Simply weird......

[scs]

This is going to be kind of long, but please stick with me until the end, and let me know what you think:

My about 10 month old female veiled chameleon is being very peculiar.
She has never laid a clutch before, though there was a scare a while ago when I thought she was but her coloration turned out to be receptive (during this time she roamed all over her cage all day for about a week).
Now, she is mostly discovering crevices (usually on the bottom half of her mansion) and the most un-probable reptile yoga positions. For example, I found her on the wall in the 1 1/2 inch space next to her sand box (which is always nice,moist, and tunnel ready, though she has never taken interest to it in regards to digging). Another time she was on the edge where the floor and wall meet with her tail draped over her mouth and hind leg slow-motion rising up to grab her tail....
FYI: this behavior is all sporadic and spread out; she isn't completely all-at-once-insane (I hope)
Also, I have recently introduced a few wild bugs to her diet because I'm not in an industrialized pesticide farming area (avoided stink bugs, stinging insects, or other vibrantly toxic colored creepy crawlies though). Now she seems to have lost interest in her usual:
Lightly 'calcium/multi-vitamin'-ifyed (dust) crickets/wax worms/occasional meal worm at every other feeding. To clarify: the dust is at every other feeding, the bugs a constant mix. Also, the crickets are gut loaded with Flukers.

She sheds normally, has the opportunity to drink almost 24/7, and as before mentioned, a mansion/jungle to live in (not free range).
Her temps: basking=about 90, then a range from 90 to room temp that spans at least 7 feet.
Humidity: IDK exactly , but she has a sprayer system that goes off every hour, plus I hand spray the plants it doesn't reach, and the all plants are real/live except extra climbing branches.
Lighting: heat lamp about 9 inches above basking branch, normal reptile light, plant light that imitates the sun (diluted) or something...

Do you think she is just being quirky? Does unique personality come with growing up? Or is she gravid? (not extra-ly large/wide though)

I worried about my darling (though ever so shy) cham and her shenanigans. Any suggestions?

 

[Carlton]

Another time she was on the edge where the floor and wall meet with her tail draped over her mouth and hind leg slow-motion rising up to grab her tail....

Lightly 'calcium/multi-vitamin'-ifyed (dust) crickets/wax worms/occasional meal worm at every other feeding. To clarify: the dust is at every other feeding, the bugs a constant mix. Also, the crickets are gut loaded with Flukers.

Lighting: heat lamp about 9 inches above basking branch, normal reptile light, plant light that imitates the sun (diluted) or something...

Uncoordinated movements can be an early symptom of MBD or other calcium-D3 imbalances. Your description of what you dust with is confusing, but important. Are you dusting with plain calcium (no added vit. D3) every day? You should only dust with D3-enhanced calcium once every 2 weeks, and dust with a herp multivitamin once every 2 weeks. Your feeder gutload is also important, and most commercial gutloads including Flukers are not all that great.

What do you mean by "normal reptile light" and "plant light that imitates sun"? This is really important! We need to know the brand and type (incandescent bulb, fluorescent bulb, CFL, etc) and how long you've been using it. Many so-called full spectrum or reptile lights do not produce the correct part of the UV spectrum, and this is necessary so the cham can metabolize vitamin D3 and calcium in its diet. Without correct lighting they can develop MBD even if you dust.

 

[scs]

Name--brand--usage
Calcium powder supplement -- ExoTerra --every other feeding
Multi Vitamin powder supplement -- ExoTerra-- 1x per week, I'll move to 1x every 2 weeks
Orange Cube Complete Cricket Diet--Flukers-- crickets always have some
Cricket Quencher--Flukers--crickets always have some
Cricket diet--Flukers-- usually have some (dry crumb stuff)
random veggie scraps from the table for crickets-- --sometimes
**worms come in the little box full of chips and go in the fridge, do I need to gut load those and how?**
Light Dome Aluminum UV Reflector Lamp 150W-- ExoTerra-- always on during the day
Ceramic Heat Emitter-- All Living Things-- on during the day, intervals depending on temp
growth light--not sure, had it for something else for a bit but now it is for Iggy--on during day

And her yoga wasn't necessarily uncoordinated... further investigation/observation allowed me to infer she couldn't make up her mind about where to go and simply turned around. Also, today she ate a really nice meal! Her appetite seems to be returning!

 

[scs]

Do you think she is receptive and looking for a mate? She came out the lower door, crawled all over me, climbed up (on the outside of the cage), I stopped her/ushered her into the upper door. THREE TIMES IN A ROW!!! She has never shown interest in coming out let alone being handled! I really do think she is receptive, but I'm just not sure if some of her behavior is for some other reason....

 

[oblgobl]

They can wander around looking for a mate when receptive. Has she changed her colouration at all yemen chams change colour when receptive. Post a picture up and someone will be able to tell you if she is showing receptive colouration.
I notice in your supplement schedual that you dont use calcium+D3 this should also be given once every two weeks. Most commercial gutloads out there all full of rubbish not sure what that particular brand is like, most people use a mix of commercial food and veggies to make sure the cham is getting all the vitamins and nutrients it needs.
As for the worms depends wich type they are mealworms and morio worms (superworms) arn't very nutritious if not gutloaded but If they are kept in the fridge they wont eat because there bodies are inactive. Waxworms shouldn't be fed much if at all to chameleons as they are mostly fat. The other worms I can think of (silkworms, phoenixworms ect) feed on a specific diet that usually comes with them when you buy them although I've never heard of people keeping them in the fridge.
I'm a bit confused by your lights so I googled it and only the actual dome came up but I assume it's a mercury vapour bulb of some kind wich does give of uvb/a rays but are very powerful so caution is needed when using them. I think a grow light is for plants I dont know alot about plants so can't tell you what the lights do exactly.

 

[scs]

Sorry it took so long, I had trouble attaching the pic:

They can wander around looking for a mate when receptive. Has she changed her colouration at all yemen chams change colour when receptive. Post a picture up and someone will be able to tell you if she is showing receptive colouration.
I notice in your supplement schedual that you dont use calcium+D3 this should also be given once every two weeks. Most commercial gutloads out there all full of rubbish not sure what that particular brand is like, most people use a mix of commercial food and veggies to make sure the cham is getting all the vitamins and nutrients it needs.
As for the worms depends wich type they are mealworms and morio worms (superworms) arn't very nutritious if not gutloaded but If they are kept in the fridge they wont eat because there bodies are inactive. Waxworms shouldn't be fed much if at all to chameleons as they are mostly fat. The other worms I can think of (silkworms, phoenixworms ect) feed on a specific diet that usually comes with them when you buy them although I've never heard of people keeping them in the fridge.
I'm a bit confused by your lights so I googled it and only the actual dome came up but I assume it's a mercury vapour bulb of some kind wich does give of uvb/a rays but are very powerful so caution is needed when using them. I think a grow light is for plants I dont know alot about plants so can't tell you what the lights do exactly.

I'll add D3 to her supplement schedule.
What types of veggies can I give the crickets?
Thanks for the tips on worms... should I take out the worms a bit before feeding and give them some greens? And what type?
The bulb in the dome is a PowerSun from ZooMed. What do you mean by 'caution'? Is there something I should look out for?
The growth light is for the plants since they are live and need the light because the PowerSun doesn't reach to all of the plants.

 

[oblgobl]

The worms will probably need to warm up for quite a while before they'll start eating if you only feed them as treats though I don't think it's neccessary to gutload them although it might make them better for the cham. You can feed them all kinds of veggies the more variety the better although there are some you should avoid.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
I have this bookmarked and look at it quite often whenever I need to prepare a batch of gutload. The top bit is the basics and the links go more in depth, worth a read in my opinion but if you just want to the basics the first bit will be fine. There are some good commercial dry gutloads out there, repashy bug burger and cricket crack I hear people recommending quite often, I dont use any dry gutload to be honest I only give them veg.
As long as she cant get too close to the bulb she'll be fine. I must of missed the bit in the first post about the size of your enclouser but those bulbs have a very strong uv output and if she was in a small enclouser she wouldn't be able to escape the rays if she needed to. I think 4 foot high is the minimum an enclouser needs to be for a cham to be able to escape the rays.
I don't own veilds myself but I think when females are receptive they turn blue around the sides wich I think I see in the picture but to be honest I'm not sure. It's also possible for them to be receptive and not show much change in appearance so it could be that even if her colouring is the same. She certainly doesn't look gravid anyway as far as I can tell. She looks to be in good health in the picture anyway.

 

[scs]

The worms will probably need to warm up for quite a while before they'll start eating if you only feed them as treats though I don't think it's neccessary to gutload them although it might make them better for the cham. You can feed them all kinds of veggies the more variety the better although there are some you should avoid.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
I have this bookmarked and look at it quite often whenever I need to prepare a batch of gutload. The top bit is the basics and the links go more in depth, worth a read in my opinion but if you just want to the basics the first bit will be fine. There are some good commercial dry gutloads out there, repashy bug burger and cricket crack I hear people recommending quite often, I dont use any dry gutload to be honest I only give them veg.
As long as she cant get too close to the bulb she'll be fine. I must of missed the bit in the first post about the size of your enclouser but those bulbs have a very strong uv output and if she was in a small enclouser she wouldn't be able to escape the rays if she needed to. I think 4 foot high is the minimum an enclouser needs to be for a cham to be able to escape the rays.
I don't own veilds myself but I think when females are receptive they turn blue around the sides wich I think I see in the picture but to be honest I'm not sure. It's also possible for them to be receptive and not show much change in appearance so it could be that even if her colouring is the same. She certainly doesn't look gravid anyway as far as I can tell. She looks to be in good health in the picture anyway.

Iggy's enclosure is way taller than 4 ft (about 7ft tall, corner cage, at least 4 ft wide), so the whole lighting thing is ok. I think I have everything figured out with gutloading and such. Thanks for the help!