He wants to eat but I don't think he can!

[kk1020man]

My poor Flapneck has been improving in weight, color and strength over the past week. He still has one eye that stays closed a lot but he opens it more and more. So today instead of hand feeding hime the Repta-Aid I wanted to see if he would eat some crickets. I placed four dusted crickets in his bowl and held it up to him. I used to do this all the time when he was healthy and he would eat out of it all the time. He took his front feet off of the vine and placed then on the side of the bowl as he usually did. He watched the crickets hopping around in the bowl. After a few minutes he sighed and took he feet off the bowl and turned away. We don't know what to do with him. We don't want to hand feed him forever and we are going out of town for five days in less than two weeks. We are hoping to have him healthy and back to normal by then.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get him to eat on his own again?
Does anyone know if there is a reason that he can't eat by himself yet?
Below are some pictures of him and his habitat. Thanks for ANY advice.

 

[kinyonga]

Maybe he can't shoot his tongue out? Will he eat a cricket if you hold it near his mouth and "tickle" his lips with it?

 

[kk1020man]

We just tried holding the cricket up to his mouth with no success. He did try to get away so he is gaining his strength back little by little. When we get him out of the cage he closes his eyes. Does anyone know why or if this happens to anyone elses chameleon? Thank you for all ya'lls help getting our chameleon health back. We can't thank ya'll enough.

 

[fabos]

eyes look sunk in ... could use a good misting or two...

and could he be a she, i had a flapneck that we thought was a male ended up being female. developed eggs and almost died!

 

[kk1020man]

He has a habba mister that goes off every hour for 45 seconds and he usually sits close to it. We also have a drip system. His eyes look much, much better than they did before. He has spurs on the back of his rear feet. Plus he doesn't have any signs of being gravid, he was so skinny at one point we definately would have noticed.
I just fed him the Repta-Aid which he gobbled down pretty quickly. Right now our concern is getting him to eat on his own.

 

[dodolah]

He has a habba mister that goes off every hour for 45 seconds and he usually sits close to it. We also have a drip system. His eyes look much, much better than they did before. He has spurs on the back of his rear feet. Plus he doesn't have any signs of being gravid, he was so skinny at one point we definately would have noticed.
I just fed him the Repta-Aid which he gobbled down pretty quickly. Right now our concern is getting him to eat on his own.

how can a "he" becomes gravid?

 

[kk1020man]

I know that a male can not become gravid!! If you read the previous post that person said that their suppossed male became gravid, proving that it was actually female and almost died. If when our Flapneck Gus was very skinny, we had noticed signs of him being gravid that would indicate that we too were misinformed about the sex our chameleon and that he would acutally be a she!!

 

[Justin Carl]

i dont know much about the species....but im just gonna point out some things i noticed. "he" looks very large, his body. also his legs are very small along with his head. i also think his coloration is weird. flapnecks should be green with black spots. correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[christyo2o2]

is he pooping?? sorry i dont know much of your situation. If he is not pooping he could be impacted which feeding him will just worsen the issue.

Also, If you ar eleaving in 2 weeks for vacation how long are you going to be gone? I live an hour north of you in Killeen.

 

[kinyonga]

Since he has spurs it has to be a "he".

You said..."When we get him out of the cage he closes his eyes"...flaps are very nervous...so he's likely shutting its eyes because he's scared since he only does it when you take him out.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

He might benefit from long misting sessions of warm water. I'd try 10-20 minutes 2-3 times a day using a handheld pump-up mist bottle filled with 90-100F water. Whatever the temp, you are tryng for a mist that is warm on contact. Sneak-up with the misting starting with just the tail for a little bit and then work your way up on him until he's getting a full-blown body shower. It could just make all of the difference. It may take longer than 10 minutes to trigger his drinking process so don't give-up early. If he gets super stressed then stop and try again later. After a few attempts, he may begin to seek out the mist and enjoy its warmth and water.

 

[kk1020man]

He is pooping. I have been checking for that. He hasn't gone a lot but he does poop. As for the disproportion, in the pictures he does look a little weird, but he doesn't look so bad in person, aside from his color not being exactly right. I may have been the camera angle or that he was puffed up. I will see if I can get some better pictures of him over the next couple of days. Someone said that Flapnecks are nervous and that's why he may be closing his eyes when we handle him. He didn't do this before. We had him about a month before he started getting sick and he seemed ok with being handled and he never closed his eyes. We have tried the shower thing before and he gets very stressed by it. I have misted him a few times and we actually put him in the shower a couple of times, which he did NOT like! I have given him water through a syringe several times as well just to ensure the he is drinking.
Thanks for everyone's help so far! Most of it has been very beneficial, so keep writing! If we could just get him to eat on his own things would be great!!!

 

[christyo2o2]

he could be ok and not eating because of the winter. MANY chams on here have slowed down their eating. mine stopped completely for a full month. You may want to try not feeding him for a day then introduce him to silkies.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Keep going...........

You have done a great job getting him back from the brink of death. Don't be discourage about his not eating on his own yet. His illness may have caused an issue with his tongue and ability to zap it at crickets. Does his mouth open at all when he is eating the liquid food? If it does......try putting a cricket partially in his mouth (from the side) and see if he will bite down and chew. Hold the cricket with two fingers in a "pinch" hold. See if you can get him back on solid food this way. That may be the step between liquid food and eating on his own. You are going in the right direction if he is gaining strength

 

[kk1020man]

We haven't tried placing a cricket in his mouth just yet. There is some great news though! A little while ago I heard the mister go off so I went in to see how he reacted. He was sitting under the water letting it fall on his head. When the spray finished, he began licking the water off of the leaves! Yay!! I haven't seen him drink by himself in a while. He also moved around his cage to several areas today, rather than just sitting in one corner. I am feeling more confident that he will be able to recover! I don't feel that we are out of the woods yet, but I feel like we might make it! Thanks so much to everyone for helping us!

 

[kk1020man]

We have started placing crickets into his mouth and he is eating them. Last night he ate 3 and this evening he ate 4. We put some crickets in his cage before leaving for work hoping that maybe he would try to eat on his own. All five we still in his bowl when we got home.
I was wondering, some people had said something about the inability to shoot out his tongue. I was curious if this is something that can be damaged permanently, or will it heel/reverse itself to where he is able to zap it out again. How can we tell if this is acutally a problem and if it is, what can we do to help him fix it, if it's possible to fix? I also had another thought. Is it possible that he hasn't tried eating by himself because he has gotten used to me doing it for him? If this is a possibility, how can we reverxe this?
Thanks so much for any advice!