Blue’s behaviour

[Maddiyey]

Hello everyone We got our baby Blue on February, he is panther chameleon around a year- year and a half (at the pet store wasn’t sure about his age) i got his eating schedule, enclosure set up and lights through your suggestions here and everything seems to be working perfectly for our Blue.
At first when we got him, he was a bit shy (never hissing or getting defensive) but kind of unsure about us, he was staying all day at his basking spot, goes to sleep and that was it. A month ago he started to trust us and develop that habit always wanting to be out of his enclosure exploring the house. As soon as he see us in the room he puts his little head on the mesh begging us to let him out. When i try put him in his enclosure he just turns around and goes back in my hand. So for the protocol, we let him out but we make sure he gets enough warmth and uvb. So i wonder, if something in his cage is not okay so he wouldn’t want to stay there. We discussed here that i need to adjust the height of my enclosure since it is custom made. And we are planning to put a all- mesh dome to increase the height of the enclosure . For now it is 43x33x15. The plants are all chameleon safe. He has bigger and smaller branches. He seems to be well hydrated as his poop looks fine, he is eating, sleeping… he just wants to explore basically everything outside of his enclosure, the inside- he just doesn’t care ( I considered free enclosure but he is kind of Blue the Explorer, he will probably find how to unlock the front door and goes to an exploring mission in the wild)
So what to do.. we will do the mesh dome and the enclosure will be 63 inches height, but i think that would not stop him wanting out of it..
The uvb is arcadia lumanize t5 6% and we put it 9 inches from him. The basking bulb is white 65 watt, the temps are okay, i asked here and fill up the form.
Also I noticed this little bright patch, he recently shedded and i don’t know is that little spot concerning.

 

[MissSkittles]

First, let’s look at the spot. Which one do you mean - the one I circled in yellow is just a normal part of his coloring. The one I circled in red looks suspiciously like a burn. I can’t see your basking light, but it does look like he’s awfully close to the top of his enclosure. Hold your hand below the basking light about where his back would be and if it’s uncomfortably hot after a minute or so, you need to either raise the light or lower the basking branch. There should be a distance of 8-9” (20-22 cm) from the lights to the basking area. If that is a burn, right now there isn’t much you can do for it other than watch it. If it opens up into a wound, he’ll need a vet visit to get some silver sulfadiazine cream and possibly antibiotics.


Now about Blue wanting to come out of his enclosure. Yes, he could be wanting to get out because he doesn’t like not having more room. Or, he could just be ‘friendly’. My first panther boy was like this and then some. First we need to address that chameleons are not capable of feeling affection the way we and some other animals do…it just isn’t in their brain wiring. However, my guy was in a double sized enclosure - 4’ wide, 4’ high and 2’ deep - lots of plants, bioactive substrate, all parameters well within range and there really wasn’t any way that it could be improved. Yet as soon as his door was open, he came running. When I would sit on the floor in his room, he would crawl all the way down in his enclosure, as low as he could, trying to reach me and often getting himself wedged or scraping up his casque. I looked and looked for anything to be wrong and there just wasn’t anything. Finally I had to come to the conclusion that he just enjoyed sitting on my arm. While he passed away, I now have 2 other panther boys and a panther girl. They too are each in their own double sized enclosure and everything is as close to perfect for them as I can get it. Yet once their doors are open, the boys head over to me right away and one is climbing out to me immediately, the other hesitates a few seconds and then comes out and the girl doesn’t usually come out like that, but if I put my hand near her, she often will. I can only conclude that some panthers enjoy sitting on our arms/hands for whatever reasons only known to them.

 

[Maddiyey]

First, let’s look at the spot. Which one do you mean - the one I circled in yellow is just a normal part of his coloring. The one I circled in red looks suspiciously like a burn. I can’t see your basking light, but it does look like he’s awfully close to the top of his enclosure. Hold your hand below the basking light about where his back would be and if it’s uncomfortably hot after a minute or so, you need to either raise the light or lower the basking branch. There should be a distance of 8-9” (20-22 cm) from the lights to the basking area. If that is a burn, right now there isn’t much you can do for it other than watch it. If it opens up into a wound, he’ll need a vet visit to get some silver sulfadiazine cream and possibly antibiotics.
View attachment 363281

Now about Blue wanting to come out of his enclosure. Yes, he could be wanting to get out because he doesn’t like not having more room. Or, he could just be ‘friendly’. My first panther boy was like this and then some. First we need to address that chameleons are not capable of feeling affection the way we and some other animals do…it just isn’t in their brain wiring. However, my guy was in a double sized enclosure - 4’ wide, 4’ high and 2’ deep - lots of plants, bioactive substrate, all parameters well within range and there really wasn’t any way that it could be improved. Yet as soon as his door was open, he came running. When I would sit on the floor in his room, he would crawl all the way down in his enclosure, as low as he could, trying to reach me and often getting himself wedged or scraping up his casque. I looked and looked for anything to be wrong and there just wasn’t anything. Finally I had to come to the conclusion that he just enjoyed sitting on my arm. While he passed away, I now have 2 other panther boys and a panther girl. They too are each in their own double sized enclosure and everything is as close to perfect for them as I can get it. Yet once their doors are open, the boys head over to me right away and one is climbing out to me immediately, the other hesitates a few seconds and then comes out and the girl doesn’t usually come out like that, but if I put my hand near her, she often will. I can only conclude that some panthers enjoy sitting on our arms/hands for whatever reasons only known to them.

Ow i am really sorry for the confusion. The spot you circled in red is just the lightning from the basking bulb actually. I was talking about the spot in yellow circle. We adjust the basking bulb high so he doesn’t get burned ( as we first got him he likes to climb the top).. now he just climbs the mesh door to escape his enclosure and doesn’t get near the heat lamp. We measure the temps with this laser thermometers and we have hygrometer and thermometer permanently inside close to the basking spot to make sure the temps doesnt get to high. I uploaded a photo of todays video i took of him and his left side is visible

 

[Maddiyey]

First, let’s look at the spot. Which one do you mean - the one I circled in yellow is just a normal part of his coloring. The one I circled in red looks suspiciously like a burn. I can’t see your basking light, but it does look like he’s awfully close to the top of his enclosure. Hold your hand below the basking light about where his back would be and if it’s uncomfortably hot after a minute or so, you need to either raise the light or lower the basking branch. There should be a distance of 8-9” (20-22 cm) from the lights to the basking area. If that is a burn, right now there isn’t much you can do for it other than watch it. If it opens up into a wound, he’ll need a vet visit to get some silver sulfadiazine cream and possibly antibiotics.
View attachment 363281

Now about Blue wanting to come out of his enclosure. Yes, he could be wanting to get out because he doesn’t like not having more room. Or, he could just be ‘friendly’. My first panther boy was like this and then some. First we need to address that chameleons are not capable of feeling affection the way we and some other animals do…it just isn’t in their brain wiring. However, my guy was in a double sized enclosure - 4’ wide, 4’ high and 2’ deep - lots of plants, bioactive substrate, all parameters well within range and there really wasn’t any way that it could be improved. Yet as soon as his door was open, he came running. When I would sit on the floor in his room, he would crawl all the way down in his enclosure, as low as he could, trying to reach me and often getting himself wedged or scraping up his casque. I looked and looked for anything to be wrong and there just wasn’t anything. Finally I had to come to the conclusion that he just enjoyed sitting on my arm. While he passed away, I now have 2 other panther boys and a panther girl. They too are each in their own double sized enclosure and everything is as close to perfect for them as I can get it. Yet once their doors are open, the boys head over to me right away and one is climbing out to me immediately, the other hesitates a few seconds and then comes out and the girl doesn’t usually come out like that, but if I put my hand near her, she often will. I can only conclude that some panthers enjoy sitting on our arms/hands for whatever reasons only known to them.

Something to add on and to check. His uvb is 20cm from the end of his back (10 cm above the enclosure and 10cm inside, down to his back) And we put the heat lamp about the same cm to make his temp perfect at the basking spot.