Chameleon looks really skinny ><

[Twale]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male Veiled Chameleon about 2 1/2 years old (adopted last september, so i'm still kinda new to this)

Handling - twice a month

Feeding - 5-8 Large crickets daily with the occasional super worm.

Supplements - Zilla Calcium supplement spray twice weekly and Zilla Vitamin Supplement spray once weekly

Watering - Drip cup (cup with holes in the bottom) at the top of his cage biweekly and hand misting multiple times daily.
Fecal Description - Dark brown with some white in it, normal consistency.
History - I've been putting crickets in his cage every day and have been noticing a lot of crickets just hanging around near the top of his enclosure where he is. I've also been noticing dead crickets at the bottom of his cage, telling me he is not eating. Sometimes i'll see him looking really skinny, i can see his ribs! His teeth are black and i noticed he is not really chewing his food (when i hand feed him) and instead swallowing whole.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Reptibreeze XL

Lighting - 2 100wat zoomed nightlight red bulbs and 1 100W Powersun

Temperature - Basking 75-85 (its winter here), ambient day 60-80. Lowest overnight temp 68F. Measure temp with zoo med reptitemp .

Humidity - 40-70% (cant afford a mister so i only do it by hand :/ )

Plants - Schefflera plant, fills his cage nicely with multiple wood bars and vines wrapping around.

Placement - Cage sits on the ground in upstairs living room away from window (it gets colder at night).

Location - Bowie, Md

Current Problem - Becoming thin, showing ribs. Not eating as much as he used to. Swallowing whole when he does eat. (also i haven't seen him drink for a couple weeks even though i put water up for him.) Also, he isn't always this skinny, sometimes he puffs back up into a normal size, but lately i've been seeing him looking really skinny more often.. I don't know if thats just a way they bask or something.

Thanks for any help i can get!

 

[Lathelia]

Hi,
5-8 crickets daily is quite a lot actually. If he looks like this from time to time, it's ok. They do that to look thiner/smaller in order to hide from potential predator (you ). I would take his fecal to vet, in order to check for parasites.
Also, you don't need the night light, they need dark and lower temps at night.

Edit: I just saw you wrote it gets cold at night. You can get a heat emitter to keep him warmer at night, if it gets below 60.

 

[Twale]

Thank you! ha ha I was pretty worried!

And since i haven't seen him drink anything for a while, i tried giving him some water through a clean syringe, and he drank quite a lot! (I made sure to give him time to swallow each time and he'd come back for more.) so i'm thinking maybe he was a bit dehydrated too? I dunno.. but i'll invest in a heat emitter for sure!

 

[SaintJimmy]

He looks quite normal. I love their amazing ability to get fat, flat, skinny, long, curl their tails, ect.

Usually they get skinny like that when they climb around, and fat and flat when they're basking.

 

[Benclark]

I know this post is seven years old but It just saved me form a panic attack.