stress?

[evilturtletheory]

i have a baby veiled chameleon. hes about five months old. when i first got him, he was always a light green and occasionally hed get some black stripes or dots if he got spooked. like when hed get handled for his weekly cage cleaning. anyway he seemed like a content little guy. hes been growing really fast and shedding about once a month. it wasnt unti he started getting bigger that i started seeing more colors. anyway what im geting at is that he shows a lot of black. when hes just chillin in his cage hes different greens with some black stripes. sometimes with even a little brown in his green. when hes basking his greens get a tint of brown. when hes eating he lightens his colors upp, and when he has to come out for a cage cleaning (hes only handled once or twice a week) his colors brighten up so much, he looks gorgeous! but no matter what hes doing, in his cage or not, and even when hes sleeping, hes still sporting the same black stripes. im just afraid im stressing my little guy put somehow. could it be that the darker green and black are his content colors and the light ones are the nervous/scared/anxious colors? im just wondering because everything i read says the opposite :/.

now i dont think hes cold or anything. his temps are between 75-80F, basking temp is about 85-87F. humidity is about 50-60%, with a few spikes as high as 70-75% with 3-4 misting sessions a day. he doesnt use the dripper really but i use one anyway. poops are brown with white urates. hes got a strong grip. i have a reptisun 5.0 bulb on 12 hrs a day. hes an eating machine, and hes very active.

i dunno im just afraid hes stressed. i love my little guyyy but i just dont understand him -_-

 

[carol5208]

post a pic but it just sounds like natural coloring to me. Some veilds just have black coloring to them. It does not mean that anything is wrong.

 

[ChameleonNerd]

if he has those stripes while he is sleeping, i'd say it is natural coloring, not stress

 

[evilturtletheory]

i cant really get a picture up right now. unfortunately i dont have access to a computer and the lens on my phone is cracked. so if you think the black stripes are just natural coloring, would the brown-green color that he usually is just.. the color he wants to be?..

 

[carol5208]

yes, they change their colors for different reasons and you will get to know your chameleon after awhile and know if he is happy, mad etc.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Big enough viv? Enough branches and greenery? good temp? Nice variety in diet an vitamins? Then you have a healthy young male with a bit of a dark side.....make sure you get him a nice big viv and feed him plenty. He'll thrive