Chameleon is not eating and now has something on tail

[stsutton]

Our chameleon was being watched by some friends while we are gone for a month. He is at least 3 years old (we got him from someone else). He used to eat 2-3 crickets a day (they are fed the orange cubes from fluckers and dusted with the calcium and d3 powder) and would hunt them immediately but for about 2 weeks now he has stopped eating. It happened while we were gone and he wasn’t moving much and very light colored.
We switched his bulb and heat light and increased humidity and he has perked up but still not eating. He is moving around and does look better but now I see something on his tail. I have seen him drink and poop and both look normal.
Any reason why he would stop eating? I have read forums and am thinking about using polysporin on his tail. I’ve beem cleaning it off with water and took him outside today for some sunlight.
The other thing I have wondered is if he is a he? Bc I read about egg binding and started wondering about that issue bc he doesn’t look smaller without eating. His belly is still full looking.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Kristen99]

Okay wait I'm so confused.. that chameleon is no way 3 years old and is most definitely not a male.
You have a vary thin dehydrated possibly sick chameleon. You need to do some research on vailed chameleons and their husbandry and get that poor thing to a vet.

 

[Kristen99]

Please fill out the how to ask for help form. Copy and past and fill out every question. You have a lot you need to fix just on what I can see from your enclosure picture.

 

[Harry The Cham]

It looks like SHE is getting ready to shed but you say you tried to put water and polysporn on it and shed would have crumpled when you tried that. Your Cham looks very dehydrated and in need of a good look by an exotic vet. Male veiled chameleons have spurs on there back feet here are pictures of my male. Keep in mind your chameleon should be very green since it is a girl. The first two picture are the spurs

 

[stsutton]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon -
• veiled chameleon, I was told it was a boy but I have been researching and now I'm not sure. We have had him for 6 months and before that he belonged to a family for 3 years. We had to be gone for a month so we had a friend watch him at their house for us.
• Handling - Before this he would hiss or bite at you so minimally. The other family would hold him but I didn't want to stress him so I was just touching slowly and working up to holding. Now I can hold him and he doesn't react.
• Feeding - Crickets mainly unless we run out and then super worms. He was eating 3-4 a day in the morning. Crickets are given flukes orange cubes and dusted with repticalcium with vitamin d
• Supplements -Crickets are given flukes orange cubes and dusted with repticalcium with vitamin d
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? We have a dripper and just added a reptile humidifier when we got him back two weeks ago and he had stopped eating. I also hand mist leaves each day. I have seen him drink even though he wasn't eating.
• Fecal Description - I saw him poop over the weekend and it had brown and white but was slightly runny. no testing that i know of
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. before we had him they did not feed him nearly as much. They did 3-6 crickets every other day or so because they didn't think he needed more. I started giving him more because I read and knew he needed more and he ate it.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? screen Dimensions are probably 2x3
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? we just bought a new light because I read about the light bulbs going bad and I'm not sure when the last one was changed before us. He did appear to perk up and is moving around more after that.
  ZOO MED, Tropical Reptile UVB and Heat Lighting Kit
  It is on a timer and both goes off at night so that it is dark for 12 hours each
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? I don't know the ranges but the temp stays in the 70's. in the evening 71 or 72 and during the day 74 or 75. He has a basking area on the limbs to climb nearer to the bulb which would be warmer.
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? humidity is 60's constantly. When this started the friend had it lower like 50 and I had them start misting more and we added the humidifier
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? no
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? it is in an office on a cabinet. Low traffic area no fans generally on
• Location - Where are you geographically located? We live in Texas

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Again he suddenly stopped eating while we were gone and was lethargic and very light colored. hasn't eaten that I can tell for 2 weeks but is drinking and moving around and more active. I did see him try to grab a worm once last week but it didn't stick to his tongue or he missed slightly. I have noticed on his tail a spot this week and haven't put anything on it yet but plan to today after reading posts. I bought polysporin.
He shed a month ago but now had a little shedding around his neck again so not sure if he is going to shed again this quickly. hopefully that covered it. Vets are very expensive and so I am trying to help him the best I can. I really am doing the best I can so please don't just say take him to the vet. I will see if that is an option but not sure if we can honestly.

 

[stsutton]

This is his actual gauge readings in the mornings. The one that is in the enclosure picture doesn’t work we just never pulled it out from his previous owner bc it is attached to the top of the fake vine.

 

[stsutton]

Update: I can take him to a vet tomorrow but everywhere is closed today. I am helping him drink with my finger on his mouth with water on it. He took water this way. I tried putting him on the dish with a worm and he tried to eat but his tongue won’t stick I’m guessing bc of the dehydration. I will keep trying to get water down him. Is there a way to do this until I can get him to a vet?
I did just find out that the people who were watching him forgot to put the blue drops in the water one day so that might have started all this. Thanks for any suggestions to get him water.

 

[Bettina]

use a pipette or a single-use-injection. In Europe we get it in any pharmacy. Or a straw. And please give her some soil, maybe she needs to lay eggs and wants to dig.

 

[jamest0o0]

Your husbandry needs some adjusting. The chameleon is very dehydrated as others have mentioned. No intention to be rude, but wording like "I mist once a day" isn't descriptive enough. These are primary areas of chameleon care and need to be in depth. A proper misting schedule should have around 12-20min of misting a day depending on certain factors. Foggers should only be used at night when lights are off and aren't all that necessary for veileds. Misting systems are so much more important. A CFL uvb is almost useless, you're going to want a linear uvb bulb. Your supplement schedule and gutloading is off. Those flukers cubes/dry food are useless for gutloading. A proper gutload includes a wide range of organic veggies, seeds, nuts, greens, etc. There are lists here. Supplementing should be plain calcium no d3 every feeding(you are trying to balance the calc : phos ratio, most insects have much higher amounts of phosphorus). D3 calc used 2x a month every other week alternating with a vitamin supplement such as reptivite 2x a month.

I really don't mean to offend, but this chameleon is suffering. I would not hold him unless absolutely necessary, any handling is going to push him closer to the edge at this point. Your enclosure need changing. Way more horizontal branches, especially higher up(they climb trees!), live plants(veileds eat vegetation, imo they need live plants), and also the moss at the bottom is unnecessary and likely more problematic than helpful.

 

[stsutton]

use a pipette or a single-use-injection. In Europe we get it in any pharmacy. Or a straw. And please give her some soil, maybe she needs to lay eggs and wants to dig.

I was looking at that as an option but everything I see says it has to be a trash bucket size. How does that go in her cage? Love to see pics of a similar size cage and egg laying bins. I tried the pipette without much success but I’ll try again in a bit so I don’t stress him or her out too much.
Thank you!!

 

[stsutton]

Your husbandry needs some adjusting. The chameleon is very dehydrated as others have mentioned. No intention to be rude, but wording like "I mist once a day" isn't descriptive enough. These are primary areas of chameleon care and need to be in depth. A proper misting schedule should have around 12-20min of misting a day depending on certain factors. Foggers should only be used at night when lights are off and aren't all that necessary for veileds. Misting systems are so much more important. A CFL uvb is almost useless, you're going to want a linear uvb bulb. Your supplement schedule and gutloading is off. Those flukers cubes/dry food are useless for gutloading. A proper gutload includes a wide range of organic veggies, seeds, nuts, greens, etc. There are lists here. Supplementing should be plain calcium no d3 every feeding(you are trying to balance the calc : phos ratio, most insects have much higher amounts of phosphorus). D3 calc used 2x a month every other week alternating with a vitamin supplement such as reptivite 2x a month.

I really don't mean to offend, but this chameleon is suffering. I would not hold him unless absolutely necessary, any handling is going to push him closer to the edge at this point. Your enclosure need changing. Way more horizontal branches, especially higher up(they climb trees!), live plants(veileds eat vegetation, imo they need live plants), and also the moss at the bottom is unnecessary and likely more problematic than helpful.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m not offended bc i am doing my best and only had him for six months and didn’t want to change too much too fast since he has been happy for two years the other way. The fact that he has a dripper and humidifier I think should give adequate misting with me misting his leaves at least once a day but generally more. The dripper drips on the leaves and i mist them so they stay wet and there is a little collection at the bottom for him to drink out of if need be. Plus his humidity stays in the 60% range. I say adequate normally obviously, right now it’s not.
The moss statement is interesting bc everything I have seen and rad says that is needed to help with moisture and humidity. So I’m curious to see what others say. I really believe he took a turn while we were gone and so I’m going to do my best to get him/her healthy again ASAP. Just hoping I’m not too late. This is the exact light setup we just got this week so please let me know what you mean about bulbs. Is this correct? https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Trop...ocphy=9027246&hvtargid=pla-307994145569&psc=1
Thank you!

 

[stsutton]

I was looking at that as an option but everything I see says it has to be a trash bucket size. How does that go in her cage? Love to see pics of a similar size cage and egg laying bins. I tried the pipette without much success but I’ll try again in a bit so I don’t stress him or her out too much.
Thank you!!

We added a limb when we got him back two weeks ago and I have been researching live plant options but Was waiting until we see what happens. Thanks for the feedback on that. Also if you can suggest a product or products that I can buy for gutloading i would appreciate. I need somewhat simple bc I have two small kids two dogs and work in ministry so not sure I can commit to “feeding” crickets multiple things and had been told the orange cubes would be good.

 

[jamest0o0]

This chameleon is on the brink of death and is due to long term poor husbandry. I don't know what others here you want to hear from. Anyone with experience is going to tell you the same thing. You are saying you "think" things, but you weren't aware of the gender and your enclosure set up implies you'd be best to take people's advice here. Chameleons need misting for eye hydration, stimulation to drink, skin, etc. A fogger and dripper don't provide that very well. Based on the look of your chameleon, he is clearly not getting close to enough water.

These are animals that require investing time and money, if you can't even gutload your crickets this is probably not the animal for you.

 

[jamest0o0]

One thing I would do immediately. Place chameleon on a plant in the shower. Let shower run hitting wall with just small droplets landing on the cham. Leave it run for at least an hour... this will help with an immediate boost in hydration. I'd also purchase some hornworms. There are plenty of places online

 

[stsutton]

One thing I would do immediately. Place chameleon on a plant in the shower. Let shower run hitting wall with just small droplets landing on the cham. Leave it run for at least an hour... this will help with an immediate boost in hydration. I'd also purchase some hornworms. There are plenty of places online

Thanks!

 

[Bettina]

I was looking at that as an option but everything I see says it has to be a trash bucket size. How does that go in her cage? Love to see pics of a similar size cage and egg laying bins. I tried the pipette without much success but I’ll try again in a bit so I don’t stress him or her out too much.
Thank you!!

Well, I'm from Austria, Europe, and we have very strict regulations according the size of an enclosure, and it has to be big, really big. Sorry I cannot be of any help, but sometimes if the females have to lay eggs and cannot, they hold it back untill they die. But I really hope you can help her somehow.

 

[andrearamirezo91]

Hey! I’m not an expert at all but I have been trying to participate on this forum as much as possible as well as doing reading on my own and based on everything I have learned so far James is right, and I have seen many other people on the forum share the same information.

When I bought my chameleon I also bought the Fluker’s Orange cubes, thinking these would be good for gut loading. Many people on this form explained to me that these were not good for that purpose, and if that is still not enough when I took him to the vet he instantly told me that the orange cubes were basically useless when it came to making crickets more nutritious for the Chamaeleon. He said that if anything they might just help to keep your crickets alive for longer and then basically told me that I might as well just throw them away. He’s also right about the whole supplementing schedule thing. Make sure she is getting her calcium without D3 every day, calcium with D3 every two weeks, alternating with a multivitamin. I have also read that substrates are not the best idea when it comes to Chamaeleons. They cannot spit out and if they accidentally swallow something that is not food they might be in trouble. Plus keeping the enclosure clean with all that moss in the bottom must be a pain! Between the feeders that die and get lost in there, the poop, and the water it must be hard to keep up with. Live plants really help keep humidity up in your enclosure.

I really am not an expert in the subject and still have a lot to learn, but I suggest being open to what people on this forum have to say. A lot of them are very helpful. I wish you the best of luck and I hope your baby girl gets better soon

 

[Johnnyjames572]

I personally don’t think you Cham is gravid. But I could be wrong. I’m in no way an expert. But you said her poop was runny,her color is off, she’s dehydrated and not eating. First thing I would do is check for parasites. Specially since she hasn’t been checked.

 

[stsutton]

Thanks for the advice from everyone. Totally not being defensive if that’s how I came off my apologies. I’m showering her now and seems ok with that. We got him/her from a family who didn’t take the best care and so I have been trying to research since we got him/her six months ago and slowly changed things up bc I didn’t want to put it into shock and stress it out. If I can get it through the next few days and past this dehydration then I will start figuring out gutloading. I just was hoping there was an easy way bc it seems overwhelming. But I’m not unwilling, I promise.
The gender thing I never even thought of bc the family said it was a boy. Then I started researching bc of the not eating and I realized I don’t see any spurs and started doubting it. Hopefully I can get it to the vet tomorrow morning and get some definitive answers.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

@stsutton please stop “thinking.” You are here because you do not know what you are doing. Your Cham will die very soon if you don’t swallow your pride and start following James’ instructions. No deviations. It’s okay to have some husbandry that needs fixing, what is not ok is willful ignorance. We are trying to help you and your Cham!