Bright Flowers?

[Peachypink]

I just had a thought. I added some pretty pink flowers to my new Panther's enclosure but could they be stressing him out? I saw on another post about bird toys that another members cham gets edge with bright colors. I do see that my baby stays toward the back where there are less of them, but I was thinking that he's just getting used to the new surroundings and hiding having only been here a few days. I don't want to stress him out more though. I love the color, maybe just less of it? What are your thoughts on this?

 

[MissLissa]

I use silk flowers, etc, in my chameleon cages at home and at work. I think if you stuffed a bunch of bright red flowers in front of him, all at once, he's going to react, but none of the chams in my care have much noticed if the flowers and other coloured foliage were in place before they were returned to their enclosure. I think you have to judge on your chameleon's behaviour, whether the changes in his environment are acceptable or not.

However, I am not a "no change ever" believer and there are plenty of people who would disagree with me. I switch up the cham cages every month or so after a deep clean, giving them a new perch to explore, new foliage, textures, etc. Chams in the wild don't live in a 24x24x48" sterile, perfectly green box. I view it as a form of environmental enrichment. There is plenty of evidence that an animal that lives in a static environment will react to small changes with significantly more stress than an animal whose environment regularly demonstrates a certain amount of variation. I don't take the whole cage apart and redo it, as I like to leave a few spots that are still "familiar", but at the lab we noticed that a shift here or there often results in an increase in activity, and often appetite, with some of our older chams. This isn't to say all chams should have variation, all the time. New imports, etc, would be bad candidates as their lives have already been turned upside down. There is a balance that has to be struck between "stress" and "enrichment". However, I do believe that adding a little low-level variation into a captive chameleon's life can inoculate them against additional stress when life throws us curveballs in the future. Nothing on Earth can stay static forever, after all

 

[jtimen]

I just had a thought. I added some pretty pink flowers to my new Panther's enclosure but could they be stressing him out? I saw on another post about bird toys that another members cham gets edge with bright colors. I do see that my baby stays toward the back where there are less of them, but I was thinking that he's just getting used to the new surroundings and hiding having only been here a few days. I don't want to stress him out more though. I love the color, maybe just less of it? What are your thoughts on this?

Hey Peachypink, how goes it? Any change? I just put a hibiscus into my veiled's enclosure a few days ago. The plant's got some gorgeous red flowers which seem to have exploded into life in the vivarium. Overall, I think Meagan's adjusted pretty well. She doesn't pay them much mind. I've introduced a few new foods to her this week, as well, which may have helped take her mind off of things...

 

[Peachypink]

Hey Peachypink, how goes it? Any change? I just put a hibiscus into my veiled's enclosure a few days ago. The plant's got some gorgeous red flowers which seem to have exploded into life in the vivarium. Overall, I think Meagan's adjusted pretty well. She doesn't pay them much mind. I've introduced a few new foods to her this week, as well, which may have helped take her mind off of things...

I took out about half of the bright pink and he seems to be doing a bit better. He still doesn't like me yet but I've only had him a week. He seems to have relax a bit having some of them removed and I see him more around more. I will probably be doing an occasional change up from time to time just to give him different stimulus. But for now, I just want him to settle in. I also changed him over from crickets to dubia so he's had a lot of major changes in this past week, poor guy.

 

[jtimen]

I took out about half of the bright pink and he seems to be doing a bit better. He still doesn't like me yet but I've only had him a week. He seems to have relax a bit having some of them removed and I see him more around more. I will probably be doing an occasional change up from time to time just to give him different stimulus. But for now, I just want him to settle in. I also changed him over from crickets to dubia so he's had a lot of major changes in this past week, poor guy.

Yeah, my girl's still settling in as well. It's been about two weeks and she's still pretty wary of me. The big news is, she ate out of my hand last night! I'm making the switch from crickets to dubias, as well.

 

[jtimen]

Oh yeah, and I'm glad things are working out and he's relaxing!