Chameleon not eating a lot and not shedding

[Bob_the_chamelon]

I have had my chameleon for a month and the first couple of days he ate quite a bit but now he's barely eating 4 crickets and he also hasn't shed yet should I be worried ?

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi and welcome. Sorry to hear your guy isn’t eating much. Not shedding for a month isn’t of much concern, but appetite decrease is. Let’s start with some pics of the entire enclosure, including lights.

 

[Bob_the_chamelon]

 

[Bob_the_chamelon]

Here is also my husbandry info:


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Species and sex= male panther chameleon
• age is around 4-5 months
• Been in my care for a month
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• i have handled him twice since I got him
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• I'm feeding him 12 crickets a day every morning
• The night before I put leafy greens and carrot with the crickets to gut load
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Calcium without d3 daily
• Multivitamin with d3 twice a month
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking
• I have an automatic mister which sprays twice a day for 2 mins
• I do see him drinking

• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• His feces is brown with a creamy white bit on the end
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• I have a wooden cage
• Dimensions are 86 × 49 × 91.5cm
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• I use the Acadia t5 pro 6% uvb bulb
• I use a ceramic heat lamp with a head guard
• These are turned on for 12hrs a day
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• the basking temp is 83 f
• The cage floor temp is 76 f
• Lowest overnight temp 67 f
• I measure these temps using a laser thermometer
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• My humidity levels are 65% during day and 95% at night
• I use a digital humidity monitor to do this
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• 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?
• My cage is located in the corner of my room near an air vent
• Top of cage is around 6ft from floor
• Location - Where are you geographically located?
• England

 

[MissSkittles]

Give me a bit of time and I’ll go thru everything.

 

[Bob_the_chamelon]

Give me a bit of time and I’ll go thru everything.

Ok thank you

 

[MissSkittles]

Sorry for the delay - 20 million interruptions later….
I’ll be putting my feedback in bold red. I’ll also be breaking this into two parts.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Species and sex= male panther chameleon
• age is around 4-5 months
• Been in my care for a month
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• i have handled him twice since I got him While panthers are generally quite chill, it is a good idea to work on building and maintaining trust with him. Here’s a great blog about that. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• I'm feeding him 12 crickets a day every morning Crickets are a good staple feeder, but adding more variety of feeders is best. I’ve no idea about how things are in the UK, but many on line vendors here is the US sell variety packs for different species, which are great.
• The night before I put leafy greens and carrot with the crickets to gut load Ok, but try adding a bit more variety. The better you feed your buggy feeders, the more nutritious they are. Do avoid kale and spinach as they bind to calcium. The different colored cubes and jellies are only good for hydration and not nutrition. Attaching some graphics below to help.
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Calcium without d3 daily
• Multivitamin with d3 twice a month Sounds perfect!
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking
• I have an automatic mister which sprays twice a day for 2 mins Also perfect
• I do see him drinking

• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• His feces is brown with a creamy white bit on the end I suggest having his poos tested for parasites. That is often one reason for chameleons not to eat well.
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

 

[MissSkittles]

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• I have a wooden cage
• Dimensions are 86 × 49 × 91.5cm Now this is where I rain on your parade. Looking at your enclosure, I have concerns about the placement of the ventilation. In order for there to be a good or adequate flow of air, the vent holes need to be near the bottom and then some on the very top to create a chimney effect. Without decent airflow, the humidity can not only build up, but the air is more stagnant and both of these can increase risks for respiratory infections. I don’t know if you can perhaps drill some small holes in the panel below the glass door. The size is a bit shorter than the recommended 120cm, but your 86cm width seems adequate compensation.
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• I use the Acadia t5 pro 6% uvb bulb Excellent, but do be careful with your uvb and heat on the inside of your enclosure. Generally the distance from uvb light to basking is about 21cm, but that takes into account aluminum screen’s reduction of uv output. @Beman is much more knowledgeable about uvb placement than I and probably knows the desired distance from light to basking area.
• I use a ceramic heat lamp with a head guard
• These are turned on for 12hrs a day perfect
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• the basking temp is 83 f
• The cage floor temp is 76 f
• Lowest overnight temp 67 f
• I measure these temps using a laser thermometer All of your temps are great, but I do advise also using a digital thermometer with a wired probe end to double check/confirm. The laser thermometer can only measure solid objects and not the air space where your guy sits.
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• My humidity levels are 65% during day and 95% at night Excellent again
• I use a digital humidity monitor to do this
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? I need to rain on your parade again…sorry. I love all of the branches that you have for your guy to travel, but he has little shaded areas or places to hide or sleep in. My advice…get a couple (or few) of pothos plants, sit them on the floor of the enclosure and let their vines grow upwards. The leaves will grow bigger, the higher they grow and eventually create a wonderful forest for your beauty. For a pop of color, tradescantia zebrina is very nice and easy to grow. Spider plants are also a nice accent. These plants grow quickly and with little fuss and no need for a plant light.
• 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?
• My cage is located in the corner of my room near an air vent
• Top of cage is around 6ft from floor perfect
• Location - Where are you geographically located?
• England

The few changes I advise would really have little to nothing to do with why he isn’t eating much…except for getting him tested for parasites. Usually that also means a vet visit, which isn’t a bad idea. *I don’t know how your vets are, but some here give meds for parasites without even testing and that is not at all good and for some animals, can be dangerous. Just have to give that caution. Another reason for not eating well could be the size of your feeders. If they are too large, he can’t eat them. You have everything else pretty near perfect, so you probably already know that anything larger than the space between his eyes is too big for him to eat.
About shedding, each sheds on their own timeline and usually by their growth at his age. When little, they often do full body sheds as quick as you can literally turn around. As they start getting older and nearing their adult size, they shed less often and as adults will shed in body parts…a leg here, the tail there, etc.

 

[Bob_the_chamelon]

Thank you for the information I will be getting more plants and taking him to the vet. also my enclosure has two vents at the bottom and 3 at the top would this be ok ?

 

[MissSkittles]

Thank you for the information I will be getting more plants and taking him to the vet. also my enclosure has two vents at the bottom and 3 at the top would this be ok ?

Excellent! I don’t see the bottom vents, but as long as they are there and unobstructed, it should be okay. Do keep a close eye on humidity, which should kind of give a gauge of ventilation. I didn’t ask about the substrate. Is it fully bioactive? Is there a drainage layer, clean up crew and all that goodness?

 

[Bob_the_chamelon]

Yep it is fully bio active with drainage layer and a clean up crew.

I took him to the vet and a sample of his poop and he does have parasites unfortunately but they gave me some medicine so he should be on the mend soon.

Thank you so much for your help I really appreciate it.

 

[MissSkittles]

Wow! You’re super quick! What parasite did they find?
For your bioactive, I suggest adding a healthy layer of some leaf litter and a chunk of cork bark or two to provide not only some food for your clean up crew, but hiding places. My chameleons love hunting their isopods.

 

[Beman]

Hey there so unfortunately the T5HO and the bulb options you have are really hard to put inside an enclosure. I highly advice cutting out the top of the cage and hooking aluminum window screen to it. This not only will allow for you to put your T5HO and your basking on top of the cage at a safe distance from the cham but will help with air flow.

Having the UVB in the cage means you have to have at least 12 inches between where the bottom of the fixture sits and the closest branch below it to put the cham in the correct 3 uvi. The closer they can get to the bulb they become high risk for over exposure levels.

With the fixture on top of the cage and having aluminim window screen below it. This will allow for the needed reduction in output. Then your distance from the screen is 8-9 inches to the branch. Same 3 UVI would be the exposure level. This method not only is safer because you are able to control how close they can actually get but pulls the bulk of the heat out of the cage with added airflow.

The CHI heater can be extremely dangerous with chams. Not only do they produce extremely hot temps but they can cause some severe thermal burns. Having any heat fixture in a cage with a cham is dangerous even if in a protective surround like you have it. Because most will climb on these and burn their belly and feet pads.

Remove the tape asap... Tape and chams do not go together and I have seen some horrific images of chams that end up sticking to tape and losing their skin. Use tiny zip ties to secure things.

 

[MzLaurie]

Well Bob has gotten some great advice! He is ready to start molting on the lower portion of him any day now. You don’t need to help him they are dry sheders once full grown, they rarely shed the entire body at once. The only times you need to help is if stuck shed is at the tip of the tail or around a leg joint.

 

[Bob_the_chamelon]

Thank you for the help everyone I have implemented all the changes I was told about and also bob has thankfully started eating properly again