Cham only staying active for 5 hours a day

[jacksoniijacksonii]

My cham has been going to bed at roughly 2-3pm every day the past couple of weeks. I never wake him up before 8AM and he is in a room without lights or sunlight so he should be getting a full nights rest. At first I would turn off his lights when he would settle in at 3pm because I figured maybe he was just unusually tired and needed more sleep, but he continued doing it everyday. Now I have been keeping the lights on until 7pm to try and get him readjusted but he doesnt care. He sleeps in his pothos in a dark corner. Could he just be bored?? Also his coloration has been dark even though they should be sleeping light colored I believe.

 

[JoXie411]

You might want to fill this out so the forum members can help you out better

Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful

 

[jacksoniijacksonii]

Will do, I forgot

 

[jacksoniijacksonii]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon -1 year old male, Trioceros jacksonii jacksonii (rainbow Jackson), he has been in my care for about 6 months. Purchased him at the "Maryland All-Reptile expo" in Havre De grace, MD.
• Handling - Minimal.
• Feeding - I feed him a main diet of crickets, 5 medium sized crickets every other day. Sometimes he eats them all sometimes he doesnt. I usually throw some wax worms or a hornworm in there. All food is placed in a cup that is zip tied to the screen. I never fed the waxworms anything, other than whatever was already in their substrate upon purchase. Crickets get Flukers orange cubes. I mist the crickets cage once a day since the cubes dry out so quickly. I used to feed my crickets safe food from established threads on here, but it didn't seem to help my high mortality rate for crickets so I stopped. I don't understand, I feel like half of them die.
• Supplements - Every other feeding, the food is dusted with plain calcium powder, not D3. Once a month I sprinkle his food with Repashys LOD calcium and D3, the whole nine yards in there.
• Watering - I have the "exo-terra monsoon solo misting system". I have it set to 20 seconds every 4 hours. I have witnessed him licking droplets off leaves on several occasions, and will sometimes continue to mist until I see he his finished drinking.
• Fecal Description - Small brown pellets vary in color from dark brown to light brown. Good shape and texture. Urates are white and normal. Never been tested.
• History - None

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Zoo Med XL screen cage. 24x24x48
• Lighting - His heat fixture was a 150watt heat bulb in winter, 100 watt in summer. 24inch reptile-sun LED/UVB flat terrarium hood. Upgraded the UVB from a 5.0 to a 10.0 as soon as I got it. I usually adjust the lights to his sleep schedule (spoiled). If I see him in his umbrella tree trying to sleep then I will turn off all the lights (no blue or red, just darkness). I stick to the 12 hours of day and 12 of night rule, but recently he has changed his habits (See my current issue below).
• Temperature - His basking spot is always 85-88 degrees Fahrenheit and I keep a digital thermometer there. Floor of his cage is probably close to 70 degrees, I live in a basement so it is consistently 65-70 degrees down here and that is why I have such a high wattage heat bulb.
• Humidity - I have a large sized dehumidifier on the other side of the basement to keep the mold out. The needle hygrometer in the room he is in, constantly reads 45-55% humidity. I have a "evergreen pet supplies Digital timer 4L reptile fogger" that is 24/7 outputting humidity into his cage. I have it protruding through the side of his screen about 4 inches in, at the top back corner. I have to refill this 4L (1 gal) humidifier every day. I have a bowl placed at bottom of his cage underneath the hose tip, that catches all the dripping condensation, which I empty out every week. The humidifier is blowing in the back half of his cage from the side. So it reaches the majority of his plants, but not his basking spot/feeding tray. He can move to where he is comfortable, directly in the high % which is in the cloud covering the back half of his cage, or go to his basking spot which is low %, or somewhere in-between. I see Cham owners on YouTube that just mist twice a day with a spray bottle, meanwhile I have a high end full blown humidifier constantly outputting, so I just don't see it actually being an issue.
• Plants - 1 live umbrella plant, and 1 live pothos (devils ivy). 3 vines (one has fake leaves, the others are bare), and several sticks that lead to different angles throughout his cage to the floor. Umbrella is planted in a pot at the cage bottom (cage bottom is green eco-mat). He sleeps in the top of this plant directly in the humidity flow. Pothos is planted in a small magnaturals pot on the side of the cage near the door, opposite of his basking spot and feeding tray. He rarely goes to the pothos, as it is away from humidity, and away from heat. "Aqua-bulb" has been handy in the pothos to keep moist, the umbrella plant is constantly moist from the humidity.
• Placement - My basement is all open "U-shaped", no doors for rooms, just walls and furniture. He is in the section designated as my office, in-between my desk and about 3 feet from the basement wall/ electrical panel box room door. He is about 8 feet away from the cellar door that leads up a small cement staircase to outside. It is not a high traffic area really, but it also is because I come to my desk daily for work, this is where I spend most of my time. He doesnt seem to mind though, he still crawls all over his screen exploring every inch of cage. I have his cage on the Zoo Med table designed specifically for his XL cage, so the top of his cage is roughly 6f above the carpet.
• Location - Eastern shore of Maryland.

CURRENT ISSUE:
My cham has been going to bed at roughly 2-3pm every day the past couple of weeks. I never wake him up before 8AM and he is in a room without lights or sunlight so he should be getting a full nights rest. At first I would turn off his lights when he would settle in at 3pm because I figured maybe he was just unusually tired and needed more sleep, but he continued doing it everyday. Now I have been keeping the lights on until 7pm to try and get him readjusted but he doesnt care. He sleeps in his pothos in a dark corner. Could he just be bored?? Also his coloration has been dark even though they should be sleeping light colored I believe.

Thank you,
Bo

 

[kinyonga]

Photos of the chameleon and the cage please.
@JacksJill

 

[CBee7726]

@JacksJill might be able to help with this, she was really helpful in providing suggestions for my Jackson's who is currently ill.

Does he always eat all of the food offered?

For the hours that he is awake, how is his activity level?

When you turn off his lights early in the day, are you turning off the UVB as well? Is the light a T8 or a T5 HO?

Do you have a hygrometer and thermometer in his cage as well? If so, what are the average humidity readings in his cage?

Is the basement a high traffic/ high activity area? Does he seem like he's trying to hide?

Providing pictures of your cham/ his cage might be helpful too

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."Crickets get Flukers orange cubes" and "I used to feed my crickets safe food from established threads on here, but it didn't seem to help my high mortality rate for crickets so I stopped"... The food is not likely part of the problem of the crickets dying unless you're leaving it in the cricket cage too long and it's moulding. The food is twofold...feed the crickets so they will be healthy when you feed them to the chameleon and so that the chameleon may get some good nutrition from the crickets gut content too. Toss the orange cubes.

"I mist the crickets cage once a day since the cubes dry out so quickly"...this is likely a part of the reason your crickets are dying. Crickets need to have something to drink but they don't need the moisture that misting the cage would give them. If you give them a dish of water they will likely drown in it...so give them some foods (fruits, greens, veggies) with some moisture in them.

Do not let the food ait in the cage too long...you don't want to end up with mold.

Keep the cage clean...waste builds up ammonia which kills the crickets.

Provide lots of ventilation and lots of places for them to get away from each other...like toilet paper rolls, egg carton pieces, etc. This also gives them darker places to hide.

Hope this at least solves your cricket problem.

Is he sleeping near the bottom of the cage?

 

[jacksoniijacksonii]

I have tried uploading pictures in the past and it doesn't work for me but I will try again later.

Yes he always finishes his food. I have tried feeding him 6 and he doesnt eat the 6th so by the 5th he is full.
When he is awake he is fairly active, he wanders all over and climbs the screen and sunbathes mostly.
I turn off all the lights, I usually wake him up with the heat lamp, and then 15 minutes later I turn on the other 2 lights. Vicer versa for night, so that its not a sudden rush of darkness or light. It is the T5 10.0 UVB bulb.
Temp and humidity are in my post, 85-88F basking spot, and humidity is roughly 50-55% in the room he is in but he can walk to the back of his cage where the humidifier is constantly pumping if he feels dry.
It is not a high traffic area, he is never trying to hide, he stays on the center vine that goes to the corner of the cage but also goes to basking post on the other side. Fairy open, it's above the canopy.

*About the crickets*
I know the cricket food is for the nutrition of the cham, I only meant that I stopped chopping up foods for the crickets because they had such a high mortality rate and it was a time consuming task going to waste since half the crickets die anyways. I thought if I started feeding them fresh foods it would lead to less dead crickets but it didn't so I figured they received adequate nutrition from the cubes. And I don't mist the whole cricket cage, I just mist their orange cubes so they don't dry out as quickly. I remove all dried food and dead crickets every other day. When I get a new batch of roughly 60 crickets every week and a half, I scrub their cage clean and give new paper towel floor and egg carton so nothing is dirty. I'm aware of clean cages and food, dead crickets removed etc. I will probably start feeding crickets fresh again its just annoying when most of them die regardless.

And yes he actually started sleeping at the lowest point of his cage in the pothos plant around the same time his sleep pattern changed! He used to sleep high up in the umbrella tree. It is more lit during the day in his new sleeping spot though so I don't think he I sleep deprived, he sleeps more than 12hrs a night (his choice).

Thanks for the feedback thus far everyone, I will try and post pics.

 

[jacksoniijacksonii]

Here are the pics...

 

[JacksJill]

Your crickets are likely dying from too much humidity.
Other than sub par gut load and higher than necessary basking temps nothing jumps out at me.
His basking temps should be 82˚F max he may be going low to beat the heat and sleeping because of lack of light down there.
Raise his basking light or reduce the wattage.
One other thought is your AC running more than normal and blowing on him at all? They will hide in the plants if they feel a cold breeze.
If neither of those is the case maybe he needs veterinary intervention.

 

[jacksoniijacksonii]

Thanks, and I'll start chopping greens again for the crickets. I figured his mix up of hornworms and waxworms were sufficient in nutrition but I know I should be gut-loading better than flukers.
When he goes low, he goes to sleep. He doesn't seem to be trying to get cooler or avoid light, his previous sleeping spot was much darker. Ive noticed when he gets too warm he goes to the other side of his central vine, walking back and forth all day to different temps. Ive also played around with basking temps and distances, but ill try again.
I actually closed the AC vent in his room at the beginning of summer so it shouldn't be that.
Thanks for the tips, might be taking a trip to the vet. I am interested how a checkup on a chameleon will be performed. He doesn't have a change in color, behavior or sunken eyes