Moving Chameleons

[Amanda S]

Hey everyone. So in a couple weeks I have to move back up to school in central PA and it is a three hour drive. My new WC cham will be coming and is still gradually adapting. There she will have a new cage and periodically have to come home with me to Philly where she will also have a cage.

First, how should I move her? Container, safety, and comfort-wise.

Any tips for easing the transition? Should I try to make the cages look the same or...?

 

[THECHAMMAN]

turn her lights off and let her hit sleep mode, then take her and put her in med size box in the dark and she will be sleeping thru the ride

 

[Amanda S]

What does she need in the box? Padding, sticks?

Will she sleep anytime of the day that I put her in the dark?

 

[Dave Weldon]

What does she need in the box? Padding, sticks?

Will she sleep anytime of the day that I put her in the dark?

Howdy Amanda,
A combination of sturdy sticks that she can comfortably use to support herself along with padding in case she gets knocked loose should work. Give her a chance to fall asleep before being moved into the car. Many chameleons will fall asleep and stay asleep through the enitre process. It might be a good idea to pre-stage all of this once just to make sure she does not stress-out to the point where you need to try something else .

Which school? My daughter will be back to Lehigh University in a few weeks .

 

[Amanda S]

Thanks for the advice, I will test it out first that is a good idea.

I will be returning to Penn State in State College, I drive right by Lehigh - which is only an hour or maybe two from Philly. That is a long way to come from CA though!! Good luck to her! It is majestically beautiful in central PA near the mountains.

 

[OACham]

same situation

I hope you don't think it's rude that I drop in a question, since it's the same topic...

We're gonna be doing a similar thing, but only once. Except we'll be traveling from northern North Dakota to southern Texas...in the winter time. Any suggestions for that sort of transition? I know heat is going to play a key factor, so other than heating pads, what other precautions should we take? We've got two panthers, a male and female that are 8 months old now, but this will be around March of '09. I'm not sure it's a good think that they sleep for two days, it's a 25 hour drive, but it's going to take us two or three days..

 

[Nicodemayo]

I hope you don't think it's rude that I drop in a question, since it's the same topic...

We're gonna be doing a similar thing, but only once. Except we'll be traveling from northern North Dakota to southern Texas...in the winter time. Any suggestions for that sort of transition? I know heat is going to play a key factor, so other than heating pads, what other precautions should we take? We've got two panthers, a male and female that are 8 months old now, but this will be around March of '09. I'm not sure it's a good think that they sleep for two days, it's a 25 hour drive, but it's going to take us two or three days..

It would be way easier on you and the animals if you were to find someone to care for them until you arrive and setup and have them ship them all to you.

 

[Dankmeleon]

for such a short drive i would honestly just take the cham put it in a brown lunch bag, and put that bag inside of a a small box and put that box on my passenger seat so i can make sure its not moving around

chams will be stressed if they can see out of the container, if they can't, they will not try to escape, rather just chill

 

[Amanda S]

I went to a reptile show yesterday and this guy had like 5 or 6 footlong mellers in a little cube with one branch. It was horrible. They were climbing all over each other and half of them were hardly moving. He was just grabbing them and passing them out to people by their spines and they were soooo pissed. I noticed he travels with them in a big plastic box with some branches in it. It got me to thinking that even though this way is clearly not optimal, and I will definitely *not* use a clear container because I want her to sleep, but he probably travels around the East coast with his chams all like that so mine must be fine for a few hour car drive in the dark.

I felt soooo bad for them. I almost bought one, I admit, I didn't want to leave them there. All his chams were listless, he had rudis and pygmys too.