Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Pumpkin my 10month old female veiled chameleon has been walking down at the bottom of her cage for a few days. I have a five gallon bucket half way full of sand with a few sticks to climb in and out but she does not seem to like it. Is there something else I can put in her cage.

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Meg

If this is her first clutch she may not know what she prefers. Try different shapes and sizes of containers such as a deep rectangle dish pan. Maybe the bucket seems too confining and narrow to her. Put more cover over the bin. Put chunks of wood on the sand. Sometimes chams like to dig at the base of a log or other structure. Plant something alive so she can dig around in the roots. Are you sure she's gravid? Is she gaining weight? There could be other reasons she's walking on the floor such as a new view of something stressful, changes in the cage temp or humidity outside her comfort range. As long as she's active, alert, drinking and eating, basking she is OK.

She is acting totaly normal other than the fact that she keeps going to the bottom of her cage. She is eating, drinking, basking, & hissing at me when i don't get her food fast enough like always. Nothing has changed around her so I don't think she is trying to get away from anything. I don't really know if she is gravid because she has never mated before but she could be gravid with infertile eggs so I just wanted to make sure she has a place to lay her eggs if she dose have them.
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Meg

She could be developing an infertile clutch, but may be a ways away from needing to lay. If your pic was recent, she didn't look very gravid. I wouldn't worry too much now. If she stops roaming around, spends time crouching on the cage floor and isn't basking or drinking, then I would be concerned. Again, this would be her first, so she is inexperienced.