Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My dwarf jackson has been pacing the cage and bumping his horns against the sides and corners of the cage trying to get out. He is also very dark. I have plenty of foilage, and they are low and not near the top of the cage like ADCHAM says to do so they have the psychologyical fullfillment of being at the highest point. Doesn't seem to like the cage, should I free roam him. I know the precautions and wouldnt mind getting my room a little wet by having a mister setup for the plant to meet humidty needs. What do you all think?

P.S. No one answered my post about my cham's shed. He just went through a shed about a week ago and he still has skin caked on his head. I've showered him for the past 6 days I've had him everyday and only a portion of it has come off. I don't know whether I should take it off myself cause I peeling the skin off is a big No No. Any tips?

Sorry, forgot to mention. He has these white spots in the tips of his horn. Are those ahbresions from him rubbing his horns everywhere? Or caclium deficiency. I havn't been dusting any of his crickets to allow his liver to become stable and hydrated before having to pass through anything.

Thanks gang

Sounds like he's stressed, are you keeping temps/humidity where it should be? How large is the cage...even though these guys are on the small end compared to other species, they do like alot of room to roam. Regarding the shedding...it usually comes off by itself...I usually don't touch it unless it's around the eyes and hasn't come off for several days...does the skin look ok otherwise? (Are there any scabs/abrasions/parasites that you can see? Just a precaution.)
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Temps are right according to adcham. Humidity is over 80% and the rest of his skin looks completely fine. I put a towel over the viewing side of his cage so he can only see a wall, a window (closed shutters), the cieling to try to reduce stress. Any thoughts on the horns?

He could be looking for a female too. Males of many species get rather roamy during mating season. It is sometimes hard to predict when this "season" will occur for animals new to you or wc as their internal calendars can get messed up. They often are so distracted they don't eat much during this time. Make sure he can't see a partial reflection of himself anywhere near the cage. Window glass? Shiny metal surfaces? A mirror?

As for the remaining skin on his head, this area of skin doesn't really flex much so it can take longer for the skin to loosen. As long as the skin is not discolored, puffy edges, or looking like there is infection starting underneath, not a big problem. If he's OK with some handling you could very gently rub at it with a soft piece of towel and then spray as usual.

Don't see a possibility for reflection, but I changed his setup. EEK! I'm scared he won't adjust and I hate to change his setting after putting him in his first one only a week ago. I hope he still eats and does his stuff and this doesn't stress him out too much. But so far, I put him in a slightly taller repitarium and trimmed the tops of the foilage to follow adcham's guide:

"The cage should be well planted to allow for privacy but keep the top clear; failing to do so will result in the chameleon constantly roaming the top of its cage, upside-down."

So the top 6 inches are cleared away. So far so good, I don't know if he just freaked out, but he is GREEN/SKY BLUE and does not roam the cage as much. But it has only been on day, I will see tomorrow. Hopefully he will continue eating like a champ!

He has these white belmishes on his horns developing. Is this calcium deficiency or ahbresions from rubbing his horns along the cage? Will they go away? I havn't dusted any of his crickets to not make his liver work overtime. Any thoughts?

It's a bit hard to picture what you mean, but he could be rubbing his horns on the screen while climbing on it or trying to push his head through the mesh. Is the white on the tips? Is it a newly developing growth ring? Do the white areas show if the horns are wet? I'm thinking of a scratched fingernail...its the same material as horns, and if the surface of your nail is wet a whitish abrasion doesn't show as much. Might give you a clue.

Hey there!

I would have answered your earlier posts about your meru and try to help out, but I don't frequent this board as much as I used to a couple of years back. Anyway, I've kept merus for quite a while, and notice that merus can be very active, often pacing their cages. I also notice this behavior to be 'seasonal', in a sense that there will be a phase that the cham will constantly roam around its cage for a few days, and remain pretty "quiet" for a couple of weeks. Could be related to mating season, but no confirmation on that. If it seems that you have your setup correct, just chill out for a while, and most probably your chameleon will too.
As for free-ranging your meru... I am not too keen on the idea, since active and constantly wandering chams make bad free-ranging set-up candidates.
About his shedding problem, meru's don't fully shed in a day ala a panther. It may even take a week a more. So you don't have to worry yet. But if you are concerned about this, there is a product called shed-ease by nature-zone (I think its by them), and it works great. Just one application is sufficient. But I suggest you wait a while.
As your guy’s horns...I notice that imports always come with horn one issue or another, and white tips like you mentioned is very common. It could be caused by abrasions caused when they were collected. Personally I do not think it has to do with lack of calcium, but I am still studying the possibilities.
So I don’t think you currently need to worry too much. You can check out stuff on merus on my website www.wizardoflizards.com Or Just click on the link below

Link

Thanks for the response. I have a 2month old reptiglo on him that all of a sudden went real dim. I don't get paid till a week to get another bulb so I give him about 20 hours of Southern Florida sun a week. Is that enough?