Quick Question Please Help

B

Blazenwolf

New Member
ok..... I have a female Veiled chameleon and she has been scratching at the glass and floor of her cage.... also when inside her cage she is usually a brownish color and when i take her out she will turn green and is a lot more active then when in her cage. When i go to put her back in her cage she has hissed at me and has also tried to run off of my hand away from her cage... she is in a 10g glass cage and i try to keep the humidity at 50% and the temp at about 80.... i know she should be in a bigger screened tank but i won't have the money for at least a week or two.... So my question is... is there anything i can do to calm her?...

Thank you in advance
 
could be that she sees her own reflection or thinks she can get out of the cage. glass is very stressful for chams. Thats why you dont impulse buy these animals, and always do your research
 
JustinIgor said:
could be that she sees her own reflection or thinks she can get out of the cage. glass is very stressful for chams. Thats why you dont impulse buy these animals, and always do your research
Click to expand...

She could also be looking for a place to lay her eggs? Don't Veileds lay eggs even if they haven't bred?
 
I'm not exactly sure how old she is but i was told that she might be about 5-6 months old..... she is about 4"-5" long not including the tail
 
Yeah, she is definitely at the age where she needs to be in something WAY bigger than 10 gallons. NO GLASS. I'll let other people post on what you should do about a female that wants to lay eggs. There really isn't much you can do to calm them down. Reflections bother them and they need room to roam. To things you can't adjust. If its possible and you have a good size plant in your house, let her roam about in that during most of the day, at night put her back in her cage and shut the lights out, she should fall asleep.
 
You already know she needs a larger, screened cage. And the sooner the better.
In the meantime, you might want to tape some opaque material (brown paper bag, plastic garbage bag, etc) to the outside of the glass sides. Chams don't really have a concept of glass, so she can see out and obviously wants out, but doesn't grasp that she can't get there.

At 5-6 months, a 10-gal tank is definitely not suitable. It certainly does not give her the height she needs to feel secure and comfortable. Make certain you have lots of foliage for her to hide in. Also double check the temps. It's much harder to maintain temp gradients in a small glass tank, so make sure it's not getting too hot throughout the tank.

It's possible she may also be gravid. If that is the case, she needs a laying box. Yes, female chams lay infertile eggs without being bred. A laying box is a must for all female egg-bearers.

At any rate, she's stressed. She's not in a suitable habitat and she may even be gravid. What kind of UVB are you using? What kind of basking light do you have?
I hope you can make necessary corrections soon.
 
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I had the same situation with my molly. She was in a 10 gallon glass cage too. She stopped being active so i built her a cage from wood and cage screening at Lowes. It could be that she is seeing her reflection though. Chams also like to be above eye level. The reason she is dark could be that she is too hot or too cold. She doesnt have much of a temperature gradient in a tank that size so you could try changing the temperature by moving her light. I have heard that its easier to handle chams when you hold them near the end of the day and with low lighting. Also, another thing to try could be moving the tank as high as possible because they like to be above your eye level, it makes them feel safer. One thing to note is that female veileds are really pissy so it could just be she's just angry at life. For more or better help please include some more information like: how old is she, how long has she been acting weird or how long have u had her before she acted this way, what kind of lighting do you have? What kind of temperature gradient do you have? Is there folliage between her and you? ( That may be another thing to try as well- If the problem is that she is seeing her reflection, you could go to walmart and buy some cheap silk plants and wash those with a little soap and water and dry them and place those all around the cage so she cant see another female veiled anywhere. Anyways, i hope i helped a little.
 
i have had her for about 1 week and she has been acting this way since i got her....

i don't have a UVB light... and haven't been able to find a reptisun 5.0 tube light at petsmart.... i'm currently using a All Living Things 75watt UVA incandescent basking light at about 12" from the highest vine
 
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Okay ... in addition to a suitable enclosure, she also needs time to acclimate if you've only had her one week. Please keep handling to the bare minimum and give her privacy. As previously stated, chams are arboreal. They like to be above eye level. They are not like other "friendlier" herps; they're generally shy and grumpy and just want to be left alone.
 
Thank you for the help.... hopefully in about a week or so i will have a 24x20x48 wood enclosure with aluminum screen built for her......later on today i will also be trying to find a reptisun 5.0 UVB tube light, some sand, and something to cover the glass with so she can't see her reflection untill i can move her to the bigger enclosure.

And Again

THANK YOU for the help

I greatly appreciate it.
 
As far as the glass / seeing her reflection is concerned ... I'm not sure seeing their reflection really causes any problems. I do agree with the idea that they don't understand glass. My suggestion would be to "line" the inside of the tank with as much greenery as possible. This may make her feel safer as well as help define the borders of her temporary environment.
I would also like to suggest utilizing the tank vertically instead of in the traditional horizontal position. This will giver her a bit of vertical space and make the front screen instead of the top.

-Brad
 
Try looking at petco and petstores that specialize in marine fish. I got my tube bulb really cheap from "atlantis" a store that specialized in fish. Sometimes the chameleons are dark from the lack of UVB, i posted something about molly being dark and someone suggested a tube UVB instead of compact. Apparently, that was the problem and after adding more UVB her color was a lot brighter and green.

Try looking at the temperatures in different areas of the cage by moving the thermometer around or buying another thermometer. Try walmart for the cheapest thermometers and hygrometers. I found a hygrometer at walmart for 3$ next to the humidifiers and was mad because i bought mine for double that.
 
Important...

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Blazenwolf said:
i'm currently using a All Living Things 75watt UVA incandescent basking light at about 12" from the highest vine
Click to expand...

I wasn't familiar with the "All Living Things" basking bulb, and a 75-watt basking bulb seemed a bit overkill for such a small tank, so I did a little research.
According to Petsmart's website, any wattage over 60 watts is NOT recommended for reptile enclosures. Here's a link to that page:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752666&cp=2767037.2862253&sr=1#prodTab1

Please take the temp again and make sure you're not unintentionally frying your little girl. Glass tanks heat up very quickly. You can always use a regular household bulb to supply basking heat, there really is no need for expensive specialty bulbs. I have adult chams, all in large screen cages. 75-watts (regular house bulbs) is the highest wattage I need on any of my cages.

Just a thought ...
 
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Blazenwolf said:
......later on today i will also be trying to find... some sand...
Click to expand...
Howdy William,

Skip the sand. If you have to put something on the glass bottom until you get the new screen enclosure (with a drillable PVC bottom) then try something like paper towels. A layer of sand on the bottom may cause more trouble than it's worth.
 
Sometimes veileds scratch at the glass for hours because they are confused by it. I agree about the sand. It could be bad news bears.
 
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