Advice on coloring please, stress?

pba110

Established Member
Hey,
So i was looking at my ambilobe panther chameleon today and he was pretty chill just sort of staring back at me. I tried some hand feeding but he showed no interest. He's already eaten about 11 crickets today though
Anyway, i made a sudden move accidently and he developed these black bars. This is the second time he's done this. The other time I walked up to his cage and he was out on a limb sort of without cover. I take it they mean stress? No neck flaring or hissing although I guess he's young to do that (hatched 12/10/08).
Anyway, now he keeps cruising this same route and ends up down near the ground then back up again. The black bars have gone more green. I've seen him doing this before. He drank this morning and shed as well. Full day!
Anything I can do? I hate to think I stress him out this much...
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My panther goes black if he even sees me for the most part. It's nothing terrible.
 
looks happy to me. my panther is 4 months and is mostly showing colours like yours, black stripes sometimes. is the back corner its basking spot?
 
Black, or very dark, barring is something that males from several locales do when they are younger, often when they are aggravated (not necessarily stressed, just kind of PO'd). In our experience, it happens more with Ambanja, Nosy Be's, and Ambilobes, and often makes photographing juvenile males difficult, as while thay might be starting to show nice colors and barring when relaxed in their cages, as soon as you disturb them, they go dark-banded. The upside is that, as they mature, instead of going dark, they go more towards what we expect of fired-up males. He's just showing off, in a juvenile way :)
 
haha...thanks for the answers guys, I would have no idea otherwise. So he's a little PO'd that I'm messing with his space?
I'm planning on free ranging him in my one bedroom apt when he gets a bit older. I have a nice SE facing window (I'm on the third floor) which catches some nice afternoon heat which I think he would love. Hopefully, he chills out or else I'm going to have to sleep in the hallway.:D
 
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