Chameleon is only dark when in cage ? What's wrong ??

Rosemond

New Member
My chameleon is dark and in a corner in his cage but when I take him out he seems fine crawls all over me and turns back to a lighter green ... What wrong with his cage ?
 
image.jpg
Here it is
pictures of the cage??
 
Needs more foliage, vines, branches to climb on up top. chams don't really want to be low to the ground/looking up at you, or anything for that matter. you also need a basking spot for the little guy. i don't know what the exact temp should be because i don't know his age or what cham he is.
being little he'll pretty much want to stay up top all the time and he's gonna need some safety up there and a reason to get down and play.

when tehy're darker they could be upset or cold (usually) also the mesh is gonna make them look darker through it.

im not an expert or anything, and by expert i mean i don't know a WHOLE lot about chams. but i'm learning a lot and read up a little every day. I've only had Karma for a month and he's not a baby so i don't know what a baby would bask at or if they truly bask at all. but he will when he's older for sure, for temperature and digestive purposes.
and if the thermometers on the inside of the cage make sure it's secure. i put a lot of foliage around mine so he doesn't play on it and make it fall.
(sorry for a long post, i ramble.)
 
It looks like ThatDigitalChameleon has a pothos plant on the bottom and silk plants on the top. Pothos are great, tough to kill, hold the humidity well, and are good vines for climbing and winding around things.
I would add a bunch of horizontally placed branches at different levels in your cage. You could even hang a hanging basket of pothos from the top. That way your little guy can have places to hide and climb. He needs a perch close enough to the heat lamp (but not close enough to burn himself) to regulate his temperature, and places where he can go to cool off. Here's a pic of the way I have my guy's cage set up. There are a bunch of branches going around the cage, at different levels. That way he can choose what temperature he wants, and if he wants to be in the light or shade. He climbs up the pothos vines, and even sleeps on them sometimes.

DSCF1303.jpg
 
Oh another question he won't eat mealworms out of my hand or a cup will he eventually ? Or should I stick to crickets ?
 
Oh another question he won't eat mealworms out of my hand or a cup will he eventually ? Or should I stick to crickets ?

You could try very small mealworms or superworms (they're almost exactly the same) small enough so that he won't choke.

I would only give him a few supers/mealworms a day, because they're high in fat and chitin, which isn't good to have too much of.

Every day, hold a cricket or a super worm/mealworm in front of him, maybe around 4 inches away. Eventually he will take it.

Feed him a few like that every day, so he knows you're not a threat, you give him food.

Put the rest of his food (the ones you don't hand feed) into a shallow cup somehow attached to a branch or vine.
 
Your question seems to be well answered as far as the cage goes. I have noticed though, that nobody has brought up one possibility. Are you absolutely sure your chameleon is a male? In the event that he is a she, one of the signs that a female is about to lay eggs is a change in color that is not usual. My little cham is currently in that condition. A female can lay infertile eggs two to four times a year (maybe more in some cases). There is also sometimes white blotches along her sides and near the top of her head on both sides. They also become restless, quit eating, and begin to hide from you, usually by grouping together some leaves and trying to get behind them or under them. If your cham has quit eating, then consider following up on this by looking up "gravid chameleon" o"chameleon laying eggs" on Google.
 
Back
Top Bottom