Rapidly Changing Colors, is it normal?

[HueTheChameleon]

Hello,

I thought my chameleon (3-4 months) was with egg and gave it a dirt/sand pit so she'd lay her egg. I don't think she's buried her egg, but instead her limbs grew and kind of caught up to her large body. After this, she went from being solidly green to having bright orange splotches on her sides, turquoise dots on her sides and long turquoise stripes on the crest on her head. It looks amazing, but it was almost a one day to the next change. These are normal patterns for a female veiled chameleon right?

-Hue the Chameleon

 

[Tommy Bonnet]

Im pretty new to chams as well but it Sounds like she is showing receptive colors tho she is young.... Someone more experienced will pipe in.

 

[kinyonga]

Please post a photo.

 

[HueTheChameleon]

 

[HueTheChameleon]

Please post a photo.

I just posted two if it helps

 

[Lazereth]

Those colors all seem perfectly normal and a great looking girl too, i don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

[HueTheChameleon]

Those colors all seem perfectly normal and a great looking girl too, i don't think you have anything to worry about.

Thanks, the orange spots seem to become more prominent every few hours. I knew they got their colors during puberty, but I didn't expect it to happen so fast!

 

[HueTheChameleon]

I'm just so excited now that I know they aren't the result of some pathology. I bought Hue without knowing anything about his parents. To randomly get orange and turquoise in a female veiled chameleon makes me feel like I was pretty lucky!

 

[kinyonga]

Does she have egglaying bin in her cage? She looks very gravid to me.

 

[HueTheChameleon]

Does she have egglaying bin in her cage? She looks very gravid to me.

I put a 12 inch tall by 12 inch wide by 8 inch long container with organic soil. I see Hue walk around and she defecates and produces uretes there, but hasn't laid an egg yet.

Lately I've left her cage open, so she'll walk around my office. Climb the curtains, stay up there for an hour and then come back in her cage to drink.

 

[HueTheChameleon]

She's also developed these odd bumps at the base of her tail on the dorsal side, I'm not sure if they're related to being gravid.

 

[kinyonga]

She's very big so I'm betting she is carrying a large number of eggs. I hope she likes the egglaying container and uses it soon. If she shows any signs ongoing down hill get her to a vet ASAP. I'm hoping she's not eggbound. If she does start to dig do not let her see you watching her while she is digging.

Can you please tell me specifically what supplements you are using and how often for each? What do you feed/gutload the insects with specifically?

Can you post another photo from the side so I can see her elbow pleaded?

 

[kinyonga]

Please not pleaded.

 

[HueTheChameleon]

She's very big so I'm betting she is carrying a large number of eggs. I hope she likes the egglaying container and uses it soon. If she shows any signs ongoing down hill get her to a vet ASAP. I'm hoping she's not eggbound. If she does start to dig do not let her see you watching her while she is digging.

Can you please tell me specifically what supplements you are using and how often for each? What do you feed/gutload the insects with specifically?

Can you post another photo from the side so I can see her elbow pleaded?

I feed her crickets that are fed Fluker's complete cricket diet. It's the orange cube thing. For treats I give her wax worms or mealworms probably 5 times a week. She eats about 20-30 crickets a week. I dust the crickets when I first put them in her cage with sluker's calcium with vitamin d3, phosphorus free. Once a month I also dust with a multivitamin.

 

[kinyonga]

Your feeding/gutloading of the insects needs improvement. Crickets, locusts, superworms, roaches can be fed / gutloaded with a wide assortment of greens such as collards, escarole, endive, dandelion greens, kale, etc and veggies such as carrots, sweet red pepper, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, etc. The orange cubes are not good.

Since most feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous its important to dust them with a phosphorous-free calcium powder at most feedings to make up for it.

It's recommended that you dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A. PrOformed sources of vitamin A cannot build up in the system and lead to overdoses like prEformed sources can and will leave it up to you to decide whether the chameleon needs prEformed or not.

It's recommended that you dust twice a month with a phosphorous - free calcium / D3 powder to ensure that the chameleon gets some D3 without overdosing it and leaving it to produce the rest of it from the UVB light.

 

[jajeanpierre]

[QUOTE="kinyonga, post: 1248351, member: 769"

Can you post another photo from the side so I can see her elbow pleaded?[/QUOTE]

Good eye--I was thinking the same thing.