Veiled Chameleon changing sleep patterns

[weehawk]

My partner's chameleon used to sleep after after lights out but now it is almost 4 AM and he is still awake. New chameleon owner so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Chameleon is about 6 months old, eating well, poop seems to have good consistency and indicates he is well hydrated and drinking from the mister quite well. He just did his 2nd shedding a couple days ago.

I also read somewhere that sleeping upside down is not good sign...is this true? He was sleeping upside down the other night when his sleep pattern was still normal. Please help! Thanks!!

 

[Kate]

Are there any lights,tv where he is located?. Do you have a night light? Chams generally sleep better with total darkness and a temp drop of at least 10f. Mine often sleeps in strange positions so as long as it looks safe it's ok. It also depends where you are located. I'm in n/e Scotland and the weather is awful. Popeye gets into his sleeping position late afternoon.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Psychobunny]

The sleeping upside down and in odd positions is normal.

Not sleeping at night may mean something is making him feel insecure, or
he is too warm, or a light on somewhere is bothering him.

You could try covering his cage at night.
I bought some cheap black bed sheets from Walmart and cut them down
so they fit around the cage.

 

[weehawk]

Thanks for the welcome Kate!

Weehawk's cage is in the living room and sometimes there are lamps still on in the room or the tv is on but this never seemed to faze him before. His lights and mister all have timers and he used to go to sleep either a bit before lights off or right after it turned off.

I'm concerned because last night was the first time that he was fully awake hours after lights off. He went and lay on his side on top of a huge leaf that was right under the infrared light. He lay this way for a long time but all the while wide awake with his googley eyes wandering around.

We are in Vancouver Canada...it's winter time and it gets dark around 5 pm. We were watching a movie in the living room until about 2 am but like I said it had never bothered him before. And even after we turned the tv off he was still awake 2.5 hours later...

 

[weehawk]

Psychobunny...what about sleeping on the side...i have never seen him sleep this way. Usually he has all of his oven mitts plus his tail clinging on to something while he sleeps.

Usually when he is too warm he sleeps under a leaf away from the infrared light or close to it when he is cold. But he was right under it last night laying on his side which was really strange seeing as his two right mitts and tail were holding on to nothing and he just lay awake. Has this happened to your chams??

 

[weehawk]

Psychobunny...what about sleeping on the side...i have never seen him sleep this way. Usually he has all of his oven mitts plus his tail clinging on to something while he sleeps.

Usually when he is too warm he sleeps under a leaf away from the infrared light or close to it when he is cold. But he was right under it last night laying on his side which was really strange seeing as his two right mitts and tail were holding on to nothing and he just lay awake. Has this happened to your chams??

Thanks for the tip on drapes I will try that with him!