Very Concerned: Chameleon on the ground

[AbnormalZA]

Hey guys so basically I've had my baby Veiled Cham "Google" for about a month now, she is around 7 weeks old? Everything seemed to be going very well. I consulted the members of this website and read about the ideal conditions for keeping Veiled Chameleons and have tried my best to stick to them.
But for 2 days now, she has been climbing down her tree to roam the floor of her enclosure. This has never happened before and I was under the impression that Chams stay almost permanently high up in the trees. She has a healthy appetite and the last time I checked her faeces it seemed healthy. I've included photos of her enclosure, her on the floor as well as a closeup of her. Also, if its of any consequence, she does seem to be rather shaky and thats something I've never noticed before. As if she is cold and shivering. I've tried to pick her up and put her on her basking spot but almost immediately (as we speak) she begins to climb down again.

 

[carol5208]

Well, she is way too young for eggs so we can rule that out. Please remove those little stones! That is an accident waiting to happen. If she iinjests those intentionally or accidentally it could cause major problems or kill her. As for climbing down, sometimes they will do that. What are your cage temps?

 

[AbnormalZA]

Hey carol, thanks for replying to one of my posts again <3 Those stones are way too large for her to even fit into her mouth at the moment, as she grows older and the likelyhood of her being able to ingest them increases I will be immediately swapping them out for bigger one. There is soil underneath them for the plant so the stones are there to act as a barrier. I haven't been able to check the temps of her basking/ambient temperature as I haven't purchased the thermometer for it but I've tried to mimic the website's guidelines with regards to how far away her basking lamp should be (it's about 19-20cm away from her basking spot) plus she has plenty of space underneath leaves and further down the plant to use to regulate her body temp.

 

[AbnormalZA]

Could anybody else be able to throw some comments in here ?

 

[NHenn]

I wish I could help more. I'm with Carol, the only thing I could think of is temps but if she is going down to the bottom she might be too hot at the top, not too cold.

She could just be exploring as well. Does she stay at the bottom or just go down and then back up shortly after?

 

[AbnormalZA]

It only started happening recently so I haven't been able to notice patterns but I will make sure to take note. At the moment she's resting on a branch midway so at least she isn't lost or something :\ I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't something I was doing wrong that one of your guys could have noticed. But I guess no news is good news Ill just have to keep an eye on her. Thanks for all your help.

 

[loon]

I think she just wants to get out of the cage。

 

[deathdealer91]

My 2 month old veiled cham(Spikey) did the same thing. i took him out and let him roam for a few and then put him back and he was fine.

 

[laurie]

Just a couple questions, what kind of UVB light do you have? Why is it laying on the side. How and what do you feed her? She looks so tiny. The size holes in that cage is allow any prey small enought for her, to get out very quickly.

 

[Defianceofexistence]

My chameleon Loki (6.5 months) roams his entire cage daily.....he gets up in the morning and basks for a while and eats...then he spends the rest of his day roaming all around his cage, he loves to hunt down his crickets lol...maybe she is just exploring and enjoying her home....

 

[lespaul232]

I'd think it's somewhat normal for them to want to check out everything in their cages even on the ground. I woke up to find my Jackson's sleeping on the PVC square at the bottom of his cage some mornings. I think in my case he likes to do this cause it's cooler on the ground, I use a large space heater in the room to heat my other reptiles. I don't leave any lights or heat sources on during the night in his cage (besides the space heater) but his cage is off to the side of the heater where it doesn't get as much heat as the snakes who are right in front of it.

 

[SaintJimmy]

You mentioned she is shaking...

You do know that you need

• UVB LIGHT turn off at night
• & calcium every day
• & d3 calcium 2x a month

right?

 

[Synapse]

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Chameleons like to explore is all. Take her out and let her roam around supervised. I'm sure she'll love you more for it. I would get rid of those rocks as Carol mentioned before.