My chameleon is not eating

[Gennahdavila]

I have a 3 month old Veiled Chameleon named Ignacio.
I've taken him to the vet at least 4 times in the last month.
He aspirated some calcium intake and that made him weak for a couple days but became active again. He's Bering moving around and drinking water. But is refusing to eat anything I give him. Today's he's been acting rather strange and keeps falling asleep. His basking spot is 95 and his cooling area is 75. He doesn't look to good. I don't know what to do anymore. I have a uvb lamp and a heating lamp. Lots of leaves to crawl on, a mister, and a dropper.

 

[Rodcham]

Hi Jenna, your cham looks pretty dehydrated, just my opinion but drop the basking temp to 90, mist more. What uvb lighting are you using? How were you feeding before? May be a good plan to complete the husbandry sheet for us so the more experienced can help you. I am sure someone will help you soon.

 

[Rodcham]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
That is the link for you.

 

[Kate]

I would say 90f is too hot for a baby. 85f is more appropriate. As said above filling in the form will allow us to help you more.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

Like others said drop the hottest spot to about 85.

What kind of UVB bulb are you using? In two of your pictures you seem to have MBD.

Use the link and fill out the help form. It really is a good tool for those of us wanting to help you.

You've been to a vet 4 times this month... is it a Herp vet and I'd be willing to bet no but I'm guessing off of my own preconceived notions.

Honestly he doesn't look too good from those pictures. I'd love to just give you a straightforward post with help and advice but I need more info first.

 

[Gennahdavila]

Male veiled chameleon
3 months old
Urine normal
Poop none because he hasn't eaten
Active mostly all day
I handle him 3 times a day
Supplements multi vitamin supplement powder from exoterra and flukers liquid calcium for his water
I mist him 5 times a day
Before the aspiration he was eating normal.
Now he has stopped eating completely.
Vet told me he wasn't dehydrated it's just he's weak and has sunken eyes from not eating

Cage
Mirror and screen combo
5.0 uvb reptisun 13 watt
50 watt daytime warmer
Cage 5 feet of the ground
Located in the left top corner of my room next to my bed
No traffic area
80% humidity all day
On from 9 am-9 pm

 

[oblgobl]

It does look like he might be starting to develope MBD in some of the pictures. Im refering to the first and last photo his front leg looks U shaped when it should be a at a straight angle.

I agree that it is too hot in there for him for his age and would lower the temps as recomended.

Most veiled keepers supplement their feeders with plain calcium everyday, a multi vitamin once every 2 weeks and a calcium +D3 every two weeks, so you might be overdosing him on the vitamin powder although I'm not familiar with that particular brand.

I'd recomend removing the substrate he risks getting impaction from eating it and also you don't want humidity to constantly be 80% you want it to rise and fall ideally from 40%-70%.

He certainly looks dehydrated but they can have sunken in eyes due to illness aswel. I would still recomend placing him on a plant in the shower and giving him a lukewarm shower. Don't spray the water directly on him spray it on the walls so the water bounces off onto him. It might perk him up a bit.

Does the vet have any theories on whats wrong with him? It is very important that he specializes in reptiles and ideally have experience with chams. I'm not a vet but it seems like the he might still be suffering from something related to him aspirating the calcium. Why was he on liquid calcium anyway? Did he have problems before hand?

 

[Gennahdavila]

Well he's getting worse. He's even more pale. With random black spots on his back. He's not loving. He's still breathing. What do I do???? No vet it open.

 

[Gennahdavila]

I think he's dying

 

[Gennahdavila]

Please help!!!!

 

[codiwatkins]

Did you do the shower that was recommended? He really does looks very dehydrated which would make sense with the elevated temps and class enclosure.

 

[Gennahdavila]

Well, thanks for the help. He passed away...

 

[codiwatkins]

Oh no. I am so sorry for your lose. I would suggest get a necropsy so you can know exactly what caused his death.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

Ok, here's the truth.


I've kept numerous reptiles over multiple decades. Not including the ones I kept during the 15 yrs I worked in pet stores. I've kept chameleons nearly my entire life. All that being said, I don't think yours is going to make it based on those photos. It's bad, very bad, once any species of Cham has the over all appearance yours does in those photos.


Losing a chameleon hurts. Hurts me, hurts just about anybody who uses these forums. I've been in your shoes is my point. I don't think he'll be here in 24-48 hours. I am sorry to say that.


So lets learn from it? Been my motto a long time.

Start with the temps, the animal seems to have been kept a bit hot. Ideal temps for most chams is a basking area around 85-88 and the rest of the cage dropping to the 70's during the day. That is only a possible problem/cause of your little fellow's problems.

Humidity should flux a bit. High humidity with low air circulation tends to cause a respiratory infection. I am not sure if that is what happened, but it gives you something to analyze and think on. Usually for a veiled a drip is enough to take care of their needs. Personally my animals have a slow drip available to them for hours in the morning and another later around 5pm. Hydration is not an issue that way.

It is very easy to overdose chameleons with multivitamins. Personally I use a multivitamin supplement once a week on two food items. Another day I use Repashy calcium w/ medium D3 on a few food items, the other 5 days I use straight calcium only. I also feed my food insects fresh veggies.

I do not use liquid supplements unless an animal is ill and even then only if the animal is not taking normal dusted food items.

Chams are one of the few types of reptiles where you can almost always count on having at least one sick one out of any number you ever own. As such you need a qualified reptile vet, not a vet who says they will see reptiles but a vet who specializes with them. You can find a list on this site if I recall.

Handling your Cham 3 times a day, never a great idea as most chams by their nature do not like to be handled a lot. I only handle my animals as needed, usually for cleaning or medicating purposes only. I also do regular health checks on my critters and that involves handling them. Bearded dragons... they can handle a lot of handling. Chameleons...not so much.

Lighting.... I do not like the CFL's. (Compact florescent lights) and some may disagree with me which is fine. From my observations ( I did buy some for testing) the linear bulbs tend to be more consistent for our chams health.

Also from looking at your photos.... is there any chance that direct sunlight hits that cage during the day? I have a line of thought I'm following and that would be the last piece of the puzzle.


Your animal does appear to have metabolic bone disease starting in some of those arms. If the vet didn't catch that you need a new vet. Once MBD gets going it is fatal in advanced cases and a symptom is lack of appetite. if he did not have that when you got him then it happened while you had him and the lighting could be a factor in that. If he OD'd on vitamins organ failure can occur and that could also be a cause of the issues you are seeing.

Then there is always the chance he ate something he shouldn't have. I knew a guy once who had to use ant poison in his house. A cricket had gotten loose and was captured by his little sister who figured tossing it in to the cham was a good idea. She didn't know the cricket had gone thru the Raid despite it acting "weird" (was dying) and the cham died as a result.


I can give lots of info, or even examples, of things that can happen to Chams. You have to be the detective, you have to think and evaluate what went wrong by gathering info. That way your next cham will live a long happy life.

Sorry for the book. Once I come out of my cave I tend to type. Usually I stay in my cave...

 

[OldChamKeeper]

Sorry for your loss. I see you posted that while I was typing that book...

 

[Gennahdavila]

No thank you for that book. I mean yes I've learned stuff from this loss. But I don't think I'll get another Cham for a long while. l can't keep screwing up an animals life and learning from my mistakes.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

Where did you get him from anyway...sometimes the problems start before you get the animal. Petsmart and petco are perfect examples of where to not get a cham from