Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all. I am wondering if anybody out there could give me their respective opinions on a couple of things. I recently moved my chams cage to another part of my place. A bit more traffic, but I bought a new TV and speakers and stuff, and she was closer to that stuff before. So before everything got hooked up, I figured this would be best for her. Since the move, she has become very very agressive. She never was before, and then all of a sudden, you can't go near the cage, she runs when the top is unzipped. So I decided in her best interests I would basically rearrange my place. Now she is in a place with very little traffic, not alot of noise. She can't see any of the other animals (she couldn't before either). And still the behaviour persists. It's been about two weeks since this latest move, and i've left her alone the whole time, aside from misting feeding, and whatnot. I'm just wondering if anybody knows if the will go back to her more "friendly" behaviour, or if this is her maturing now. She is about 8 months old. I never really handled her that much to begin with, maybe once a week for about 15-20 mins or so. Thanks in advance, and sorry it's so long.

Part of it (probably most of it) is maturity and territoriality, and some is lingering stress from having her space changed around. It can take a couple of months for them to settle into a "new" space even if the cage itself didn't change much. The view did, and as chams consider everything they can see as part of their space, it did affect her. I don't think it has anything to do with how much you did or did not handle her. I'd continue to treat her as you always do so she doesn't have to adjust to yet another change in her life. Your consistency in how you work around her will help.

Sounds like she needs time to adjust to her new set-up...but
since you said she is about 8 months old, I just wanted to
mention that you should have a place for her to dig a hole in
to lay eggs. Veileds can lay infertile eggs once they are
sexually mature. Some do and some don't....you don't want her to
become eggbound because she has no place to lay the eggs if she
does produce them.

Hope she settles down for you!

Hey thanks guys for the advice. Greatly appreciated. And, yes I do have a bowl with soil on the floor for her, I figured whe would be getting around that age pretty soon. Thanks again.

...you said you have "a bowl with soil"... it may just be the word you used, but it does need to be at least as deep as she is long (preferably deeper) and with appropriate substrate that will hold a tunnel. Once you determine she may be gravid you alos need to increase her calcium intake. You may already know all this and if so then just disregard. If not, there are some good articles on www.adcham.com and www.chamnews.com on laying, nutrition etc.

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula (no name yet)
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

Hey Lele. Yeah I guess my wording should have been a little more descriptive. I'm using a long cookie container. It's a pretty good size for her, so hopefully she will take to it. Also her calcium has definitely been increased as of late. I guess only time will tell if this is hopefully just a phase, or her new personality. Thanks again everyone for the advice.

Is it deep??? and wide?? I have to say that at 8 months, this is quite possibly the beginning of an infertile clutch not just a phase...what I would give for all these symptoms to be a phase! lol!

here is a pic of two tubs she had to choose from first time around; now I know what she prefers so it is the only setup I use (tub on left)

lele

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula (no name yet)
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha