Lemon died!

OrangeJuice

OrangeJuice

Established Member
Hi guys, I am a newer owner to Chameleons. My friend's male veiled, Lemon, just passed away tonight. Here's a little info
Lighting: heat lamp (temps 80-85), reptisun 5.0
Food: about 5 crickets a day. Sometimes mealworms. Quit eating about a week before death, or showed little interest.
Cage: 18X18X24
Substrate: none. He kept the cage very clean.
Age: ~2-3 months. Got him from Petco.
Lemon drank regularly from his dropper, was misted a few times a day and enjoyed eating Cilantro. As for his supplements, he had dusted crickets WITHOUT d3 every time. No other sups.

I hurried to my friends house tonight, and I basically told him he was dead. Lemon had started turning black, the eyes were sunken, the tail would not curl back up. (I had experienced this with my baby veiled)But weirdly enough he twitched in my hand but kept his eyes shut. When he stopped doing this for awhile and he turned more black I just assumed it was an after death twitching thing. If anyone knows why this happened I would greatly appreciate it so I can tell him as he plans on getting another little guy. Thank you!
 
Sorry for your friend's loss.

I can't tell you why the chameleon died but I can tell you that 5 appropriate sized crickets isn't enough for a chameleon that age. How big were the crickets?

What was the basking temperature?
 
I agree that is too little for one of that age... and mealworms could easily impact a chameleon that young if fed often enough since you guys don't have a soft bodied feeders. How much misting and water in general was offered?
 
Andee said:
I agree that is too little for one of that age... and mealworms could easily impact a chameleon that young if fed often enough since you guys don't have a soft bodied feeders. How much misting and water in general was offered?
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A zoomed dripper was always going in there, and he misted Lemon 3-4 times a day. One of Lemons eyes had started getting crusty and closed shut ( I recommended laying off the lighting and getting a lower wattage which helped, and misting him more ) the reason he started feeding him mealworms was because he wouldn't eat the crickets
 
An eye stuck shut and crusty may have been infected, or it could have been a symptom of a overall infection. The whole black color change and odd movements were signs of impending death. As systems die they lose control of their skin color, muscle and nervous system. But, he was not getting any vit D3 or vitamins which could have lead to trouble too. Chams need plain calcium daily, calcium with added D3 once every 2 weeks, and also a herp multivitamin once every 2 weeks in addition to a varied feeder diet.
 
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His mister was one of those high pressure things. He would do it for about a minute. And yeah, he got him from Petco to save him. He was already so weak and lethargic at Petco.
 
It didn't sound like he was misting long enough, especially if he was sick already. Misting should be a minimum of 2 minutes with a longer one once a day and a 15-20 minute one once a week in my mind.
 
Ahh he was worried about over watering him if that's possible. He would pour distilled water from a gallon in a small stream into a bowl whenever his irate looked off white, and lemon would drink it up. I only recommended he do that when his poop was off though, because it works well for my veiled
 
Usually if you are misting enough you won't have to worry about that unless they are sick or something. You can't over mist (easily) as long as you have good airflow and drainage. Which even in glass terrariums most people use small computer fans or something because airflow is so important. Humid air is different the moist and stagnant air.
 
Oh good to know. I keep Yoyo in a big screen cage (5ft tall 5 ft wide 3 ft thick) and he loves misting but I was worried about that. He's gonna be excited tomorrow
 
OrangeJuice said:
His mister was one of those high pressure things. He would do it for about a minute. And yeah, he got him from Petco to save him. He was already so weak and lethargic at Petco.
Click to expand...
Believe me, we are all tempted to "save" miserable chams we see at pet stores, but unfortunately, unless you got him for free or a very reduced price, you ended up rewarding the store for mistreating him. Something like 75% of pet store animal sales is due to customer pity. They will just use the profit they made on him to buy more. If we refuse to buy these poor little things it tells the business that chams (however mistreated) are just not profitable and they may stop carrying them. This is better in the long run.
 
Carlton said:
Believe me, we are all tempted to "save" miserable chams we see at pet stores, but unfortunately, unless you got him for free or a very reduced price, you ended up rewarding the store for mistreating him. Something like 75% of pet store animal sales is due to customer pity. They will just use the profit they made on him to buy more. If we refuse to buy these poor little things it tells the business that chams (however mistreated) are just not profitable and they may stop carrying them. This is better in the long run.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I realized that with my first Cham I got from petsmart. I ended up finding this place called Primeval Pets in Medford, OR, and they take wonderful care of all their animals and even do rescues. I recommended that place to my friend since he was considering getting a healthy baby
 
Yeah I do a lot of rescues around here for various animals and reptiles and I have seen some... horrible stuff... but I never pay or if it's from a store pay an adoption fee of no more than 5-10 dollars. It's usually when the stores recognize they can not stay to the store code and take care of the animals as well and I will get called. Anyone else if they try to get money out of me I threaten to call animal control on them. Or I say what my vet bill will cost after caring for the animal and say I can prove it with the bill. Usually it's way above what they would make out of what I would pay. 200+ dollars because of the amount of care most animals need once I get them.
 
I would love to adopt little guys. I have built various screen cages and have all kinds of different lights, my only issue people would rather keep their animals and let them die. With my friend, he asked me to basically take Lemon but when I got to his house Lemon was way too far gone. And of course, I'm also a newer owner and not nearly as experienced as any of you guys. But for a future profession I'd love to work at a rescue sanctuary. I just have no idea who to ask haha
 
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