Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Charlie for the past about 2 or 3 weeks has been digging around in the corner of his tank. He is about 3 or 4 months old. He is in a 20 gallon tank. He keep piling all of the substrate up so the corner is bare and I don;t know what this means???
I move it back and an hour later he has moved it agian.

Hi CharliesMama,

What kind of cham? Unless it is a pygmy leaf cham (forest floor dweller), the poor guy is trying to get out. He is getting too old for a tank and definitely does not need any substrate. They can ingest some and get impacted, it holds moisture, thus fungus and bacteria and if not sterile may also have mini-critters that you do not want in there! Chameleons are arboreal animals and need height, branches for climbing and lots of foilage to hide and feel secure. Managing proper temps in a glass tank is tough as it can easily overheat and heat stress your cham.

I think for the sake of Charlie, and your own personal cham keeping knowledge, it would be a good idea to post your entire setup so we can help you do a proper evaluation. Go to the link below and scroll to the Tips for asking questions section and copy and paste the Q's followed by your answer. Please don't skip any of them.

The fact that you are using substrate, have him in a glass tank at 3-4 months old says, to me, you got some very poor husbandry/care info for your little guy. You need to make some changes and hope he has not suffered/developed any problems.

While you are waiting for your next reply please visit the links that are listed on that site. Will watch for your reply.

Luna's setup belwo - to give you an idea of what Charlie will need. You can start with a smaller cage, but he will soon outgrow it. Luna went into this cage (2'x2'x4') at about5 or 6 months. I got her at 4 and she was in her 21"x18"x12" screen cage for only a couple months and would try to come out everytime I opened her door!

lele

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

Cage type: It is a 20 gallon (tall) glass tank with a screen lid

Temperatures: I don't know. I think that even though the guy i got him from is good with reptiles, that he gave me some bad adive All I know is that at night the room is around 74 degrees and Charlie sleeps happily (light light green) in the same spot every night. His heat and UV light are not on at night.

Lighting: It is a slimline reptile fixture. That's what is says. However the guy I got him from showed me the readings from all the lights and this one was the best. The lights are on for 12 hours and off for 12 hours. They sit on top of his tank.

Humidity: I don't know again. I live in Canada?? lolz

Water: Yes I see him drink all of the time and his urates are always pure white. I drip using a cup with a hole poked in the bottom of it, It's going on and off all day. I refill it about every 1 or 2 hours and in between that I mist him and he licks it off his lips.

Food: Yes I see him eat everyday. He eats crickets from the same place that I got my Cham. They are gutloaded before he eats them. They eat carrots, lettuce and cricket pellets and also have cricket water in with them.

Supplements: I dust the crickets with vitamin C everyday. I don't remember the brand. Everyone I talked to recommended this brand though.

Plants & branches: I have a fake plant, and a piece of driftwood I call pride rock and a vine stretching from one to the other. I usually see him but he can hide from view.

Chameleon facts: My chameleon is about 3/4 months old. He was captive bred he is a vieled. I got him from a reptile store that gets them from a breeder.

Handling: Yes I handle my chameleon. To clean the tank and to take him outside. He usually turns a bright green with I hold him and likes to climb onto my shoulder and sleep. He is in my room which is very quiet except for the crickets chirping. If I turn music on I keep it quiet. He cannot see any other pets except when I take him out and he is quite taken with my little dog. He loves to climb onto her head and sleep. She lets him.

Veterinarians: As far as I know. He told me he knows them.

Here he is. My baby.

Hi,

You definitely got terrible keeping information for chameleons! Its a good thing you found us, as just about everything you were told to do for him needs to change. Hmm, let's see, where to start:

He's much too big for a tank, he's trying to get out, and the reflections he sees in the glass surfaces are stressing him out. You need to buy or build a screen cage right away. A quick and not too expensive alternative is a Reptarium (by Apogee) you could mail order from a reptile supplier. You'll want at least the 100 gallon by the time he's full grown. You don't need substrate and it can be dangerous. Paper towels or an easily cleaned smooth surface is much better.

You will need to measure the temperature and air humidity of his setup, as chams need a fairly specific range of temps and humidity levels to stay healthy. There are lots of digital temp/humidity gauges available. If you get one with a remote probe you can move it around the cage to check the range of temps. The cage will need a gradient of temps...warm under the basking spot and cooler and moister away from it. He needs a basking spot (can be an ordinary lightbulb) temp of about 95 F. The UV light brand is important...you've got to find out what kind it is, as most brands of "full spectrum" lighting are not adequate. If the tube says "ReptiSun 5.0" its OK. Anything else is not great. The lights should be on for at least 12 hours a day. Run them on plug in lamp timers so you don't have to remember. The setup should have live bushy potted plants for him to travel around in his cage to regulate his temp by himself and for security. Another reason he's digging around is that he is in plain view all the time and that is unnatural for a cham. The live plants will also catch and hold misting water droplets for him to drink and help keep the air humidity over 50%. Depending on the humidity in your room you will need to spray him with hot water (cools to warm during spraying) at least 2 times a day. Longer periods of gentler misting are better than short heavy blasts. If you use an air conditioner in summer or forced air heat in winter you may need to run a room humidifier to keep the cage at the correct humidity level.

At this age you should be dusting his crix with a mineral dust (RepCal or MinerAl are good ones) every other day, and a vitamin dust (Herptivite is fine) once a week. When he's a year old you can cut back the mineral to once a week and the vitamins to once a month. Dusting with vit C is not a good idea. Give your crix some chunks of orange in their tank instead.

There is more, but this should get you started. Also, here are good sources of cham keeping info you should read, as they will explain more in detail what you need to know.

http://www.chameleonnews.com
http://www.adcham.com
http://chameleonjournals.com

Very good luck!