Chameleon displaying weird behaviour

[mango.papaya]

hi!! I have a male veiled chameleon called Papaya, who’s roughly 6 months to a year old. he’s always been incredibly friendly as far as chams go, he’s not scared by me at all and will often climb onto my arm while I’m cleaning his cage.

yesterday I started noticing some incredibly weird behaviour, which I have never seen either him nor my previous veiled (who I had for 5 years) exhibit.

he puffed himself up as wide as he would go, went all of these vibrant, spotty colours, then leaned back (making himself look even larger) and his tail was going completely straight, then completely curled up, then straight again in very quick succession. I wasn’t anywhere near his vivarium at the time and I saw him do that at least 4 or 5 times yesterday. I was worried and went into his cage a little while after and he did eventually come up to me and I had him out for a few minutes, where he was acting completely normally and was his usual colours again. I felt reassured that he was okay and then but him back in his cage where he puffed up IMMEDIATELY and then starting doing that weird dance again. im so so confused and worried about him. absolutely nothing has changed for him to start doing that. could it possibly be some sort of territorial thing or maybe trying to attract a mate?

I’ve got a video of him doing it here


maybe I should add that he’s never even hissed or shown any type of aggressive behaviour ever in the 3 months I’ve had him

 

[ERKleRose]

Welcome on here! Do you have him in either a glass enclosure or enclosure with glass/acrylic doors? He could be seeing his reflection. If you could post pics of his enclosure and the area around his enclosure, that’d be super helpful!

 

[mango.papaya]

Welcome on here! Do you have him in either a glass enclosure or enclosure with glass/acrylic doors? He could be seeing his reflection. If you could post pics of his enclosure and the area around his enclosure, that’d be super helpful!

yeah the cage has glass doors! maybe that could be the reason why? there’s not much around his enclosure, it’s just my bed, there’s no mirrors or anything like that.

 

[janjan20]

Welcome on here! Do you have him in either a glass enclosure or enclosure with glass/acrylic doors? He could be seeing his reflection. If you could post pics of his enclosure and the area around his enclosure, that’d be super helpful!

Was going to ask the same, he is definitely seeing something that is making him fire up. I have experienced this all of my boys. I have one where he could see himself in the sliding glass door. I had to cover that side of his cage.

 

[ERKleRose]

yeah the cage has glass doors! maybe that could be the reason why? there’s not much around his enclosure, it’s just my bed, there’s no mirrors or anything like that.


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It’s probably the doors then. Maybe make diy screen doors? It’ll also add ventilation! One thing that isn’t good about euro cages is there’s no screen top for ventilation and to have the lights out of reach, which is much much safer. Maybe diy that, too (or at least that), if you can? If you want a new cage, Chameleon World Muji cages are great in the UK! I wish we had them here in the US! They also make custom sizes so you don’t have to downsize if you go with them! If any of these aren’t feasible, hopefully someone else chimes in with a better solution!

 

[Beman]

It is his reflection more than likely causing him to fire up. He thinks he sees another chameleon in his environment and he is trying to show his dominance. Unless you have added something new in the room or another animal that he is responding to.

 

[MissSkittles]

You don’t have any other chameleons? My big guy did that dance for his forbidden love every time he was able to sneak a peak at her. He never did it at any other time or when he saw any of my other chameleons…it was just for her.
Btw, your guy is gorgeous.