Strange cham behavior, please help!

[kurtd413]

Here we go:

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, Male, appox 1 year old, I have had him since April

Handling - About 1 or 2 a week, see below

Feeding - Diet consists of crickets, king worms, dubai roaches, and waxworms. Crickets are his made food and I occasionally give him the others as treats. Before he started acting strange I had him on an every other day diet of about 20 crickets with about 4 of the other bugs. All bugs are gut loaded with Fluker's high calcium cricket diet and various fruits and veggies

Supplements - Rep Cal Calcium with VIT d3 for 6 days and Herptivite 1 day of the week. Only dusting crickets

Watering - I mist regularly using a spray bottle until the inside of the cage is sufficiently coated and have a water dripper which cascades through a a bunch of artificial leaves that I run in the mornings. I have definitely seen him drinking regularly

Fecal Description - with his current hunger strike, he produces feces about every other day, very small droppings with no odd coloration. He has never been tested for parasites or the like

History - The only other time he has gone with out eating was when I first got him, but afterwards adjusted very well and was on a strong diet

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Cage is screen, 4x4x2

Lighting - He has a zoolab long lamp for UVB (i think 10 UVB) which runs on a 12 hour schedule and a dome light with a red heat light in it (i think 50w). Both bulbs were purchased when I was given the chameleon

Temperature - I have a thermometer located in the middle of the cage which shows around 80 during the day at in the low 70s at night. I do not know the temperature range from top to bottom

Humidity - Humidity stays around 65-70. Humidity is maintained through misting. Measured via gauge positioned in the middle of the cage

Plants - only synthetic plants

Placement - Cage is located next to the sliding glass door to my patio in the corner of the living room. Cage is near no vents or anything like that. The top of the cage is almost 6 feet off the ground

Location - I live in northern california

Current Problem - My cham (Albert) has been on a hunger strike for about 3 weeks now. I believe he has eaten very small amount but I don't know how much. He does have crickets in his cage and ready access to other food but is not hunting like he used to. He is very active in his cage and I often find him wondering up and down the cage constantly. I often find him at the bottom of the cage trying to find a way out and grabbing at the screen sides of the enclosure. When I do go to clean his cage, he will often grab me and climb onto my arms as to get out of the cage. When this happens I will often hold him gently or put him on my lemon tree outside before putting him back in the cage after an hour or so. His grip is still fairly strong, stronger than when I first got him, but not as much as when he was eating healthily. Before this, he was only handled if he needed to be removed from the cage for cleaning. Before all this started happening, he was eating healthily and was living a normal chameleon life. His enclosure has been modified several times to give him more synthetic plants and cover, but he recovered each time.

Thanks in advance for the help guys. Albert was a surprise present from my girlfriend who really didn't understand the amount of care and attention that chameleons need to be healthily. With the help of some well educated friends, I feel like I have been taking care of him fairly well and really like the guy. He is really starting to worry me though. I am absolutely not opposed to taking him to the vet this week, but want to make sure I am not overreacting to some kind fairly normal behavior for a cham his age..

 

[Blink]

From your description, it sounds to me like something is causing him stress. It could simply be from being caged up (chameleons, particularly Veileds don't like to be confined. You might want to consider setting up a free range) or there could be some other underlying factor. It would help if you could post a photo of his cage, as well as the chameleon. Below, I have added some comments and suggestions:

Here we go:

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, Male, appox 1 year old, I have had him since April

Handling - About 1 or 2 a week, see below

Feeding - Diet consists of crickets, king worms, dubai roaches, and waxworms. Crickets are his made food and I occasionally give him the others as treats. Before he started acting strange I had him on an every other day diet of about 20 crickets with about 4 of the other bugs. All bugs are gut loaded with Fluker's high calcium cricket diet and various fruits and veggies
Feeding only crickets most of the time could have caused the hunger strike. Chameleons require a large variety of feeders. You should try some other insects, like silkworms, Phoenixworms, hornworms... Ect. Introducing a larger variety might break his hunger strike. Also, I would ditch the Flukers. There are far better gutloads out there. I personally like the Repashy products, such as Superload and BugBurger.

Supplements - Rep Cal Calcium with VIT d3 for 6 days and Herptivite 1 day of the week. Only dusting crickets
You are overdosing him. The supplementing schedule recommended by most chameleon experts is:
Calcium WITHOUT D3 every feeding.
Calcium WITH D3 2x a month.
Multivitamin 2x a month.

Watering - I mist regularly using a spray bottle until the inside of the cage is sufficiently coated and have a water dripper which cascades through a a bunch of artificial leaves that I run in the mornings. I have definitely seen him drinking regularly

Fecal Description - with his current hunger strike, he produces feces about every other day, very small droppings with no odd coloration. He has never been tested for parasites or the like

History - The only other time he has gone with out eating was when I first got him, but afterwards adjusted very well and was on a strong diet

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Cage is screen, 4x4x2

Lighting - He has a zoolab long lamp for UVB (i think 10 UVB) which runs on a 12 hour schedule and a dome light with a red heat light in it (i think 50w). Both bulbs were purchased when I was given the chameleon
I would stop using he red bulb and switch to a plain household incandescent of similar wattage.

Temperature - I have a thermometer located in the middle of the cage which shows around 80 during the day at in the low 70s at night. I do not know the temperature range from top to bottom
you really need to know the basking temp versus the ambient.if the ambient is 80, it might be too warm, which could lead to stress.

Humidity - Humidity stays around 65-70. Humidity is maintained through misting. Measured via gauge positioned in the middle of the cage

Plants - only synthetic plants

Placement - Cage is located next to the sliding glass door to my patio in the corner of the living room. Cage is near no vents or anything like that. The top of the cage is almost 6 feet off the ground.
If he can see out the door, he might be seeing things that stress him out. My chameleon did the same thing when the blinds to the window next to him were open.

Location - I live in northern california

Current Problem - My cham (Albert) has been on a hunger strike for about 3 weeks now. I believe he has eaten very small amount but I don't know how much. He does have crickets in his cage and ready access to other food but is not hunting like he used to. He is very active in his cage and I often find him wondering up and down the cage constantly. I often find him at the bottom of the cage trying to find a way out and grabbing at the screen sides of the enclosure. When I do go to clean his cage, he will often grab me and climb onto my arms as to get out of the cage. When this happens I will often hold him gently or put him on my lemon tree outside before putting him back in the cage after an hour or so. His grip is still fairly strong, stronger than when I first got him, but not as much as when he was eating healthily. Before this, he was only handled if he needed to be removed from the cage for cleaning. Before all this started happening, he was eating healthily and was living a normal chameleon life. His enclosure has been modified several times to give him more synthetic plants and cover, but he recovered each time.

Thanks in advance for the help guys. Albert was a surprise present from my girlfriend who really didn't understand the amount of care and attention that chameleons need to be healthily. With the help of some well educated friends, I feel like I have been taking care of him fairly well and really like the guy. He is really starting to worry me though. I am absolutely not opposed to taking him to the vet this week, but want to make sure I am not overreacting to some kind fairly normal behavior for a cham his age..

 

[kurtd413]

Thanks for your reply!

So I do vary his diet quite a bit when he is eating regularly. I had started to feed him fewer crickets and more of the roaches and worms before this happened. Waxworms were a regular treat. The problem is he will not eat anything. Before he happily ate whatever crickets + addition insects I put in the cage.

I hear you on the Fluker's. I will definitely switch over to a higher quality gutload.

Also hear you on the vitamins. I guess I received some misguided information when I started out.

I would say that his basking temperature is going to be in the upper nineties. I went ahead and reduced the wattage to the bulb quite a bit to cool it down up there. Being that I live in Northern California, it is still pretty cool at night, so I will need to run some kind of heat light on during the PM. I figured the red bul would be the way to go. Am I incorrect in this?

Below are pictures of the cage, the chameleon, and I included one that shows the cage's position in the living room. Front door is on the right, sliding glass door on the left.

As much as I really would love to make him a free range habitat, I live in an apartment with roommates and I cannot give up that amount of space. The most I could do would be to create an additional outdoor area which he could be placed on from time to time. However, that would require handling. To be honest, his coloration when is being handled doesn't really indicate stress. He tends to get very bright and vivid and then mellows out the colors to reflect his surroundings. I'm not sure if I am reading this wrong or not. Anyway, I would love more feedback, suggestions, or advice!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

When our first chameleon, a Veiled named Guido (pictured in our avatar), was a year old and did the behaviors you describe we took him to the vet. The vet did a complete exam and then told us, with a chuckle, that Guido is in perfect health and this is normal behavior because he is searching for a mate. Your guy's instincts are strong to escape and find out where the girl chams are. Our Guido graduated from restlessness to grabbing my hand and trying to hump it (of course I extricated him from my hand immediately). We bought him a chameleon beanie baby and he practiced on her. Eventually we caved and got him a real mate. Guido lived to the ripe old age of 8 years and fathered many a handsome youngster.

I'm not saying this is necessarily the case with your cham but it may be. And when Guido went through this the behaviors were the same, very worrisome, and I felt exactly as you do now. Post-puberty would possibly be a stressful time for him. Double checking and tweaking all the husbandry/cage issues is a great idea. And hopefully he will calm down over time. Free ranging a little each day helped Guido calm down.

As for night temps you don't want to keep him too warm at night. It can drop down to 65f at night and he will be OK as long as he is otherwise healthy.

 

[kurtd413]

When our first chameleon, a Veiled named Guido (pictured in our avatar), was a year old and did the behaviors you describe we took him to the vet. The vet did a complete exam and then told us, with a chuckle, that Guido is in perfect health and this is normal behavior because he is searching for a mate. Your guy's instincts are strong to escape and find out where the girl chams are. Our Guido graduated from restlessness to grabbing my hand and trying to hump it (of course I extricated him from my hand immediately). We bought him a chameleon beanie baby and he practiced on her. Eventually we caved and got him a real mate. Guido lived to the ripe old age of 8 years and fathered many a handsome youngster.

I'm not saying this is necessarily the case with your cham but it may be. And when Guido went through this the behaviors were the same, very worrisome, and I felt exactly as you do now. Post-puberty would possibly be a stressful time for him. Double checking and tweaking all the husbandry/cage issues is a great idea. And hopefully he will calm down over time.

This has been in the back of my mind the whole time, honestly. I really started to worry after week three with minimal eating and restlessness. But it is reassuring to hear you say that, thank you for your reply.

As far as getting a female, I am not in a financial position to go through the whole set up procedure again for a new cham. Should I just wait it out? Did you really put a beanie baby in the cage for your cham to have sex with? That's nuts.

 

[Blink]

Albert's colors in the photo you provided don't stand out to me to indicate stress, at least not large amounts of it. ThE fact that he is near the bottom leads me to believe that he too hot in his cage. Switching the basking light will rectify this. Basking temperatures should be around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. You might also want I add more foliage to make him feel more comfortable in his cage. Live plants help with humidity too!

To break his hunger strike, I suggest that you introduce a new insect that he has never be offered before. Something new and exciting. My chameleon likes to hunger strike after shedding. This is how a break his.

QUOTE=kurtd413;1210526]

Being that I live in Northern California, it is still pretty cool at night, so I will need to run some kind of heat light on during the PM. I figured the red bul would be the way to go. Am I incorrect in this?

Chameleons require complete darkness to sleep. There should be no lights on during the pm. Chameleons also do well with a temperature drop a night. Unless the temp goes below 60 degrees, you don't need any heating. If it does drop that low, you can use a ceramic heat emitter, since they do not give off light.

However, that would require handling. To be honest, his coloration when is being handled doesn't really indicate stress. He tends to get very bright and vivid and then mellows out the colors to reflect his surroundings. I'm not sure if I am reading this wrong or not.[/QUOTE]

Although frequent handling is not recommended, handling to transport is fine, IMO, especially if he is not showing stress. The colors you describe are "excited" colors. They can show the colors when exposed to unfamiliar stimulus, such as a new environment... And of course females.......(oh, and I don't know if you know this, but chameleons don't change color to mimic their surroundings. It's a commonly spread myth.)

Keep us updated on Albert. He's a gorgeous guy!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

This has been in the back of my mind the whole time, honestly. I really started to worry after week three with minimal eating and restlessness. But it is reassuring to hear you say that, thank you for your reply.

As far as getting a female, I am not in a financial position to go through the whole set up procedure again for a new cham. Should I just wait it out? Did you really put a beanie baby in the cage for your cham to have sex with? That's nuts.

I don't recommend you getting him a female. Or even a beanie baby. In most cases they get over it once they are well past puberty. After all, most Veiled chameleon owners only have the one male, and they are fine.

We gave him the beanie baby because I couldn't even clean his cage or place a feeder cup in there without him trying to molest me. He wouldn't go after my husband, just me, but I was the primary caretaker, home during the day, and he developed this creepy crush on me. So we needed to give him a distraction. The first time we introduced the real live female cham to him he literally swung through his tree branches like tarzan, hand over hand, to get to her. He was one of a kind, thank goodness.

 

[kurtd413]

Albert's colors in the photo you provided don't stand out to me to indicate stress, at least not large amounts of it. ThE fact that he is near the bottom leads me to believe that he too hot in his cage. Switching the basking light will rectify this. Basking temperatures should be around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. You might also want I add more foliage to make him feel more comfortable in his cage. Live plants help with humidity too!

To break his hunger strike, I suggest that you introduce a new insect that he has never be offered before. Something new and exciting. My chameleon likes to hunger strike after shedding. This is how a break his.

[/COLOR]

Right on I hear you.

So, I am going to modifying his lighting situation. I will throw in some more sophisticated thermometers at different points in the cage to get some average temperature readings on different points in the cage.

I am also going to try and find a more exotic food item to see if that will break his hunger strike. Not sure what I am going to be able to find, but that idea makes sense to me and I'm gonna give it a shot.

Additionally, I am going to add some more foliage to the cage and add some more spots where he might be able to feel hidden, safer, etc.

I'll make sure to post an update later on to say how he is doing and how all this has worked!

Cheers guys, thanks for all the advice!

 

[sapphira80]

So, I am going to modifying his lighting situation. I will throw in some more sophisticated thermometers at different points in the cage to get some average temperature readings on different points in the cage.

I recommend buying an IR temp gun instead of wasting money on a bunch of stationary thermometers. I just bought an IR gun on Amazon for about $12, and it works great. You can get fancier ones for more money, but for chameleon temp monitoring, I prefer this one. It measures to 1/10th of a degree Fahrenheit.



Also, for a basking heat light, a regular household incandescent light bulb will work. Or you can get an exterior flood light (what I use) if a high wattage incandescent doesn't get his basking spot hot enough.



Veiled chameleons also need a temperature drop at night so their body can rest. If they stay warm all the time, their metabolism stays high and they don't get proper sleep. In their natural habitat in Yemen, temperatures can get down into the 40s F, so they can easily tolerate normal household temps.



Good luck with everything and I think it's awesome that you came here to find ways to tweak your husbandry--it shows you really care about your chameleon.

 

[sapphira80]

Oh here are some pics of the temp gun I got on Amazon:

 

[Rush2112]

My 3 1/2 year old panther went through a small hunger strike a couple of years ago. One thing he went nuts over, and still does, is the Teal colored Hornworms. I buy mine from site sponsor Great Lakes Hornworms. They are easy to keep, come in a container with food provided and are JUICY. Make sure you invert the cup to where the food is on top. This helps keep the hornworms from eating their own poop. Good Luck. Update us.

 

[kinyonga]

Does he usually sits like he is in the photo, with his bumps on the ground?