What am I doing wrong?

[The Fryman]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Around 6 Month old male Veiled.
Handling - I do not handle my chameleon, I did once a few months ago but he hates it.
Feeding - He eats crickets gut loaded with oranges, apples, dry crushed almond, carrots, and some leafy greens. He eats about 10 of these a day right now. I have offered him superworms and a variety of fruits and veggies but he has never eaten these.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - I spray his cage thoroughly with a spray bottle twice a day, for about a minute each time. I also will occasionally put ice cubes on top to drip in, or fill up the dripper. I have seen him drink before.
Fecal Description - His dropping appear normal as far as i can tell, just brown pellets usually with the white part as well.
History - He used to be a little more friendly and less fearful than he is now.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 4 feet tall, 2 feet long and wide. It is pine with every side screened.
Lighting - two basking spots with 75watt 120 volt bulbs. A long tube fluorescent light in the back of the cage for UV rays.
Temperature - I have one thermometer at the top (not near a basking site) that reads about 73-78 depending on the day. I have done the hand test in his baking sites and they do not seem to be too hot at all.
Humidity - I have no way to measure humidity, but I spray his cage twice per day.
Plants - I have a phobias and a croton I believe it is called. The phobias has a slight meady bug infestation, but I've been told that isn't a problem.

Placement - The cage is in the corner of my bedroom. There is a window to the right of the cage that can get some sunlight in the cage during the right time of day. There is a heat vent above and a few feet in front of the cage but I have a very high ceiling in my room.

Location - I live in Eastern Wisconsin.


I am concerned that my chameleon is just... depressed. He has never hand fed, will hiss aggressively at you if you get close to him, and will start to retreat and eye you suspiciously when you enter the room. A healthy and happy chameleon is bright and colorful, yet my guy is a nice grayish brown with dark green bands during the day, and has pretty much been this way since I got him. When he sleeps, however, his color changes to an awesome bright green. Last night for example, I turned on his light to snap a picture of his bright colors (See attached), and then turned it off again. Obviously this woke him up, and when I looked back a minute later he had reverted to his brown colors again. I don't what I am doing wrong. Is it possible that I got a chameleon that just hates captivity so much that he will never truly be happy?

Also, he has taken to the habit of clinging to the top of his cage near the fluorescent light, sometimes sticking his face up to it. I'm worried he is going to blind himself. Any reason why he would be doing this? I also have a picture of this too.

Any insight into either of these issues would be very helpful.

Thanks,

Fryman.

 

[Kate]

Thank you for filling in the form. What are your supplements? How often do you supplement? It is important that you measure his basking area as they need a temp of 84-86 to digest food. The dark colour you describe could be because he is cold or stressed. He is reaching for uv which could mean he is trying to get warm. In your first pic I can't see any branches or places for him to climb. You also could add lots more foliage for him to hide in. He could also do with more misting as twice a day for a min each is not very much.

 

[The Fryman]

Oh I totally forgot that part, he gets calcium without D3 every day, and d3 and multivitamin dust every two weeks. Should I dust each cricket or only one? And that picture doesn't show it, but he has a lot of foliage to climb on with two basking spots at slightly different heights. If I put them any closer to the lights he would probably get burned, he climbed up the ceiling once and had that happen.

 

[Kate]

I put crickets into a wide tub and put a very small amount of supplement on, shake it about and there you go. If your crickets are like ghosts you are using too much. Dust all lightly. Does he need two basking spots? I know what you mean by burns. Popeye had one a year ago. I still feel guilty. I have raised his lamp up so he can't do it again. I think you should check that temp. I've had two veileds. The first was very friendly and wanted out most of the time. The second was evil. He was very dark except when sleeping. If you looked at him he would hiss and get even darker. If you put your hand in to clean he would flatten himself and swing his body at you. Can you hand feed?

 

[AngieL]

Hi! I have a few questions too

Is your cage on the floor or raised up? They like to be higher than you, above eye level!

He looks a little dehydrated (sunken eyes) do you only must twice every day? You need to up that to 4 times a day and do it for longer. Use warm water and spray so that the water falls on him from above like rain. Also, dripper should be going all day while lights are on with a gap at night so things can dry before lights out.

Is it possible he's cold? His basking temp could be a bit higher, up to 85-90 for a make vieled is fine! They turn dark to absorb heat.

Does he have plenty of foliage in his house? As they get older they can become more shy and so need ample hiding spots to feel safe.

Abut his attitude, remember that they are not social creatures by nature, veileds can be especially mean and frightened! We are not all so lucky to have friendly tolerant chameleons he could be at his puberty age too so give it a few months and if it doesn't improve then tough I've had my girl 9 months now and she still hates me most of the time. It took months for her to hand feed and she still only does it when it suits her!

 

[The Fryman]

I put crickets into a wide tub and put a very small amount of supplement on, shake it about and there you go. If your crickets are like ghosts you are using too much. Dust all lightly. Does he need two basking spots? I know what you mean by burns. Popeye had one a year ago. I still feel guilty. I have raised his lamp up so he can't do it again. I think you should check that temp. I've had two veileds. The first was very friendly and wanted out most of the time. The second was evil. He was very dark except when sleeping. If you looked at him he would hiss and get even darker. If you put your hand in to clean he would flatten himself and swing his body at you. Can you hand feed?

That's pretty much how mine behaves, and no I cannot hand feed him at all.

 

[Kate]

He is still quite young so I would keep trying. If you reach a point where you feel you are really causing him stress I would back off and accept that it isn't going to happen. I believe that stress shortened my ones life. Chams are not sociable animals and many on here do not handle them at all.

 

[The Fryman]

He is still quite young so I would keep trying. If you reach a point where you feel you are really causing him stress I would back off and accept that it isn't going to happen. I believe that stress shortened my ones life. Chams are not sociable animals and many on here do not handle them at all.

I've pretty much accepted that at this point, which is fine. But at the least, it would be nice to be able to hand feed him. I'm going to keep trying at that. But would you say that my hypothesis is correct, that he really is a just a victim of his stress?

 

[pssh]

Can you answer AngieL's questions? If he doesn't have a perch above your eye level or his basking temps are too low (you need a thermometer to measure it, guessing will not work,) then he may turn brown from stress or the cold.

If his temperatures are correct, and he has an area to be up high and feel secure, he could be going through a "teenage phase" where they are a brown-grey color.

Also, it looks like he has a large lump on his foot in the first picture. What is that?

 

[VanessaS]

Maybe free ranging him would help ; )

 

[The Fryman]

Can you answer AngieL's questions? If he doesn't have a perch above your eye level or his basking temps are too low (you need a thermometer to measure it, guessing will not work,) then he may turn brown from stress or the cold.

If his temperatures are correct, and he has an area to be up high and feel secure, he could be going through a "teenage phase" where they are a brown-grey color.

Also, it looks like he has a large lump on his foot in the first picture. What is that?

His basking spots read 86, so I lowered the light a bit to boost that up a few degrees.
His cage does not sit above eye level, I'm going to look into a way to raise his cage up over winter break.

And I think that lump is just from the way the photo was taken, his feet are just fine.