Do you 24/7 FR?

Riktor Scale

Riktor Scale

New Member
If you do post them here, I would love to see. Also have you had any problems with them wanting to explore everywhere in home to where it can danger them? Great, good, and the bad, I wanna hear them! Also any tips on any topic about 24/7 free-range would be great, for myself and newcomers! I want to take all experiences and put them into my own too :)
 
I'm too nervous to let my guy free range 24/7. During the day, we open the door on his cage and connect a vine from one of the branches up to our curtain rod. It's almost a J shape where he can go in and out as he pleases.
 
I FR my cham 24/7. He spent about a year wandering ALL over the house and licking everything. He once ended up in the cage with the parrot, even though I put plexiglass around the bottom of the cage. He shimmied up where the corners met! I then applied box tape to the corners and that problem was taken care of! It is amazing where they will get to if they want to. My cham also walks to the front door to go outside. We go for walks around the neighborhood when the weather is nice. But he has no problem walking around on the floor, so if you aren't used to watching where you walk at all times, you could easily end up stepping on your cham. Also, I have a sweet parrot who loves everyone and everything, but I still never let them together without supervision. Other pets need to be watched carefully. He also liked to climb up lamps, so care must be taken to safeguard your cham from getting to the lightbulb where he could be burned. But overall, it has been a great experience and I don't think I could ever have a cham in a cage after seeing how much he hates being caged and is so content being FR'ed. I started FRing him at 5 months after he kept climbing out of his cage every time I opened it. He is my first cham and it was very scary. Sometimes I couldn't even find him! He also decided to spend weeks in the bathroom window with no UVB, food, or water. I took him out every morning to give him proper light, food and water, but back he would go. . . Now, he's 2 years old and tends to stay in his FR all the time.

Deb
 
d3s5 said:
I FR my cham 24/7. He spent about a year wandering ALL over the house and licking everything. He once ended up in the cage with the parrot, even though I put plexiglass around the bottom of the cage. He shimmied up where the corners met! I then applied box tape to the corners and that problem was taken care of! It is amazing where they will get to if they want to. My cham also walks to the front door to go outside. We go for walks around the neighborhood when the weather is nice. But he has no problem walking around on the floor, so if you aren't used to watching where you walk at all times, you could easily end up stepping on your cham. Also, I have a sweet parrot who loves everyone and everything, but I still never let them together without supervision. Other pets need to be watched carefully. He also liked to climb up lamps, so care must be taken to safeguard your cham from getting to the lightbulb where he could be burned. But overall, it has been a great experience and I don't think I could ever have a cham in a cage after seeing how much he hates being caged and is so content being FR'ed. I started FRing him at 5 months after he kept climbing out of his cage every time I opened it. He is my first cham and it was very scary. Sometimes I couldn't even find him! He also decided to spend weeks in the bathroom window with no UVB, food, or water. I took him out every morning to give him proper light, food and water, but back he would go. . . Now, he's 2 years old and tends to stay in his FR all the time.

Deb
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That was the exact kind of story I was looking for :) Thank you for this! I believe it to be very helpful to new cham owners who want to try any sort of free range! I laughed hysterically at the parrot part lol Awesome story Deb, thanks!
 
I have a free range in a spare bathroom and one in my living room (the chameleons get rotated in this one.) Younger chameleons, males going through puberty, and receptive/gravid females tend to roam the most in my experience. I wouldn't FR 24/7 one that is still really young (less than 18 months) or one that has roamed a lot when I have free ranged them previously except in the bathroom FR because I can close the door. I have dogs and I would hate to have something go wrong while I wasn't there. You always have to be careful about any other pets in the home, open water (toilets, fish tanks, etc.) cables and wires, open windows/doors, and other stuff that I cant think of right now.
 
pssh said:
Younger chameleons, males going through puberty, tend to roam the most in my experience. I wouldn't FR 24/7 one that is still really young (less than 18 months) or one that has roamed a lot
Click to expand...

Hmm that's new one for me! :eek: Younger cham's seem to wander more than adults? Also males going the puberty?
 
Davina said:
:eek:OMG THAT IS AWESOME!!!! Do they ever bother each other or climb each others tree's? I was thinking about FR another cham in the same room but my guys travel's all over the room now, and I know housing more than one can be an issue. How do you do it?
Click to expand...

When my guys were younger they use to get down and wonder around. My male veiled would scratch at the back door to go outside to the screen porch and sometimes they would visit other's trees but when older they mostly just sit around. The most important thing about free ranging it to have a SAFE place to do it.
 
Yes, the younger ones seem to like to wander more. Males going through chameleon puberty run around looking for some ladies or some other males to have a tussle with in my experience. As they get older (12-18+ months) they seem to settle down more and relax. Some females will wander when they are receptive (maybe looking for a nice male?) and others dont. Gravid females will wander and look for a good digging site, sometimes even if you have a perfectly suitable one really close to them.
 
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