annefirth12
Established Member
Hi!
I’m prepping a new enclosure for my chameleon who will be shipped to me in the next week or so. She’s now just over four years old and mostly going strong, but I’d like to kind of senior-proof her new enclosure.
The biggest issue I’ve seen with her is she falls more - her grip is still strong but her nails are worn down from screen climbing that started when we started letting her free roam during the day. I’m setting up her enclosure to have a lot of branches close together and close to the edges, since she usually falls while climbing around on the screen like she’s still 6 months old. I’m also putting a lot of plants on the ground, and I found another thread suggesting putting foam around the edges of the pots so there aren’t any hard edges to bump into.
I was wondering if it would make sense to extend that idea and put half pool noodles down (with spray foam, maybe?) around the edges of the enclosure where she’s likely to fall. I’ve tried a lot of things to encourage her to stop screen climbing but when she wants out, she wants out. At this point, it’s been 4 years and I just want to make sure as she gets older and creakier she doesn’t get hurt.
I’ll post enclosure pictures later when it’s a little closer to being finished- I need to pick up a few more plants.
I’m prepping a new enclosure for my chameleon who will be shipped to me in the next week or so. She’s now just over four years old and mostly going strong, but I’d like to kind of senior-proof her new enclosure.
The biggest issue I’ve seen with her is she falls more - her grip is still strong but her nails are worn down from screen climbing that started when we started letting her free roam during the day. I’m setting up her enclosure to have a lot of branches close together and close to the edges, since she usually falls while climbing around on the screen like she’s still 6 months old. I’m also putting a lot of plants on the ground, and I found another thread suggesting putting foam around the edges of the pots so there aren’t any hard edges to bump into.
I was wondering if it would make sense to extend that idea and put half pool noodles down (with spray foam, maybe?) around the edges of the enclosure where she’s likely to fall. I’ve tried a lot of things to encourage her to stop screen climbing but when she wants out, she wants out. At this point, it’s been 4 years and I just want to make sure as she gets older and creakier she doesn’t get hurt.
I’ll post enclosure pictures later when it’s a little closer to being finished- I need to pick up a few more plants.
Adding more plants is also fantastic to prevent and cushion any potential falls. If you can find some pothos with super long leafy vines to weave around her branches, that would be fantastic. I know some have gotten that soft plastic type netting to keep their falling chams safer. If you have enough branches or vines, I would make levels, like we have floors of buildings. It’s hard to find vine which is very long, but I had coiled it up to form a ‘floor’ when I had a sick falling cham. Hope this is of some help.
