Constipated Graceful

[Aquarium Masters]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Graceful, not sure on the sex or age. She is 5-6" inches in body lengeth. I have had it for about 2-3 months.
Handling - Once every week to clean cage. However, I recently moved her from a 5 sided glass 24 x 24 inch habitat to a screened 24 x 24 x 36 inch habitat.
Feeding - daily crickets 10-20 depending on size.
Supplements - once a month with calcium with D3
Watering - big dripper, and spray 3 or more times a day for several minutes. Yes, I see it drinking.
Fecal Description - No poop in 10 days. Not tested for parasites.
History - none available.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - see above.
Lighting - 100w incan spot light. 24" repti 5. 12 hours on, 12 off on a timer
Temperature - 95f - 72f. humidity temp combo gauge.
Humidity - 40-80
Plants - no
Placement - in the back...little traffic. no, no, no, 7ft. from floor to top of cage
Location - south texas

Current Problem - no poop in 10 days. I am hoping this is just because I moved her into a different habitat. She is still eating quite well. I try to move the spot light to where she is in case it isn't pooping because of heat. It will move away from the light, so I stopped doing that. It will also go under a leaf so she isn't getting as much uv. I figure she has plenty of room to get what she wants and she will when she wants to. In desperation, I put a box around her cage in case the noise or activity of any kind was making her poop shy.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Sherry

 

[Carlton]

Feeding - daily crickets 10-20 depending on size.
Supplements - once a month with calcium with D3
Watering - big dripper, and spray 3 or more times a day for several minutes. Yes, I see it drinking.
Temperature - 95f - 72f. humidity temp combo gauge.
Humidity - 40-80
Plants - no

I'd speculate she's a bit dehydrated based on the move to a screen cage, no live plants in it, the relatively low cage humidity, and lack of soft bodied feeders. Check your humidity gauge...I'll bet it isn't very accurate or isn't working well.

BTW, heat won't impede pooping but dehydration will slow everything down, concentrate urates and make them harder to pass.

Your supplement schedule needs revising. You should be dusting lightly each feeding with plain calcium (no D3), using calcium with D3 once or twice a week, a herp vitamin once a month. What is your gutload? There are good commercially available types from forum sponsors...check them out.

 

[Nicolas]

Hi,

You can maybe try to inject parafin oil in the cloaca with a pipette.

 

[Nicolas]

And, i don't know the weather in your country but a sunlight exposition (the UV !) can help to defecate.

 

[ataraxia]

Do you notice a spur on the back of the rear feet?

Can we get some pics of the chameleon and cage?

Things to help her defecate.
1. As stated above. Natural sunlight can help the animal out with defection.
2. Hydration. Id try giving the chameleon more water through extra mistings or a shower chamber treatment. Horn worms or silk worms also provide extra hydration.

Your supplement schedule needs to change drastically. The life of this chameleon completely depends on it. Once a month dustings will not satisfy the needs of this animal. Plain phos free calcium should be used at most feedings and the calcium with d3 you have now should be used a couple times a month.

When you last saw a poo. What did the urates look like? White, yellow, orange?

 

[Aquarium Masters]

Thank you for everyone's feedback!!!

I missed her heavily - h e a v i ly yesterday. I am concerned that a shower would be more stressful than good, since she is already in my opinion a stressed state. I only do those once a month or longer since I read they are stressful so it isn't a regular occuring event.

I can put her outside today and see how that helps.

She is still eating crickets. Will look into ordering worms today.

I was also thinking about putting her back in her old cage since things seemed to be working better there. Again, I just don't want to stress her out more and thus prolonging the movement.

I gut load with a flukers high calcium cricket food, sometimes i throw those funky orange cubes, fish food, and rabbit food. An occassional fresh produce when I have it.

Will drastically change the calcium schedule.

 

[Aquarium Masters]

So I put her back into the glass cage and she pooped the next day!!! And boy was it a big one. I totally think it was dehydration due to the screened cage and me not uping the humidity to account for the openness of the cage.

Thank you for your support everyone.

 

[Lathelia]

Thank you for everyone's feedback!!!

I missed her heavily - h e a v i ly yesterday. I am concerned that a shower would be more stressful than good, since she is already in my opinion a stressed state. I only do those once a month or longer since I read they are stressful so it isn't a regular occuring event.

I can put her outside today and see how that helps.

She is still eating crickets. Will look into ordering worms today.

I was also thinking about putting her back in her old cage since things seemed to be working better there. Again, I just don't want to stress her out more and thus prolonging the movement.

I gut load with a flukers high calcium cricket food, sometimes i throw those funky orange cubes, fish food, and rabbit food. An occassional fresh produce when I have it.

Will drastically change the calcium schedule.

Hi, I don't know much about gracefuls, but I don't think you should be using either fish or rabbit food. Try to give your feeders some fresh veggies and friuts, your cham will benefit from it.

 

[torquasprings]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Graceful, not sure on the sex or age. She is 5-6" inches in body lengeth. I have had it for about 2-3 months.
Handling - Once every week to clean cage. However, I recently moved her from a 5 sided glass 24 x 24 inch habitat to a screened 24 x 24 x 36 inch habitat.
Feeding - daily crickets 10-20 depending on size.
Supplements - once a month with calcium with D3
Watering - big dripper, and spray 3 or more times a day for several minutes. Yes, I see it drinking.
Fecal Description - No poop in 10 days. Not tested for parasites.
History - none available.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - see above.
Lighting - 100w incan spot light. 24" repti 5. 12 hours on, 12 off on a timer
Temperature - 95f - 72f. humidity temp combo gauge.
Humidity - 40-80
Plants - no
Placement - in the back...little traffic. no, no, no, 7ft. from floor to top of cage
Location - south texas

Current Problem - no poop in 10 days. I am hoping this is just because I moved her into a different habitat. She is still eating quite well. I try to move the spot light to where she is in case it isn't pooping because of heat. It will move away from the light, so I stopped doing that. It will also go under a leaf so she isn't getting as much uv. I figure she has plenty of room to get what she wants and she will when she wants to. In desperation, I put a box around her cage in case the noise or activity of any kind was making her poop shy.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Sherry

Hmmm... I wonder if it was really hydration. It's very possible that it was stress related. I don't know about you, but when I'm in a stressful situation, my body tends to hold the waste until I relax. Just a thought.

 

[AbooLovesYOU]

Thank you for everyone's feedback!!!

I missed her heavily - h e a v i ly yesterday. I am concerned that a shower would be more stressful than good, since she is already in my opinion a stressed state. I only do those once a month or longer since I read they are stressful so it isn't a regular occuring event.

I can put her outside today and see how that helps.

She is still eating crickets. Will look into ordering worms today.

I was also thinking about putting her back in her old cage since things seemed to be working better there. Again, I just don't want to stress her out more and thus prolonging the movement.

I gut load with a flukers high calcium cricket food, sometimes i throw those funky orange cubes, fish food, and rabbit food. An occassional fresh produce when I have it.

Will drastically change the calcium schedule.

I would suggest losing the orange cubes and gutloading with fresh produce fruits and vegs. Keep everything moist and the humidity up. I hear that you said she just went. What color was the urate? Anything other than white will give you a good clue towards dehydration.... If you are thinking your cham is dehydrated, they may go downhill rapidly, so a shower would greatly help your cham, even if you think it will stress him/her out, it is better than your cham dying...