Chameleon being weird today?

[Dori]

So I've had a veiled since September, she's still quite small.. growing.
She's not very exciting and she hates me. Hisses a lot, even when I'm spraying water, or putting in her food container.

Oh, she also likes to hide when I simply unzip the cage sometimes.. she really doesn't like hands.


Today I got back from school and opened her cage, sprayed some water.. then went to get crickets. I looked and she climbed near the opening, staring at what I'm doing. She did this about twice before, too..

...but this time, she was examining everything, and when I was about to put her food container in, she was about to try to eat it! She literally looked like she was going to charge at the container before I put it entirely in the cage.

:S It was weird.. Like.. she eats crickets. Not containers. But yeah, she ended up eating the crickets when I was still holding the container. Then I was spraying her cage again after..
..and she was staring at my spraybottle and was about to charge at it with her tongue! I got scared.. what's wrong with her?

Then she kept following the bottle, or my hands. Is she going crazy?

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

I would say she was very hungry. How many crickets are you feeding her a day? She is likely getting ready for a growth spurt and is extra hungry. When my young developing chams beg for food like that, I normally give them a bit more. But, with female veileds you have to be careful. If you overfeed them they can go into early egg production, with oversized clutch, and run into problems.

How old is she?

 

[Dori]

I'm not sure about her exact age because the petstore couldn't give me one when I bought her. I got her in September though, and I think she may have been 3 months when I bought her?

She was really tiny.

So altogether, would that be 8? :S

And I usually feed her 2-4 large crickets a day.
It's strange though because I've been feeding her large ones for quite a while, and at PetSmart they had a veiled a little bit bigger than mine... and they were surprised that I was feeding my chameleon large ones. :S They fed theirs small ones.

 

[kuskye25]

I'm not sure about her exact age because the petstore couldn't give me one when I bought her. I got her in September though, and I think she may have been 3 months when I bought her?

She was really tiny.

So altogether, would that be 8? :S

And I usually feed her 2-4 large crickets a day.
It's strange though because I've been feeding her large ones for quite a while, and at PetSmart they had a veiled a little bit bigger than mine... and they were surprised that I was feeding my chameleon large ones. :S They fed theirs small ones.

distance between the eyes is the width of the prey you feed. Post a pic of your enclosure and chameleon if you can it always helps, you never know when your doing something terribely wrong with exotics, take it from me i have about everything in a pet store and it happens, also ive never found a pet store that properly cares for chameleons and i have 4 stores locally within 10 miles and they all instructed me wrong...

 

[BigR]

How long have you been feeding that many crickets a day? My female at 6 months of age had been eating 20-30 1/2" crickets for over 3 months.

The hissing and hiding are normal behaviour, they are look only pets, they don't like handling.

When feeding, I just hold a container full of crickets rather than put it in the cage, prevents escapees. She will literally grab the cup and crawl in. She doesn't let go until all the crickets are gone or she's not hungery.

Could you post some pictures and her weight if possible for reference?

 

[Dori]

Ah!
I went upstairs to feed her two more crickets.. and then I bent over to get something from my backpack and she attacked the cage and tried to eat me!

Why is she mistaking any movements I make as food? She's never done that before.

 

[Dori]

Most recent I guess.

 

[BigR]

She's looking way to small to have been 3 months in September.
I'm thinking you need to up the food intake, has she ever had any superworms or silkworms?
Has she ever shown any blue spots or colouration?

 

[Dori]

Nope, I've never given her any worms.. and I've only seen them sell silkworms and mealworms at the stores I think?

And no, she's never really showed any blue before..

 

[Dori]

I did get her a Daylight Blue lighbulb a few days ago, since she's been running on simply a basking light for a while.

So now it's significantly brighter in her cage, if that might have anything to do with it? :S

 

[sandrachameleon]

Hi
You might like to complete the information found in the "how to ask for help" sticky. This will allow people here with experience to provide constructive critism of your set-up and methods.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

I would guess that she is hungry. She may have associated your arrival with food arrival.

I had a female (panther) that would eat anything, all the time, anytime. Her diet had to be monitored and controlled. She would attempt to eat anything that moved or might maybe move and might maybe be food (my fingernails, my moving eyeball, sticks, rocks, as well as any feeder insect offered).

 

[BigR]

I did get her a Daylight Blue lighbulb a few days ago, since she's been running on simply a basking light for a while.

So now it's significantly brighter in her cage, if that might have anything to do with it? :S

Are you saying that she doesn't have a UV light. The daylight blue bulb is no different than a regular incandescent bulb.

 

[Dori]

It's UVA/UVB?