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Question from a new Owner

longhorn627 Dec 11, 2006 04:20 PM

I just recently purchased my first Chameleon, a 2-3 month female Veiled and am really enjoying her so far. I am currently keeping her in a 10 gallon aquarium with a screen top. (I am planning on purchasing or building a more suitable all screen sided taller enclosure) Anyways she has started to like to hang out on the top screen hanging upside down which makes me nervous as I have heard bad things about losing toes in the screens and it makes it much harder for me to remove the top. Does anyone have any advice on how I can prevent this behavior? Or is it really not that big of a deal? Thanks in advance

Replies (3)

longhorn627 Dec 11, 2006 05:01 PM

Ok, I think I solved my own question, instead of removing all the tall stems from the tank, (there were only 2 or 3 that reached the top, I simply added some additional sticks and paths to the top so it was easier for her to get down.

PHEve Dec 12, 2006 08:33 AM

Nice to have you here Seems you made a good move allowing her to have a path to and from the top. I have panthers and always worried about them falling, so I too have taller branches they can latch on to.

When she gets into her new screened cage she will be everywhere, sure hope you post some pics for us.
I will let the veiled keepers answer for more advice they may have for you.

Enjoy the forum !

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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Carlton Dec 12, 2006 04:33 PM

This is really common. Seems like most very young chams like to hang from their screen tops. Luckily at this age most cham toes are small enough that they don't get snagged in typical screen as often. I've had one or two babies who really insisted on hanging, so I got some plastic mesh from Home Depot and attached it below the screen so the cham ended up holding onto this rather than the screen. Lots of "other" climbing routes helps, and they tend to stop this as they get older. I wonder if the chams enjoy hanging less as they get heavier. Just check the temperature of the screen under a basking spot to make sure the cham can't burn itself on the wire.

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