jackson not eating

littlevillage

littlevillage

New Member
Cage Info:
Cage Type - screen cage, 18x18x36
Lighting - 5.0 uvb bulb & low wattage spot
Heating- 70-75 ambient 80 basking
What is the temperature at night? 65
Humidity - 60-70% mist through out the day
Plants - live, big potted palm

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - jackson,male, I'm guessing 5-6 months I've only had him about a week
Feeding - crickets, plus I've tried wax & meal worms
Supplements - repcal vitamins & calcium W/D3
Watering - dripper, he is drinking
Current Problem - not eating. he ate when I first brought him home but now stopped. he doesn't seem to be very active & is kind of lazily laying in the plant. he seems thin to me

Should I not worry just yet since I've only had him about a week?
 
Are you spraying the cage down as well as the dripper? Jacksons love water, they might not seem like it but they do. With my jacksons each cage gets 15min of spary three times a day. How does is skin look and feel?
 
He's CB. I actually got him from the pet store that I work at. I watched him for a couple weeks before buying him & he seemed good at the store. He hasn't eaten at all today. He also hasn't moved at all in the 3 hours that I've been home.
 
it doesn't seem normal for a cham that young to stop eating. I am raising baby jax and while they may not be hungry every day they are very hungry every other day. they easily ate 6-10 1/2-3/4 in crix every other day. i can't imagine them going that long not to eat. if he seems thin, then he is thin.

i think at this point you should see a vet immediately who has reptile experience and hopefully cham experience.

your temps seem fine - are you sure they are in that range? and are not lower in the day time?:confused:
 
If anything, the temps might be a little warmer. It's finally starting to get a little warmer here in NY & the ambient temp in his cage is room temp. I have a repti - glo 5.0 tube bulb. I just don't understand what went wrong so quickly in the short time I've had him. When I first brought him home he was eating but in the past 3-4 days he has hardly eaten anything.
 
Jacksons can be picky eaters. have you tried flies. none of my chams could resist them. Mantis place here in ohio sells then about 250 or so shipped for about $10.00. Even if he's sick this may be needed to stimulate appetite. I would buy the standard houe flies for now. my almost adult jackson will eat the blue bottle flies like candy. She is likelly larger though she weighs about 20g

Good luck

keep us updated

Sean
 
me neither but perhaps it wasn't feeling well and then you took it home and now it feels even worse.

do you have a rep. vet you can go to tomorrow?

do you have any other cham owners you can have visit you to give you some advice tonight or tomorrow am b/f going to a vet?

the younger the animal, the the higher the metabolism, the more they need to eat - this many days of not eating is very concerning. have you tried to force feed it? any success?
 
the good news is that he is still drinking (you see swallowing movements - over and over right?

i forgot about flies - does your store have the flies (the live kind, not the dead ones in a can)?

my jax move very little (i have/had 11 but 10 are all the same age). my veild patrols her cage much more than the jax.

does he have a good amount of plant/silk plant material to hide in and hold onto? do you have any vines in the cage?

what size crix were you feeding? has he pooped lately?

so many possibilities.....
 
i also stongly reccomend the Vet appointment.

Also Jacksonni need high humidity. Mine only seem happy in the 75-90% range. use an ultrasonic humidifier pointed at the cage if you must but keep up the humidity

Sean

PS i lost my male because i got to the vet to late, was clueless and he was on a hunger strike.

Good luck
 
Maybe half of the problem is that I keep comparing him to my veiled, who like you said , is on the patrol non stop. I have vet that comes right to the house, which is great when it comes to reptiles, a little less stress for them. I'll probably have to call him tomorrow. Actually, I can probably email him tonight.

I haven't tried to force feed him yet. I don't know of any place that sells flies except flightless fruit flies. I've been told that jackson's can be picky eaters, any other suggestions on food items. I have to special order everything except crickets, wax worms, meal worms,super worms & flightless fruit flies. I've already had my boss order me silk worms. Any other suggestion & good places to order from would be helpful.

I know for sure that he his drinking. I was actually amazed at how much he does drink compared to my veiled.

He has pooped, yesterday, not sure about today though. It looked a little watery.
 
i'd email the vet - have her/him come tomorrow.

while the drosophlia are little you may want to offer him to see if he is interested in eating them. idk where to get any other kind either.

perhaps your cage is too big for him? do you cup feed, hand feed or throw the crix near him? does he track them if you free feed? is he trying to chase them?

pooping is good - there is always a worry of impaction.

do you know the lenght of the crix you feed? (usually come in fractions like 1/2in or 3/4 in, etc)

on a totally diff. topic - once you get the hang of all of this you might want to order silk EGGS and then hatch them out your self. they grow so darn fast that you may find you end up w/too many moths (althought you can start a breeding program w/them if you want...)
 
i order silk eggs, silks and their food from coastalsilkworms it is in fl and i've had great success w/them.

i get my crix from luckylure, also in fl. you might be able to have people in the n.e. tell you some places that are nearer to you so you can save on the shipping costs.
 
I don't cup feed. I just throw them in there, which is what he's used to from being at the store. When i first brought him home he hunted them down & sometimes he would wait until they came to him but either way was very interested. Besides, the crix aren't hiding from him, they seem to like to hover at the top of his cage. He could zap them from where he his now with no problem. They're only about 3 inches away.
 
hmmm.

can you post a pic?

has he fallen recently? any signs of trauma on his skin? is he in a quiet area of the house?

can he see your veild or other chams? is he being handled? by children?

perplexing:confused:
 
I'm not too worried about having too many worms or moths. I have plenty of other critters that will enjoy them too. Thanks for the advice though. I'll have to dig around & see if I can find a closer place that would be a good feed source. NY isn't exactly the herp capital & things are hard to come by except for the ones that I already mentioned.
 
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