Veiled Near Bottom of Cage

[chriscalvert]

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Male Veiled Chameleon. 6-7 months old i think. got him when he was really young
* Handling - Minimal handling when cleaning and on occassion
* Feeding - Moved to large crickets a few weeks ago. hes eating around 5 a day. also superworms and wax worms every other day. gutloading crickets with apples, dandelion greens and flukers orange cube.
* Supplements - Repcal calcium w/o d3 everyday. Calcium w/3 and herptivite twice a month
* Watering - Misting 2-3 times daily for 1 minute. Little dripper ocassionally. I used to always see him drink but not recently. He hates misting. He typically hides
* Fecal Description - Brown with white urate. never been tested
* History - Switced cages and lighting about a month ago


Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 24x24x48 LLL Screen cage.
* Lighting - reptisun 5.0 uvb linear 24", and a 40 watt house bulb for basking. lights on 12 hours a day on a timer
* Temperature - temp range 65-84 degrees. basking is about 84. ive got a digital thermometer
* Humidity - humidity 35%-60%. mist cage 2-3 times a day. little dripper and ice cubes as well.
* Plants - Dracaena and banana ficus.
* Placement - Cage is in my room next to a window overlooking my sideyard. Cage is about 5ft from the ceiling. stands about 5ft high
* Location - San Diego, ca

Recently, when I walk in to find him, he will be at the bottom of the banana ficus almost completely black, and sometimes looking at the soil in the pot. He typically begins to climb back up and turn back to a light green color as soon as I entered the room. I switched basking lights from a 50w basking light to a 40w housebulb to lower the temps to about 84 in the basking spot, and now i see him basking about half of the time. is there any reason he would be down at the bottom so frequently when im not around?

 

[carol5208]

are you 100% sure he is a male?

 

[chriscalvert]

Ive been asked that before, and he definitely has tarsal sprus, or atleast big bumps on his two hind feet. here is a picture from actually right now when he was just basking, and there is a pretty good view of his spurs. Im pretty sure hes male right? I know the whole female laying eggs bit, just pretty sure hes a male.

 

[goldilocksadw70]

Definitely looks like a male to me. I know with my chameleons, they often go to the bottom of their cages to either look around in general, he might be trying to eat the soil in the plant (which should be organic by the way). They explore a lot. The coloring could possibly be from just getting out of the light and him possibly trying to "camoflauge" himself with the bottom of the cage area.

 

[laurie]

You said he is near a window, is he getting too hot when you are not at home? Have you tried letting him out of the cage for a while when you are there it watch him? That might perk him up.