Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
This is my first time on this forum.
I bought my wife for xmas a vieled female cham its about 5 months old, It lives in an 260 gallon flexerium with plenty of places to go and lots of real plants, for the vein I am using Russian vein from my garden which to my suprise has started to grow very fast in the flexerium, the problem is the cham has a slight addiction to the leaves, its forever eating them! and is happy enough to leave the crickets alone and chew a leaf instead!.
Im more than happy for it to eat plenty of green but it now runs around like a mad man and it must think its a dog because it has its mouth open alot, she seem happy enough but im worried as to why its mouth is always open? so if any of you have an answer to the mouth problem I would love to know! also is this Russian vein poisonous to chams?? (hope not!)
Thanks for your time and thanks in advance!
Floyd..

Welcome to the forum!

You said..."lots of real plants, for the vein I am using Russian vein from my garden which to my suprise has started to grow very fast in the flexerium, the problem is the cham has a slight addiction to the leaves, its forever eating them!"...are the plants all non-toxic? Where they washed well---both sides of the leaves - before they were put in the cage?

You asked..." also is this Russian vein poisonous to chams??"...I have no idea what Russian vine is. I did a search on "Russian vine" and if its this one "Fallopia baldschuanica" it might not be toxic. Its listed on this site...
http://www.crislis.co.uk/Herps/Thatcher/urocaresheet.htm
There is a picture of it (also called mile-a-minute vine) on this site...
http://natlands.typepad.com/from_the_field/2005/07/index.html

You said..."Im more than happy for it to eat plenty of green but it now runs around like a mad man and it must think its a dog because it has its mouth open alot, she seem happy enough but im worried as to why its mouth is always open?"...generally chameleons will have their mouths open when they are too hot or when they have a URI or sometimes when they have a health problem. How is the temperature in the cage? Ambient? Basking?

One more thing I would like to mention...a female veiled can lay eggs even when not mated. Does she have a proper place to dig to lay them?

Hello Kinyonga!
Thanks for your reply, When I set up the flexarium all plants were washed using the shower head and all are non-toxic then I bought the cham about 3-4 weeks later but keeping the plants sprayed daily.
When it comes to basking I have put a number of viens for different basking temps the lowest temp is about 80f and highest is 95f, lower down the temp ranges between 75-80f.
At the bottom of the flexarium there is 30 litres of peat and 10 litres of bark with lots of plants in but enough room for laying eggs the only thing is the cham has never been to the bottom as yet, probably due to the flexarium being 6feet tall?.
You talk of a URI? can you tell me what that is please?
The russian vein you were looking at is the same as I have so hopefully is non-toxic? The cham seems very happy and health, but since the vein has been growing the cham seems to have speeded its life up! with mouth open! could be the heat as you say?
Thanks again..

Temperatures sound fine.

I'm not a fan of substrates because many of them contain toxins or can be ingested and cause impaction.

You said..."the cham has never been to the bottom as yet"...if she hasn't been to the bottom, then she likely doesn't have eggs to lay. It should be natural for her to know to go to the ground to lay eggs.

URI means upper respiratory infection...and the gaping should be accompanied by extra mucus or bubbling in the mouth.

You said..."The russian vein you were looking at is the same as I have so hopefully is non-toxic? The cham seems very happy and health, but since the vein has been growing the cham seems to have speeded its life up with mouth open!"...I would assume that its non-toxic if its the same one.

If she is gaping when sitting in the basking area, then it could be the heat. If she gapes when you come close to her, then its possible she's gaping at you. One more possibility for gaping could be that she is seeing her own reflection somewhere.

Post again if she continues to do it and you still don't know why.