Is he skinny?

Marco fernandes

Marco fernandes

New Member
Hi folks
Just got my new panther cham ambilobe red, with 5/6 months old. I have him for a week but he seems to be geting skinner. Do you think he seems healthy?
He is eating 3/4 crikets medium a day, and sometimes 2/3 superworms medium a day. All the food is gutloaded and i dust some calcium too.
It´s my first cham so sorry some noob questions.
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yes, i think so, but what can i do? i offer him crikets and superworms several times a day, and release some also in the cage.... You think it´s the normal period of aclimatization to new home and cage?
 
I please ask you to fill out the ask for help link in my signature, if you are on mobile device just turn it sideways and then copy and paste it here.....
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Panther cham male with 5/6 months. Been in my care for 10 days.
  • Handling - avoiding to do that in this first period as told by the seller who is also a vet
  • Feeding - crikets and superworms. giving as much he acepts but he seems to be eating not many a day. once he did eat 3 superworms medium size in a row. Crikets medium he eats one and then he stares at the next one and doesnt eat asap. Giving in the 12 h and during afternoon. I give carrot, potato, letuce, aple, and repashy superfoods - superload and other specie of bug feeder.
  • Supplements - repticalcium with d3 - dust crikets once a week and repticalcium without d3 every day.
  • Watering -moonsoon rs 400 - misting 6x times a day for 20-40 secs. I saw him once or twice drinking
  • Fecal Description - seenn 4 or 5 fecal matter. first was brown and orange but the other ones and recent ones seems ok. brown, consistent with white part. never been tested that i know.
  • History - no

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - reptibreeze cage with 48x24x24
  • Lighting - i use a dual top canopy from exoterra with 2x 35 wts sun glo hallogen from exoterra and 1 x 15 wts 18 inc repti glo 2.0 and 1 x 15 wts 18 inc repti glo 5.0. tehy are on for 12 hours - 9 am to 9 pm
  • Temperature - i take readings in the upper part of the cage with the exo terra digital device and i read this: max 85 Fº and 83% humidity, but this is measured 10/15 cm bellow top of cage so i think he can get higher temps near lamps.
  • In bottom i have most of the time temps around 72ºf and humidity between 30- 60/70 %
  • Plants - I use two live plants: scheflera one bigger and other one smaller. and some branches from dried plants.
  • Placement - Cage in the living room near the window with lots of light. not too trafic and no air vents or fans. top of the cage relative is almost 1,80 mt from the room floor.
  • Location - i live in madeira island , middle of atlantic ocean, with a good and warm climate and high lvl of humidity in the summer.

Current Problem - i think that the aninmal is not eating as he should and geting skinner.


Pictures are helpful -see up.
 
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More pics. Plz advice me about my setup, etc

Btw he spends a lot of time hanging in the ceiling near hallogen lamps. You think he needs more uvb or heat lamp?
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Reptiles don't have fat under their skin so seeing ribs by themselves don't necessarily mean emaciated as it would in a mammal. You need to look at its musculature in relation to it s age. I'll let the experts chime in on this one but it just looks like a juvenile.
 
Do you think he might eat more if the crickets were smaller? Medium-sized crickets might be too big or too intimidating for a young chameleon. What was the vet feeding him before you owned him? Have you tried silkworms or horn worms to tempt him into eating more? Just suggestions...
 
Seeing ribs is deceiving in young chams. I find looking at the base of the tail works better. Imagine the base of his tail in cross section. It should be smoothly oval from top to bottom. If you can clearly see the musculature of the tail he's a bit on the lean side. But when they are growing fast its somewhat harder to fatten them up. What about adding some waxworms, phoenix worms, silkworms or hornworms to his diet? I also feel that feeding them more smaller sized crickets instead of fewer large crickets can help.
 
in the morning gave him crikets. He ate just one medium size. meanwhile put a lot of crikets and superworms of diferent sizes in a litle plastic box inside the cage. he didnt ate, at least that i´ve seen. Let´s hope he gors there and eats during the day. Meanwhile gona buy some silkworms and see if he acepts them.
 
Carlton said:
Seeing ribs is deceiving in young chams. I find looking at the base of the tail works better. Imagine the base of his tail in cross section. It should be smoothly oval from top to bottom. If you can clearly see the musculature of the tail he's a bit on the lean side. But when they are growing fast its somewhat harder to fatten them up. What about adding some waxworms, phoenix worms, silkworms or hornworms to his diet? I also feel that feeding them more smaller sized crickets instead of fewer large crickets can help.
Click to expand...

So he may not be as skin as it seems to me. If you want i can try to take some pictures of the tail zone so you can take an opinion on the fatness of the animal
 
Carlton said:
Seeing ribs is deceiving in young chams. I find looking at the base of the tail works better. Imagine the base of his tail in cross section. It should be smoothly oval from top to bottom. If you can clearly see the musculature of the tail he's a bit on the lean side. But when they are growing fast its somewhat harder to fatten them up. What about adding some waxworms, phoenix worms, silkworms or hornworms to his diet? I also feel that feeding them more smaller sized crickets instead of fewer large crickets can help.
Click to expand...

I agree with Carlton but wanted to add that if the animal is dehydrated, they will appear "skinny" using Carlton's suggestion on how to gauge condition. His eyes seem to have a dark ring around them in the picture and that leads me to think that they are a little sunken in. He might be dehydrated. My first reaction when I saw the pictures was that he was dehydrated. There is more to gauging dehydration than the color of the urates.

I would put misters on him for 20 minutes two or three times a day for a few days and see if that plumps him up. Sometimes it takes a lot of misting to get them to start drinking. Less than a minute is not enough. It doesn't seem as though you are feeding enough. If he is dehydrated, he might not eat.
 
Ty All for trying to Help and for the advices. I changed the mysting times, but this morning me and my young Child saw him drinking for more than once. All morning just see him eat one criket medium size. Talked yesterday with the seller and he confirmed that he wae eating already medium and even adult crikets in the shop. Still worried about the feeedings quantities. I think he is drinking already, so the problem could be other.
Soon will post some new pics.
Ty
 
Marco fernandes said:
Ty All for trying to Help and for the advices. I changed the mysting times, but this morning me and my young Child saw him drinking for more than once. All morning just see him eat one criket medium size. Talked yesterday with the seller and he confirmed that he wae eating already medium and even adult crikets in the shop. Still worried about the feeedings quantities. I think he is drinking already, so the problem could be other.
Soon will post some new pics.
Ty
Click to expand...

You can see them drink and they can still not be drinking enough and be dehydrated.
 
Face him Water with a manual spraying bottle and he drank for quite a time. So Im now almost sure that his problem should be lack of Water. Gonna make a diy driper bottle so it give him a constant Water source besides regular mysting sessions from moonsoon rs400
 
Marco fernandes said:
Face him Water with a manual spraying bottle and he drank for quite a time. So Im now almost sure that his problem should be lack of Water. Gonna make a diy driper bottle so it give him a constant Water source besides regular mysting sessions from moonsoon rs400
Click to expand...

They won't necessarily drink enough with a dripper. They need the mister to clean their eyes as well. I really think a good quality mister is a necessary piece of equipment for keeping chameleons, especially if you have them in a screen cage. Hand misting and drippers don't really cut it. You need an automatic mister that won't break if it runs dry. I believe a Monsoon is destroyed if the pump runs out of water. Look at a MistKing.
 
Cant you just increase the misting sessions from your monsoon to 2-3 minutes per time rather than 20 seconds?
 
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