mnlwfan
Member
- Your Chameleon - 3 year old female jackson. I've had her for 2 years.
- Handling - Hardly ever. I did handle her a week ago to take her outside on a 75 degree day for fresh air and sun time in her outdoor ficus.
- Feeding - She receives 6-10 crickets every other day. The amount depends on how quickly she ate at her last feeding. Crickets are gut loaded with cricket crack and dusted with calcium. She also receives reptiworms and butterworms a few times per month. She gets dubias when I can find them at the local reptile store, which is maybe every 6-8 weeks. She ate three butterworms today.
- Supplements - Miner-All
- Watering - Automatic rain system that goes off five times per day at various intervals and durations, the longest being three minutes, the shortest 30 seconds.
- Fecal Description - She has never been tested for parasites. She goes pretty regularly and it's usually white/clear and brown. After butterworms it's more watery and orange, but that's expected.
- History - She's your typical cham. Hangs out, does her own thing, looks at you like you're annoying her except when you have worms in hand, which she will eat from your hand. She's pretty mellow.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Screen, 18x18x18
- Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 tube UV and a small heat light in the top corner of her cage with a temp of approximately 80 underneath it.
- Temperature - Her room is usually kept at 70 - 75 during the day. Lately it has been getting a little warmer during the day, sometimes up to 85. At night it drops down to between 50-65.
- Humidity - Humidity goes up and down during the day with the rain. After her rain, it can be as high as 100%. The lowest marked on the gage has been 70%.
- Plants - one live pothos strung around her cage and branches
- Placement - She has her own room that is extremely low traffic. We have radiant heat, so no vents are near. She is across the room from the window, so no window draft. Her cage is on a stand and the top of her cage is about 6 feet off the ground.
- Location - pacific northwest
Current Problem - She is still eating and alert. Coloring is normal, no sign of her stressed dark coloring. Eyes are protruding, maybe a little more than normal.
I found her on the bottom of her cage twice this past week. Both times she was gripping a bottom plant vine that appears to have fallen under her weight. She was laying there just gripping the plant, not showing any interest in getting back up. Both times I picked her up. Her grip was very strong and she got back up on a higher branch with some guidance. Today, after I put her back up she ate a butterworm a minute later.
After that incident today I noticed she appears to be laying on branches and using only her back legs and tail to stay up. Her head and chest supported by the branch under her.
Tonight she is sleeping towards the bottom of her cage (unusual for her), almost hanging upside down and using only her back legs and tail, her front feet dangling.
She is not sleeping during the day. The last time I witnessed her drink was 4 days ago, but I assume she is drinking when I'm not around because she's not showing signs of dehydration.
The concern is her spending time towards the bottom of her cage when she is usually always on top, laying on the bottom looking confused, and not using her front legs even though she can still climb and has strength in them (she gripped my fingers very tightly when I picked her up from the bottom).
Did she just get stressed from me handling her a week ago? Or is this a sign of something else?
