. So you either need to adjust height or get another bulb strength. I do not know what your total distance is just that it looks way to far away.

Switching out for a 10.0 bulb would mean you could have a distance of 11-12 inches between to get the same proper UVI levels.

Without the correct UVI levels you will have a cham that develops MBD.So the branch by the basking bulb was 10in away, what I’ve read said minimum of 6” and max 12” for 5.0. But I added more branches higher up so he can get closer to the uvb. Now the middle branch is 7.5 from the uvb and from his casque is about 6. I’m about to grab another pothos to fill in the middle section of the cage. Here is a pic of the update so far! I think he likes it thank you all for your input!!

The branch by the basking bulb was about 10.5” away, the pothos he likes to hangout on was about 8”. From what I’ve read for a 5.0 it should be a min of 6” and max of 12” so it def was on the lower end. I added more branches to his enclosure and I’m about to get another pothos to fill in the middle section.

Here’s a pic (kiwi posing for the cam ofc) of the update!

The top middle branch is now 7.5” from the uvb and with his casque is about 6”.Thank you guys for all the input!!

Ps don’t mind the thermometer temp.. it was not in his cage while I was adding branches so it went down to 74