Docile chameleon. What could cause this?

G

Gizzy The Veiled

New Member
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - veiled chameleon. I purchased him in October 2017 as a baby. I was told Gizzy was a female, but have determined he is actually male
  • Handling - once or twice a week. He will sometimes come to the door when I'm cleaning and climb on to my hand, so I'll take him out for a bit
  • Feeding - the only thing I have been able to get him to eat is crickets. Gutload with repashy super load
  • Supplements - exoterra calcium and d3.
  • Watering - I have a humidifier on during the day. Also mist the cage twice a day. I do see him drinking pretty much daily
  • Fecal Description - most recent urate (from early this morning) was white. Feces was brown. Looks healthy.
  • History - he damaged his tongue when he was very young and now does not have full striking ability. I have a small container in his enclosure that I put the crickets in. He's still able to hunt them, but they aren't able to move too far away from him

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - combo - both glass and screen enclosure. 24 inches wide, 18 inches deep, 24 inches high
  • Lighting - I have a basking bulb and UVA bulb in a dome fixture about 6 inches above his basking branch. The lights are on from 830am to 930pm on a timer
  • Temperature - basking area is between 90 and 95 degrees. The bottom of the tank ranges from 75 to 85 degrees depending what side of the tank
  • Humidity - stays between 50 and 60%
  • Plants - I have not introduced live plants in to the enclosure
  • Placement - The enclosure is located in the space bedroom, with minimal traffic. It is 18 inches above the floor.
  • Location - Tiny, Ontario, Canada

I'm glad I found this forum, and I'm hoping someone can give me a little insight. I wont be able to get in to a vet until tomorrow or Tuesday.

Starting Thursday night Gizzy started sleeping in weird positions. She was sleeping upside down (all four feet holding on to the underside of a vine). He also appeared to be using vines/plants underneath him as kind of a hammock. Friday he was eating well and drinking.

Friday night he was sleeping on his hammock perch, but almost on his side. I thought this was odd, but in the morning he was back up in the vines.

Saturday he was moving around fine and drinking. I didnt see him eat, but a couple of the crickets in his container were missing.

Saturday night he was again hanging on the underside of a vine and using the vine underneath for support

Today, he was down on the bottom of his enclosure, awake, but kind of lying on his side again. I opened up the enclosure and took him out. He was very "tired" and kind of lathargic. He didnt move around at all, but had a strong grip on my fingers. When the dogs came in to the rooms, he didnt care, and normally he will try to hide behind my hand from them.

His colouring has not changed at all through any of this. He has been a vibrant green the whole time.

I know something is wrong, but I dont know what it is

Hoping for some insight
 
239513
 
Hello welcome to the forums :) It sounds like MBD I hope I’m wrong though. You have some things in your husbandry that need fixed. First off is he needs to be in a bigger enclosure than what he’s in right now. A male veiled chameleon needs bare minimum a 24x24x48 sized enclosure.

Your lighting is inadequate they need linear light bulb fixtures that go across the whole cage for uvb and uva. A T5HO light fixture is what is recommended. Also his basking temperature is a little on the high side it shouldn’t be any higher than 90.
2D337F79-527D-492B-840F-7A3A7F41A59A.jpeg

You should not be fogging during the day either. Heat from the lighting fixtures and high humidity is a recipe for Respiratory Infections. Only fog during the late evening, early mornings or middle of the night. You want humidity to be around 30-50% during the day and 90-100% at night.

I’d also look into getting a more balanced feeder selection with more variety of gutloading materials. I know you said he eats only crickets but you need to try to get him to eat other insects gutloaded with more than just repashy superload. I’ll post some care images below for some good options on feeders and what to gutload them with.
29D69EFE-4C16-44BC-A1F2-9E29882DEAE2.jpeg 0DD95F87-4A91-499D-80F4-AF3ACCA16432.jpeg
 
try to get the little dude outside for some natural unfiltered sunlight and look for a linear High Output T5 UVB asap light to go across the top of the enclosure.

Don't give up on other feeders worms and bsfl are easy to feed off and are less of escape artists than crickets. (Unless the bsfl get wet then they are pretty much Spiderman)

As mentioned above cricket crack is a highly nutritious gut load mix that can help support the nutritional value of your feeder insects.
53581825_2082435731806067_7881559790420230144_n.jpg
 
Rlc1994 said:
Hello welcome to the forums :) It sounds like MBD I hope I’m wrong though. You have some things in your husbandry that need fixed. First off is he needs to be in a bigger enclosure than what he’s in right now. A male veiled chameleon needs bare minimum a 24x24x48 sized enclosure.

Your lighting is inadequate they need linear light bulb fixtures that go across the whole cage for uvb and uva. A T5HO light fixture is what is recommended. Also his basking temperature is a little on the high side it shouldn’t be any higher than 90.
View attachment 239524

You should not be fogging during the day either. Heat from the lighting fixtures and high humidity is a recipe for Respiratory Infections. Only fog during the late evening, early mornings or middle of the night. You want humidity to be around 30-50% during the day and 90-100% at night.

I’d also look into getting a more balanced feeder selection with more variety of gutloading materials. I know you said he eats only crickets but you need to try to get him to eat other insects gutloaded with more than just repashy superload. I’ll post some care images below for some good options on feeders and what to gutload them with.
View attachment 239522View attachment 239521
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for all this information. I have an appointment tomorrow morning (the earliest I could get him in). He had another bowel movement this morning - urate was white and healthy, feces was brown and fairly firm. There was some liquid that came out after - not sure if this is normal as I normal don't witness him doing this. His colour is still a bright vibrant green today with some grey/green stripping going on. He's been outside a couple times today already to be in the natural sunlight.

I'm planning on building a large enclosure this weekend - as all the stores around me don't have any that go bigger than 36" tall.

I'm going to purchase the new light and fixture today. So does that mean I should get rid of the UVA bulb that I have and just use the new one and the basking light.

I'm going to set the fogger to only run on low during the night. And I'm purchasing a mist king this week.

Also looking around for locations that have a wider variety of food sources and will see if he's keen on anything. Hopefully I can find something.

Grabbed some veggies to gutload the crickets (and hopefully other options as well). Also grabbing the repashy bug burger to give a try. And ordering the cricket crack as I haven't seen it anywhere around here.

Again, thank you for all this. Majority of the information I was given by the pet store when I purchased him (was told it was a her), basically was all wrong. Hoping I can turn everything around in time for him.
 
Good job on your part that you are taking him to a vet to get a check up.

You won’t need the UVA bulb anymore. You will still need the basking dome though. The T5HO fixture with the linear bulb both provide Uvb and Uva. Also depending on the size of the cage you plan to build make sure you get a fixture size that goes the whole length of the enclosure. For any cage less than 48 inches tall I’d recommend a dual or quad fixture. The dual you can use a 6% Arcadia and a 6500k plant bulb, if you opt for the quad you can run three 6500k plant bulbs and a 12% Arcadia. You want the branches under these lights around 7-8 inches away. Here are some t5Ho fixtures that members on the forum here use below.

http://www.lightyourreptiles.com/fixtures/t5-high-output/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016VBC108/ref=psdcmw_2975458011_t2_B016VAZ31S?th=1&psc=1

For buying feeders I’d check out the forums sponsors.
Rainbowmealworms.com
Joshsfrogs.com
Dubiaroaches.com

Those are just a few good options to the many sponsors you can get insects to order from on here.
 
Update #2 - Some of Giz's blood work came back today. His liver enzymes are out of wack. We are going in to the vet daily for fluids and calcium injections and keeping him very warm. He's still not climbing or moving around, and hasn't eaten since Saturday. He will take water drips from my finger still though. The rest of his blood work results will be in in the morning. The vet is concerned, but says he's quite the fighter.
 
Final update - yesterday Giz had his final antibiotic injection. We had been to the vet 6 out of the past 7 days for calcium injections and fluids. The vet was still unable to tell me what was causing the issues.

Yesterday Giz ate for the first time in 9 days, and was walking (really walking. Not just a couple steps) for the first time in 9 days.

Today, Giz couldn't hold on any longer. I knew something was wrong so I rushed him to the vet. On our way there, Giz passed away while I was holding him.

I will miss you like crazy Giz. But I'm glad you're no longer suffering.

Rest easy Giz ❤
 
I’m so sorry for your loss.

I noticed you said exo terra calcium and d3 for supplements what do you mean by this? Was he getting any type of vitamins?
 
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