Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have many reptiles but am new to the chameleon business. I bought a pair of Rudis Chameleons yesterday at the herp show. I have them housed in a 20hx18L all screened enclosure. I have a 60w UV lamp for light and heat; the hottest part is 82 degrees the coldest is 65. i am using eco earth for substrate and have a live fiscus plant along with many vines/ branches for them to hide/ climb on and I also have a dripper, and spray them down by hand about 3x a day. The male has not been as active as the female and is dark which to my understanding means he is not happy. he is rather lathargic compared to the female and i have even seen him with his eyes closed today, directly under the lamp. Although, when I fed them crickets (for the first time) He immediately came to life, brightened up and ate probably around 12 crickets to himself, which I thought was a lot. The female ate too, but not that much. As soon as he was done eating though his color changed back to dark and he became lathargic like he was before. What could be going wrong here? the female seems fine and is super active, but the male just does not look happy and I would like to make him happy sooner rather than later seeing that chameleons to give you too much leeway for that. When I bought them yesterday they both appeared bright and healthy, but the male does not seem that way any longer.

Your male is very stressed from all the changes, shipping, the show, and the female! You need to separate them ASAP. The male isn't always the dominant cham in a cage. It's just not a good idea to ever house 2 chams together unless the cage is huge (like part of a room or a greenhouse). They will constantly compete for the best space, the best place to hunt, to bask, to hide, etc. She may be in better shape right now. He's trying (he did eat), but he won't do well in the long run. If you can even divide their cage with a visual barrier it will help temporarily, but you will need a permanent space where they can't see each other.

More suggestions and questions for you: What brand of "UV" light did you get? There are very few combination lights that acutally emit much UV. The brand is important. A good safe combination is a ReptiSun 5.0 fluorescent and a plain old incandescent house light bulb over your basking spot. Determine what wattage you need by setting up a basking area and measuring the temp at the perch. If it's too hot, move the light away or try a lower watt. Too cool, a larger bulb or closer. Get rid of the substrate...no reason for it and it just harbors bacteria, molds, etc. You can keep the cage humidity higher by filling the cage with live plants instead. They will want the hiding areas and can lick water off the leaf surfaces. If you have trouble finding the chams in the cage that is about right. Also, draping the back and/or sides of the cage with plastic sheeting will help with humidity and keep spray off the walls. Your cage is quite small...much too small for 2 chams.

The most important thing about chams is learning to read them visually. In a way, chams give us obvious clues to their condition...we just have to learn the language. Most chams show "bright" colors when they are upset or excited, not really happy. A sleeping cham will look quite different also. A happy cham is fairly quiet colored. Generally, the more intense their markings are the more stressed and if the stress escalates the dark parts of their pattern enlarge, the whole cham looks dark, and they shut down.

This is my setup-

The UV light is a zoo med 60 watt, which produces the heat.It was producing too much heat, so i pulled it back a bit so the hottest point is 80 degrees. I added an Eclipse natural day light Flourescent as well. The setup almost looks like its too much too me- but as you said- i can barely find the lizards, so i suppose it is good. I have 3 live plants(pothos and ficus).
I understand about the lizards giving signs of unhappiness, and I do agree the best thing to do is separate them. I am new to chameleons but Luckily, i am not an idiot; the guy who sold them to me at the show said they would be fine together in a 5 gallon glass tank (FIVE GALLON!?!?) ((AND TOGETHER?!?!))(((AND GLASS?!?!))) so i thought giving them a 20x20x20 would be more than enough, but as they are telling me, they are not happy. so i will separate them, and you have been a lot of help. I guess i will have to read up on breeding and see when to put them together to do that, further down the line. I just feel bad for lizards that are sold to people completely oblivious that would put these 2 lizards in a 5 gallon glass aquarium together, as they were told by the vendor, and wonder why they died 2 days later. I wish I would have gotten the name of the guy.

ANYWAYS...thanks a lot for the ADvice.