Odd habit.....

[JoshCrane1]

HELLO, i have a 6mo male veiled chameleon. in his cage i use vines and branches bound by zipties(dont worry, i position the tie head so it cant scratch the cham.) the thing is he walks over to one of the ziptie heads and bites it, at first i thought he was just being curious; but now ive seen him do it over a dozen times, and ONLY the same ziptie, not the others. weird, i dont know y he would keep doing it. prob. done it over 30 times, the ziptie is getting worn down.

any thoughts why he would be doing this?

 

[jannb]

Try changing it to a new one and maybe he will have no interest in the new one. Jann

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

HELLO, i have a 6mo male veiled chameleon. in his cage i use vines and branches bound by zipties(dont worry, i position the tie head so it cant scratch the cham.) the thing is he walks over to one of the ziptie heads and bites it, at first i thought he was just being curious; but now ive seen him do it over a dozen times, and ONLY the same ziptie, not the others. weird, i dont know y he would keep doing it. prob. done it over 30 times, the ziptie is getting worn down.

any thoughts why he would be doing this?

My guess is it looks tasty for some reason. Have you tried a different color zip tie. I had the same type of issue with these green soft tie things for hydro that I use. I ended up having to move the tie. Then he stopped.

 

[JoshCrane1]

...havent tried different color.... but there's plenty more of the same color and size ties all around the cage and he only bites that one. and you would think he would know its not food after the 30th time biting it.....

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

...havent tried different color.... but there's plenty more of the same color and size ties all around the cage and he only bites that one. and you would think he would know its not food after the 30th time biting it.....

I have about 20 ties in the cage and he only didn't like the one as well. You would think they would figure it out. Very strange.

The ties I use are Hornworm color so I can see why he would be confused.

 

[JoshCrane1]

i guess ill switch from white to black on that one tie.thanks..

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

i guess ill switch from white to black on that one tie.thanks..

If you don't mind would you Let me know how that works out. I was fascinated by his behavior and am very curious if that works for you.

 

[JoshCrane1]

will do..........

 

[studiocham]

I've seen melleri do this, too. They select one "enemy" cable tie lock to attack. Sometimes, it is preceded by lobe flipping and tongue shooting, then the bite attack, then a solid sideways chew with the lateral teeth.

I had to turn the ties upside down, so that the lock was under the perch or in between a couple branches, so it would be impossible to chew off.

I don't know why chams do this, it may be practice for hunting (also known as "play"). They also do this to plastic vines, buds and knots on natural branches, etc.

 

[JoshCrane1]

interesting.....

 

[Klemins]

if it's white/clear, it might reflect like water to him, or a bug.