Why is my chameleon restless and keeping her pattern?

[Yoshi1990]

I have a veiled chameleon (female) 10 months old. She used to spend most of her time a pale shade of green and only get dark spots or stripes when upset etc BUT for the last week or so she has stayed with her dark spots. Also she is always walking around her terrarium looking for ways out....usually we let her out and she climbs our house plants and curtains etc but lately she has been really really active and for the first time since we got her (8 months ago) she was on the plant on the windowsill and we left her for half and hour (which we do everyday!) and she climbed down and went missing!! Today we let her out and again left her on her plant and we came back and she was climbing up the outside of her terrarium!!

She has never returned to her terrarium EVER when we have left her out why is she so restless and why is she keeping her spots?? She has got sand in her terrarium ready for her egg laying but she doesn't look eggbound

Thanks

 

[apondozzi]

She's gravid. She might need a deeper vessel for laying her eggs. Also, if she doesn't look like she's fat with eggs, she could be trying to look for a male. Either way I'd try to offer her a garbage can and see what happens. Also, I'd recommend checking out some of the other threads on the same subject.

 

[CNorton]

I wouldn't immediately assume that she's gravid. If temps are too high it can make a cham restless. Also, if there's a lot of activity and people around, she could just be stressed out and want some alone time. If you're super concerned I would consider these three things:

1. Conditions of Environment : temp and water
2. Visual Stress Factors : visual contact with other pets, people, etc.
3. Laying Bin : previous poster mentioned depth of bin but I would bet that if she hasn't been seen digging, the depth isn't bothering her. I always try to plant a small plant in the laying bin that adds privacy and root structure. Females look for roots and anything we can do to mimic naturally occurring conditions will aid our chams.

I hope this was helpful and maybe your female will simmer down!