My Cham takes naps?

Phatturk

New Member
I have read a lot on this forum about it being bad if your cham sleeps during the day and now a couple days in a row i have found my little guy sleeping after he gets misted and eats. Most of the day he is very alert and walks around a lot but he is sleeping during the day. Is that normal? Do chams take naps during the day?

BTW- he is about 10-12 weeks old. and i have a few other threads explaining my entire setup and feeding routine but i cant find the link right now.
 
In my humble opinion, a napping chameleon is a sick chameleon. It is not natural for them to 'nap'. A chameleon that takes a nap is a chameleon taking a chance at missing a meal, or most importantly, becoming a meal!
You might want to consider a fecal exam to check for parasites that could be slowly weakening your cham.
You may already be doing fine with these, but also check your level of hydration (ie are you watering him enough?) and make sure his food is gut loaded and varied to improve energy levels via better nutrition.
Best of luck with him.
 
My cham napped too

I left over the weekend last weekend and when I returned I found my cham during the day wanting to shut his eyes and sleep also. I found out it was the fact that I was leaving the light on at night. He is doing good now that I changed this very little thing. Hope that helps.
 
agree with vertex as well :D.
just keep an eye on him to make sure that he isnt sleeping during the day, that could have threw him out of wack, but to be safe watch him close
 
Well I watched him lastnight a bit more and saw him close his eyes for about 2 min at around 5pm (lights out at 7pm). He has a really nice bright green color almost all the time and if anything gets close to his cage he immediately opens his eyes again. He is very active and walks around a lot of the time and I monitor it with my web cam so I know for sure that he is very active even when i am gone. This is only happening at a very particular time of day. He only does it after I mist him then directly after I mist him he goes after 2-3 crickets then goes up by his basking area and does a little wiggling dance where he turns his head to the sky (i assume to help digest the food since both my chams do it), after that dance he turns a darker shade of green and tries to warm up a bit (I assume), then he closes his eyes for about 2 min or something moves around him. I have an appointment to visit a vet but not till next Tuesday cuz the vet is really far away from me, about 1.5 hours drive. Can anyone recommend any vets near Chicago? Thanks all!
 
From your reply above, if he is only sleeping 1-2 hours before the lights go out, this may not be a bad thing at all. I had the same problem with my cham when I first got him as well. After dicsussing this with several breeders, it seems that there was nothing at all wrong with the cham. First my cham was born and raised in Califorina and I am in Michigan. With a 3 hour time difference, my schedule was 3 hours off what he was used too and had not yet adjusted.

Also, one thing all the breeders agreed on was that regardless of when you schedule your lights on and off, Chams have the uncanny ability to know when the sun rises and sets in their immediate area. Due to their nature, they will have the tendancy to sleep and wake according to when the sun rises and sets rather than the time you have your lights on and off. This behavior is further inhanced if there are any windows in the room letting in light.

Also discussed was the fact that even a fully adapted and 100% healthy cham will make their way down to their favorite sleeping spot and settle in for the night an hour before your lights go out.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks a lot koabich that was very informative! I hope that is the problem, it sure sounds like it could be. I am going to the vet anyway since it will be the first vet trip for my 2 little guys since i got them, and probably ever. But today my male didn't sleep at all during the day as far as i could tell and defiantly not after misting and eating. So I feel a bit better.
 
Back
Top Bottom