Why is he obsessed with the window?

[pascalthechamsfam]

So our Cham does everything in his little power to be in the window. When his cage door opens, he’s sprinting for the window. Whether it’s day, night, cloudy, sunny! And he climbs to his perch and sits there to watch the world. His enclosure is right next to the window as is. He gets just as much sun there as he does in the window. He has a UVB lamp as well as a heat source with plenty of perches to choose from at varying heights inside his enclosure. What is this behavior and what can I do for him? I hate for him to sit against the cold window all day but he seems to prefer it?

 

[Beman]

Hey there. Welcome to the forum. So chameleon cages should not be near a window just because it will drastically effect the ambient daytime and night time temps season to season. You want as much control over these as possible. In winter a window can be very drafty and too cold causing health issues. In summer if the window gets full sun the ambient temps are going to be far too hot not giving him a way to get out of it and cool down.

If you would like to post a picture of your entire cage including the lighting on top I can look at what he has that may be adding to him wanting to be in the window.

It may be that the cage has everything he needs but he is still liking the window because for him he does not know that the sun in the window gives him no UVB. He just is seeing the light and going to it because that his his natural instinct.

 

[pascalthechamsfam]

Hey there. Welcome to the forum. So chameleon cages should not be near a window just because it will drastically effect the ambient daytime and night time temps season to season. You want as much control over these as possible. In winter a window can be very drafty and too cold causing health issues. In summer if the window gets full sun the ambient temps are going to be far too hot not giving him a way to get out of it and cool down.

If you would like to post a picture of your entire cage including the lighting on top I can look at what he has that may be adding to him wanting to be in the window.

It may be that the cage has everything he needs but he is still liking the window because for him he does not know that the sun in the window gives him no UVB. He just is seeing the light and going to it because that his his natural instinct.

Thanks so much for your response!
I am adding some pictures of his “house”. Now, I know that I have the wrong type of UVB setup. I did not buy the T5/T8 which I later learned was an error.

That being said, I do feel like his house has plenty of shaded, and non shaded spots. His temp is always within range for day and night time ideals. Do we still think it’s too close to window? The window in question only gets direct sun from 9am-1pm because of a massive tree blocking all of the afternoon light. I fully closed the curtain in the meantime while I await answers.

He did recently go through a shed about 5 days ago. I read another post you made about “poor shed”. He still has white splotches from that. Normal?

His diet is only insects as he’s barely 6 months but he gets quite a variety of those.

His mister is set to regular intervals maintaining humidity

 

[lurker9090]

So our Cham does everything in his little power to be in the window. When his cage door opens, he’s sprinting for the window. Whether it’s day, night, cloudy, sunny! And he climbs to his perch and sits there to watch the world. His enclosure is right next to the window as is. He gets just as much sun there as he does in the window. He has a UVB lamp as well as a heat source with plenty of perches to choose from at varying heights inside his enclosure. What is this behavior and what can I do for him? I hate for him to sit against the cold window all day but he seems to prefer it?

My boy is same! I tried putting his enclosure near a window but it got too hard to control temps. My boy knows how to get to the window though, so i moved his enclosure away, but i still let him walk over to his tree by the window and chill there during the day. I added a heat light and uvb source above his tree next to window.
So he still gets to enjoy it but still has his enclosure with stable temps, and a heat/uvb source at the window

 

[Beman]

Thanks so much for your response!
I am adding some pictures of his “house”. Now, I know that I have the wrong type of UVB setup. I did not buy the T5/T8 which I later learned was an error.

That being said, I do feel like his house has plenty of shaded, and non shaded spots. His temp is always within range for day and night time ideals. Do we still think it’s too close to window? The window in question only gets direct sun from 9am-1pm because of a massive tree blocking all of the afternoon light. I fully closed the curtain in the meantime while I await answers.

He did recently go through a shed about 5 days ago. I read another post you made about “poor shed”. He still has white splotches from that. Normal?

His diet is only insects as he’s barely 6 months but he gets quite a variety of those.

His mister is set to regular intervals maintaining humidity

So I am going to be very honest but please do not take it at all that I am being negative. Just that I want to make sure you have the correct info so you can have a wonderful experience with your boy. So yes he is wanting to be in the window because for him he thinks he is getting what he needs from the sun. Which for him it is all about the light. The UVB has to be corrected. He is not getting what he needs to prevent MBD. So you want to switch to a T5HO fixture and a 5.0 or 6% bulb. And you want a regular white incandescent bulb for heat. The CHI bulb is dangerous to use with chams. They produces extremely high temps and unfortunately can be a major cause of thermal burns. But they do not produce light.

Think of it this way if you see it is sunny outside in the summer you automatically think it will be a warmer day. If it is cloudy and dark out then you think it will be cooler. They identify light as heat. So he is actively seeking out the light which for him is coming through the window. Glass in windows cuts 100% of the UVB from the sun. So he is not getting anything. Depending on the coil bulb your using most do not provide the depth of penetration away from the bulb that the cham can actually benefit from. We see light and think oh that is great it is working but unfortunately UVB bulbs just do not work this way.

He is of a size where he has to be in a 2x2x4foot cage. Creating an environment that has everything he needs in it. And unfortunately he is too close to the window. And now that he has been given the freedom of the window he will not want to stay in a properly set up enclosure with the right lighting if he can see the place he has preferred.

So shedding issues can be linked to a few different things. Poorly gutloaded insects, incorrect ambient temps and humidity levels, and can be seen with chams that are not 100% healthy. The thread you were reading... Well I would for sure link it to health issues for that one with the thermal burn and other unknown health conditions as that chameleon has been through it. I have seen where incorrect and no supplementation causes shedding problems too. With young healthy chams shedding should go very quickly and they should easily drop all pieces. Now once they are mature at a year and older shedding is slower and in sections.

As far as feeding veileds should only ever be given insects no matter their age. You will see a lot of people give them vegetation or fruit but the issue is their body does not process it correctly. So it really is not advised within the hobby. Now with that being said they will happily eat their plants. So fake plants are a big no no with them. The last thing you want is a veiled pulling off a fake leaf causing impaction. This also means we have to provide plants that are considered veiled tested. See image. Your boy should still be on an every day feeding schedule of at least 12 small to medium insects.

Misting is something where you want to mist in the morning and in the evening but not throughout the day. The cage needs to dry out.

This is an excellent site for learning accurate info. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
If you like videos then I highly recommend Neptune the Chameleon videos on youtube.