Quick Question About Cham Being On Bottom Of Cage

SpartanG01

New Member
For the last week or so, maybe every other day I've noticed my 4ish month old Veiled "Cammi" doing what can only be described as "roaming" around the bottom of her cage.

Couple Facts:

Age: 4-5 months? I'm not really sure how old she was when we got her
Weight: 4.3 grams
She only does this for a couple minutes
Whenever she does she turns very dark oliveish
I've never seen her gape her mouth during this behavior
It's usually around mid-day
I've never seen her do it at night

Cage Setup:
Cage - Glass on two sides, screen on two sides and top
Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 bulb on top
Foliage - Fake vines/leaves strung from top to bottom and across midsection, also 1 mid sized sandblasted grape vine sitting on the bottom reaching up almost to the top
Substrate - That dehydrated brick eco-earth stuff (dark brown) (rehydrated)
Misting - Twice a day, morning when I wake her up and night about an hour before she goes to bed. The bottom of the cage I try to keep fairly moist. I have a drip cup I fill up mid day and it drips for about 10 minutes
Feeding - Twice a day, 3-5 crickets when I wake her up, and 3-5 about 4 hours before she goes to bed. I dust the crickets in Zoomeds Reptivite +d3 twice a week.
Temperature - Day: 72-78, Night: 68-72

Normally she is a very bright light leafy green and tolerates being handled/picked up much better than most Veileds I've come in contact with. Almost never hissing unless I move too quickly. I've been tracking her weight and she's progressing normally. I've checked all of the health problems I see listed and she appears to suffer from none of them. Eats regularly, expels excess minerals regularly, defecates regularly. I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out why she does this and I am confident she is well hydrated, well fed, healthy and not stressed. Her temperament hasn't changed recently, she isn't near a window or any other animals.

Is this something I should be worried about or do some Veileds just do this?

Extra Note - Something unique I have observed is that out of the 3 or so times I've observed this behavior I saw her face the glass and what either looked liked try to climb through or up the glass. After about 30ish seconds of that she turns around and climbs back on one of the vines, lightens in color and goes to the top of her cage. I dunno if this is relevant at all because I've seen my Crested Nala do this when she was gravid but I figured out I needed to get her a lay box and that solved that. (That being said this Cham should not be gravid because she is only 4.3 grams)

Also how fast should they grow? She was 2.2 Grams when we got her and has only gained about half a gram a month but I see her eating almost every day.
 
Not sure what is causing the roaming on the floor, maybe looking for different conditions? She should be fed more and the temps can be raised to about 80-83 to help her warm up more. Do you use a normal plain calcium without D3? If not, she needs it at almost every feeding. Can you post pictures?
 
do you have a basking light for her besides the Reptisun 5.0? If not, you should.

I do, a spiral bulb basking light on the top as well forget to mention that.

Not sure what is causing the roaming on the floor, maybe looking for different conditions? She should be fed more and the temps can be raised to about 80-83 to help her warm up more. Do you use a normal plain calcium without D3? If not, she needs it at almost every feeding. Can you post pictures?

I was told by the pet store people (I got this at a reptile store "Pinellas County Reptiles" not at like petsmart) that too much calcium can be back and to only do it 2-3 times a week? And I can't get the ambient temperature up and still have it under control, if I leave the air off long enough to get to 83 it will spike to like 89 before it gets it back down and it's miserable in the house that way lol. I'm working on getting into a place where I can keep them all in a separate room who's vent I can just shut but for now their in my room.

Someone private messaged me saying she might actually be gravid, is it possible at 4.3 grams for a female veiled to be gravid? She's tiny!
 
Switch to an incandescent bulb. The basking should be at about 83. A plain calcium without D3 is recommended at most feedings. Without enough calcium and proper UVB she can easily develop metabolic bone disease which cannot be reversed.

Post pictures.
 
I agree with Pssh. Calcium with 3d and multivits twice a month and plain calcium most feeds is a good routine. Calcium with 3d twice a week seems too much. I recommend reading Sandrachameleons blogs about supplements.
 
With that brand of calcium with D3 I would recommend using it about 4 times a month.
 
my female vieled was doing the same thing and shes as big as my finger shes only about 2 months old! she would go to the bottom and "dig" and try to get through the glass, i went and bought her a mesh cage instead of having glass and she never did it again, it could just be the cage shes in causing her to stress because she thinks she can go through it, i dont know but that was the case for my cham maybe this will help!
 
Do you think she can see her reflection in the glass?

thats what im thinking, that or she can see through it and tries to get out. my baby wouldnt stop trying and there was dirt at the bottom of the cage so she would dig to to get to the bottom, it was weird and she was starting to hurt herself with all the rubbing i was affraid she was going to get a clept pallet or whatever there called, but i got her a mesh cage and she stopped doing it. do you have any live plants in her cage? mine has two baby fiscus trees and i got a bunch of tumble weed branches and put them in there cage and they love it ive never seen them on the floor (i have two babies)
 
thats what im thinking, that or she can see through it and tries to get out. my baby wouldnt stop trying and there was dirt at the bottom of the cage so she would dig to to get to the bottom, it was weird and she was starting to hurt herself with all the rubbing i was affraid she was going to get a clept pallet or whatever there called, but i got her a mesh cage and she stopped doing it. do you have any live plants in her cage? mine has two baby fiscus trees and i got a bunch of tumble weed branches and put them in there cage and they love it ive never seen them on the floor (i have two babies)

Went out and got some regular calcium and two sides of the cage are mesh as well as the top, two are glass. I plan to get a complete mesh cage but when I bought her this particular cage was the only really vertical one they had left in stock. As a side note, I haven't seen her near the bottom of her cage in about 4 days, and like I said it was never more than a minute or two.
 
Went out and got some regular calcium and two sides of the cage are mesh as well as the top, two are glass. I plan to get a complete mesh cage but when I bought her this particular cage was the only really vertical one they had left in stock. As a side note, I haven't seen her near the bottom of her cage in about 4 days, and like I said it was never more than a minute or two.

well that's good :) she could just be exploring you never really know with chams haha
 
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