He fell!

[mgebbie]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male Veiled, approximately 4 months old. Have had him for 6 weeks. He weighs a little over 6 grams.
Handling - 2-3 times per week for about 10 minutes at a time
Feeding - Feeding crickets (about 10-15/day), gut loaded with dark green leafy lettuce, and carrots, and occasional broccoli. Cup-fed
Supplements - Rep cal hertipvite, Rep cal calcium with D3, and Zoo med calcium without D3. Without D3 everyday, with D3 2x/mo, and herptivite 2x/mo
Watering - Dripper on at all times, mist 3x/day. I never see him drink directly
Fecal Description - Urate is bright white, and fecal is dark brown
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? No
History - Got him from Tiki Tiki

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen, 18x18x36
Lighting - Repti sun 5.0 UVB, 50 watt incandescent, 12 on 12 off.
Temperature - basking is about 82 F, overall is about 70 F.
Humidity - fluctuates between 55%-75%
Plants - Umbrella plant, and some fake vines/leaves
Placement -Living room, not too high traffic, top of cage is 6 ft off the ground
Location - Maryland, just outside of DC

Current Problem - Last night my bf accidentally woke him up, Thor proceeded to hiss (for the first time), and fire up, getting increasingly angry. In the process of covering up his cage I heard a soft thud! It seems that he had been so disoriented from waking up, and scared that he misjudged his distance from a vine, and fell. He was very close to the top of the cage! I quickly placed him on a vine, and he proceeded to climb very fast to the top.

Am I just overreacting. I'm worried he'll hate us forever, since he was so scared last night.

 

[ataraxia]

In good health they are able to take a big fall In nature it is there only defense against a predator. Im sure you dont have anything to worry about.

just examine his body and limbs in specific to be sure.

 

[sdheli420]

In good health they are able to take a big fall In nature it is there only defense against a predator. Im sure you dont have anything to worry about.

just examine his body and limbs in specific to be sure.

yep, they were designed to fall from the forest canopy to evade beeing food, ive seen babies do this more than adults, but especially if bothered at night they will "fall" to conceal themselfs..as long as he's walking fine, eating, active, and eyes are open hes fine..

 

[mgebbie]

He's walking run, or rather running away just fine! He hissed a bit this morning which he had never done prior to the incident last night.
Thank you for the kind words!

 

[sdheli420]

He's walking run, or rather running away just fine! He hissed a bit this morning which he had never done prior to the incident last night.
Thank you for the kind words!

no prob..you are just beeing a good cham keeper..

we all freak out ever so often..lol

 

[Miss Lily]

Amy ran straight off my hand when she was about that age too - scared me half to death! A cham's ribs are hinged and they can inflate their lungs before landing to cushion the fall. Like others have already said, it helps them avoid predators in the wild. I think it scares us more than it bothers them though! My new baby Jackson also fell off my finger the other day - he was walking too fast over my finger and just toppled over the other side before I even had time to react!

 

[DavidBuchan]

yep, they were designed to fall from the forest canopy to evade beeing food, ive seen babies do this more than adults, but especially if bothered at night they will "fall" to conceal themselfs..as long as he's walking fine, eating, active, and eyes are open hes fine..

Sorry, just being really picky, but surely the word 'evolved' is better than 'designed' lol
As for everything else it's all good, I would recommend to mgebbie looking up gutloading though....lettuce is nearly useless, and broccoli does more harm than good when it comes to Calcium absorption - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/446-basics-gutloading.html

 

[brooklynelizabeth]

Sorry, just being really picky, but surely the word 'evolved' is better than 'designed' lol
As for everything else it's all good, I would recommend to mgebbie looking up gutloading though....lettuce is nearly useless, and broccoli does more harm than good when it comes to Calcium absorption - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/446-basics-gutloading.html

Leave it to the English guy to correct our English, lol

 

[emilybier]

Sorry, just being really picky, but surely the word 'evolved' is better than 'designed' lol

Depends on what you believe

My panther jumped off of my hand onto carpet once, it shocked me a little but she was fine!! I put a little bit of foliage on the bottom of my bigger cage in case it helps though.

 

[tkilgour]

In most cases they can take a fall w/o harm. However, there are many cases where a perfectly healthy chameleon falls and breaks a limb.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Leave it to the English guy to correct our English, lol

Yeah, I wasn't really correcting the English....just making a joke......I should leave this stuff out of the health clinic threads........

Depends on what you believe

I'd prefer to say it depends what's actually true It's a complicated situation........it's just too politicised to really discuss on here though.......

 

[laurie]

Yeah, I wasn't really correcting the English....just making a joke......I should leave this stuff out of the health clinic threads........

I'd prefer to say it depends what's actually true It's a complicated situation........it's just too politicised to really discuss on here though.......

I know you too well David, you are just bored. take some pictures and post for me. Yhat is a great use of your time.

 

[DavidBuchan]

I know you too well David, you are just bored. take some pictures and post for me. Yhat is a great use of your time.

I'm not bored, I'm very rarely bored ......but my camera is broken... I got sand in it, lol. Going to see how much it'll cost to repair it tomorrow.....

 

[melric]

My sister dropped one of my chams when we first got him. Well, now he is mean and I swear it's because he remembers. lol. I'm sure your guy will be fine.

 

[Elizadolots]

The first day I brought my first chameleon home, I took him out of the bag and had him on my hand...he climbed on my arm and then up on my shoulder, I bent down as he went "over" the crest to the back of my neck...then he just fell off my back and landed on the tile floor. My husband and I sort of freaked out...but he was fine. It seems falling is part of their defense strategy so they are good at it. Sort of like cats. It's rare for a cat to injure itself in a fall....but that doesn't mean it can't happen and every fall has to be treated as potentially damaging.

 

[Hoj]

one of my guys is a little adventurist and is always getting himself into silly situations where he falls and it always freaks me out but he just shakes it off and heads back on his mission

 

[lindawaz]

excellent word for a Cham "mission" they seem to always be on one or thinking of one

 

[brooklynelizabeth]

Yeah, I wasn't really correcting the English....just making a joke......I should leave this stuff out of the health clinic threads........

I'd prefer to say it depends what's actually true It's a complicated situation........it's just too politicised to really discuss on here though.......

I know you were joking bud, i was just stating the obvious, us Americans have screwed up our language so much, none of us use it properly, lol, i thought it was funny a actual English Gent was correcting the English..

 

[DavidBuchan]

I know you were joking bud, i was just stating the obvious, us Americans have screwed up our language so much, none of us use it properly, lol, i thought it was funny a actual English Gent was correcting the English..

Haha, not even Shakespeare could use English properly, it's all proper old fashioned. He spelt his own name like 11 different ways.....and all he really did is get loads of well known sayings and string them together, lol
Language dies if it doesn't evolve, so keep on screwing.....

 

[SilverDragoness]

lol my little man definitely has "missions" they are always very important. One day the mission was to go up to the back of the couch and even the cat was not going to stop him. Don't worry I was supervising very closely. Vash ran away before Wash even got close to the top.