Weird screen scratching

[Benjamin Tjan]

My chameleon walnut whenever I come into the room goes towards the right side of her cage where my window-door is and starts scratching at it at the bottom until she reaches the top of her cage and goes to her basking spot, is this her wanting to go outside or is something wrong? She’s my first chameleon so I’m not sure if this is normal or not

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

You might want to get your husbandry checked. This is could be because she is not happy with her environment.

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

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Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[Beman]

Hi there welcome to the forum. Husbandry is always the first thing we look at with chams wanting out. If you fill out the form above with detail we can give you specific feedback and help with anything you may have been misinformed about.

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

You might want to get your husbandry checked. This is could be because she is not happy with her environment.

Filling the help request out right now but could it be because she’s not close enough to her uvb?

 

[Beman]

Filling the help request out right now but could it be because she’s not close enough to her uvb?

Could be many reasons. Please attach pictures of the enclosure lighting down so we can see everything.

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

Your chameleon: veiled chameleon, female, approximately 4-5 1/2 months old (pet co guy said 4-6 weeks when I got her) been in my care for 4 months
Handling: wednesdays if I’m not working (take her outside for natural sun) doesn’t like to be handled have to use one of her live plants
Feeding: feeding her super worms and crickets, 7 crickets a day and 5 super worms, dust and leave her food before I leave for work or class, super worms have dry oatmeal and apple for water, crickets have kale, apples, and carrots (hasn’t been eating as much)
Supplements: calcium without d3 everyday but wednesdays (dip super worms tails in calcium, calcium with d3 and reptile vitamin on the 1st and 22nd of every month,
Watering: hand spray her with warm water before I leave for work for about 30 seconds, leave mister on after goes on 3 times a day till 7 for 45 seconds, her poops are always whitish
Decal description: have gotten smaller than before, darker color with white urates , hasn’t been test for parasites
History: nothing crazy she hasn’t shown any weird signs

Cage info:
Cage type: screen cage 16x16x30 inches
Lighting: reptisun t5 HO linear UVB, goes on at 7am goes off at 7pm
Temperature: basking temp is around 88 degrees , rest of cage is around 64 degrees, lowest at night is 64, tempature gauges at basking spot and bottom of cage, (heat gun coming in mail)
Humidity: 60% using humidifier, humidity gauge hand thingy
Plants: 2 money trees at bottom of cage
Placement: on the right side of my bed in the right corner of my room, no fans or air vents, only me pretty much in the room, it’s on a table for elevation, note it is next to my windowed doors
Location: Southern California

Current problem: hasn’t been eating as much and keeps going to bottom right of cage and scratching around towards glass doors and proceeds to go up till she hits upper branches then goes to basking spot.

 

[CBee7726]

Is that a laybin in the bottom of the cage? Is it play sand?

What type of humidity gauge are you using? Is it in the enclosure at all times?

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

Is that a laybin in the bottom of the cage? Is it play sand?

What type of humidity gauge are you using? Is it in the enclosure at all times?

Yeah it’s tunnel tested play sand and mixed with a little potting soil, a old humidity hand held my parents had, they take it back when I use it to test, gonna buy my own next time I go to Home Depot.

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

Should I try adding more branches towards the top she been sitting under the uvb for the last 20 minutes

 

[CBee7726]

Yeah it’s tunnel tested play sand and mixed with a little potting soil, a old humidity hand held my parents had, they take it back when I use it to test, gonna buy my own next time I go to Home Depot.

Great! It's good to have a gauge in there at all times so you can track the humidity trends throughout the day.

Should I try adding more branches towards the top she been sitting under the uvb for the last 20 minutes

Personally I would remove the fake plants and replace them with lives ones. Live ones tend to help with humidity and provide better coverage (Pothos is a popular choice). I also might add more branches too- this gives them more places to climb around without having to use the screen.

She is also going to outgrow that cage soon and will need a 2x2x4'

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

Great! It's good to have a gauge in there at all times so you can track the humidity trends throughout the day.


Personally I would remove the fake plants and replace them with lives ones. Live ones tend to help with humidity and provide better coverage (Pothos is a popular choice). I also might add more branches too- this gives them more places to climb around without having to use the screen.

She is also going to outgrow that cage soon and will need a 2x2x4'

Ok got it gonna use my next paycheck to buy the bigger cage and some live plants

 

[CBee7726]

I'm also going to tag a few experts on here who can do a full husbandry review for you.

@Beman @MissSkittles @kinyonga

 

[Beman]

Your chameleon: veiled chameleon, female, approximately 4-5 1/2 months old (pet co guy said 4-6 weeks when I got her) been in my care for 4 months
Handling: wednesdays if I’m not working (take her outside for natural sun) doesn’t like to be handled have to use one of her live plants
Feeding: feeding her super worms and crickets, 7 crickets a day and 5 super worms, dust and leave her food before I leave for work or class, super worms have dry oatmeal and apple for water, crickets have kale, apples, and carrots (hasn’t been eating as much)
Supplements: calcium without d3 everyday but wednesdays (dip super worms tails in calcium, calcium with d3 and reptile vitamin on the 1st and 22nd of every month,
Watering: hand spray her with warm water before I leave for work for about 30 seconds, leave mister on after goes on 3 times a day till 7 for 45 seconds, her poops are always whitish
Decal description: have gotten smaller than before, darker color with white urates , hasn’t been test for parasites
History: nothing crazy she hasn’t shown any weird signs

Cage info:
Cage type: screen cage 16x16x30 inches
Lighting: reptisun t5 HO linear UVB, goes on at 7am goes off at 7pm
Temperature: basking temp is around 88 degrees , rest of cage is around 64 degrees, lowest at night is 64, tempature gauges at basking spot and bottom of cage, (heat gun coming in mail)
Humidity: 60% using humidifier, humidity gauge hand thingy
Plants: 2 money trees at bottom of cage
Placement: on the right side of my bed in the right corner of my room, no fans or air vents, only me pretty much in the room, it’s on a table for elevation, note it is next to my windowed doors
Location: Southern California

Current problem: hasn’t been eating as much and keeps going to bottom right of cage and scratching around towards glass doors and proceeds to go up till she hits upper branches then goes to basking spot.

@MissSkittles @AmandaS would you have time to look through this. The female looks hefty.

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

I'm also going to tag a few experts on here who can do a full husbandry review for you.

@Beman @MissSkittles @kinyonga

Thank you

 

[AmandaS]

Your chameleon: veiled chameleon, female, approximately 4-5 1/2 months old (pet co guy said 4-6 weeks when I got her) been in my care for 4 months she looks large, and appears To have her big girl colors. She looks older than 5 months to me, but I cant be certain. Petco tends to give a lot of sketchy info that is not very trustworthy.
Handling: wednesdays if I’m not working (take her outside for natural sun) doesn’t like to be handled have to use one of her live plants
Feeding: feeding her super worms and crickets, 7 crickets a day and 5 super worms, dust and leave her food before I leave for work or class, super worms have dry oatmeal and apple for water, crickets have kale, apples, and carrots (hasn’t been eating as much) That is a lot of food for her. You might want to cut that back to 3-5 feeders every other day, or 3 times a week. Also you might want to consider gut loading with dark leafy greens such as collard greens, escarole, dandelion greens, sweet potatoes, sweet peppers, etc.
Supplements: calcium without d3 everyday but wednesdays (dip super worms tails in calcium, calcium with d3 and reptile vitamin on the 1st and 22nd of every month, why do you skip wednesdays? I like the no D3 every feeding but 2 times a month. Does your vitamin have D3 in it? If so you can skip the calcium with D3. If not the vitamin and calcium with D3 should be alternated once a week (like say Mondays)
Watering: hand spray her with warm water before I leave for work for about 30 seconds, leave mister on after goes on 3 times a day till 7 for 45 seconds, her poops are always whitish she needs to have longer misting sessions, and fewer a day. Ideally you would mist for 2-5 minutes before lights on, and 2-5 minutes after lights off. You should not be misting during the day because heat+humidity can lead to RI. Also your enclosure will need time to dry during the day.
Decal description: have gotten smaller than before, darker color with white urates , hasn’t been test for parasites
History: nothing crazy she hasn’t shown any weird signs

Cage info:
Cage type: screen cage 16x16x30 inches as already pointed out, she will need a 2x2x4 ft enclosure or will become restless and want out, which may be happening here. Bigger is better. She needs her space to roam.
Lighting: reptisun t5 HO linear UVB, goes on at 7am goes off at 7pm this is good. Remember to buy a new one every 6ish months so she continues to get the proper amount of uv. Her basking branch should be 9 inches below the uv light.
Temperature: basking temp is around 88 degrees , rest of cage is around 64 degrees, lowest at night is 64, tempature gauges at basking spot and bottom of cage, (heat gun coming in mail) this is way too hot for her. You dont want her hottest spot (basking) to be above 80 degrees or she will produce too many eggs and her health will likely decline due to it. You also only need the basking bulb on for a few hours a day. It isn't needed all day.
Humidity: 60% using humidifier, humidity gauge hand thingy her humidity should be around 30-50% during the day. 60 is too high for her. At night, during the coolest hours, her humidi6can jump to 100%. Dry, warm days. Moist, cool nights. Night temp can drop as low as 40 degrees and still be good.
Plants: 2 money trees at bottom of cage k would get some more live plants in there. A pothos is cheap and easy, and fills a lot of space.
Placement: on the right side of my bed in the right corner of my room, no fans or air vents, only me pretty much in the room, it’s on a table for elevation, note it is next to my windowed doors
Location: Southern California

Current problem: hasn’t been eating as much and keeps going to bottom right of cage and scratching around towards glass doors and proceeds to go up till she hits upper branches then goes to basking spot. she could be looking to lay her eggs, or should feel cramped and hot in her enclosure

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

Thanks for the advice will begin working on everything tomorrow, if she is ready to lay eggs is there anything I need to do, I put a laying bin with play sand and pot plant soil just in case and did a tunnel test

 

[AmandaS]

Thanks for the advice will begin working on everything tomorrow, if she is ready to lay eggs is there anything I need to do, I put a laying bin with play sand and pot plant soil just in case and did a tunnel test

You did good on the laybin. What size is it?
Only thing to do is wait for her to start digging and then cover the bottom 2/3 of her enclosure so she doesnt get disturbed. She will likely abandon her hole if she sees you peeking, and that could cause her to become egg bound.

 

[AmandaS]

Also, I forgot to mention distance from her heat bulb. I like to lift my heat bulb off the screen so my chams don't get burned.

 

[Benjamin Tjan]

You did good on the laybin. What size is it?
Only thing to do is wait for her to start digging and then cover the bottom 2/3 of her enclosure so she doesnt get disturbed. She will likely abandon her hole if she sees you peeking, and that could cause her to become egg bound.

Its 14x8 and I read 8 inches of play sand and pot soil or she would keep digging, is that a good setup?