Chameleon Falls Down

[Tionalynell]

Chameleon Info:

Chameleon - Veiled, Male, 7 months old. He has been in my care for 6 months. Name's Cosmo.
Handling - 1x Week
Feeding - Wax Worms, Giant Mealworms, Crickets, 5xWaxworms 7xGiants Mealworms 9xCrickets(every other day). All-in-one (green cube) gut-load.
Supplements - Exo Terra Multi-Vitamin, Repti-Calcium(w/o d3), Every other day(coating crickets)
Watering - Drip system. Mist 2x daily(after heat lamp is warm and mid day). Have in the past, haven't paid attention recently. He drinks straight from the hose opening connected to the dripper jug. Water conditioned with Repti-Safe.
Fecal Description - Brown, white urate. I bought him from Petco so not sure as to whether or not he was tested for parasites.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Glass on 4 sides, Screen top. 16"tall 3'wide 1'deep {I'm aware of it being small but I am building him a very nice 6' tall terrarium that will be ready in about 2 weeks(I am also aware of what a proper, safe terrarium consists of)}. At night I keep a blanket over cage to maintain temp.
Lighting - Zoo Med Mini Combo Deep Dome Lamp Fixture, 100 Watts Basking Spot and 5.0 UVB. 7:30am-10:30pm(on).
Temperature - Cage floor 70°f Directly under basking lamp 95°f. Lowest overnight temp 60°f.
Humidity - 45%during day, 65%nightly.
Plants - Live and plastic plants. Live plants- ficus benjamina, pothos, fern, umbrella plant.
Placement - Corner of bedroom. Very low traffic(only go in during the day to feed him. 3 feet off of ground.
Location - Bellingham, WA

Current Problem - He has been falling over lately. He was walking on the floor of his cage and fell over several times. Someone please help! I'm worried sick about my little man.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

How old is your UVB bulb? The usual dusting schedule is calcium w/o d3 everyday, calcium with d3 2x a month, and multivitamins 2x a month, I wish you had got a proper cage before getting the chameleon, but alot of petstores misinform people.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Also mealworms are a treat, not a staple.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Forgot to mention too that 95 is way too hot, try in the mid to upper 80's.

 

[lindawaz]

Welcome to the forums!

I have attached a care sheet that explains many things for your Chams health and well being
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/chameleonsinmyhouse/395-veiled-chameleon-care-sheet.html

also your feeders need to be gutloaded with more than the cube
Here is a link to sandrachameleons blog
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

Yes, that cage is way to small for your cham. I am very happy you know this and are going to fix that asap

 

[Elizadolots]

Welcome. I'm so sorry your guy is doing poorly.

You're going to get some pushback on that enclosure. Typically, this board recommends a cage that is significantly taller than it is wide. Chameleons like to climb up. The board typically recommends a screen or mesh enclosure to give better ventilation.

With the set up you have now, you can improve your ventilation by moving the lights all the way to one end of the top, that will create an "airstream" where air is pulled from the "cool side" and exits the "hot side".

Regardless of whether you decide to stay with the "tank" concept or move on to a taller mesh enclosure, I do think what you have is too small for the animal now. It was probably fine when he was little, but normally we suggest a minimum cage size of 2 foot x 2 foot and 4 feet tall (much bigger, huh?).

I think your basking spot is a bit warm. I'd get it down between 88 and 90.

How old is your bulb? If it's more than 6 months old, you might want to replace it. There is significant drop off of UVB production over time and it seems possible that lack of UVB might be contributing to the problem.

Congratulations on getting the calcium without the D3. That's usually something people miss. Does your multi-vitamin have D3? He does need to get some D3. I think twice a month is normally recommended.

You're also going to get a lot of pushback on your cricket food. This board really believes in high quality, varied gutload with nutrition coming from lots of different ingredients.

He's a beautiful animal and I'm so happy you are trying to help him.

You'll get a lot of advice here. Some of it might seem to conflict. Just try to sort it out the best you can and, if in doubt, ask a moderator. While there are many people who are experts here, it's sometimes hard for a new person to know who's an expert and who just posts a lot. The moderators are not only highly experienced with chameleons, they have a good feel for who on the board is also highly experienced.

 

[Tionalynell]

Wow thank you all for the fast response and great info! I am definitely going to building his new cage as fast as possible and will hopefully have it done a few days earlier than expected. His new cage will be very large (4ft wide by 6ft tall) and have 3 screen sides with a vent top. I think once he's in his new home things will go much more smooth. I'll cut his multivitamins down to 2xmonthly and try to raise his heat lamp a bit to cut down on the heat intake of little Cosmo. So would it be wise to continue giving him the calcium(w/o D3) on his crickets every other day or should that be cut down as well?

 

[Elizadolots]

It sounds like you have a good plan. You can give the calcium w/out D3 every day. That's not going to be a problem. You do need to make sure some D3 is in the supplement schedule though. As I said, twice a month is sort of the board standard.