Chameleon Info:
Cage Info:
Current Problem - Since we've had him he's fallen several times, but seems to be falling more often lately. I do notice he's been a lot more active and seems to fall most often when he's going from branch to branch. Maybe they're not close enough together? He also tries to grab the crossbars on the door of his cage but the plexiglass prevents him from doing that and he'll slip on it and hang from just his hind feet. If we see him do that, we support him back up to the branch.
I got up the other morning and he was sitting on the edge of the pan I have under the plant to catch the runoff water. There have been several other times we hear rustling and stuff coming from his cage. We run in and he's either fallen or is in the process of falling. We either pick him up and put him back on his branches or support him back up onto the branch.
I read through quite a few of the posts regarding falling and I'm not certain whether he's doing it on purpose or not. I did read that seeing his reflection could stress him out and we plan to remove the plexiglass and replace it with screen.
His grip seems good. When we support him back up to a branch he grabs our fingers and it seems pretty tight. I've also caught him sleeping on the underside of the branches. I have to believe if his grip was failing he'd fall when he did that, but he holds on all night.
He almost fell twice today and I cannibalized a child gate and put in a "safety net" so he can't fall all the way to the bottom. There are fake vines in the cage that he can now reach from the safety net to climb back up.
I've attached pics.
- Your Chameleon - Veiled, male, approx. 4, been with us for about 3 months.
- Handling - Only when necessary - he's mean lol
- Feeding - Dubias, varied amounts (until he turns away) depending on the size, was every other day, just started daily, gut-loading with greens, fruit, and veggies.
- Supplements - Rep-Cal phosphorus-free calcium w/vit D3 ultrafine powder. Not liberally dusting, just letting them crawl around in the bowl he eats from so whatever they get on them from that.
- Watering - We have a dripper that drops onto one of his branches, runs down it, and continues to drip down onto his plants. Mist with a spray bottle a couple times a day until everything in it is wet and dripping. He'll drink if I spray his mouth/head and he drinks from the dripper.
- Fecal Description - Poop is brown, urine is white and partially orange, which I now know is dehydration from reading the forums (it was like that when we got him and I didn't know it wasn't normal). We haven't had him tested for parasites, but I don't know if his previous 2 owners did or not.
- History - He was for sale on Facebook by a lady we know that used to own a reptile shop. Turns out she got him from a lady in Gold Canyon about 2-3 months before we bought him.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Cage came with him. It's a wooden hutch with a screen back and plexiglass front. It's 2 ft x 2 ft and about 4 ft tall.
- Lighting - It had one of those curly UVB bulbs. He was having an eye issue and I read on the forums here that they can cause problems so switched over to a full-spectrum bulb I had for plants. His eye seems to have gotten better since I did that. Also have a regular 100 watt bulb for heat. I turn the lights on when we get up and off when I shut down the house for the night so he gets about 12 hours of light.
- Temperature - We keep the house at 80 degrees and the inside of the cage is a couple degrees warmer than that, presumably from being enclosed on three sides.
- Humidity - We haven't been measuring humidity. I know the air feels moister in the cage than out. There is a "waterfall" that I have to refill every day since it evaporates that quick.
- Plants - There's a ficus that came with him in the enclosure. It was almost dead when we got him. I started watering it and it's now healthy and has grown almost a foot. He does eat the leaves every so often. I plan to get him a hibiscus as soon as they're in stock at the stores.
- Placement - The cage is in the kitchen/dining room area between the arcadia door and a window. There are no vents near it and it's off to the side of the room so not high traffic. I can see it when I stand in the kitchen but we're not walking past it all the time. The top of the cage is probably 6-7 feel above floor level.
- Location - Arizona, between Phx and Tucson
Current Problem - Since we've had him he's fallen several times, but seems to be falling more often lately. I do notice he's been a lot more active and seems to fall most often when he's going from branch to branch. Maybe they're not close enough together? He also tries to grab the crossbars on the door of his cage but the plexiglass prevents him from doing that and he'll slip on it and hang from just his hind feet. If we see him do that, we support him back up to the branch.
I got up the other morning and he was sitting on the edge of the pan I have under the plant to catch the runoff water. There have been several other times we hear rustling and stuff coming from his cage. We run in and he's either fallen or is in the process of falling. We either pick him up and put him back on his branches or support him back up onto the branch.
I read through quite a few of the posts regarding falling and I'm not certain whether he's doing it on purpose or not. I did read that seeing his reflection could stress him out and we plan to remove the plexiglass and replace it with screen.
His grip seems good. When we support him back up to a branch he grabs our fingers and it seems pretty tight. I've also caught him sleeping on the underside of the branches. I have to believe if his grip was failing he'd fall when he did that, but he holds on all night.
He almost fell twice today and I cannibalized a child gate and put in a "safety net" so he can't fall all the way to the bottom. There are fake vines in the cage that he can now reach from the safety net to climb back up.
I've attached pics.
