Something is wrong, please help 🙏

[Maddiyey]

Hello everyone! We got our Blue since February this year, he is a panther chameleon. We made him custom enclosure, with solid sides and mesh front doors and top is also mesh. (Since in Bulgaria is pretty low in humidity, we decided on hybrid enclosure rather than all mesh, so it is easier to make good humidity for our chameleon). So far so good, but the enclosure is a little bit smaller than recommended. (110x40x80cm). Fast forward to 3-4 days ago, our boy started to go all the way to the bottom, he never done that before. His typical day is staying below the heat at the top branch, wanting to come out when he sees us (we usually take him out in our balcony to catch some sun) and maybe goes down two branches, but never at the bottom. He seems healthy, eating, he shed 3 days ago, but today i found him at the bottom of his enclosure, dark colours, and that kind of scared me. He usually stays at the top branch, and that new behaviour is worrying me a lot. Does he needs bigger enclosure, does he goes through some health issues… at this point i am pretty sure something in his enclosure is bothering him, but since we haven't done anything different i really can’t find the problem..

 

[MissSkittles]

Did he stay on the bottom? Was he staying in just one spot? Males will patrol their perimeters fairly routinely and some of mine will at times walk along the bottom while doing their patrols. They do not stay in one spot though. Is it possible that he saw an insect and was hunting it? All of my enclosures are bioactive and I am always finding one of my chameleons hanging upside down, hunting the isopods. While not as common, they will also briefly go down to the bottom if needed for hunting. When taking him outside, are you taking him in his enclosure or carrying him? If it’s in his enclosure, he could be getting overheated and looking to cool off at the bottom. He could get overheated if inside while in his enclosure, especially if any sunlight shines on him.

 

[Maddiyey]

Did he stay on the bottom? Was he staying in just one spot? Males will patrol their perimeters fairly routinely and some of mine will at times walk along the bottom while doing their patrols. They do not stay in one spot though. Is it possible that he saw an insect and was hunting it? All of my enclosures are bioactive and I am always finding one of my chameleons hanging upside down, hunting the isopods. While not as common, they will also briefly go down to the bottom if needed for hunting. When taking him outside, are you taking him in his enclosure or carrying him? If it’s in his enclosure, he could be getting overheated and looking to cool off at the bottom. He could get overheated if inside while in his enclosure, especially if any sunlight shines on him.

Hey, he just started just to go down, kind of explore and goes up. Today when i got home i find him kind of staying at one spot at the pot of a plant, that sits on the bottom, that’s why i started to worry a bit. He is really social butterfly and we do take him by hand and stays outside supervised ( even though we take him when the weather is perfect for him). When we take him out of his enclosure, he really like climbing the blinds, explore the couch, climb his plants that are not in the enclosure and wwhen we try putting him back his cage he insists.

 

[MissSkittles]

Hey, he just started just to go down, kind of explore and goes up. Today when i got home i find him kind of staying at one spot at the pot of a plant, that sits on the bottom, that’s why i started to worry a bit. He is really social butterfly and we do take him by hand and stays outside supervised ( even though we take him when the weather is perfect for him). When we take him out of his enclosure, he really like climbing the blinds, explore the couch, climb his plants that are not in the enclosure and wwhen we try putting him back his cage he insists.

I would just continue to keep an eye on him for anything else, like sleeping or eyes closed during the day, not eating, lethargic, staying at the bottom and not basking etc. We give them different gradients as much as we can so that they can choose to go to an area for a different temp or humidity level, and that may be what he was doing. It is also Springtime and our boys might be a bit more active, trying to find the girls.