constipation, possibly not basking

[John33871]

well i havnt noticed my lil guy leaving any dumps for a few days now. he has been eating just fine, 10 to 15 crickets a day. he is a 4 to 5 month old male veiled. his basking temps is 90 and other temps around 85 to 75. he has a repti glo 10.0. anyone with any ideas? one think i have noticed is that i have not seen him basking as much, and maybe the food is not being digested correctly, but im not positive because i havent been around him enough to tell. i have him outside right now to see if that will help at all. any help would be appreciated thanks again

 

[John33871]

well, i just found a single dropping in his food dish, but thats all i could find. he is also looking a little pale, im not sure if that means he is going to shed soon or somethin else. anyways anyone with any comments? thanks

 

[Fate X]

is the temp dropping at night?i drop the temp at night to around 70.

 

[John33871]

yeah it gets to around 75 or below for sure

 

[Tygerr]

What are you using to supplement and gutload the insects you are feeding your cham?

Does he have any access to substrate material in the cage that he might have swallowed (e.g. soil in the pot plants in the cage)?

You said you found a dropping in his food dish. Where is the food dish located, and what sort of dish is it?

A picture or two of your set-up and your chameleon might be helpful.

 

[John33871]

What are you using to supplement and gutload the insects you are feeding your cham?
~Calcium with D3 M W & F, and Herptivite TR & Sat. The crickets are
gutloaded with wildeye reptile's gutload, i dont think they sell it anymore tho, and the crickets also have Fluker's cricket quencher calcium fortified

Does he have any access to substrate material in the cage that he might have swallowed (e.g. soil in the pot plants in the cage)?
~yes he does, the ficus and pothos plants are both in potting soil, and when
i first got him he did eat some of the dirt, but hasn't for atleast a month.

You said you found a dropping in his food dish. Where is the food dish located, and what sort of dish is it?
~the food dish is located in the middle of his cage close to the door. the
dish is from a glad plastic container with green electrical tape around it,
but not around the rim where the lid would cover it. i used this with my
last chameleon because he would shoot at the side of the clear container
so i put the tape around it so he could only see the crickets from up top.

 

[John33871]

more pictures, he really hates my cell phone. anyways i took the pictures with my cell phone. my girlfriend has my camera and i will get it back and take better pictures. thanks again for any help

 

[John33871]

comments, sorry just wanted to bump this thread

 

[Tygerr]

The photos were a bit small to see any detail, but from what I could see, there wasn't anything glaringly obvious that would cause the constipation problem you are having, given that your lighting and temps seem ok.

Are those all live plants in there? A bite of a plastic one could easily lead to impaction. But even live plants sometimes have hard leaves that are more difficult to digest (think bran in human terms), and this could cause some blockage.
Also, you may not have seen him eat any soil recently, but it just takes one stone to get lodged in the intestinal tract to cause impaction.

You did say you saw one dropping in the food bowl. Do you know when that was from?

If he goes for more than 4-5 days without leaving any droppings, I would take him to a vet and have him examined. It's really not normal for them not to be regular.

If he is in fact leaving droppings, but irregularly, or his droppings are looking dry and without urates, he could be experiencing a genuine constipation problem caused by his diet and/or a lack of hydration.
Try increasing his watering a bit, and feeding him easily-digestable, moisture-laden foods to try make his diet a little easier to process. Silkworms would be an ideal feeder for this.

What are you using to supplement and gutload the insects you are feeding your cham?
~Calcium with D3 M W & F, and Herptivite TR & Sat.

You should get some pure calcium WITHOUT added vitamin D3, and use that at most feedings. Vitamin D3 can build up in the cham's system leading to problems associated with overdosing. Young chameleons can be given calcium with Vit. D3 twice a week, but with a cham your age I would slow that down to about once a week. Also, the more natural, unfiltered sunshine your cham gets, the less Vit. D3 you need to provide.
The multi-vitamin supplement can also be slowed down to about once a week.

 

[John33871]

ok ill get some calcium without d3 today. my plants are all real. i do have one fake vine inside. the droping must have been from tuesday. i think i may take him to the vet tomarrow. about the silkworms, i dont think i would be able to get those here until at least tuseday. does petsmart or petco sell anything that you think would be easier to digest? thanks for your help so my tygerr. i just dont understand tho, he is eating perfectly fine, i have noticed now that he is basking, and he seems to be moving around good. could it be possible for the chameleon to change its pooping place. i dont know where ive heard this but someone or some cite said they will go in the same place at the same time. this possible maybe and i just havnt seen it?

 

[John33871]

Constipation update

well i finally found his new pooing location. he has started pooing inside his pothos plant dish. i guess he wanted to fertilize it or something. anyways i have been posting the last week in the thread "constipation, possibly not basking". i was concerned that my little guy was constipated but right when i started looking in his cage for it i found it. i pulled the pothos plant out and man there was about two weeks worth of poo in there. i got it all cleaned out and im glad i dont have to take him to the vet

 

[Brad]

It is good to hear your chameleon is not constipated like you first thought. Constipation is usually caused by impaction. For future readers that are new to chameleons, here are a few ways to help prevent impaction:

• proper basking temperatures
• appropriate amount and size of food
• keep your chameleon well hydrated

 

[John33871]

thanks for the help brad, i will take a look at those. thanks again