odd behavior to me...im confused

[MollyGreen]

Today when i went to peek in at my 5-6 month old female veiled she was headed towards the bottom of the cage at a fast pace. I remained motionless and just observed her for a while. By fast pace, i mean, the sort of sprint that they do when they see food...only faster. She looked like she was on a mission, she wasnt wandering around lost. She came all the way to the bottom on to the floor, and did a loop around my plant pot continuously walking on the floor and then she climbed the cage and went back on the vine and returned to her basking spot. This is odd behavior for her because she doesnt move that fast without motivation, and she rarely moves from her favorite basking spot. Lately, i havent been misting more than twice because i've been at school for 14+ hours. Outside there was a temperature drop of about 30 degrees and inside my apartment a relative drop of about 10 degrees. Lately, she just hasnt been sitting in one spot. Moreso, i see her constantly on the move and she ends up in weird places ( like the cage door...we touched noses when i was watering the plants bc i didnt see her). I am just curious as to why all of a sudden a veiled chameleon were to start exercising so much.

 

[Julirs]

Has she been searching the bottom? She is old enough now to lay an infertile clutch of eggs.

 

[MollyGreen]

I dont think she is gravid yet. She shows this constant orange spotting. She just does laps, i wouldnt call it searching. Its like she knows what shes doing. I havent seen her drink, and i've cut down on the misting, so my initial guess was that she is looking for more water? However, she didnt scratch or stop she just kept moving. I have like 4 huge potted plants she could dig in and a sand box but doesnt look at them.

My second guess was that she is stressed out and doesnt feel safe anymore. I held(if u want to call it that) her about 3 days ago and she jumped off the vine and took a 4 ft drop to the carpet. The purpose was to spray some shed-aid on her to help her shedding. She was blue and orange until she it the floor and then she was black and I felt so bad. The only way i could get the skin off of her toes was to put a mini-towel over her casque so she couldnt see and to spray the shed-aid on and rub it in a little. While this was happening i took advantage of the situation and carefully felt her tummy a little to see if she was gravid, because she is chubby, and it was soft (egg-free).

 

[Julirs]

Maybe she is looking for a boyfriend?

 

[MollyGreen]

That was my third guess. Third being that i didnt want to accept the fact i wont be getting her boyfriend until shes not horny and going through her first clutch.(april)

 

[stevereecy]

I dont think she is gravid yet. She shows this constant orange spotting. She just does laps, i wouldnt call it searching. Its like she knows what shes doing. I havent seen her drink, and i've cut down on the misting, so my initial guess was that she is looking for more water? However, she didnt scratch or stop she just kept moving. I have like 4 huge potted plants she could dig in and a sand box but doesnt look at them.

When females are developing eggs, their nutritional needs are much higher. They have a capacity to gain weight really fast at this stage too. Both of these are good indicators that they will need to lay eggs within weeks.

All that being said, when they are going through the phase, they are eager eaters, and can be really animated in their quest for more food. I have a panther female that will pretty much sit around all day unless she is in this phase. Maybe she did see food, or she thought she did, or she's looking.

Steve

 

[MollyGreen]

Thank you for the help.
I am so nervous for the day that she starts looking for that particular place to lay her eggs. Her cage is so large(6ft h -4ft-3ft) it will be extremely difficult not to stress her and make her egg-bound. Will the fall she took affect her egg making tummy?