Teenage years for Chams?

[broderp]

Is there such a thing? I don't recall my other Cham doing what my Sherman is doing now. The little turd is driving me nuts (But I love him! )

Here is a short list of what he is doing:

• Out of the blue he's starting to crawl down to the bottom of his enclosure. No big deal you say? Well there is no direct route to get there except to jump. I've had to add a diagonal branch so he can get back up on his own when I'm not home.
• He's now going to the glass sides of his terrarium and attempting to climb them. No big deal? Well he's doing this up from branches high up in the terrarium, again there is a fall hazard.
• He's slowed down on his eating. I give him 15-20 crickets and at the end of the day he still has 5-10 left. (He will still eat super worms from my hands on the weekends though, no issues..)
• He has started to crawl back onto the mesh top (something he hasn't done since he was 4 months old). Being much bigger now, he's not so light anymore so he has a much harder time to hold on. He has slipped several times, luckily to land on some plants that supported him from the fall.
• He is trying to crawl on the smallest of plant leaves and vines that in no way support him. Not sure what he's thinking, those Pothos leaves and vines will not hold him any more!

Anyone else gone this experience? Is it normal? I'm so afraid he will hurt himself. So much so I will be rearranging his terrarium REAL soon to see if I can remove some of these issues.

Other than his behavior, he appears healthy, and still a chubby little guy with no outward signs of illness. He;s pooping normal and developing colors beautifully at every shedding (which seems like a lot) He's just has over active tenancies.

 

[Beelinn]

He's a loner Dotti, a rebel. You just don't understand him!

 

[absolutbill]

I was looking in your signature to figure out your cham's age. Imagine my surprise when his hatch date is about 5 months from now . Enough snarkiness, he's about 7 months old, which is a little young for those rebellious teenage years, but they are coming. I'd say he's just fine, but make sure he doesn't fall in with a bad crowd!

 

[Nausicah]

Is there such a thing? I don't recall my other Cham doing what my Sherman is doing now. The little turd is driving me nuts (But I love him! )

Here is a short list of what he is doing:

• Out of the blue he's starting to crawl down to the bottom of his enclosure. No big deal you say? Well there is no direct route to get there except to jump. I've had to add a diagonal branch so he can get back up on his own when I'm not home.
• He's now going to the glass sides of his terrarium and attempting to climb them. No big deal? Well he's doing this up from branches high up in the terrarium, again there is a fall hazard.
• He's slowed down on his eating. I give him 15-20 crickets and at the end of the day he still has 5-10 left. (He will still eat super worms from my hands on the weekends though, no issues..)
• He has started to crawl back onto the mesh top (something he hasn't done since he was 4 months old). Being much bigger now, he's not so light anymore so he has a much harder time to hold on. He has slipped several times, luckily to land on some plants that supported him from the fall.
• He is trying to crawl on the smallest of plant leaves and vines that in no way support him. Not sure what he's thinking, those Pothos leaves and vines will not hold him any more!

Anyone else gone this experience? Is it normal? I'm so afraid he will hurt himself. So much so I will be rearranging his terrarium REAL soon to see if I can remove some of these issues.

Other than his behavior, he appears healthy, and still a chubby little guy with no outward signs of illness. He;s pooping normal and developing colors beautifully at every shedding (which seems like a lot) He's just has over active tenancies.

omg... this is my life as well.. im so happy im not alone..

 

[broderp]

Thank you for the reassuring replies. Does not change the fact that I still have to change his enclosure now, for his own good.

 

[Nausicah]

Thank you for the reassuring replies. Does not change the fact that I still have to change his enclosure now, for his own good.

Honestly im going to do the same for mine, maybe some chams are just a little more wild than others lol. every single one of them has their own little personality. Best of luck! hope the new enclosure will help!

 

[jamest0o0]

Both of mine are in this stage, drives me nuts! My nosey be (6months) and Ambanja(9 months). I think 6 months seems to be the regular time for this(IME). My Ambanja has a 6 foot free range and still wildly explores everything, jumps off things, jumps ON me, refuses to eat, and then eats a ton. The nosey be is just hitting his picky eating age. I have noticed this happen usually a week and a half or so before a shed. Seems like they get a rush of hormones, run around like crazy, stop eating, shed and then chill out again.

 

[Kristen Wilkins]

Is there such a thing? I don't recall my other Cham doing what my Sherman is doing now. The little turd is driving me nuts (But I love him! )

Here is a short list of what he is doing:

• Out of the blue he's starting to crawl down to the bottom of his enclosure. No big deal you say? Well there is no direct route to get there except to jump. I've had to add a diagonal branch so he can get back up on his own when I'm not home.
• He's now going to the glass sides of his terrarium and attempting to climb them. No big deal? Well he's doing this up from branches high up in the terrarium, again there is a fall hazard.
• He's slowed down on his eating. I give him 15-20 crickets and at the end of the day he still has 5-10 left. (He will still eat super worms from my hands on the weekends though, no issues..)
• He has started to crawl back onto the mesh top (something he hasn't done since he was 4 months old). Being much bigger now, he's not so light anymore so he has a much harder time to hold on. He has slipped several times, luckily to land on some plants that supported him from the fall.
• He is trying to crawl on the smallest of plant leaves and vines that in no way support him. Not sure what he's thinking, those Pothos leaves and vines will not hold him any more!

Anyone else gone this experience? Is it normal? I'm so afraid he will hurt himself. So much so I will be rearranging his terrarium REAL soon to see if I can remove some of these issues.

Other than his behavior, he appears healthy, and still a chubby little guy with no outward signs of illness. He;s pooping normal and developing colors beautifully at every shedding (which seems like a lot) He's just has over active tenancies.

Yup Septiceye same and I believe we got our babies right around the same time . Septiceye is a bit older . He's a NUT !!. Can't take eyes off him . He still hangs off his enclosure roof . All he wants is outa his encloser . He loves space . We go out as often as possible the little booger is determined to walk down the street like mr. macho . I sent @Matt Vanilla Gorilla a video of Septiceye determination just last week . Every one told me panther love space and they will use every bit of it , he's absolutely adorable but I'm always getting him off something I believe could be dangerous he never agrees that it's dangerous lol. Now Frances my little girl veiled (AKA) Miss grumpy she does what ever she feels like but stays put . Only once has she disappeared.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

In my experience panther males do go through a "teen" phase where they go through a testosterone surge! I like to theorize that their restlessness has to do with moving as far away as possible from the area where they hatched in order to prevent inbreeding from happening! Going down, out of the trees makes it possible for them to get away further.

Unfortunately for us (as human keepers), the testosterone surge on occasion could make them agressive too!

Just my theory!

 

[Kristen Wilkins]

In my experience panther males do go through a "teen" phase where they go through a testosterone surge! I like to theorize that their restlessness has to do with moving as far away as possible from the area where they hatched in order to prevent inbreeding from happening! Going down, out of the trees makes it possible for them to get away further.

Unfortunately for us (as human keepers), the testosterone surge on occasion could make them agressive too!

Just my theory!

I believe it's absolutely true . Mr. sugar lips he's a little Nut the cutest little Nut !!.

 

[ChameleonTide]

My guy goes through this routine where he crawls to the bottom of the cage, paces back and forth along the screen wall making several turns then climbs back up a foot on his vines, then goes back down and repeats the process. Its always along the same wall, maybe because there is a second plant light there. And he repeats the process for about 5-10 minutes before climbing back to the top of cage. He may come back down and repeat this process again 20 or so minutes later.

 

[broderp]

Well, I am over joyed that this behavior is somewhat "Normal" . Your stories and comments make me laugh as my Cham Sherman is doing everyone of those things! Just yesterday, he was at the front door of his terrarium and was doing the "window washing/ waving" thing so I opened the doors and he ran up my arm, across my chest and back down my other arm back into his enclosure! As I was petrified he would fall, and my camera was about 8 feet away from me, I did not get a video of this. It was special because it's the first time he purposely climbed up on me for no reason. At least he's being much more social at this point. When he gets stuck down at the bottom, he also climbs up into my hand to get up. He knows its a free ride to the top of his terrarium ....

I spent about 3-4 hours yesterday tearing down his enclosure, cleaning and remodeling it to hopefully remove any issues of him falling or getting stuck. I also replaced tried a few new options to help with the humidity. Unfortunately I had to get rid of the fan I had for two reasons: I didn't want him getting his tail or feet hurt in it and it stopped working due to the water constantly falling on it.

I'll update my "Sherman Log" on my other thread as well as this one to show the pics of what I did.