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New Chameleon Owner

stealthbanana May 20, 2006 07:34 PM

I just recently purchased a veiled chameleon. I've had him for about a day, and we just switched him from a glass cage to an all screen cage.

My question is this:

He went from a cheery green color to a darkish purple color. He turns green when he sleeps, but almost all day he is that purple color. He has an average amount of foliage in his cage, and there are branches that lead to the top of the cool and hot end of the cage.

He eats, his fecal matter is appropriate, and nothing else seems to be wrong, just he has remained a very stressed looking color for two days now.

His cage is open on all ends, and he can see out into the room he's in, which recieves average traffic. I think I should make 2-3 of the cage walls opaque, but I am unsure as to how to cure my little buddy's stress.

Thanks for any help.

Replies (7)

nymph May 20, 2006 08:45 PM

That is funny. My female does the same thing. When we hold her or when she is sleeping she is bright green. In her enclosure, which is set up the way everyone here advised, she is brownish. I hope you can get an answer, maybe then I can change something to. Or at least feel comforted that I am not doing anything wrong.

captotterboy May 21, 2006 07:49 PM

My charlie is his best colors when he is sleeping. Thats where he gets the brightest oranges greens and blues. when he is is "explore" or "hunting" moded is his darkest colors. He turns a dark marbled.

jeff

stealthbanana May 21, 2006 07:57 PM

Yeah, I relocated her and now she's a lot more active and vibrant. I put up opaque walls on three of the four sides of the cage, left the top open and the front open, and placed her in a room with very little traffic. Now she's all better .

She turns a dark purple with purple-grey stripes when she hunts, and green when she sleeps. She's dark, dark purple without stripes when I piss her off .

Her name is Simone, and she's about 10 weeks old. I assume she'll get more colorful as she ages?

kriswaters May 21, 2006 11:37 PM

Hi...and welcome to King Snake! I hope that the "opaque" sides you installed don't restrict the air flow to her cage. When I got my new cham I put him right in the living room, next to the ferrets, and along side all of our family. He had some pretty good hiding spots in the ficus, and was very shy for quite some time.

Since then, he has relaxed, maybe realizing that we are not going to get him. He is so beautiful and interesting, I couldn't image keeping him elsewhere. I have a new cage that I constructed, and the screen is black. We can still see in, but I think it does provide privacy, limiting his vulnerablity.

Good luck with Simone!

Kris

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2.1 Black Labs Tucker, Raider and Lacey
1.0 Lepoard Gecko Kumar (Another lost pet RIP and party on with Harold!)
3.0 Horses Smoothie, Rocky and Bogey
1.0 Husbands (he puts up with me)
1.2 Kids-Trevor, Logan and Rylie
1.1 Ferrets Tank and Ellie (The fun fuzzies)
1.1 Veiled Chams Squiggy and Pudge (may she RIP)
0.1 Snowflake Cornsnake Lucky

kriswaters May 21, 2006 11:38 PM

Wow...I look at that picture and think that Squig is so much bigger already! Just in a month!

Another cage pic.

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2.1 Black Labs Tucker, Raider and Lacey
1.0 Lepoard Gecko Kumar (Another lost pet RIP and party on with Harold!)
3.0 Horses Smoothie, Rocky and Bogey
1.0 Husbands (he puts up with me)
1.2 Kids-Trevor, Logan and Rylie
1.1 Ferrets Tank and Ellie (The fun fuzzies)
1.1 Veiled Chams Squiggy and Pudge (may she RIP)
0.1 Snowflake Cornsnake Lucky

captotterboy May 22, 2006 02:14 PM

i dont know anything about anything about females, but my male keeps surprising me with how much more colorful he is getting with every shed

jeff

PHEve May 22, 2006 09:02 AM

Nice to have you both!
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PHEve / Eve

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