My chams tail has a mind of it's own!

[addicted]

When my cham is climbing around on the top mesh in his flexarium, sometimes his tail will wrap around one of his back legs. I guess it's trying to find an extra 'tail hold' when he's climbing upside-down, but there aren't any on the flat screen top.

When he tries to take another step with that back leg, it's like his tail won't let go of his leg, it almost looks like he's fighting his own tail to get his leg free!
He knows it's his own tail that has him because he doesn't freak out, but just patiently stretches his leg in and out until the tail finally comes off.

I thought this was strange behavior, does anyone else have a cham that does this?

 

[danielle609]

One of my baby panthers does it...very odd...and it is only one of them that does it. I laugh, but at the same time I am worried there may be something wrong.

 

[Grizz]

yeah mine does that too. he even let go once with the leg and fell, luckily he caught a vine on the way down. i added more vines after that and havent seen him do it again. mine likes to hang by his tail he allways eats like that. he is like a monkey.

 

[MutantHybrid]

This is nothing to be worried about. Sometimes you might even see your chameleon try to grab its own leg with one foot as it is maneuvering. It is just that the chameleon is not paying attention to where its feet and tail are going as it seeks prey or looks for predators. Once the chameleon checks things out it usually realizes what is happening and corrects the grabbing error. The same thing occurs with octopi when their arms are tied together where they can't see the problem. They will spend hours trying to untie blind what they can untie within seconds sighted.

 

[desultadox]

I once found my adult male panther wrapped up in himself so bad he was actually hanging upside-down from a branch by one arm! He's stronger than I knew ;p Of course when I tried to help him he just hissed and tried to bite me. I guess just like us human males, he thinks he never needs help -_-

 

[Chef]

My veiled did that once in the petstore where I bought him-that might have been the selling point!

 

[hallenhe]

Thax will grab one leg with another foot with some frequency, and I've seen him use his feet to climb his tail (if that makes any sense). Hoisting himself by his own bootstraps. I've never seen the tail wrap around his legs, but have been entertained watching him settle for the night - the tail coils, and uncoils, and coils again...