Help me please!!!!!

[sLoSrTnIcK]

Hi, i'm nick and i have a female veiled chameleon around 8 months old.

Last week i noticed her not eating at all and all of the crickets would just die before being eaten.

I also noticed she was not eating the waxworms as well. She also started getting blue and brown spots all over her.

Her eyes are getting pretty sunken in because she is not drinking any water.

I don't know what to do. I have a 10 gallon trash can with about 6 inches deep of moist sand for eggs, but she does not go down into it.

I put her in today manually and all she tried to do was get out of the trash can for about 3 hours, so i pulled her out.

I don't know what this problem is, but any help or comments are welcome.

Thanks alot
Nick

 

[sLoSrTnIcK]

UPDATE*

I just put 3 fresh waxworms on her hammock and nudged her up to the hammock until i knew she saw them. She ate them right away.

Food down, water and color still to go to troubleshoot.

Here are some before and after pics of her of the color change.

Before Color Change:

After Color Change:

Nick

 

[Brian S]

Ahhh, i believe she has a disease called Tonious Montanious. JK she looks gravid in the picture. And if i'm not mistaken it looks like lumps on her abdomen. I would provide her with a 5 gal. bucket with a peat moss and sand mixture. She needs to be able to dig deep and then tunnel over. Give her LOTS of water and keep offering wax worms. Don't leave a solution to find a solution.

 

[sLoSrTnIcK]

Ahhh, i believe she has a disease called Tonious Montanious. JK she looks gravid in the picture. And if i'm not mistaken it looks like lumps on her abdomen. I would provide her with a 5 gal. bucket with a peat moss and sand mixture. She needs to be able to dig deep and then tunnel over. Give her LOTS of water and keep offering wax worms. Don't leave a solution to find a solution.

I checked again on her belly for eggs and i still can't feel any.

She ate 2 giant mealworms today and left the 2 waxworms and 1 mealworm on the hammock. I still have yet to see her drink any water at all. I heard that i could use a plastic syringe and squirt some gatorade to get her hydrated, but i am unsure.

Also, i am about to buy a 5 gallon wider bucket for her and i will fill it higher with sand for her. Should i have a branch that goes into the bucket or just put her in it away from the cage?

I don't know if i am cut out for a female, i wish i would've gotten a male instead. Eggs are a pain to deal with.

Also, does anybody know if she can be spayed and not have to deal with any eggs ever again?

Let me know
Nick

 

[lele]

Hey Nick - Brad is right, she certainly looks gravid. The aqua and orange spots are her "receptive" colors - if there was a "man cham" around.

Yes, the egg issue can be a hassle. I had a female veiled, never bred, and was constantly laying clutches. There are many folks who have had females for years that never laid a single infertile clutch. Had Luna not died I was going to mate her just to see if I could get her hormones in balance.

All that said, one of the things that everyone seemed to agree on was that I was probably overfeeding her. She would go for so long w/o eating at all (literally weeks) that once she laid I was like an Italian mama - "mangiare! mangiare!" (eat!, eat!) and I would give her anything and everything she wanted. In nature, if food is in constant supply the animal will take advantage and reproduce to carry on its species - it's just how nature works.

So for now, I would stop feeding her, make sure she gets plenty of water and give her much deeper sand/mix. It should be at the very least as deep as she is long (tail included). Had you been supplementing her feeder with Calcium? It is key so she does not pull the Ca from her bones and/or become eggbound. After this clutch is laid feed her a little extra for a day or two and supplement with calcium, then try working on feeding her every other day.

Go here to see her set up and before and after she laid a clutch: Luna gravid/setup sorry can't access my other pics right now for some reason.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."I heard that i could use a plastic syringe and squirt some gatorade to get her hydrated, but i am unsure"...don't SQUIRT anything down her throat...just ease it in a bit at a time to allow her to shut the airway into her lungs so she won't aspirate it.

She doesn't look dehydrated in the pictures...why are you thinking that she is? Or are the pictures from before you thought she looked dehydrated?

I don't recall ever hearing of success occurring in spaying a chameleon. Doesn't mean that it can't be done..I just have never heard of it.

 

[sLoSrTnIcK]

You said..."I heard that i could use a plastic syringe and squirt some gatorade to get her hydrated, but i am unsure"...don't SQUIRT anything down her throat...just ease it in a bit at a time to allow her to shut the airway into her lungs so she won't aspirate it.

She doesn't look dehydrated in the pictures...why are you thinking that she is? Or are the pictures from before you thought she looked dehydrated?

I don't recall ever hearing of success occurring in spaying a chameleon. Doesn't mean that it can't be done..I just have never heard of it.

I will get a better pic of her tomorrow morning when i wake up and i will zoom in on the eyes so you see better if she is dehydrated or not.

I just got a hawaiian umbrella tree today and i am going to put it in her cage along with a big tupperware filled with sand instead of this trashcan i got.

Nick

 

[sLoSrTnIcK]

Here is a closer pic of her eye, i think they are sunken in a bit.

She ate 1 mealworm today, that's it. I just put the hawaiian umbrella tree in her cage, and i am going to walmart to get a bigger tupperware container to use for the sand. I will post pics of the cage when i'm all done.

Nick

 

[roo_71]

I don't recall ever hearing of success occurring in spaying a chameleon. Doesn't mean that it can't be done..I just have never heard of it.

I recall seeing a thread in another forum where this was done on a female veiled who had "egg problems". There were some good pics of the removed ovaries and stitching. I wish I remembered where I saw it … it was couple years back so its tough to remember. I also believe the cham survived the surgery.

-roo

 

[ElderChameleons]

veild

it looks good . don't worry to much . she is eaten . and she looks good and health . it does suck a little with the fact that is hard on her body and can lead to bunched up eggs in side her . if and afther she laids egg you won't have worry that much . she sould be able to do agian no problem . it just the frist time you have to worry about . afther that she would ready to breed and have fertile eggs . in about a month . good luck

 

[FaunaBgirl]

Where are you at? Fractal wants to breed. lol

 

[kinyonga]

Has your chameleon started digging yet?

I would recommend that you take her to a vets if she is showing any signs of being unwell...for example, dehydrated or sitting on the floor of the cage or sitting with her eyes shut during the day.

 

[sLoSrTnIcK]

Where are you at? Fractal wants to breed. lol

I am near St. Louis, MO, lol. I guess you are on the west coast in cali?

Nick

 

[sLoSrTnIcK]

Has your chameleon started digging yet?

I would recommend that you take her to a vets if she is showing any signs of being unwell...for example, dehydrated or sitting on the floor of the cage or sitting with her eyes shut during the day.

Nope, she hasn't started digging, but she has started eating more and more every day.

I haven't seen her sleep during the day, or sitting on the floor of the cage, so i don't think she's too ill.

I am going to start putting her into the sand for a couple of hours straight per day from now until she lays her eggs.

Nick

 

[FaunaBgirl]

Poor Fractal... he never gets the girl... Stuck in the West, tryin' to cheat on his Canadian girlfriend, Lola. lol Lil' MO girl looks fine..... mmmm lol

 

[Marc10edora]

Poor Fractal... he never gets the girl... Stuck in the West, tryin' to cheat on his Canadian girlfriend, Lola. lol Lil' MO girl looks fine..... mmmm lol

I got a 6 month old female who is about to lay her first set of infertle eggs. Not sure if I want to breed her though. Getting her to lay her eggs seems frustrating right now. Maybe once I get a hang of caring for my cham Her and Fractal could go on a date..lol. I live near stockton. Tell Fractal to keep working on his game because pimpin aint easy

 

[stevereecy]

Here is a closer pic of her eye, i think they are sunken in a bit.

She ate 1 mealworm today, that's it. I just put the hawaiian umbrella tree in her cage, and i am going to walmart to get a bigger tupperware container to use for the sand. I will post pics of the cage when i'm all done.

Nick

The other poster was right about not spraying down her lungs. But when I've had a chameleon that just won't drink, (as a last resort) I will sometimes wait until they are chewing their food, and then spray their mouth from the side, so that the water stream hits the inside of their cheek. Never had a problem this way. I've done this to some chams that would gape and this worked...again...don't spray straight in but sideways.

Yeah, its invasive, but so is using a syringe, and you can still get water down their airway with a syringe too. If you hit the inside of their cheek, it gives them time to compensate.

Hey, I know if you did it to me, I probably wouldn't inhale the water...but I'd be kind of angry with you...

Steve

 

[sLoSrTnIcK]

Poor Fractal... he never gets the girl... Stuck in the West, tryin' to cheat on his Canadian girlfriend, Lola. lol Lil' MO girl looks fine..... mmmm lol

My chameleon is officially for sale for anybody wanting to buy her.

She still appears to have no eggs in her and is starting to eat and drink again.

I don't know what happen last week, but she appears to be fine.

Just a bit of a scare.

I will also trade for a male, i am tired of worrying about eggs or not.

Nick

 

[Tygerr]

This is the main reason why females are not recommended as a first chameleon.
But male chameleons have plenty of things you will have to 'worry' about too.

With the amount of dedication and commitment you are showing, I'm not sure that chameleons are the right pet for you.
They are certainly not an easy pet to keep.

 

[Tygerr]

Ok, scratch that. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh.

If you really think you can't handle the issues that come with keeping a female, then you are probably right to want to pass her on to someone who can.

But, she does seem like a beautiful and (at this stage) healthy girl. So the other option is to arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can (it's never too late), and apply a bit of patience and hard work and you could probably spend a long, fulfilling time with this cham.

But you've got to decide what's right for you. There's no use keeping her if you don't want to deal with her needs.