[cabbage]

Hi I could do with some advice/reassurance

I have a five month old Male Veiled Chameleon called Walter he has been eating regularly, a diet of calcium dusted crickets ( and his food is dusted with Nutrabol once a week) occasional wax worms, locusts and butter worms and has been growing steadily, he is in a flexarium about fout feet high by two feet deep by three feet wide. humidity is fine, his basking spot is between 90 & 95 he has two uvb strip lights inside the flex, both less than six weeks old. The bottom of the flex is about 80 degrees. He has a constant supply of dripping water which he drinks from.

Up until about a week ago he used to stay pretty much in his basking spot just wandering off occasionally to cool down or to hunt food. But he has suddenly started wandering around the cage a lot more and seem less interested in food. He seems healthy, no indications of MBD. He also spends a fair amount of time right up against the uvb lights. Is occasional fasting OK at this age, its just he has been growing like crazy (as you would expect) and I am concerned that he seems more mobile and less hungry plus the hanging around the UVB lights.

I have picture of the viv and Walter but I don't know how to find a web page I can put them on to link to this post so I can display them?

many thanks in advance for any advice you can give

Cabbage

2.0.0 Corn snakes
2.0.0 Leos
1.0.0 Royal python
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon

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[weeminx]

sounds like hes young and growing and gettin more adventourous...by this time he has gotten used to his surroundings and is feeling happy.ours is nearly 4 now and often find him in all sorts of places he started that wen he was around the same age as yours.as far as the eating thing sometimes chams go without for a couple of days usually due to weather changes....etc...i wouldnt worry about that too much.as long as hes drinking and isnt dehydrated...eyes arnt sunken..hes not shaky wen he walks..etc...
as far as posting pics on ere i use image shack
oh and just thought of something else...our yeman does the wandering thing when hes feeling randy...is he butting his head on the reflectors?? (if u have any that is) ours used to see his reflection and display etc.
sounds like normal yeman growing to us

 

[BELIAL]

There are possibly three things you could look at:

1. is normal behaviour. i have a 4 month old male and he is also very twitchy at the moment. This is mostly due to the fact that he is not maturing so he explores his territory often and postures a lot! is like any teenager.

2. he is stressed he may be suffering a degree of stress due to the fact that the weather is colder (don't like flexariums in winter!) coupled with lack of female companionship! (he's probably feeling a bit randy..bless!)

3. your uv is not as strong chams are pretty sensitive to uv and unfortuantely uv tubes only have a life expectancy of about 6 months. The sitting next to the tube could be because they are not emitting as much uvb...

i would agree with weeminx though and say that it is mostly teenager cham behaviour...just bear in mind the whole uv thing!

 

[BELIAL]

oops that should have been is maturing, not 'NOT' sorry!!

 

[cabbage]

phew

Thanks very much, because Chams are are a lot less hardy than my other reps I am in a constant state of anxiety about him. Its good to hear that it is probably just natural behaviour.

I have tried to upload a couple of pictures of Walter, obviously he's a bit hacked off because I opened the flex!







I really apprciate the advice, and thanks for the imageshack tip too.

 

[cabbage]

Belial

I am very aware of the UV and I know the bulbs only emit for about 5 months, long before the bulb actually goes. I have two bulbs inside the flex both about 14" either side if the basking spot, perhaps I need another one.

I know what you mean about flex's but mine is in a small study with four PC's ( which are on 24 hours) so the ambient temperature in that room is high. Humidity is the only problem and the drip combined with regular spraying seems to be keeping it on track.

I hadn't considered that he is a teenager now! That sounds a very likely solution!

Many thanks for the advice

Cabbage

 

[Blazey]

I think chams are quite a tough species in my opinion, its just the stress that often kills them. The best thing to do with chams is to always keep their decor in the same place and not alter their surroundings too much so they know where everything is and if u hand feed, make sure they learn that the hand is what feeds them and they get used to u so they dont get as stressed by ur presence as much.

 

[BELIAL]

got a bit of a gut which is good to see!
if it is the teenager syndrome he should calm down after a couple of months when he has gotten used to celibacy..bless..
my breeding male, he never got used to going without a bit! but that's cos he's got his very own harem! lucky boy! :wink:

 

[cabbage]

Lonely

A Harem! and I thought one Cham was hard work!

So basically, he's a cantankerous,slightly pudgy, love-lorn adolescent

Will it harm him if he never does get a shag? I am on very good terms with one of my local Herp shops, their in-house herpetologist has at least a couple of Chams, is it worth asking to organise a weekend of lurve for Walter when the time is right or would the whole arrangement end up stessing him or his date more than any benefit gained. I don't really want to buy a female, as I simply don't have the experience or expertise to start breeding Chams.

Walter has always been my Wife's favourite, and now she is feeling very sorry for him

Thanks

Cabbage

 

[Blazey]

i always think my cham deserves a bit of action too lol but he has no adult female contacts

 

[BELIAL]

they all deserve a bit! bless em..
right don't know if this'll work but..

 

[BELIAL]

well that was pants...hmmm....

 

[BELIAL]

trying again!!!

 

[BELIAL]

right this is the last time..if it don't work now then damn it all to hell!

 

[BELIAL]

oh by the way the pic is of bango my breeder pinning down molly..what a man!!?
this was last night after he decided to have a secret love affair..(he got out his viv an wandered to the next viv along!)

 

[cabbage]

Chameleon porn, now I have seen everything

Walter is in the computer room, so I may use that pic as wallpaper! The herp equivalent of page three, looks like he is going to have to learn to be sexually self-sufficient.

I just hope he doesn't fall of his branch, when he sees it