Little brown cham

[Liz]

I have been asked for advice about a young male veiled chameleon who is always brown apart from when he is sleeping?

In my oppinion this is not normal...I have established that he is not cold, infact his basking temp of 90 is probably a bit excessive for such a young cham. I also have been told that he is not being pestered by people or other pets. He does not appear to have a lot of greenery (perhaps more would make him feel safer). All oppinions and suggestions would be very helpful. What are your thoughts on this please? Do you think he may just be taking his time settling in or do you think he may be ill? He is eating and drinking as far as I can assertain.

[kez]

hi Liz i found this on a web site

Their color is variable, but usually consists of a green or turquoise body with yellow, orange, blue, tan, brown, or black blotches and stripes. Like all true chameleons, veiled chameleons will change color depending on their mood and surrounding environment. An angry or scared veiled chameleon can turn a dark brown or black color with yellow and green blotches, while one that is relaxed will stay a solid light green with occasional blue, tan, or yellow spots and stripes.

this is the web site i got it from
posting.php?mode=reply&f=18&t=113

also i found reading a few other sites they go on about using a UVB in the setup

hope this helps kez xx

[Liz]

Thanks Kez for you imput on this. That information does confirm that brown is not the colour you want a young cham to be. I hope that we get a few more oppinions.....Are there any cham owners out their who have had young chams that take more than 2 - 3 days to settle into a new enclosure?

[Liz]

For anyone who was following this thread the little cham did eventually settle in and turned back to a healthy green colour. Poor little thing must have been very stressed by the move to have stayed brown for so long! Some chams do stress over things more than others and they all react to things differently. Chams are quite funny in just how much they like things to be consistant and familiar.....When rescuing chams from a bad situation it is even sometimes advisable not to change everything straight away, even for the better because they do not understand whats happening. New things need to be introduced slowly if a cham is already under the weather. The best environment for a stressy cham apart from the correct temps lighting etc is a dark coloured viv with lots of greenery to hide in.