What the heck?!

[Solid Snake]

Well im shocked. Stella has always climbed on her screen a bit. Lately shes been doing it more often Today she has fallen off the screen at least four times. Shes covered in bruises, including one thats a straight line all down her left side that Im assuming came from landing on the edge of a plant pot. She seems fine, just HYPERactive and very bruised She just seems to get ahead of herself and goes to quick and slips. She has grip enough to bring blood, MBD is the last thing on my list of possibilities. The thing is you would think she would learn! Shes got an epic amount of climby things, and ive seen her fall only once in the past, she flipped backwards, and grabbed the screen again before hitting anything, like a ninja. Looked like she did it on purpose
She cant see Donahues cage, but knows its there, and has been very interested in him since he arrived. She constantly stares in the direction of his cage. Ive removed any "sharp" objects from the lower portion of the enclosure, and put a towel down on the bottom to cushin her falls. Any ideas why my cham is on drugs/trying to commit suicide?

 

[jade4321]

well i can say one thing its dang amazing to hear that a cham can do something like that! lol.
Is donahue another cham? and is it a male? Im asking cause i am asuming its egg laying season. my cham just layed eggs so thats why. she could produce eggs if its a male. or be..... mate crazy. O_O

 

[Solid Snake]

well i can say one thing its dang amazing to hear that a cham can do something like that! lol.
Is donahue another cham? and is it a male? Im asking cause i am asuming its egg laying season. my cham just layed eggs so thats why. she could produce eggs if its a male. or be..... mate crazy. O_O

She was pretty randy a month or so ago, but shes not displaying those colors. Shes a 1 1/2 year old xanth, and Donahue's a 5 month ambilobe.
Im thinking this could be it. Yeah it WAS CRAZY! She was on the door, it was open while i was messing about inside, I had my hands full when it happened and it straight stopped my heart

 

[Trace]

Jackson's aren't what I would call a 'hyperactive' species and I think there is something else going on here health or husbandry wise - particularly since you say she is slipping and falling. I'd fill out the How-To form to be on the safe side.

Some species of montane females do get quite brazen when they are receptive and in the presence of a conspecific male, not usually one of another species. Also they do get very active shortly before birthing, maybe she is gravid?

 

[ChameleonNerd]

Also they do get very active shortly before birthing, maybe she is gravid?

that's what i thought, possible that she's looking for a place to dig so she is scratching around... then falls...

But either way, if she's not gravid (if your cham is even a she) that's pretty funny that she's so hyper

 

[Trace]

that's what i thought, possible that she's looking for a place to dig so she is scratching around... then falls...

Jackson's Chameleons give live birth.

 

[Solid Snake]

Shes never been in the presence of a male. She has seen my male ambilobe though. Her size has been stable, and highly doubt shes carrying "slugs".

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Female Xanth, appr. 1 1/2 years old, in my care for 6-7 months.

Handling - Never, until recently, she was always docile, then started running for my hand, shirt anything she could about a month ago.
I give her a couple of minutes of handling when she does this, and she never wants to go back in.

Feeding - She eats dubia and crickets, primarily dubia. 0-3 feeders a day. Shes offered food every day, so its just up to her, Ive always hand fed about 90% of her feeders.

Supplements - I used calcium w/o D3 on 3 of 4 feeders, and herptivite twice a month up untill a month ago(about the same time she became more active).
I have been using the repashy calcium plus on 1/2 her feeders since then.

Watering - I water ALOT. 4-6 times a day. I put about 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of water through her cage at a time. She seems to love this. I started using a mistking 4-5 days ago.
But she still gets hand misted once or twice a day. I also use a fogger 24/7.

Fecal Description - White/brown, never had a fecal done.

History - She was a random cham in a pet shop that knew nothing about her. She was fairly dehydrated and living with a tree frog.
Never had any health issues with her, and her behavior has been consistent untill recently.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - She has a 2x2x4 DIY.

Lighting - 24" Linear repti-sun 5.0, 45watt regular bulb for basking, a 6500k for plants, and a soft white 24"bulb for more light.

Temperature - 70F ambient. 85F in basking, she has many levels to bask on directly under and near the light. She gets a 10F temp drop at nite.

Humidity - Humidity never drops below 65%

Plants - She has three sheffleras, and one pothos. The pothos was removed a few days ago for repotting/tlc. She spends alot of time in it, It hangs at the very top of the cage,
in the center. I believe she misses it dearly. It provided lots of cover for her. There is still a ton of foliage, real sticks/vines in her enclosure.

Placement - In a corner of my cham room, 2' off the floor.

Location - North texas. Outside temps have dropped signifigantly, inside has stayed the same.


Current Problem - Severe attention seeking, hyperactivity to the point of falling while climbing screen(only).

Here is a pic of her enclosure(pre-pothos removal) its basiclly the same now, but more vines/branches added to the top area to compensate.

Here is some recent pics of her.

 

[Solid Snake]

Usually if she is "stressed" she gets more in-active. So im not really understanding this. Its very upsetting to see my girl drop 4 feet Any opinions are appreciated. Im moving cross country tomarrow morning. This is not happening at a good time...

 

[xanthoman]

hello ss, will probably post in that other thread later tonight, sorry its taken so long to get back. havnt had much time for posting the last couple of days. for what its worth heres my take on the current post;

imo, cage crawling is often a sign of oversupplementation, xanths sometimes get edgy when being oversupped. migh also be helpful to increase cage furnishings plantings in the higher levels of the cage to offer more alternatives and distractions to cage crawling.

handling- should always be done at the chams option, better to use a piece of branch, always coax, never grab, abandone if cham seems reluctant. being too pushy will only make the prob continue to get worse.

feeding- she really needs a wider diet than just dubia and cricks, would suggest ordering some bottle fly spikes from mantisplace.com and some small silks imo would also be a really good idea to visit both sandrachameleons food blog and food diary. i would nix the hand feeding, a wild more natural feeding response is better for her metabolism, and mental well being. occassional periods without food is good, imo 4 food days aweek is plenty.

supplements- herptivite or reptivite? herptivite is a multivite containing no vitamin d3 and proformed vitamin A, so unless its an outside animal, its really best used to compliment a D3# product. imo this represents a shortage of d3 up until the time of the switch. normally i would recommend herptivite about 1x every 6weeks.
imo, not a big preformed A fan, but given the narrow selection of the diet, PREformed A is likely deficient as well , up until the time of the switch.
repashy calcium plus an all in one supp containing vitaminD3 and PROformed vitamin A at a ratio of d3/preformed vitamin a at 1;10 which is a good balance in the right qty, but your info wasnt really clear on how often or how much you give, does that mean 1/2 the feeders at every feeding? imo calcium plus should be given at the rate of about a matchead once a week-10 days. so imo the animal wasnt getting enough of d3 or preformedA, now its getting too much of both. wasnt really clear how much plain cal you give? imo even plain cal can be a problem, i would recommend a matchead of plain cal 2x a week with at least 2 days in between

watering- alot of water is good, 4-6x aday is good, but excesive constant relative humidity can be a problem. do you know your upper and lower relative humidities? imo, should have periods wher things dry out, hydration is probably more important than humidity and imo constant humidity above 70% is not good, so imo, i would nix the fogger. zilla makes a great therm/hygrometer with seperate senders on 56" leads for $20 records highs and lows also very helpful. if thats plastic on the sides of your cage i would nix the 2 side panels but leave the back one, their not needed with your water schedule.

cage-well planted/good lighting plan, might not be a bad idea to raise the uvb up 3"

falling- ime, a healthy cham could spend hrs on the wire and never fall, so,imo,clearly a metabolic issue. i would discontinue supping for about 2 weeks and food for about a week and see how she progresses and reintroduce food with some flies/silkies. and re-introduce supps on the sched mentioned above. if her condition continues to get worse after stop supping, then a vet is probably wise.

fecal- brown and white is a pretty vague description. the exact description of the urates is an important issue

other thoughts;
no description of on/off times, i would recommend syncing with sunrise/set, to help keep circadian rythyms in balance.

no mention of gutload , imo, not gutloading is not an option and imo, all of the commercial ones are too overly fortified with vites. i would recommend putting together a non fortified organic gutload with ingredients gleaned from sandrachameleons food blog/nutrition info.

if shes been in your care for 6mth then based on that fact and her appearance i highly doubt she is gravid (seeing as how she would presumably be almost full term, not even looking gravid, let alone full term

for chameleonnerd; just for the record xanths are livebearers and healthy xanths wouldnt normally dig even if gravid. jmo