I noticed him sleeping like this with no hands and basking with one hand the majority of the time. Sometimes when he notices me he slips on his front footing and regains his stance quickly. I don't think its an injury as he cruises around free roaming and climbing everything as normal. Do they get even lazier at 2+ years?
Just comfy or an illness?
- Thread starter webjeff04
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MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Hi and welcome. When he’s using only one hand, is it always the same one? At 2 years old he’s still young and shouldn’t have anything like arthritis, although anything is possible. Besides that and injury, gout would be another to consider, but I don’t see any joint swelling. Can you pots some pics of your total enclosure, including lights? What supplements are you using and how often?
Hi, thanks! No its not always the same one. Using arcadia 6% uvb, jungle dawn and two 75w halogens. I use earthpro-a when I feed him every other day. Also repashy calcium plus twice a month. I try to follow chameleon academys care guide as closely as possible. I run a mistking system but I never see him lap water. If I take a spray bottle and spray near his mouth he will drink like that and seems pretty thirsty sometimes.
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MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
All I can say then is just keep an eye on him for any other changes. They are always keeping us on our toes…it’s their job.
May I see additional pics of your boy from all angles. Would like to see some of his front arms as well and of the casque straight on so I can see size. From the second pic you posted he is holding quite a fat pad in his casque. How often and how much are you feeding right now?
I noticed his casque and tried a stricter diet but then he looks really wrinkly and malnourished almost. Maybe thats normal but I probably do give in too much. He definitely cruises around with lots of energy when out of his enclosure. I feed him 3-4 medium dubias every two days.
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He is holding quite a bit of fat in the casque... Issue with this is when they store fat here it means they are storing additional fat in the body which can impact their organ function. So this ends up increasing risk for renal issues as they age along with gout. So you said he was having trouble gripping or just the foot slipping... This would be a warning sign.
From the pics his limbs and tone of his body look to be ok perhaps a bit thick but nothing of concern like the casque. For the casque it should not puff out on top like that.
I would suggest a diet and adding a bit of variety to it rather than just the dubia. If you stick with dubia as your main just ensure you are properly gutloading them. No high protein diets for dubia or they can store uric acid which in turn is not good for your cham. I consider a medium dubia to be 3/4 of an inch. If you are going to go with this then you want to do 3 feeders 3 days a week. Get a kitchen gram scale and monitor his weight.
Getting them to drop weight is never easy. You want to do this slowly not fast. You do not want to shock their system. Looking for a few grams a week reduction.
@FramsChams Could you please share a few pics of healthy weight male panthers with the op. So they can see what the casque should be size wise and shape?
Thanks, this really helps, I wasn't sure on cutting frequency or amount. I know he hunts isopods as well so I will definitely start weighing him. Its hard to get different feeders in winter, I was feeding him silkworms on a regular basis. Probably a slow process to get the puffy casque down, so just look for overall weight loss right?
Gloriawood
Chameleon Enthusiast
I order my feeders online. There are not many options where I live. I use dubiaroaches.com and there are a few other forum sponsors that are great too.
I started with breeding and trying to maintain cricket colonies, but what a nightmare. Dubias are awesome in every way. Will be paying closer attention to their colonies to help his diet.
Yes, overall weight loss... But you want it to be slow... IME it is very similar to people. If you crash diet you always lose weight where you are not wanting it to pull from. lol Same with Chams... You have to find the sweet spot. Beman has been on a reduced diet now for the last 3 years because his casque was too lofty lol. So I try to keep him in the 145 grams range which for his total length of 15 inches is still a little fluffy. But I have maintained this weight by only feeding 2 times a week 3-4 feeders no larger than 1/2 inch. When I feed more feeders he starts gaining and I can see the girth of his casque get wider and more puffy at the back side of it within weeks.
