My MALE veiled crawling around the floor??

[mychamsrswellerthanurs]

We lost our female green baby yesterday, and since we got home and disassembled her terrarium he has been looking around and moving around more frequently. He's crawling on the floor a lot (I know for a fact he's a boy and basically the pinnacle of chameleon health) could it be the change in the atmosphere now that he's the only chameleon? or maybe he just misses her? They used to look at each other through the screens. I know it sounds silly but I feel like he's picking up on our negative energy. He was also making some strange slurping sounds when he ate today.

Go ahead and laugh at me, but I'm a serious believer on positive and negative energies affecting animals, regardless if they're an affectionate species or not.

 

[JoCarp]

I'm not sure what's causing his behavior, but I am truly sorry to hear of your loss. I don't think its too outlandish to think that her being removed could have had an impact on him though. Regardless, I hope you and you little green guy get through this well.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I am sorry for your loss.

I think you are attributing a lot of human characteristics that a chameleon just does not possess.

If the loss of your female is in fact contributing to this new wandering behavior, I would look for a much simpler answer such as her presence stressed him such that he was inactive and you are now seeing his normal behavior.

I have no clue what the slurping sounds are about, but maybe it is something like a respiratory infection. Do you know what your female died from?

Again, sorry for your loss.

 

[laurie]

I think I would cover the cage the female was in and see if his mood changes. Most chams do not spend much time on the floor, from my experience. If you don't know what she died from and he is acting weird and making noise, I would take him to a vet.

 

[brownie64]

I would agree He needs to see a vet, Like jajeanpierre said it could be a repertory infection.

 

[jannb]

I am sorry to hear about your female. Thaking a pet to the vet is always a good idea when they are not acting normal. I do however believe that animals including chameleons know allot more than people give them credit for. Just look at this bird when her little bird friend dies.
https://www.thedodo.com/bird-cant-accept-friend-death-video-1453736958.html

 

[mychamsrswellerthanurs]

She died shortly after an emergency csection and spay, so it wasn't anything illness related. Luckily I'm bringing him in next week. Thanks

 

[jajeanpierre]

I am sorry to hear about your female. Thaking a pet to the vet is always a good idea when they are not acting normal. I do however believe that animals including chameleons know allot more than people give them credit for. Just look at this bird when her little bird friend dies.
https://www.thedodo.com/bird-cant-accept-friend-death-video-1453736958.html

Jannb, you just can't compare an extremely intelligent and social animal such as a parrot to a chameleon. Any parrot I know is much more intelligent than any dog based on how quickly they can generalize a behavior. Parrots--and budgies are parrots--have very intense, long-term relationships in the wild and in captivity. I don't know about budgies, but the big parrots such as macaws form life-long pair bonds. They groom each other and feed each other. A chameleon is just not going to feel a sense of loss.

 

[brownie64]

Jannb, you just can't compare an extremely intelligent and social animal such as a parrot to a chameleon. Any parrot I know is much more intelligent than any dog based on how quickly they can generalize a behavior. Parrots--and budgies are parrots--have very intense, long-term relationships in the wild and in captivity. I don't know about budgies, but the big parrots such as macaws form life-long pair bonds. They groom each other and feed each other. A chameleon is just not going to feel a sense of loss.

Do you think that his internal instinct to mate and the loss of that opportunity would depress him?

 

[jajeanpierre]

Do you think that his internal instinct to mate and the loss of that opportunity would depress him?

I have no idea, brownie64. The inner workings of his mind are private and known only to that particular bird. I doubt the loss of a sexual outlet would be reason to depress an animal.

 

[jannb]

Jannb, you just can't compare an extremely intelligent and social animal such as a parrot to a chameleon. Any parrot I know is much more intelligent than any dog based on how quickly they can generalize a behavior. Parrots--and budgies are parrots--have very intense, long-term relationships in the wild and in captivity. I don't know about budgies, but the big parrots such as macaws form life-long pair bonds. They groom each other and feed each other. A chameleon is just not going to feel a sense of loss.

I'm by no means a bird expert but I believe that was a Parakeet in the video. I can only speak form my experience and my daughters experience with chameleons but our chameleons always showed allot of personality, were very social because they are socialized and seems quite intelligent. Maybe it's because we free range them and I spend a tremendous amount of time with mine. Dr. Mader and I talked about this on my last vet visit a couple of weeks ago and he agreed that when he had his Jackson's they were the same way. If you cage them and don't interact with them often then you really don't get to know your chameleon very well and you don't know exactly what all they are capable of.

 

[jannb]

Do you think that his internal instinct to mate and the loss of that opportunity would depress him?

I think it's more of a companion thing. Years ago we had two cats (both Siamese and both spayed and neutered) that were best buddies and when the first one passed the one left screamed at the top of her lungs day and night until she was horse. We adopted another cat and she immediately took to him and all was well once again.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I'm by no means a bird expert but I believe that was a Parakeet in the video. I can only speak form my experience and my daughters experience with chameleons but our chameleons always showed allot of personality, were very social because they are socialized and seems quite intelligent. Maybe it's because we free range them and I spend a tremendous amount of time with mine. Dr. Mader and I talked about this on my last vet visit a couple of weeks ago and he agreed that when he had his Jackson's they were the same way. If you cage them and don't interact with them often then you really don't get to know your chameleon very well and you don't know exactly what all they are capable of.

Jannb, the birds were Budgerigars, known as Budgies in North America. Parakeets is a common name for a group of small to medium sized parrots that generally have long tail feathers. A little parrot trivia: the world record for the number of words spoken by a parrot is held by a budgie. I think it is over 1000 words. They are very intelligent and very social.

I agree that if you interact with your chameleon you will have a much different animal than if you don't but to suggest a veiled chameleon was responding to the owners' grief is just a little bit more than I think a chameleon is capable of. I think it does a tremendous disservice to chameleons--to all animals--to anthropomorphise them.