Transporting Chameleons II

[Dan]

So as I said in my last thread, I brought my Chameleon home last night, and he def did not like the drive. Since he has been home today he has been very fussy. He has been pasing in his cage, and every time I come near the cage he puffs up and gapes his mouth. He has been climbing in circles on the roof of his cage and lashing his tale. I havnt seen him eat yet either. I have never seen him act like this before. I have only seen him puff up maybe once or twice. Could this still be from the stress of the car ride last night? Or is he not happy with where I set up his cage? ( I set up in a quiet spot of the house, not alot of people around ect.) SO let me know what you think?

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Best to leave him alone for a day or two... then determine if there is a genuine problem. My bet is he is still pissed from the ride.

 

[TRI0N]

Give us details on his enclosure: Size, whats in side, lighiting..

What are you offering for feeding?

The climbing upside down on the top screen is not a great idea. You should limit the height of what he climbs to get up on the top screen down so that he cannot do so.

Give us the 411 on your setup and diet. Try not to worry you Cham needs to get comfortable with its new home..

 

[Dan]

He is about 4-5 months old. The cage is about 12"x12"x18". I have a 5.0 zoomed UVB. 25watt heat lamp. he has plenty of climbing room with two live plants as well as fake vines, and a few fake plants. his diet consisits of mostly gutloaded small crickets that are dusted with calcium and VD3. I just started to offer him mealworms, but only a few. He has never had this reaction, so I dont think it is from the set up. I am hoping its just from the trip. The crummy part is I am gonna have to transport him back to school at the end of the weekend. AND I am prob gonna have to do it all over again come Thanksgiving. SO i hope I can figure out a way to move him without upsetting him.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

your physical setup looks good, but can you provide more detail on the supplementation . If all you use is calcium with D3 each feeding, you may be headed for edema.

You may want to try showering him to help calm him down. It works for some chams...

 

[TRI0N]

Okay I will say a larger cage and when you transport try a Exo-Terra Explorium. CLICK HERE

The height of your enclosure is pretty small. Something more on the lines of 36"-48" is ideal. Making the highest point he can climb above your eye level. They feel calm and more safe being above eye level. The worries I have with him climbing on the top screen is that the spot lamp can heat this up and burm him easy since his palms will not detect such heat.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

would he burn his feet walking under a 25W bulb?

 

[TRI0N]

would he burn his feet walking under a 25W bulb?

Sure if its right on top of the screen you bet. An hour of being 4 inches on top of a screen could be too much and belly exposed to such is bad aswell. If its a heat lamp its design to do just that, produce heat, most likely a bulb with reflective upper inner-coating.

 

[Dan]

I have a larger cage to move him into. it is 2ftx2ftx3ft. But I am keeping him in the smaller one because he is still so small and I dont want to make it too difficult for him to catch food. He is only about 3inches- head to tail. I have the heat lamp on wood blocks, so it is about an inch, maybe an inch and a half above the mesh. So the closest he can get to it is two inches or so.

I am a little reluctant to transport him in a larger cage, if anything I am gonna put him in a paper bag with a dry paper towel like some other people were telling me.

You said that calcium and VD3 is not enough for a supplement? What else should he be getting along with that?

 

[TRI0N]

Those Exploriums come in a small that meets what you are hosing him in now. 12" x 18" and if you run a cloths rod or even a clothsline from your interier hanger hooks you can hang the Exporium from it to fit nicely in your car. I guess this will be a preference you will have to decide. I'm sure other panther owners will voice their opinions to you as they read this thread.

Also loud music I'm sure is not going to go too well with bass pops and trembles. Chameleons are near deaf and feel vibrations rather then tones.

 

[leoman]

an idea

If the ride in the car is going to be short you can use a critter carrier and cover the sides with black contruccion paper so its dark inside and for what i'hv heard the dark helps because they dont know whats going on

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Why are you making this so hard?
You think Tyler doesn't know how to transport a chameleon?
Paper bag...Paper towel.
It's only 4 hours.

-Brad

 

[angus310]

Only 3 inches at that age???? Please post pic.

 

[ponders]

Hi,
I transported my jackson in a critter carrier with a branch cut to fit so it can't move, put a wet paper towel in the bottom and put that in a large paper grocery bag and taped lightly closed. He went into a resting/sleeping phase and slept the whole trip. Hope that helps.

 

[TRI0N]

Well from the post: Does he have something to put the cham in once he arrives? I guess with the paper bag and paper towel idea he has a enclosure to keep the pet in while visiting?

I don't know that but the Explorium does both.

The orginal post was more then just about transport.