Veiled keeps falling but grip is strong

lysinlight87

New Member
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, male, 8 months. Owned him for 6 months.

Handling - Infrequent. once/twice per week

Feeding - Currently refusing food. Was on silkworms but I'm trying to reintroduce variety. Crickets, locusts, dubias & superworms are gutloaded with a mix of butternut squash, apple, carrot, kale, rocket & orange. I offer him food on alternate days.

Supplements - Plain calcium every feed, reptivite with D3 twice monthly

Watering - Misting system runs 3 times per day for 1 minute, dripper runs throughout the day. I occasionally see him drink under the dripper.

Fecal Description - Was soft when on silkworms. His dropping are now small because he's not eating much but normal in colour/constistency. Urates are white & watery

History - Purchased from a reptile centre, origin unknown

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Flexarium, 4 ft tall.

Lighting - Reptiglo 5.0 uvb, 8am to 7pm

Temperature - Basking temp is 34C/93F.

Humidity - Humidity between 40-50 %. Measured with hygrometer

Plants - 2 live ficus, various fake plants.

Placement - In living room, raised 1ft off ground.

Location - UK


For the past 2 or 3 weeks Neelix has been falling about 3 times per week. He seems to be falling mostly in the same place. Sometimes he catches himself with his tail, other times he just goes splat. He seems fully aware when doing this and part of me wonders if he's doing it intentionally. At first I thought he was slipping on the plastic frame of his flexarium but I doubt this now. Apart from being off his food, he's alert and active. I take him out to check him over & his grip is good & strong. He has a bruise on his shoulder that I noticed today but nothing severe. He does this when I'm just sat watching TV, so I don't think it's defense. He last ate on Saturday, he had 2 silkworms. I'm out of silkworms now & have been offering alternatives.

The attached picture was taken yesterday. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on?
 

Attachments

  • 6thnov.jpg
    6thnov.jpg
    35.6 KB · Views: 111
Ahh I'm sorry Neelix is giving cause for concern. Your husbandry looks fine. What about your uv. How old? The reason I ask is that I have a t5 and was sure it was ok. I was checking old emails and discovered mine should have been changes in Sept. done today. The feeders I can relate to. Before I joined the forum Popeye was fed locusts and crickets. Now I have introduced roaches, butterworms. Silkworms and now he doesn't seem interested in any of them. He seems confused. I put locusts in and they seem to disappear. Have you tried weighing him. At 8 months he should be gaining weight slowly. Hope that helps.:)
 
I weighed him yesterday, he was 125g, although it was hard to get an accurate reading- he kept running away lol

His UVB bulb should be good for another 3 months, it was new in August.

It's just weird that he keeps falling :confused:
 
You say he's falling in the same place....is it a difficult place to navigate or somehow confusing? Maybe it does have something to do with the plastic......
 
I'm going to try covering the plastic with masking tape, so it has more grip for him. Perhaps he needs some more branches too
 
Back
Top Bottom