Keeping Cham In Tree

[rotarhead]

Moe has recently decided that it would be interesting to venture from his tree after taking a few chomps of some leaves. He was like a child today. I had to take him off of the plant light that he managed to get on, then caught him off his tree and climbing on the bucket to his RainDome, and after a bit of a hissy fit because I didn't let him continue his adventure he has ended up on his light fixture on top of his enclosure (it is cool so he won't be burnt.) I don't mind him on top of his cage but don't want him to venture to the ground. What do you guys use to keep your chams from doing just that? He is in his enclosure most of the time but I try to let him out of it and onto his tree's for a few hours a day or every other day, mostly whenever I can and whenever he looks like he is getting antsy in his enclosure. I often run around doing errands while he is on his tree and don't want to chance him escaping while I'm not looking. Especially because the cat and dogs have to come back in eventually. Just looking for simple ideas really. I figured you guys/gals that free range would have tons of them.

 

[jannb]

I would not leave Moe unsupervised until you can get him in a cham proof room where you can shut the door and he'll be safe. Chams will roam and there's no way to stop them.

 

[rotarhead]

I would not leave Moe unsupervised until you can get him in a cham proof room where you can shut the door and he'll be safe. Chams will roam and there's no way to stop them.

Babysitting while he is out...got ya. I figured there was a way to keep him in the tree as I know a lot of people free range. I would be afraid to open the door on a roaming free ranging cham on accident or something.

 

[jannb]

Babysitting while he is out...got ya. I figured there was a way to keep him in the tree as I know a lot of people free range. I would be afraid to open the door on a roaming free ranging cham on accident or something.

You have to open the doors VERY slowly. I even look under mine before opening. I free range ALL my animals. https://www.chameleonforums.com/some-free-ranges-66598/

 

[rotarhead]

You have to open the doors VERY slowly. I even look under mine before opening. I free range ALL my animals. https://www.chameleonforums.com/some-free-ranges-66598/

Thanks for the link, your free ranges are amazing. I wish I could do something like that. However, every room in the house has a human occupant and the main rooms would be extremely hard to cham proof. I guess I'll just continue to babysit Moe, for now anyway. I don't believe my dog would do anything but my cat and the roommates dogs, different story. I like my cham too much to even risk that. However, they all leave him alone when he is in his enclosure. Thanks again for the replies, I appreciate it.

 

[Ecotect]

Like Janb said if you can’t cham proof the room then baby sitting is going to be a must, especially if they are intent on wandering. Here are a few suggestions that may help to minimize his undesirable exploratory nature. In my experience wandering has to do with the availability and quantity of desirable territory. In practice I find the more pathways I create interconnecting valuable territory like your trees the more content they are to stay in the free range. Also if the cage is going to be apart of the free range and he has already figured out that he can get up there, make sure to give him a proper place to hang out on top instead of on the lights. Then of course connect this to your trees as well. If a male cham doesn’t have access to warmth, water, food, and girls. He is going to go look for them, no matter how elaborate your free range is. I suggest making a few of these available to him, the easiest being a secondary basking spot in the tree. The more of these you can provide in the free range the more valuable the territory becomes. I’d just like to point out that providing access to the ladies would not only be impractical but could result in undue stress and/or injuries and should not be regarded as a viable option. With that said he is always going to have some urge to get out there and strut is stuff, which is why I say minimize and not prevent lol. Another thing to consider Chams have an amazing ability to visually map and recall the “safe zones” in their environment. If they have been there before and didn’t see/taste anyone else they will go there again. Some even get this “old man” way about them, where they get into the habit of frequenting certain areas during certain times of the day. I believe they are patrolling their territory, and it can be difficult to break this habit once it’s established. One way in which I have had success deterring this behavior is by resetting their territory. In other words make all the pathway and hangout spot additions I suggested and rearrange as much of the room and cage as practically possible. This should force him to visually reestablish his territory, most of it will still taste like it’s his so it shouldn’t cause any undue stress. I know rooms that are completely new freak my cham out… he’s got some quarks lol. I free range my cham 24/7 and since employing these techniques I have never caught him on the ground once! Hopefully this helps you out too, best of luck!

 

[rotarhead]

I'll do some brainstorming on whether I can add some more vines or not, space his tree from his enclosure more, or something. His enclosure is part of the "free range." It is in the center of the two trees and he prefers the willow over the other. He isn't out for more than a few hours at most when he is out, depending on the weather that is and how long the other critters can stay outside. I'm thinking it might be part of being moved back inside. He never tried to get out/act like he wanted out, or got antsy when he was outside this summber. Maybe because he felt safer in his enclosure while outside and inside he feels he could conquer all. Either that or I created a monster by buying him the tree's. Who knows what goes on in thier heads, lol. Thanks for the help.

 

[heartben]

if you post a couple pics thatd help a lot. a basic idea is to hang a couple vines from the ceiling above the tree to give him more safe stuff to climb on, if its in the corner you can string a vine/rope wall to wall.

one of my chams (so far) is free range 24/7 and he has only left his area twice, and both times he came back on his own. my room is small though so its pretty easy to figure out where he is if he does get down...just make sure he has enough places to climb. i will say that he almost never climbs on the tree and almost exclusively climbs on the vines..just uses the tree for cover when he sleeps mostly.

 

[kinyonga]

First of all, as was already mentioned, you need to make sure that the tree area is safe...you don't want any risk of him sitting on a hot light/hood and you need to be sure he can get UVB too.

If you want to keep him restricted to the tree, you can place the tree in a kiddie's wading pool that is tall enough that he can't climb the walls of it and escape and that is wide enough that if he falls/jumps out of the tree he will still be in the (empty) wading pool.

 

[rotarhead]

Like I said, he is not a permanent free ranger, nor will he be for his safety. I enjoy letting him out though when the other critters are outside so that he can be out of the enclosure for a while. He loves it, he comes straight out of the cage and straight on his tree. USUALLY content on just hanging out in the willow watching his world from another vantage point while munching on some leaves. I bought a camillia for him too but he wants very little to do with it and seems the happiest in the willow. He becomes nice and bright and his blue spots really show along with his other colors. I'll post a picture of his enclosure and "free range." I'm thinking of taking vines from his tree to the window in that same room to give him a little something new. As far as UVB, he gets that in his enclosure so I won't be adding that outside of it and he has already figured out that the plant bulbs give out heat.

 

[boondyke69]

If you want to keep him restricted to the tree, you can place the tree in a kiddie's wading pool that is tall enough that he can't climb the walls of it and escape and that is wide enough that if he falls/jumps out of the tree he will still be in the (empty) wading pool.

How about a guard on the trunk, like the squirrel guards you put for bird feeders (facing the other way of course) like a funnel, so they cannot climb out?

 

[rotarhead]

How about a guard on the trunk, like the squirrel guards you put for bird feeders (facing the other way of course) like a funnel, so they cannot climb out?

Ah...I didn't think about that. GREAT idea! I'll have to look into that.