Help! He's been sleeping all day :(

[andrearamirezo91]

Hey guys!

I've had my boy for a little over 8 months now and he had been doing great so far.

He's in an outside enclosure in South Florida where he gets plenty of heat, sunlight and rain water. I also have a dripper running every day. He gets gutloaded crickets and super worms custed in calcuim daily, calcuim +D3 once a month (I dont do every two weeks because he gets plenty of D vitamin through natural sunlight) and multi vitamin twice a month.

Two days ago, temperatures dropped drastically. As soon as I woke up and realized how cold it was outside I ran out to get him and bring him to his indoor enclosure. He was pitch black and sleeping.

He woke up and moved around a little, but he didn't eat at all (this was yesterday). Today he's been sleeping all day, or just hanging out in the same place all day with his eyes open. He literally has not moved at all.

I made an appointment with the vet but they won't be able to see him till Monday. What should I do meanwhile?

He has a linear UV lamp, heat lamp (90 degrees basking spot, but where he's hanging out I haven't been able to get the temperature higher than 75. Doesn't look like he has eaten or drank water either. Help please!

 

[Thehippie]

he's a panther right?? well for now I would mist him extra to bring the humidity up and place him on his basking spot once to see if he'll take the warmth. increasing humidity will make it easier to open his eyes with out it being too dry. along with that, the cold slows down metabolism and usually puts them to sleep for a little I think that's whats happening. he just needs to wrm up and come out of his mini sleep. definitely see the vet but I think hes just cold.

 

[andrearamirezo91]

Yeah he is! I just checked on him and he's still in the same spot.

Earlier today I approached his cage and he got extremely aggressive which is very unlike him. First time he's ever hissed at me so I'm scared of moving him and stressing him out more! Gonna see if I can find another way to bring the heat to the spot where he's at instead

His eyes do look a little sunken in, I thought either dehydration or stress. Just misted his cage and I'll make sure to keep the humidity up throughout the day.

Thank you for your help! <3

 

[Thehippie]

Yeah he is! I just checked on him and he's still in the same spot.

Earlier today I approached his cage and he got extremely aggressive which is very unlike him. First time he's ever hissed at me so I'm scared of moving him and stressing him out more! Gonna see if I can find another way to bring the heat to the spot where he's at instead

His eyes do look a little sunken in, I thought either dehydration or stress. Just misted his cage and I'll make sure to keep the humidity up throughout the day.

Thank you for your help! <3

of course! I hope he feels better soon!!

 

[ERKleRose]

Definitely go to the vet, he’s most likely just cold, but who knows what that did to his body. Could you fill out the ask for help form in my signature below? The basking spot is a tad high, aim for 85-87*F. What strength and type is the uvb bulb? A pic of his enclosure would be great! What do you gutload with, and how often and what amount do you feed the supers? Try adding some more variety to his diet, like butterworms, silkworms, hornworms, mantids, roaches (ivory headed, orange headed, red runner, green banana), BSF and BSFL, blue bottle flies, and silk, horn, and waxworm moths

 

[andrearamirezo91]

Ok I'm filling in the form based on his inside enclosure which is where he's been since yesterday. He'll stay in here till winter is over.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Panther Chameleon, male, 1 year old. He's been in my care for 8 months.
• Handling - Every couple of days. I never force him out of the cage but he does like to wander around. I go say hi to him every morning and if he comes out I'll let him roam around the garden under supervision while I drink my coffee.
• Feeding - I feed him daily, gutloaded crickets and super worms. He gets a superworm beetle occasionally as a treat as he really loves them. I gutload with cricket crack and mixed veggies. We eat a lot of vegetables here so the veggies vary widely. I try to stay away from potatoes and iceberg lettuce which I read are not good.
• Supplements - Rep-Cal Phosphorous-free Calcium + D3 once a month (when he was outside. Now that he's indoors I will go back to every two weeks). Herpivite multi vitamin every two weeks. Exo-Terra phosphorous free calcium daily.
• Watering - Outside he had a dripper running all the time. I misted his cage twice a day for 4 mins approx. Yes I saw him drinking. Now that he's inside he has his dripper and repti rain is set up to go off every 1 hour for 30 seconds. I'll be hand misting once a day additionally for 4 mins.
• Fecal Description - Normal. Brown, solid, creamy colored urates.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - 16x16x30 (I know it's a little small for him, but this is just his temporary emergency home. His normal cage is 5ft tall and 2ft wide. It's a reptibreeze mesh sides and top with acrylic front. I will post a pic shortly.
• Lighting -This is where it gets complicated for me. I do not remember what type of UV bulb I bought but he has a UV linear bulb. Heat bulb is 75W. He has a timer and is on a 12hr on/12hr off schedule.
• Temperature - I moved the light. Basking is now at 88 but I believe it will go down a little more as it cools down. Ambient is 75.
• Humidity - Not sure. I did not have anything to measure humidity because he's usually outside and South Florida is very humid. Additionally, he has live plants outside, plus the dripper and abundant misting (I use a hose with a different nozzle). The vet told me that was more than enough to keep his humidity levels in check. He has live plants on the inside enclosure to help retain humidity and I set up his reptirain to go off every 1 hour to keep humidity up.
• Plants - Yes. Pothos, umbrella plant and one bromeliad.
• Placement - Not near any fans. Next to a window on top ot a table. The highest point of the cage probably reaches around 5 feet.
• Location - Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Current Problem - He was in his outside enclosure and tempetarures drastically dropped overnight. He's been sleeping a lot ever since. I also just noticed his right eye is closed most of the time. Even when his other eye is open. He can open it as he does when he sees me move around his cage a lot, but it seems like he prefers to have it closed.

 

[andrearamirezo91]

Here’s the pics of his cage. He just moved a little! Seems like there’s something in his mouth. I left a feeder cup in there with worms so hopefully he just ate one. If he sees people he’ll freeze with his food in his mouth sometimes and won’t swallow till we leave lol, so I think that’s what he’s doing right now.

 

[ERKleRose]

Ok I'm filling in the form based on his inside enclosure which is where he's been since yesterday. He'll stay in here till winter is over.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Panther Chameleon, male, 1 year old. He's been in my care for 8 months.
• Handling - Every couple of days. I never force him out of the cage but he does like to wander around. I go say hi to him every morning and if he comes out I'll let him roam around the garden under supervision while I drink my coffee.
• Feeding - I feed him daily, gutloaded crickets and super worms. He gets a superworm beetle occasionally as a treat as he really loves them. I gutload with cricket crack and mixed veggies. We eat a lot of vegetables here so the veggies vary widely. I try to stay away from potatoes and iceberg lettuce which I read are not good.
• Supplements - Rep-Cal Phosphorous-free Calcium + D3 once a month (when he was outside. Now that he's indoors I will go back to every two weeks). Herpivite multi vitamin every two weeks. Exo-Terra phosphorous free calcium daily.
• Watering - Outside he had a dripper running all the time. I misted his cage twice a day for 4 mins approx. Yes I saw him drinking. Now that he's inside he has his dripper and repti rain is set up to go off every 1 hour for 30 seconds. I'll be hand misting once a day additionally for 4 mins.
• Fecal Description - Normal. Brown, solid, creamy colored urates.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - 16x16x30 (I know it's a little small for him, but this is just his temporary emergency home. His normal cage is 5ft tall and 2ft wide. It's a reptibreeze mesh sides and top with acrylic front. I will post a pic shortly.
• Lighting -This is where it gets complicated for me. I do not remember what type of UV bulb I bought but he has a UV linear bulb. Heat bulb is 75W. He has a timer and is on a 12hr on/12hr off schedule.
• Temperature - I moved the light. Basking is now at 88 but I believe it will go down a little more as it cools down. Ambient is 75.
• Humidity - Not sure. I did not have anything to measure humidity because he's usually outside and South Florida is very humid. Additionally, he has live plants outside, plus the dripper and abundant misting (I use a hose with a different nozzle). The vet told me that was more than enough to keep his humidity levels in check. He has live plants on the inside enclosure to help retain humidity and I set up his reptirain to go off every 1 hour to keep humidity up.
• Plants - Yes. Pothos, umbrella plant and one bromeliad.
• Placement - Not near any fans. Next to a window on top ot a table. The highest point of the cage probably reaches around 5 feet.
• Location - Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Current Problem - He was in his outside enclosure and tempetarures drastically dropped overnight. He's been sleeping a lot ever since. I also just noticed his right eye is closed most of the time. Even when his other eye is open. He can open it as he does when he sees me move around his cage a lot, but it seems like he prefers to have it closed.

In the resources tab here, under food and nutrition, there’s a gutload list so you know what not to feed, if you were wondering. I would use superworms as variety and not as a staple. Add more variety, like some of the feeders I listed above. At that age, you can feed every other day, the panther care sheet here has proper feeding amounts (only feed in the morning). Rep-Cal, Herpivite, and Exo Terra aren’t the best supplement brands, I’d recommend Zoo Med (calcium w/out D3 every feeding, calcium w/D3 once a month-if that-, and Reptivite w/out D3 every 2 weeks) or Sticky Tongue Farms Miner-all (use every feeding-use Vit-all to gutload with the night before if using this). If possible, invest in a MistKing. Set the ReptiRain to 1 minute until then. He needs to be misted for at least 2 minutes, but preferably 5 minutes, every misting. The strength should be listed on the uvb bulb itself. 5.0 (Zoo Med) or 6% (Arcadia) is best. Get a digital thermometer/hygrometer combo from the hardware store for ambient temp and humidity. If the humidity is too low, more mistings, more plants, or covering up the sides of the cage will help. Make sure to have a drainage system. Since this cage will be his winter home, I’d upgrade to a 2’ by 2’ by 4’ tall cage or bigger. Add more branches and vines, mostly horizontal, throughout his cage, as well.

 

[ERKleRose]

If you use Miner-all, use the outdoor formula when outside and the indoor formula when he’s inside during winter. Or use calcium with D3 every two weeks when inside for winter, if you do the calcium with and without D3 and multivitamin, instead.

 

[andrearamirezo91]

In the resources tab here, under food and nutrition, there’s a gutload list so you know what not to feed, if you were wondering. I would use superworms as variety and not as a staple. Add more variety, like some of the feeders I listed above. At that age, you can feed every other day, the panther care sheet here has proper feeding amounts (only feed in the morning). Rep-Cal, Herpivite, and Exo Terra aren’t the best supplement brands, I’d recommend Zoo Med (calcium w/out D3 every feeding, calcium w/D3 once a month-if that-, and Reptivite w/out D3 every 2 weeks) or Sticky Tongue Farms Miner-all (use every feeding-use Vit-all to gutload with the night before if using this). If possible, invest in a MistKing. Set the ReptiRain to 1 minute until then. He needs to be misted for at least 2 minutes, but preferably 5 minutes, every misting. The strength should be listed on the uvb bulb itself. 5.0 (Zoo Med) or 6% (Arcadia) is best. Get a digital thermometer/hygrometer combo from the hardware store for ambient temp and humidity. If the humidity is too low, more mistings, more plants, or covering up the sides of the cage will help. Make sure to have a drainage system. Since this cage will be his winter home, I’d upgrade to a 2’ by 2’ by 4’ tall cage or bigger. Add more branches and vines, mostly horizontal, throughout his cage, as well.

';;;;;;

Tank you! I definitely like that they have an outdoor formula because my whole supplementation got kind of thrown off when I moved him outside. I'll feel better knowing I'm giving him something specifically made for his needs. I've been looking into getting my insects shipped instead of going to my local pet store so I will for sure start buying him different types of feeders. He just went through a phase where all he ate was super worms but we've slowly been growing out of it lol. Just checked his UVB and he has an 11" Reptisun 5.0. Will thos suffice for now or should I change it? He seems to be moving a little so he might be doing alright but we'll still be taking a trip tp the vet on Monday just to be safe!

 

[ERKleRose]

';;;;;;

Tank you! I definitely like that they have an outdoor formula because my whole supplementation got kind of thrown off when I moved him outside. I'll feel better knowing I'm giving him something specifically made for his needs. I've been looking into getting my insects shipped instead of going to my local pet store so I will for sure start buying him different types of feeders. He just went through a phase where all he ate was super worms but we've slowly been growing out of it lol. Just checked his UVB and he has an 11" Reptisun 5.0. Will thos suffice for now or should I change it? He seems to be moving a little so he might be doing alright but we'll still be taking a trip tp the vet on Monday just to be safe!

That uvb is perfect! Feeders are almost always cheaper online, anyway!

 

[Brodybreaux25]

What kind of temperature drop are we talking about here?

 

[andrearamirezo91]

@Brodybreaux25 When I woke up the temperature was around 65 but when I checked what the temperatures were overnight it said record low was 42 degrees

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Shouldn’t kill him but would definitely put a deep chill in him that may take a few days to shake off. How is he now?

 

[JacksJill]

I know they can survive a night in the mid 40's but it isn't good for them.