Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My adult male veiled (the one who ran out of the cage last week and with whom i had quite an adventure, which led to me inventing a cardboad box contraption to get him back home) keeps trying to run out of his cage!!! EVERY time i feed him, try to clean his cage, try to mist the cage with the door open or anything else which envolves me opening the door, he sprint for the doorway to make an escape. He never scratches at his screening or anything like that, and spends his day at the top of his cage (no other signs of unrest).
It is a 2x2x4 all screen enclosure with a pothos vine at the bottom (with some of it's longer vines attatched to the side and top for climbing) a very full and tall ficus bush, and a small spider plant in the corner.
I very recently made a stand for his cage, which raises the cage 2 1/2 feet off of the ground. The last escape he made was before the cage was raised, and when he did try to escapse, it was mroe cautiously than when he tries to do it now. I assume he is more comfortable up higher than human faces, but why is he trying to escape? He knows very well what happens, he usually falls down and runs into a corner only to end up hissing/gaping/puffing up/ curling and uncurling his tail, so why would he still try to explore the far reaches of my bedroom?
It is becoming impossible for me to clean the bottom of his cage, i just tried 5 mins ago and got to wipe up some grime and one terd, but thats it. There is still mroe grime and terds and dead insects fto be cleaned!
This is becoming very frutsrating, and i want to avoid handling him at all costs becuase every time he ends up on ym hands, he gets VERY stressed or mad and ends up running off the edge of my hand and onto the floor, I reallty don't want him to break anything!!
Please help with any advice, perhaps I sould try to let him out more ften so he doesnt feel as much need to explore?

Ok, here's what I would do.

I would get a "transfer stick", first. Then I would get a ficus tree to keep in the corner of my room. Use the transfer stick to let him get onto, then move him over to the ficus tree and let him hang out in there while you do your thing. When you're done, transfer him back to the cage. If he leaps off of the stick or the tree, place a towel over him, [since he's a Veiled and will indoubtedly try to take your fingers off] pick him up, put him back in the tree. Having him in the "new tree", will give him somewhere safe to explore while you're busy. This is what I do with my Jackson's when I have to do cage work. It works great, and gives him a little safe change of pace.

Haha, sounds like you have a real live wire on your hands.

The reason he freaks out and wants to get away is because of instinct, period.
To him, you are a massive predator and always will be. His priorities in life are: eat, drink, sleep, mate, defend his territory and dodge predators. Just try to remember that.

Good luck!

Lol, alright, that sounds good. What luck i have: there are two BRAND NEW never-before-lived-in cages for 2 chameleon i am recieving tomorrow thati can use, and i don't know why i didn't think of that! DUH
I was mainly asking about a good way to transfer him from cage to cage. I have a stick handy that I can use.
Throwing a towel over the chameleon has never been suggested to me before, what a great idea. What do I do after the towel is over him?
thanks for the help!!
(please reply asap, i want to clean his cage so i can get on with my day!)

After the towel is over him, just gently pick them both up, with him wrapped in the towel. It will be dark, soft, and he will not be able to bite you [thanks, Carlton], or hurt himself. Then when you get near the tree [or cage, or whatever] just kind of open the towel up and let him climb into the tree.

To coax him onto the transfer stick, just gently move it against his front legs and he should climb onto it. Make sure he has a good grip before you lift him up and out out the cage.

Alright, i will go try that, thanks for eerything.
Charlie

OMG that little idiot chameleon...
I just went in and mopped up some goop and poop from his cage, and of course, along he came to the doorway. He is afraid of any stick he hathat does the slightest bit of movement! I put the transfer stick in front of him and he puffed up and got dark spots, he wasn't completely mad but was pretty fraked put by the stick.
UGH!
what should I do?

haha. It's funny that you called him an idiot.

Hm. Well, he will probably always get freaked out. I would still try to push the stick up under his legs. Eventually he will get onto it. Don't let him scare you. You are in control. Did you try using gloves? One thing to keep in mind is to never pull him off of anything, as this could snap his bones if you pull to hard. Always try to coax him onto something.You know, you could also try to put the other cage or tree or whatever in front of the door to his cage. He may just climb out and onto it. Then you could just move it aside.

Just curious - why do you have to move him out of his cage to clean the bottom? My Cham just hangs out and watches me when I wipe up turds.
Then again, Jackson's are comatose compared to veileds.

I mentioned it in the first message, he wants to see the outside world! He has only ever been out of his cage...about 6 times in his life ( would get bored of my house after 6 months!). He would just crawl out of the cage and run around my room, never to be found again, so it is necessary to put him elsewhere. This is a behaviour that i have only very recently noticed in him.

He is afraid of/hates just about everything i put in front of him including gloves. He is not much of a nice chameleon. The cage is a brand new 2x2x4 cage and has everything in it, so it will be heavy. However, they are right next to each other, maybe i could rotate them to face each other.
thanks

Yep, try that.

Then, one way to get him back into his home cage is to spray him with cold water from the opposite side of the holding cage. You can use the cold water to corale him a bit. In trying to escpae the cold spray, he may move back into his cozy home cage. Worth a try if nothing else works.

I had a Veiled once and he would never puff up and hiss unless I went to grab him. However, anytime I was near, or would even LOOK at him, the little weirdo would swing around to the opposite side of the branch, stretch his body out as vertically as possible, to make himself super-skinny, turn dark brown and try to hide behind the stick. He was so DAMN scared, ALL the time.

My cham used to be like that most of the time, now he only does that once in a while. I still havn't succeeded in getting him out...I have a rain system and light attatched to the new cages, so rotating them will be a big feat. I will try, though.

with my veileds what i have found works better than any of that is turning their lights out for a few minutes, this cools them off and they become less active. just turn the lights off for about 10 minutes or so and you have a very mellow veiled......
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Great idea, thx jc.