Normal to have greyish or dark brown coloring in cage?

[Erica1884]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Male veiled, 14 months old, had him for 7-8 months
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? at least once a day, very social
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? crickets (8-10) every day or every other day. Morning feedings, Mazuri gut loading feed, orange flukers cubes, grapes, carrots
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? zoo med calcium every feeding, zoomed calcium plus d3 twice a month, exoterra multi vitamin twice a month
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Drip system, three to four times daily, yes mainly when I spray
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Brown, well formed, white urinate. No
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. Just lost two toe nails due to screen cage, has been rescreened since. Toes seem fine. I can see the nails on both, flush with his skin, dark colored nails, no swelling, climbing fine

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Screened 24x24x48
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? 75 watt basking, 100 watt uvb, 60 watt night light, blue Day light 630am, night light 630 pm
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Basking is 85-95. lowest spot 65-70. probe and dial gauge temps
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?60-80 probe and dial gauges. Spraying
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? one schaferal (spelling..) and two pothos
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? He is in his own room, by a window top of the cages is about 5'6 or 5'7
• Location - Where are you geographically located? Plymouth, Ma

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about. Curious as to whether or not it is normal for my boy to have such dull colors when he is in his cage.... but when he comes out he has very pretty bright colors, I am on a face book page for cham fans and people are always commenting on others photos saying that the dull color of the cham in the enclosure means something is wrong... I did not think that was true... Any thoughts? I will post two picks as a comment one in his cage and one out. Thanks in advance

 

[Peachypink]

Mine is dark a lot of the time as he is absorbing heat. What is your exact basking spot temp? You have a 10 degree range, it should be more exact in the spot itself. It might not be high enough.

Also I noticed that you said you have a night light? No light at night. They need the dark to sleep, even a little light will mess them up and cause issues. They set their internal clocks and hormone levels by the day/night schedule.

 

[Erica1884]

In cage

 

[Erica1884]

Out of cage

 

[akabob]

Definitely no light at night. Temperature drops are normal and even beneficial for slowing metabolism.

 

[Erica1884]

Mine is dark a lot of the time as he is absorbing heat. What is your exact basking spot temp? You have a 10 degree range, it should be more exact in the spot itself. It might not be high enough.

Also I noticed that you said you have a night light? No light at night. They need the dark to sleep, even a little light will mess them up and cause issues. They set their internal clocks and hormone levels by the day/night schedule.

It is hard to tell. I have the probe sitting on a bird ladder, but he gets much closer to the bulb because he stands tall on his four legs, or will kind or flatten his body and pus it toward the light... So the lowest spot of the basking is 85, but because his body is much closer I think it is higher. I have held the probe closer to the height he stands and it measures about 90-95... I know the night light thing, I have heard this here before, I use a blue light and he really is sleeping. A member on here suggested I shine a light in his face in the middle of the night and if his eyes open I should yank the light, his eyes didn't open. He does sleep with it, I only can say for sure because my daughter has Type one diabetes and I have to check her blood sugar overnight. They sue to share a room up until a few days ago, so I would always check on him to and he was always sleeping. Since I live in New England and it is going into fall/winter here I am kind of against ditching the light. Thank you for your input. I was thinking that the darker colors were for heat absorbing, but thought I would double check to make sure.

 

[Peachypink]

It is hard to tell. I have the probe sitting on a bird ladder, but he gets much closer to the bulb because he stands tall on his four legs, or will kind or flatten his body and pus it toward the light... So the lowest spot of the basking is 85, but because his body is much closer I think it is higher. I have held the probe closer to the height he stands and it measures about 90-95... I know the night light thing, I have heard this here before, I use a blue light and he really is sleeping. A member on here suggested I shine a light in his face in the middle of the night and if his eyes open I should yank the light, his eyes didn't open. He does sleep with it, I only can say for sure because my daughter has Type one diabetes and I have to check her blood sugar overnight. They sue to share a room up until a few days ago, so I would always check on him to and he was always sleeping. Since I live in New England and it is going into fall/winter here I am kind of against ditching the light. Thank you for your input. I was thinking that the darker colors were for heat absorbing, but thought I would double check to make sure.

If you feel a need for heat at night I would suggest a ceramic heater that puts off no light. It affects them on a cellular level so you wouldn't see the effects until it is too late. I don't agree with shining a light on him and see if he wakes up, it has more to do with their internal clock than if they sleep. And honestly unless it gets colder than 50, heat is not needed. As the post above said, a drop in temps is needed for their metabolism.

 

[Erica1884]

If you feel a need for heat at night I would suggest a ceramic heater that puts off no light. It affects them on a cellular level so you wouldn't see the effects until it is too late. I don't agree with shining a light on him and see if he wakes up, it has more to do with their internal clock than if they sleep. And honestly unless it gets colder than 50, heat is not needed. As the post above said, a drop in temps is needed for their metabolism.

It typically gets to 65 at night right now where he sleeps which is in the middle of the cage. I will think about pulling the light, but he seems to be fine now and has been using it since I got him. I thought that the blue light was supposed to be the moon. The only reason I am so stubborn on this is because, one night the blue blub blew and I ran out to get another one, not knowing at that time that he didn't actually need a light at night. the store was out of blue so I grabbed red, big mistake, his sleep was all messed up and he was up all night, so was my daughter (kind of funny)... Any how the next day I went and bought a blue and he was perfectly fine. I am not trying to argue and a def appreciate the advice, I am just worried about changing anything, since he has been doing fine with it. But I will consider it.

 

[Nursemaia]

There's really no need for the light at night. It's useless and just because it doesn't seem to be bothering him doesn't mean it isn't. As @Peachypink said it affects them on a much deeper level because they have a special parietal eye that detects light. When you get 1, 2, 3, or more people saying ditch the light......
Also do you have a UVB bulb? You said you have a 100 watt but that's not how uvb bulbs are measured. They come 5.0, 10.0, 6%, 12%, 13 watt, or 25 watt. The number and output depends on brand and style of light.

 

[Erica1884]

There's really no need for the light at night. It's useless and just because it doesn't seem to be bothering him doesn't mean it isn't. As @Peachypink said it affects them on a much deeper level because they have a special parietal eye that detects light. When you get 1, 2, 3, or more people saying ditch the light......
Also do you have a UVB bulb? You said you have a 100 watt but that's not how uvb bulbs are measured. They come 5.0, 10.0, 6%, 12%, 13 watt, or 25 watt. The number and output depends on brand and style of light.

The uvb box

 

[Erica1884]

The uvb box

The box says 26w 5.0 uvb 100. I will consider ditching the light. I have mentioned this in the past on the page and was not lead to believe that having the light would cause harm.

 

[Nursemaia]

Well there's no such thing as a 100 watt UVB bulb, unless you have a mercury vapor lamp. I doubt that, they're expensive >$50 a bulb and put out lots of heat.
There are 100 watt UV bulbs but that's not what he needs.

 

[Nursemaia]

The box says 26w 5.0 uvb 100. I will consider ditching the light. I have mentioned this in the past on the page and was not lead to believe that having the light would cause harm.

Ok that makes sense. It's 26 watt

 

[Erica1884]

Pulling the night light now. Thank you all for the input, I really didn't realize that it could have a negative impact on my little man.

 

[Alexander1]

The colors look very similar to mine, some days are brighter than others for sure, once he gets excited he Def changes colors.