Restless male chameleon

[Forestdellic]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, I believe around 6months, it's been in my care for 3 months
Handling - Almost none. Randomly take him on the roof around 5pm for some UVB but rare occasion
Feeding - Adult male dubias, gut loaded with my own veggie chow and fresh fruits and veggies. Dusted every other day with Cal. Multivitamins twice a month
Supplements - Rephasy CalnoD, Repashy Multivitamine
Watering - Misting and drip system. Drip systems is on in the morning. Manual misting in the morning and afternoon. Cage is let to dry before misting again.
Fecal Description - Solid chocolate brown coloring, white urates, 25% yellowish/orange color
History - He had URI in the past, suffered through a period(1month) of dehydration, has also had parasites Coccidia and pin worms


Cage Info:

Cage Type - 24" x 24" x 24" Screen cage
Lighting - 90W Halogen basking light 10" away from basking spot. Arcadia 12.0 UVB linear tube
Temperature - I measure my temps via a temp gun. 85.7F basking spot, top of the cage 93.3F bottom of the cage 76.4F
Humidity - Hovers generally around 60%-70% I do regular misting, have live plants with moist soil. My country's climate is also very humid by nature
Plants - Ficus benjamina x2
Placement - Corridor, the cages are on a platform suspended from the ground. Traffic is not very high, I live alone, mostly in school or in my room finishing work.
Location - Malta, Europe


Current Problem - Recently I have noticed my male chameleon getting really antsy. He moves a lot all the time and has a spotty pattern on him. He constantly moves in all places, bottom of the cage, hangs out there for a bit, then I find him dangling from the ceiling, on the side of the cage, stretched out on the ficus...etc Today in particular he stayed at the bottom and this could be a sign of concern. He eats and poops fine, drinks and even munches down on leaves but I know him, he didn't used to move much and stays basking and going to shade and basking again.

Could this perhaps be a seasonal thing? Summer is around the corner and temperatures have started to raise above 30C during the day.

 

[carol5208]

First of all are you 100% sure you have a male? Does your chameleon have the bumps on his back heel? If not, you have a female. If that is the case, at 6 months she may have eggs and is looking for a place to lay eggs. As you may or may not be aware, they can lay eggs without being mated. If you are uncertain of how to tell if there are bumps(called Tarsal Spurs) or not, we can determine for you with a picture. That is the only thing that came to mind when you said he was restless.

 

[Adman]

Reading your description of the behaviour (going to the bottom a lot and such) and the pattern description I thought it may be a female as well, but I will admit to having had a similar experience with my own male veiled last week and some of the week before, he was restless, antsy and always desperate to get out of his enclosure. If it is a male and 6 months of age as you say, he's probably around the same size and age as my own, and and at the stage he may very well be ready for an adult enclosure. I moved my Ziggy into an XL Reptibreeze last week and has since calmed down completely, he's totally chilled and at ease with all the extra space. At 6 months old your chameleon might be ready to go into his adult enclosure, after having seen similar behaviour to what you described in mine that may very well be the solution.

Post a photo to verify the sex, and also tell us how big he is, if you can include some sort of size reference in the photo (your hand or whatever) we could get an idea of his (or her) size.

 

[carol5208]

Reading your description of the behaviour (going to the bottom a lot and such) and the pattern description I thought it may be a female as well, but I will admit to having had a similar experience with my own male veiled last week and some of the week before, he was restless, antsy and always desperate to get out of his enclosure. If it is a male and 6 months of age as you say, he's probably around the same size and age as my own, and and at the stage he may very well be ready for an adult enclosure. I moved my Ziggy into an XL Reptibreeze last week and has since calmed down completely, he's totally chilled and at ease with all the extra space. At 6 months old your chameleon might be ready to go into his adult enclosure, after having seen similar behaviour to what you described in mine that may very well be the solution.

Post a photo to verify the sex, and also tell us how big he is, if you can include some sort of size reference in the photo (your hand or whatever) we could get an idea of his (or her) size.

Yes, it could be that also, but I cannot count how many times people think they have a male and it turns out to be female or vice versa!

 

[Adman]

Yes, it could be that also, but I cannot count how many times people think they have a male and it turns out to be female or vice versa!

Haha, true, I've lost count of the number of threads on the subject I've seen since coming back to the community. But even if it is a female who does need to lay, wouldn't a female require a larger enclosure than 24" at about 6 months old? Depending on the size of course.

 

[carol5208]

Well sure, a larger enclosure is always better! First things first, we have to find out if it is male or female!

 

[Adman]

Well sure, a larger enclosure is always better! First things first, we have to find out if it is male or female!

Agreed

 

[Forestdellic]

I have both sexes, a male and a female and yes I am 100% certain I have a male. I'm not new to chameleons, I know what tarsal spurs are, I know females can lay eggs and takes away their life span....etc etc

This is my male, unfortunately I don't have one where the tarsal spur is showing, I'll try and snap a picture tomorrow

 

[Forestdellic]

Okay I found one, it does show, the red nub between the feet

Carol, I'm surprised you don't remember me and my chams You had given some good advice when they came to me with URI

 

[Adman]

Yeah, that's a male, and if I'm judging the size right based on his development he's probably eager for more space if he's ferverously climbing the walls of his enclosure, mine did exactly the same for a week before I upgraded the little guy.

 

[carol5208]

Forgive me for not remembering you! I am sorry! There are so many people who come and go on here. Yes, that is a male and I am sorry we took up so much of your thread discussing it! Ok, so now that we have that verified, let's try and figure out why your chameleon is restless! I looked back at everything and honestly other than the cage may somewhat on the smaller side, I don't really see anything that stands out.

 

[Forestdellic]

Forgive me for not remembering you! I am sorry! There are so many people who come and go on here. Yes, that is a male and I am sorry we took up so much of your thread discussing it! Ok, so now that we have that verified, let's try and figure out why your chameleon is restless! I looked back at everything and honestly other than the cage may somewhat on the smaller side, I don't really see anything that stands out.

Hehe don't sweat it man To be fair, I have been absent for a while from here ever since I started shroom farming.

Looks like it's time to upgrade the little guy to a new cage. I didn't see anything that stands out either, everything is pretty much up to standards but since he was hanging around the bottom, I was pretty concerned, they don't belong down there

 

[Adman]

Precisely, my little guy was going ape before his upgrade, THANKFULLY I already had the adult enclosure, it just needed putting together, etc, and since going in there he's cool as a cucumber. Based on everything else you put in your message, I think that's the most likely cause for his behaviour.