Natural Sun vs. Stress from moving?

[The5sherns]

Hello all -
I have a sub adult male Veiled that has that wonderful, nasty temperment that we all expect from Veileds. During the cold months, he is housed in an indoor 3x2x2 screen cage. During the warm months, we plan to house him in this outdoor cage, with lots of foliage of course.

Until it gets warm enough to keep him outside 24/7, I am moving him from the indoor cage to the outdoor cage, and then vice versa each day. Getting him out of the indoor cage is quite the feat - he hisses, and lunges at me, and get extremely stressed. Is the 12 hours of natural sun that he is getting worth the stress that is caused when moving him?

Thanks to all that reply.

 

[Cham Crazy]

Hello. Well I currently own a 1 year and 2 month old male veiled chameleon and just like yours, mine doesnt like my hand reaching in his cage trying to remove him in order to take him outside. But I think if hes housed outside enough it should be worth it if he recovers from his stress and becomes satisfied while outside.

~~1.0 Veiled Chameleon

 

[The5sherns]

He absolutely loves being in the cage outside - he almost leaps out of my hand to get into it.

 

[Olimpia]

Absolutely! In my opinion, he can deal with a couple minutes of stress every day and be fine - the benefits, both physically and mentally, of natural daylight are absolutely worth it. Probably as soon as he's in the outside cage he forgets all about being angry with you.

Remember that it's consistent long-term stress that is most harmful to any creature, like a constant high-stress job on a person. But if you are usually calm and get stressed a little every morning on your morning comute to work it's not very likely to give you a stroke in and of itself.

 

[Monzon]

Perhaps you can condition him to climb onto your hand by tempting him with a just-out-of-reach cricket? Who knows in a week or two or three he might be coming to you. That would be win/win

 

[carol5208]

I rotate my cham between his indoor cage, free range on my patio and outdoor cage all day long if I am home. I am fortunate that he comes to me as soon as I open the door though! I agree with Olimpia and it is worth getting him into the natural uvb everyday. Make sure when you do leave him out 24/7 that is is provided lots of shade(I am sure you know this) and check the cage at all times to see how the sun changes the shaded area. A friend of mine put her beautiful cockatoo outside and it was in mostly shade. Well, the sun shifted and she forgot to go check and here the bird was baking in the full sun and died. Very sad but preventable. BTW love the outdoor cage and I am sure your cham will love it too!