New Veiled Cham Sleeping from about 5.30pm!

[dandes]

i got myself a 16 week old veiled cham about a week ago and for the first few days he was not eating or drinking much but he seems to of found his appitite now i have changed from giving him crickets to baby locusts.
He runs a mile as soon as he sees the sprayer i use for misting and goes and hides away. I do see him drinking and licking his lips about 10 mins after the spraying though so i'm taking that as a good sign.

His colors are normally quite dark but i'm putting that down to stress from his new home and i've been told that will pass after a few weeks.

What my concern is that he always seems to sleep from about 5.30-6.00pm every evening. Teh lights stay on until 8pm but at the same time he goes off to sleep and goes a beautiful green color.

I spoke to the guy in the shop igot him from and he told me they turn all of the lights off at 5pm every night so would my cham gotten into a routine of going to sleep at this time and has stuck to it?

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 30x30x16 exo terra flexarium.
Lighting - repti glo 5.0 Uv & 100W repti sun.
Temperature - 70* in cool area on left & 85* basking area on right hand side
Humidity - 55-65%
Plants - 2 Weeping Figs
Location - On top of a chest of draws the bottom of the enclosure is approx 4ft off the ground

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, male,16 weeks approx
Feeding - Crickets(black & Brown),Baby locusts. Gut loaded with oats,carrot,lettuce.
Supplements - Nutribal
Watering - Manual Misting 2-3 times daily for approx 90 seconds & drip system running for approx 30 mins twice a day.
Fecal Description - Solid poo not to runny white and brown colored(noticed it was yellowy/orangy colored the last time he went)
History - Bought 8 days ago and he has been very dark colored since i have had him and does not seem to eat or drink much. He baskes for about 3 hours in the mornings and and then just oes and sits in the dark area of the viv for most of the day.
Current Problem - Not eating much,Seems to sleep from early evening(6pm) and not very active. Really hates misting and hisses and goes a dark green color with black spots when i open the viv zip. Today he had a yellowy/orange poo and it was a bit dry.

 

[Julirs]

Everything sounds great about your set up-you did some research! I am worried about dehydration-orange in the urates points to this. Up your misting to about 5+ minutes 3-5 times daily-it takes some chams a while to drink.

 

[dandes]

Thanks for the prompt reply
yes i did not rush into buying him lightly, I did a lot of research about them and tried to make his habitat as natural as i could before i got him. I'll up my spraying as suggested and see if this helps.

He hates the spraying with a passion so would this not cause him even more stress?

 

[Julirs]

As for the sleeping thing-he is adjusting. Mine always came from someone that turns lights out at 6:30, and that is when they went to their sleepy spots at first!

 

[arkist]

How warm is the water when you mist him?

 

[dandes]

its luke warm water and i always test it in the back of my hand. the problem i find is whenever i spray it it always seems too cool even though the sprayer is very hot!

 

[arkist]

try warmer then luke warm water. The closer my spray water is to room tempature, the more he freaks out. The warmer it is the less his reaction and the faster he starts drinking.

And Julris is right, there is nothing wrong with his sleep habbits, and I would adjust his lighting to what he dicates to you via his actions IE going to his sleeping spot. It could be due entirely to the habbits he formed from where he was born like Julris's.

 

[dandes]

Thank you. I've adjusted his lighting to come on at 6.30 am and to turn off at 6pm.

i think i will need a more hardy sprayer as the one i have has just melted as i poured near boiling water into it!!!

 

[Dave Weldon]

...i think i will need a more hardy sprayer as the one i have has just melted as i poured near boiling water into it!!!

Howdy,
Look for a pump-up type mister like one of these two on the right in the link. Similar ones are about $7 at Home Depot. When I use one like these, I find that 100F-120F will be about 80F-90F (luke warm) by the time it reaches the chameleon. The constant flow of the pump-up type mister seems to work much better since you can control the volume and shape of the mist much better. The constant flow rate seems to be more acceptable to chameleons too. http://rlflomaster.com/sprayers/hand.htm

 

[dandes]

So i got one of the pump up misters and have given the viv 3 seperate 4 min blasts with it as well as having a dripper going and he still has not drunk a thing as far as i can see. He is sitting there with a dip hanging off his lip but he wont touch it...
He seems to be eating ok but its the drinking im worried about now? the bottom of the viv is very wet and the substrate is soaked and its not drying up very well.
he is running and hiding in a dark place in the corner i cant get to with the mister and with all of the watering im doing the humidity is getting quite high too!

Not sure what else to do?