Opening his mouth on two different occasions. What does it mean?

[Phinfan31]

This is Bosley. My first chameleon, and only owned him for about 1 month.

He has never once hissed at me, or tried to bite, or tried to aggressively get out of my control. He truly doesn't seem to mind handling in the slightest. Sometimes if he is startled he might change his color to dark for a moment, but he goes back to bright green fairly quickly...

However, SOMEtimes he does THIS. He opens his mouth. He does it on two different occasions. Very rare, but sometimes he opens his mouth while he is being handled. Again, he never hisses or bites, or tries to get out of your control.

The other time he does it is seemingly RIGHT after we have made changes to his cage. If we clean it, or adjust locations of items, or adjust the lighting above his cage he will open his mouth like this as well. But not until AFTER the changes have been completed. In this photo we had just turned on the light and positioned it above him. I was wondering if he was happy or mad about the light change?

With either occurance its usually only for 10-30 seconds. Then he closes it back up and resumes being Bos.

Im wondering - is THIS his way of showing anger since hes always so chill? Could it possibly be happiness?In the close up picture he has his eyes closed, but this is VERY VERY rare. He always has his eyes open. He usually never changes color when he does this either!

Thanks for your feedback.

Aloha

 

[carol5208]

So this is the guy you want to leave for 5 days. I was right, he is a Jackson's! A chameleon is never going to open his mouth because he is happy, so you can rule that out. They will open their mouths in agression, when they are hot, or lastly when they cannot breathe properly(usually this is due to a Respiratory Infection). I have seen chameleons on here close their eyes when they are extremely stressed while being handled. I am not sure if this is your case or not. Also, do not know how close that branch is under the light, but it looks very close in the pic. Be very careful because they can get burned. You might want to lower that a bit.

 

[Bush baby]

Yep, my Jackson does that on the rare occasions i pick him up too. It's a sign he doesn't like it. It's less common in Jacksons, and much more common in Veileds.

 

[Lathis]

My Jax is the same. He's very cool so it's easy to miss his stress signals. Angry but not freaking out is the the open mouth and a little bit of puffing. Really scared is the open mouth, rising up on all fours, and twitching. Irritated is stripes or a very blue head. Sometimes I see him practice has aggressive stances for no reason - just showing the world who's boss. But when it happen during handling, I back away. Ferdinand is definitely the alpha of our house

I agree that gaping when handling is a stress signal. Try to give him a little more space. Maybe let him sit on a vine or stick instead of your hand. Always move smoothly and slowly. Plus be conscience of whatj you're wearing. Ferds hates stripes, but he really freaks out with printed t-shirts with any sort of "face" on them.

I also agree with the other thread comments. Five days is two long. Anything longer than overnight and I always have someone check on him - refill water, dump the drain bucket, feed, etc. Jax need a lot of water, and as Carol mentioned, bad things happen so quickly with these guys. He's an absolute doll!

 

[Phinfan31]

Appreciate what you guys have to say. I'll keep my distance when he opens his mouth from now on.

As for the branch and the lighting - in this picture that is the 13W UVB light which is very low heat. I use something to keep the light pitched a bit so that the bulb has absolutely no contact with the screen of the tank. I'll keep the distance in mind tho. I might mount this light like I do my heat lamp.

For the heat lamp I use the mount and it sits above the tank about 8 inches or so. So I know that one is OK.

Thanks again for your feedback guys.