Question?

Psychotic4mb3r

Psychotic4mb3r

New Member
Ok Ducky(my 5 month old cham) was acting a bit odd yesterday and espically last night. She NEVER does this...
She usually is really mellow and relaxes on a branch all day. Walks around to get food ect but normally very melow.. But all last night she was climbing on the cage and hanging upside down from the roof of her cage(which she never hardly climbs her cage). She was doing this all night long. Fell from the roof a few times, but continued to climb basically all night. Never slept.. Any explination for this? She always sleeps all night long(except last night) and it was just making me a bit worried something was wrong? She also was walking around the bottom of her cage awhile but mostly climbing the cage walls.

A few days ago I did change the material at the botton of her cage though. I had that mulch looking stuff in there but she kept almost eating it when shed go for a cricket so I changed it to the green carpet stuff for reptiles..

Any ideas why shes acting so funny?
 
Please fill out the how to ask for help form and post some pictures of her and her set up.
 
Current Problem - Acting a bit odd I guess you can say compaired to how she normally acts


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
She is female about 5 months old and I have had her about a month or so.

Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
once every few days or so

Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
crickets about 6 to 10 a day. not sure what its called at the moment what im gut loading the crickets with but its orange square block of cricket food/water and recently gave the crickets vitamin supplment powder to eat too

Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
reptical about once a week

Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? twice a day and yes she licks the leaves


Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
White solid and no

History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
I got her from a guy who had NO idea about chams. had her in a aquarium she was pretty skinny and she said she was a "he"

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
screen.. about i think. 13 by 13 by 26 or 36 i cant remember exactly

Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
during the day i have a regular 75 wat bulb and a night a red night bulb(getting a heat emitter when i get the money so its dark for her to sleep instead of the annoying red glow

Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Not exactly sure.. Temp therm stoped working, need to get a new one with next paycheck.

Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Getting therm next paycheck so not sure. Im sure its at a good point though

Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
fake

Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
its a good 3 feet off the sloor i wanna say. not really near any windows..
Location - Where are you geographically located?
 
and i cant post a picture at the moment Im not at home with her but she looks very good. just as healthy looking as my male. shes just acting a bit more frisky for some reason.
 
Okay, well you need to know the temps because if you dont you may keep it warm enough for her to start making some eggs. You should start to cut down the food intake really soon to try and prevent egg production (5-7 three days a week) She needs a plain calcium without d3 on most feedings, a calcium with d3 twice a month, and a multi vitman once a month. You need to gutload with fresh greens like kale, collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, escarole, endive, and parsley. Use other veggies and fruits like carrots, oranges, apples, papaya, yams, and squash.

Does she have a UVB lgiht at all? No need more night time heaters unless your house goes below 50 degrees F. Try to raise the top of the cage to above your eye level to help her feel more secure. You should get live non toxic plants because often times veiled will eat plants regardless of whether or not they are real. If she ate a fake leaf she could become impacted which can kill her or cost you very large vet bills. I recommend pothos, hibiscus, dwarf umbrella plants, and ficus trees.

A picture of your cage would be a good idea.
 
I'd say she was up all night because of the red bulb. Heat emitters are great for keeping cages warmer at night. I had 2 panthers get respiratory infections when then nighttime temps were around 60 downstairs earlier his year so I have heat emitters on them all right now. Now the nighttime temps are around 70 on average with the heat emitters on top and the towels on the sides and they are all in perfect health. While they can withstand nighttime temperatures to 50 degrees or even lower I personally wouldn't want my panther chameleons to ever get that cold because it is just a problem waiting to happen. I know more than a couple people who let their nighttime temps get in the low sixties, including me, who have had big problems with respiratory infections and other health issues in their chams. good luck and besides what pssh said about the no nighttime heat emitter I agree with her completely and try to do a little research on the little on so you know how everything is suppose to be. It will save you alot of money in vet bills in the end :)


Justin


EDIT: And she needs a reptisun 5.0 or a reptisun 10.0 tube light asap or there is a very serious risk of MBD. Also if your house is in ohio and you run the heat your humidity is not going to be at the greatest level. Trust me at my old place we ran heat 24/7 in the winter and the humidity was like 20% or 30%. I got a little humidifier for the room to run every once in awhile and it stayed between 50% and 70% before misting.
 
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They're veileds so they can handle night time drops that are lower than a panther can. I wouldn't suggest you keep them at 50, but I was making a point. No need for night time heat unless they're sick or it gets really really cold. Plus chams need a night time drop for their metabolism to slow.
 
RI stems from stagnant air circulation and bacteria build up. Humidity also plays important factor (too humid or too dry).
Keeping your chameleon cold during the day might contribute to the sickness due to the fact that they need heat for metabolic activity.
But, a good 10 degree temp drop during the night is beneficial to induce a deep slumber.

As long as the night temp does not drop below 50 and the chameleon has a chance to warm up to its ideal temperature during the day, he will be fine.
 
Sorry I didn't see that it was a veiled, but I would still keep it out of the fifties. The lower half of the sixties is plenty enough of a drop for a younger chameleon. And yes I know that stagnant air is often the cause but definitely wasn't in the case of these 2.
 
As long as the day temp, the air circulation, and the overall humidity are within the preferred range for the chameleon, I see no reason why a chameleon will get a respiratory infection from experiencing 60 - 65 F night temp. It is within their normal night temp in the wild. In some area, it might drop further than 60 F.

Imho, I suspect there are other elements at play in your case.
 
IMG_1223.jpg
 
It might be roaming the cage to find UV light and where sid it say it was a veiled I must of missed that part and I think its pointless even adding anymore on this I think the owner dosent come on here anymore
 
So..Ducky is roaming the cage, hanging upside down from the roof of her cage walking around the bottom of her cage awhile....do you have a suitable opaque container of washed playsand in the cage for her to lay eggs in...sounds like she might be looking for a place to lay eggs.

As far as staying awake all night, I would think the red light could have something to do with that, as was already mentioned.

I gutload/feed crickets a wide assortment of greens (dandelions, collards, kale, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, zucchini, etc.)

You were already told about supplements, so I'll skip that....except to mention that they should be phosphorus-free....and that I recommend a vitamin powder with a beta carotene source of vitamin A. If the chameleon needs preformed vitamin A it can then be given separately.

You said the white part of the fecal is white...is there a brown sausage-like part?

What brand and type (compact, spiral, long tube, etc.) of a UVB light do you have? It shouldn't pass through glass or plastic, BTW.

You said you use fake plants...with a veiled, I would suggest non-toxic well-washed real plants since they can/do nibble on them.

Here are some good sites for you to look at...
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=102
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060421.../index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html
http://adcham.com/
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

OldSkoolxReasons...were your panther cages near the window when they had the UR's??
 
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