Caught my Chameleon eating moss

[MitzyTheLizardLady]

My veiled chameleon is 5 months old, I have had her for about 2 months now. I am a first time chameleon owner and it has been pretty stressful so far. She gets handled at least 3 times a week. She is eating a diet of crickets, super worms, some fruit.. sliced strawberry, And cut up blue berries (She loves them). Horn worms and silk worms. I am getting ready to introduce roaches. I am lightly dusting with zoo and repti calcium daily and Rep-Cal calcium with vitamin D biweekly. I run a 40 watt daylight bulb and a 5.0 repti-sun UVB View attachment 194021 View attachment 194022 bulb. She has a little dripper that I drip most of the day. I mist by hand at least 3 times a day Andi have a cool mist humidifier that I run by her own when she is shedding. She also will drink from a dropper. I have never seen her actually drink accepted for when I drop it in her mouth and she will gulp in the mist when I spray. I spray for at least 3 minutes, Until everything is dripping wet. Her facial is dark brown with white end. But I haven't seen any bowl movements since Friday. She has not been tested for parasites. She is in a large zoo med open air cage that is on my dresser the top of her cage is about 5 foot from the floor. I am located in Pennsylvania.
I had an umbrella tree in her cage previously but the water was running right through it from the dripper dripping in it so I removed it until I get a pot that doesn't lose so much water. I had the plant in a bowl and I noticed the water smelled bad so I removed it until I can resolve that problem. I replaced the plant with mossy climbing stick. Didn't dawn on me that she would eat the moss. I caught her eating the moss yesterday and have noticed that she hasn't had a bowl movement since Friday. Is there a home solution or do I need to take her to a vet??? I have stripped the sticks of the moss and have cleaned any remnants of it put of her cage. I have attached pics of her cage and of her last night when I let her out so I could stop the sticks and clean the moss out. I am attaching a pic of her last night and a pic of her set up.

 

[carol5208]

Hopefully she will pass it. I am glad you removed it. What is the big white bowl for?? If it is catching water, I would remove that also. If it fills up with water too much, if you chameleon falls in there it can drown. I would use something more shallow to catch the water, if that is what you are using it for.

 

[MitzyTheLizardLady]

I placed the bowl in there initially for the potted plant to sit in... I have been catching the drips in it from the dripper but I empty it every hour or so. Never thought of her falling in it. I have put a little cup under the drip.. thank you for bringing that to my attention. I have been noticing she has been trying to eat everything. She eats a lot... like 15 crickets a day, fruit, and a variety of worms. I caught her eating dirt a while ago out of a potted plant that I sit her on while I clean her cage. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she hasn't ingested a lot of the moss and passes it... how long should I give her to pass it before taking her to the vet.

 

[hopps31]

Welcome to the forums!
I have a few suggestions!
She definitely needs more coverage, I know you said the plant thing did not work out but they really do like to hide to feel secure. I really like pothos plants, they are easy to keep, make sure you wash both sides of the leaves before putting it in your enclosure. She needs a lay bin ASAP, she will lay even with no male present. There are many great articles on lay bins and how to make them on here if you search in the tool bar. If you are misting that much I personally would not run the humidifier, they can cause upper respiratory infections if it stays constantly moist, drying out between mistings is good. She is so cute

 

[MitzyTheLizardLady]

Welcome to the forums!
I have a few suggestions!
She definitely needs more coverage, I know you said the plant thing did not work out but they really do like to hide to feel secure. I really like pothos plants, they are easy to keep, make sure you wash both sides of the leaves before putting it in your enclosure. She needs a lay bin ASAP, she will lay even with no male present. There are many great articles on lay bins and how to make them on here if you search in the tool bar. If you are misting that much I personally would not run the humidifier, they can cause upper respiratory infections if it stays constantly moist, drying out between mistings is good. She is so cute

Thank you..she stole my heart the day I opened the box and seen her. I live in the middle of nowhere and the closest pet store that sells reptile accessories is an hour away. I'm gonna try duct taping the holes in the plant pot and stick it back in and see how that goes. I'm going to a reptile expo Saturday so I'm hoping to get some things for her cage and possibly a boyfriend for her. I just started reading up on lay pans and am in the process of gathering the supplies for that. I'm just really concerned with her not going to the bathroom. Is there a possibility that she feels like she has no privacy without the tree??. I replaced the plant with the stick all in the same day?? I don't want her to die.. I am so stressed out and worried about her

 

[hopps31]

Thank you..she stole my heart the day I opened the box and seen her. I live in the middle of nowhere and the closest pet store that sells reptile accessories is an hour away. I'm gonna try duct taping the holes in the plant pot and stick it back in and see how that goes. I'm going to a reptile expo Saturday so I'm hoping to get some things for her cage and possibly a boyfriend for her. I just started reading up on lay pans and am in the process of gathering the supplies for that. I'm just really concerned with her not going to the bathroom. Is there a possibility that she feels like she has no privacy without the tree??. I replaced the plant with the stick all in the same day?? I don't want her to die.. I am so stressed out and worried about her

I would really get the lay bin in as soon as possible, if she is looking to lay and has no place and the time passes she will get egg bound and die. She will also need a ton of privacy when laying. They really love to do everything when no one is watching, and in privacy, is she still eating fine? If she is eating about 10-15 appropriate feeders you should see fecal matter. I would also look into getting a linear tube, it is better than the coil type bulb, I use reptisun t5 5.0. If you do get a male make sure they are in separate enclosures and can not see each other.

 

[MitzyTheLizardLady]

I would really get the lay bin in as soon as possible, if she is looking to lay and has no place and the time passes she will get egg bound and die. She will also need a ton of privacy when laying. They really love to do everything when no one is watching, and in privacy, is she still eating fine? If she is eating about 10-15 appropriate feeders you should see fecal matter. I would also look into getting a linear tube, it is better than the coil type bulb, I use reptisun t5 5.0. If you do get a male make sure they are in separate enclosures and can not see each other.

Yes she is eating as much as usual... 15 crickets, some fruit (that she loves..comes right to the door as soon as she sees the dish) and a variety of worms. I haven't seen a bowl movement since I put the mossy sticks in her cage on Friday. I caught her eating the moss today and started reading up on it and I am horrified to find out it can potentially be dangerous if ingested. I'm gonna stick the plant back in and spread the fake limbs of the fake plants out more so she has some more coverage and get on the lay pan as soon as I put my little ones on the bus in the A.M.

 

[hopps31]

If you saw her eat the moss and she is eating that much, I personally feel she should have had a bowel movement by now. If it was me I would be bringing her to the vet, if she is impacted she will need help passing the moss.

 

[MitzyTheLizardLady]

If you saw her eat the moss and she is eating that much, I personally feel she should have had a bowel movement by now. If it was me I would be bringing her to the vet, if she is impacted she will need help passing the moss.

I am going to call the vet first thing in the morning... the closest vet to me that specializes in reptiles is 45 miles. I'm going to put her cage back the way it was tonight. I got a pot with no drainage so the nasty plant water won't lay in the big dish it sits in. The drip was going straight through the plant. The soil was only damp but the bowl it sits in would be full.

 

[MitzyTheLizardLady]

UPDATE!!! Put her umbrella tree back in her cage and draped her fake plants around the cage. About 5 minutes after putting her back in after rearranging it and giving her a good warm mist she had a massive bowel movement. The first part was like normal then there was a second very large portion of moss that was mucus covered. I feel so horrible that I did that to her. I am hoping that she feels better and I have all the issues solved. I asked the chick at the pet store if she thought the mossy sticks would be ok to put in her cage and she told me " I wouldn't see why not" I will not be putting anything else like that in her cage until I do my research. Thank you guys for the advice and suggestions... i really appriciate it