New chameleon, peculiar behavior

[MSP]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Arthur is a 3 1/2 month old Ambilobe Panther, and we've had him for a week.

Handling - So far, we have only handled him once and don't plan to do so very regularly.

Feeding - Crickets, gutloaded with mustard greens. He eats about 7 per day.

Supplements - Calcium powder without D3 every day, calcium with D3 and Reptivite once a week.

Watering - We water by hand-misting onto the leaves. We mist twice a day for about a minute each time. On order- a dripper.

Fecal Description - Dark brown and white, relatively solid. No insect leftovers.

Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Not that we're aware of.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Screen cage, 18 x 18 x 36

Lighting - 12 hours on, 12 hours off via timer; 5.0 coil UVB and a 60 watt incandescent bulb for heat.

Temperature - Cage floor is about 75 F, basking spot is about 82 (85 at the highest vine he can climb, but about 82 where he likes to sit). It drops to a constant 75 at night.

Humidity - Unsure of humidity levels. The hygrometer should arrive later today. We mist twice daily to provide humidity (and we live in FL).

Plants - All of our plants and vines are fake.

Placement - The cage is on our home office, where we like to sit in the evenings on computers, but he's in the corner and it's not a high-activity area. His cage top is about 6 1/2 feet off the floor and not in any drafts that I know of.

Location - FL


Current Problem - Well, let's see. Arthur is actually a pretty friendly panther chameleon from what we can tell. He's not at all shy about eating and drinking while we're watching him, and he didn't get too stressed out the time we had to handle him (although I wouldn't say he was thrilled).

My questions are mostly related to chameleon behavior and whether he's acting "normal". We have a beardie and a snake, but we're aware that a chameleon is quite different.

1) His drinking habits. He really, really likes drinking water off his leaves. As soon as I mist them enough for the water to accumulate, he goes from leaf to leaf and licks off as much as he can get. He'll do this for a solid five minutes after I mist the enclosure, and I'm curious to know if he's supposed to drink this much each time I water him. Soon, we'll have our dripper, so I'll set that up on a portion of the leaves so he knows where to go for a drink, but in the meantime, I want to make sure he's not dehydrated.

2) The first couple days we had him, he had a bit of drool/mucus in his mouth after drinking. That seems to have abated since, and I want to be sure to rule out a URI. My theories were that he had either gotten dehydrated at the reptile show and has gotten re-hydrated since (which is why it has stopped) or the fake leaves had some kind of a funny or chemical taste at first and the drool was his way of getting rid of that (I did rinse them a bit before they went into his enclosure, but perhaps not enough, and perhaps the reason the drool has gone away is because the frequent misting has washed any excess off?)

3) He hasn't been gaping or wheezing, really, but when I approach the enclosure, he'll puff out his little chin pouch (what's the official name for that? A beard?) and take a deep breath, releasing it pretty hard. He tilts his head back with his little front legs in the air and stares at me. I can't tell if this is behavior saying "whoa, you surprised me by coming out of the dark at me" or a problem. I haven't noticed him doing it nearly as much when I'm not near the enclosure. He also "sneezes" during misting from time to time. I don't spray directly on him, but it does seem like it bothers him... as if he's trying to clear his nostrils if he breathes it in.

4) Speaking of his nostrils, he seems to have a bit of white residue around them. Is this an issue or normal expulsion of whatever he needs to get rid of?

I think that's it for now. We should have the basic setup down. He's eating well and drinking just fine. I'm checking up on his particularities, though... Just in case. A reptile vet is hard to come by in my area, so an abundance of caution to catch things in time is top priority.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[jamjam]

so at that age he needs to be eating alot more!! like up to 25 crickets sometimes, generally as many as he would eat in a span of 5 mins and when my guy was little i did that couple times a day. although seems like he is drinking alot at that age think id try and add another 1-2 misting sessions.

residue and a huff sound, which im assuming what you mean by him sneezing is normal. i know the residue is normal but forget what it is, think its calcium.

not sure about the mucus, but alot of his other behaviours seem pretty normal. there prob just signs you have annoyed him a bit.

 

[zlew]

the residue is salt, not calcium. when people think it's calcium, they start changing their supplementation because they think theyre getting too much. not calcium.

 

[jamjam]

the residue is salt, not calcium. when people think it's calcium, they start changing their supplementation because they think theyre getting too much. not calcium.

there we go! thanks for the correction had feeling wasnt calcium i really should have gone and checked it instead of being lazy

 

[MSP]

Great! It's good to know that the residue isn't something to be concerned about.

As for crickets, they're medium sized, probably about the largest he can handle size-wise (width of the head as a measurement), and we try to only drop ten in at a time so we don't overwhelm him. He always has leftover ones (3-4) when it starts to get around to evening time. Would he eat more if we gave him more opportunity, or is he just not hungry enough to eat all ten?

 

[camimom]

If he's being given a lot, and doesn't eat them all, then hes just gotten full.

at that age, you want him to get his fill, so he's fine.

So in regards to your numbered things...

1. hes drinking so much because you are not misting often enough. Most chams need to be misted at least 4 times a day. I actually mist 6 times a day.
They are supposed to drink off leaves, that's how they drink.

2. the drool. its most likely you just caught him when he had a mouth full of water. also, URI;s don't really produce saliva, so much as they have wheezing and popping noises.

3. so the chin (aka Gular area) what hes doing is normal. He's pissed at you. its a defense/display thing. he probably is sneezing to get the water out of his nose, that's normal too.

4.the nose. that too is normal. he's just getting rid of the excess salts, probably from in the water. its totally ok. if it really bothers you, you can use a wet q tip to remove it. but its no biggie.

supplementation- you need to be doing the calcium with d3 twice a month, not once a week. same with the reptivite.

watering. as I said, you need to up this.

an auto mister such as mist king or aquazamp is great if you don't have time to mist during the day multiple times.

gutloading- you need to do more than just mustard greens. sandrachameleon has the best blogs on this.

temps- you are going to want to raise your temps up a few degrees to around 85, panthers like the warmth.

you can also upgrade his cage to the big size he needs as an adult whenever you want, so long as he can find his food and water, its all good.

While chams may not change color to show stress, they can still be stressed. so don't handle on a regular basis.

I think that's it for now.

good luck!

btw, number one unofficial rule on this forum. pics or nothing happened!