Hello hello

[sunnysoleil]

New here and new to the Cham world. We just adopted our little 1 yr old female veiled last week.
Now I have a question, when I clean her cage, she literally runs over and lunges for me, today I had to reach into the back of the cage and she grabbed onto the side of my head and was walking on my head. When someone is in the room she will get off her perch or the ficus and crawl all over the front of the cage and watch us, like she wants out.
Is this normal? Should I be concerned? I saw her sister and she is a nasty little thing, if you even bent down to look at her she puffed, hissed and blackened, so that's why we chose this one, but now after reading that the hissing is perfectly normal, not nice but normal, I am wondering if she doesn't like her enclosure or is sick.
She is also missing a good portion of her tail (previous owners think it was either caught in the screen or bitten by her sister when they were housed together as babies)
Any answers would be greatly appreciated
Thanks!
~Sunny

 

[laurie]

Welcome we are happy you joined us. I also have veileds and yes both my girls are a ill tempered as yours! Even as little as they are I wear leather gloves or I get bit, it is that easy. I also have a male and he has finally gotten to the point where I can pick him up without getting a nice bite. But with the nails and grip he has, I still don't handle him any more than required.

Chameleons are wonderful to watch not not great for holding a lot. She will probably settle down in a day or two but she may never be friendly. Offer her food by hand and she will learn your hand means food. But use caution as she may still try to bite until she is ok with your hand in her cage. Good luck with your new baby.

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum...and the world of chameleons!

BTW...have you provided a place for her to dig in case she has to lay eggs? Female veileds can produce eggs even without mating and failure to provide a place can lead to egg binding.

Here are some sites you might like to read...
http://adcham.com/
http://chameleonnews.com/
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...als.com/vet/index.php?show=8.Gout.Basics.html

 

[Pure]

If I understand you, the lunging is her wanting to get on you? If so, wile it isn't typical behavior there is nothing wrong with it. Every once in a wile people find a cham that actually appears to enjoy some interaction. The only thing I would caution about is prolonged handling. At least until you know your cham well enough to be able to recognize the subtle cues that tell you she's had enough.

Welcome to the site!

 

[summoner12]

Welcome!

I have a female veiled that sorta does the same thing.... she is just a TOTAL pig and wants food. so when I come by her cage she'll come running and watch me... if i go to open she runs to where the opening it and aims at my finger as if its food. I have to be careful cause she will shoot and bite thinking my finger is a huge worm. This is frustrating. I try to break her of the habit by not feeding her until i get her out... but it doesn't really help much she still chases my fingers around.

To help with your case. You should provide bigger mesh on the front of the cage so that she can grip it easily without rubbing her nails out on the smaller screen mesh. She will thank you. You can also use vines on the front of the cage. I did this for one of my male veileds because he would climb just like you described... If you search around the forum you will see some pictures f cages with the mesh I am talking about. You can buy it at Home Depot or Lowes I think. Its plastic and the openings are about 3/8".

As she gets older... don't feed her very much... as much as she might want food you need to keep a close eye on her intake. if you over feed her she'll have large clutches of eggs and this will cause issues.

 

[sunnysoleil]

Hi everyone thanks for replying!

Welcome to the forum...and the world of chameleons!

BTW...have you provided a place for her to dig in case she has to lay eggs?

Yes I do, I have two live ficus in the cage with her and there is soil at the bottom of the cage, now while she has no problem standing and walking on it, I am still going to remove some of the soil and replace it with a thick layer of sand, just in case.

Every once in a wile people find a cham that actually appears to enjoy some interaction. The only thing I would caution about is prolonged handling

I only limit it to a couple of "around the worlds" over me lol (climbing from arm to arm and over my head)

As she gets older... don't feed her very much... as much as she might want food you need to keep a close eye on her intake. if you over feed her she'll have large clutches of eggs and this will cause issues

Thanks! That's what I thought, but the guy I bought it off of told me to feed her 10 crickets 3x's a day, and when I asked even when she's an adult, he said yes. I didn't think that sounded right.

Lol my daughter just came down and told me as she was putting crickets in her cage, our chammy just clipped onto her nose and started walking on the top of her head. Silly girl. (the chammy who is still unamed lol)

I'm going to try and get pictures of my set up and her and post them later on.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."I am still going to remove some of the soil and replace it with a thick layer of sand, just in case"...IMHO its best not to have a substrate. Not having one avoids the possibility of impaction. Its important to provide a container of washed playsand in the cage of any female egglaying chameleon once she is sexually mature IMHO. This lets her start digging when she needs to lay eggs and helps avoid eggbinding issues.

The minimum size of a container for a female veiled is one that is big enough that when empty she fits into it with a couple of inches to spare on all sides including above and below. Fill it about 3/4 full of moistened sand. Many of the females will lay the eggs in this sized container, but I have a 65 litre rubbermaid container that I often move them to. I cut away most of the lid and glue screen over it. I fill the container about 15" deep with moistened washed playsand and add a branch. I put the chameleon in once she has started digging intently...put the screened lid on...add a light over the screen and leave her alone. Make sure you don't make it too warm in the container...after all, its more closed in than most cages.

Its not good for her to see you watching her when she's digging because it will make her abandon the hole. She can be fed and watered in this container but make sure you don't leave any uneaten insects in the container.

Hope this helps!

 

[sunnysoleil]

Finally the pictures are up of our little girl, our son has now named her....drumroll...Fred.
So in photography, look up "Fred" and you'll see her!