First of Many Questions! Re: Feeding

[zlatybazant]

Ok so here is my first question. I've read through the forums but havn't really been able to hit the nail on the head as to what I was looking for for an answer.

I bought a flap-neck cham last week at an expo and since then I've only seen him eat 2 crickets. I've only been able to find one little pile of excreta since that time.

I just read the topic about separate cage feeding and I'm trying the "cup method" now with 5 crickets so it's easy to do the math.

His tank is 24x24x24 Exo-Terra with glass sides and screen top (I plan on setting up a screen enclosure in the future). His basking temp is ~85F (using basking lamp and UV lamp) and humidity around the mid 70% and I mist 3x daily with Ca treated water (usually luke warm) for approx 2 mins/session. Lights on in the morning at 7:30am, lights off at 10:30pm. He is maybe 8 feet from our living room window and local sunrise is 7:45am and sunset at 7:00pm.

Any suggestions, tips, ANYTHING would be greatly appreciated

 

[opihiman]

welcome and hope that we can help.

Your UVB source is coming from one of those curly bulbs? Compact flourecents have been linked to many eye problems...the sooner you can get your cham into a screened cage and use one of those linear flourecents the better. Not to mention you won't have to listen to every one repeat it over and over again....

your misting cycle needs to be longer. Have you seen your cham drink at all? what did his fecals look like? if there was any orange in it your cham is dehydrated and will need lots of water to get out of this. Take a look at his eyes...Are they sunken ? Is its skin more wrinkled or loose looking? All signs of dehydration.

Dehydration as it gets worse will lead to impaction and dec appetite. Not to mention you cham is still probably getting used to his new home.

Some other things to check on is how big you feeders are and what your cham has been raised on. If they were raised on supers then you may consider getting some and start feeding some of these with a transition to what ever is more readily available to you. Also the rule of thumb is the distance between the eyes is about the biggest your chams throat is so that's what will fit going down. so feeder size is also another variable you will need to look at.

I find that flies are a good feeding stimulator...Actually anything that has a lot of movement to it gets my chams going.

Also you light cycle may be better to follow normal out side light cycles. What I am saying is that it should follow the sun up to sun down cycle for your area. Here it is dawn at 0620 and sunset at about 1800. so you would want to follow this cycle with your lights on or off.

Pictures of your set up and cham will be helpful in helping you more.

Hope that helps....

OPI

 

[kenya]

Basking temps sound too hot to me but I could be wrong.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Basking temps sound too hot to me but I could be wrong.

agreed - if this is a young chameleon the temp is a bit high, especially since its in a glass cage. The humidity is a little high too, IMHO.
But they do take a little time to settle in and its not uncommon for them not to eat well the first few days. Given its a glass house, is it possibly being disturbed by seeing you or any other traffic and happenings nearby.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

A few questions

What size is the Flapneck?

Are you outside the States? Europe?

What size are the crickets in relationship to the chameleon?

Does the chameleon bask, or camp out under the light or heat source?

 

[zlatybazant]

Wow loads of great info! Thank you all! I'm going to try and answer specifics.

your misting cycle needs to be longer. Have you seen your cham drink at all? what did his fecals look like? if there was any orange in it your cham is dehydrated and will need lots of water to get out of this. Take a look at his eyes...Are they sunken ? Is its skin more wrinkled or loose looking? All signs of dehydration.

Just after I started this topic he deficated (of course just after I cleaned the enclosure too). It came out feces and uriate. Uriate did have an orange tinge, so I gave him a good misting to kick-start his drinking. He seemed to enjoy it and was flicking his tounge and stuff.

Eyes seem fine and there doesn't seem to be any skin changes.

agreed - if this is a young chameleon the temp is a bit high, especially since its in a glass cage. The humidity is a little high too, IMHO.
But they do take a little time to settle in and its not uncommon for them not to eat well the first few days. Given its a glass house, is it possibly being disturbed by seeing you or any other traffic and happenings nearby.

As for being disturbed we are usually gone from 8am til close to suppertime everyday, so he's got the run of the place.

What size is the Flapneck?

Are you outside the States? Europe?

What size are the crickets in relationship to the chameleon?

Does the chameleon bask, or camp out under the light or heat source?

He is ~6-8inches from nose to tail tip.

I live on the Atlantic coast of Canada.

Crickets are "normal" size crickets.... not pinheads but not super huge either.

He isn't really a basker.... he has a favorite spot just outside of the basking area among the larger leaves of the enclosure. His favorite spot is near the door on the vines we have for him.

His new lighting program will start first thing tomorrow (well at 7:30am anyways). I have a timer that we aren't using so maybe that'll be a good thing to use to keep it constant.

Thanks again. I'll post pics tomorrow as he's getting ready for bedtime now.