Sleeping Behavior

Jam

New Member
My chameleon Hermie has started a new sleeping habit that I am finding slightly worrisome. He has begun to sleep on the bottom of his cage, not on his side or anything, but just standing there usually behind some plants. During the day his cage ranges from 100* to 70*, and he usually hangs out in the 90ish* area, occasionally moving among the hot and cold ends. At night his cage is about 70*. He is still eating well, in fact I have actually SEEN him eat more than normal lately -- usually he wont eat if people are around, and I just know that he's eaten bc his food is gone, and he is also drinking well and regularly. His color is still good (he still turns lime green when he sleeps). He is also pooping regularly. Is this a behavior that I should be worried about? He used to sleep hanging (often upside down the crazy boy) from plants towards the top of his cage.
Thanks!
 
Is this a behavior that I should be worried about?
This does seem to be irregular behavior. Hanging upside down while sleeping can be a sign something is wrong as well. Remind me again on some of the details of your cham? Age, food, supplement schedule, lighting, humidity.
 
Hi, sorry it took so long to reply, I had to go out of town (my mother was taking care of herm though, and loves him). Hermie is a veiled chameleon. He's in a 65 gallon screened enclosure, and s about 4-5 months old. He gets gut loaded and dusted crickets along with wax worms and meal worms. Usually he eats 5-10 crickets in the morning, 10-15 small meal worms at lunch, a few wax worms mid afternoon and 5-10 crickets in the evening. I always try to make sure there are a few crickets hopping around in case he gets hungry between meals. His crickets are medium sized. He gets UVB and UVA light for 10-12 hours a day (there is also a ceramic heater to help bring the hot end up to 100*), and his lights are turned off for 10-12 hours a day. His cool end is about 70*, and that is also his night time temperature. His cage gets both misted and he has a dripper. THe humidity fluxuates some (between mistings and what not) but is usually about 70% He is still eating like normal and I see him drinking, and he is also pretty active.
 
A few more questions: What are you using to gutload the crickets? What are you using for dusting and how often? How long have you been caring for him?

Hermie really should not be on the ground much. I assume he is either weak for some reason or possibly too hot. The sleeping during the day is not a good sign at all. You posted your original message a few days ago. If he is still acting this way I would take him to the vet.
 
oh gosh, he's NOT sleeping during the day. I'm sorry if I wrote that or implied it somewhere, no if he was sleeping during the day I would DEFINATELY have taken him into the vet ASAP. He will ONLY sleep after his lights have been turned off, and the ONLY time that he is on the ground is when he sleeps (not every night though, only some of the time, I've just noticed it more frequently). He's pretty active during the day, climbing around, stalking crickets. I let him come out every few days to climb around more, and his grip feels very strong, and he jets around like a maniac. If he sleeps on the ground at night, he will go down there after the lights have been turned off, and as soon as I turn his light on he will climb back up to the top of his cage under the heat lamp and wait for me to start giving him his morning crickets (he will eat at least a few them off of a spoon most of the time)

His crickets are gut loaded with a combo of things. I offer them flunker's gut load (it comes in orange cubes), a mixture of various vegetables (usually cale, collared greens, romaine lettuce, carrots, sometimes zucchini and cucumber, and then my vet rec'd throwing in some high quality dog food (such as eukanuba)). I dust them with "Repcal" daily and "reptavite" everyother day.

I bought hermie at the end of November, so about 3 months ago. He was VERY tiny at that age. I will admit that I got him from a pet store, that is known for having a good reputation with reptiles, though my vet did question at the time if he was really too young to be sold. He couldn't have been more than a month when I got him. I'd say he was between 2 and 4 weeks old when I got him, from looking at pictures of other chameleons. He barely had a crown on top of his head at all.

Since posting that message he spent one night on the ground, but the rest up in his branches.

There is a picture of him that I posted under the members pics maybe a week or so ago... he still looks like that (condition wise).
 
Picture

Hey, I just looked at the picture you have of your cham and I saw those dark colorations. Are those burns, they look like another picture that someone else on here had of a cham that ended up having burns from the light source. Anyways, sorry if you have already talked about that somewhere else, i was just curious.:D
 
No, those dark colorations aren't burns. He's had them since he was a baby, and depending on his mood they will be anything from bright white, to yellowish to brown to black. They never turn green though. THe skin is of the same consistency/texture as the rest of his body though, it just "lacks" the same pigmentation.
 
Yea, my baby Veileds have them aswell. I pretty sure all Veileds have them, but I'm not sure.
 
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