My new panther chameleon is not eating

[Girca]

Hi, this is my first post here.

I for a new panther chameleon and I’m really worry because he is barely eating 2-4 dubias/cricket a day. We got him a week ago now.
Here are some pictures of him now (dark color) and the white is the day we got him.
He seems to be more skinny and it’s stressing me out.
Let me post more pictures and details later about the setup and the care we had been doing so far.

 

[Beppo]

Hi, this is my first post here.

I for a new panther chameleon and I’m really worry because he is barely eating 2-4 dubias/cricket a day. We got him a week ago now.
Here are some pictures of him now (dark color) and the white is the day we got him.
He seems to be more skinny and it’s stressing me out.
Let me post more pictures and details later about the setup and the care we had been doing so far.

Hi welcome! He’s so small! How old is he?Any information about his care you can give us going to be very helpful as well as filling out the husbandry form and including pictures of the enclosure top to bottom. I’d you copy the form below and re paste it here with your answers and experienced keeper will have an easy time assisting you.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

Last

 

[Beppo]

Hi welcome! He’s so small! How old is he?Any information about his care you can give us going to be very helpful as well as filling out the husbandry form and including pictures of the enclosure top to bottom. I’d you copy the form below and re paste it here with your answers and experienced keeper will have an easy time assisting you.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

Last

Sorry about all the typos I have fat buttery fingers

 

[Girca]

Sorry I thought I mentioned, they say he was 2 months when we got him at the reptile show in San Mateo, CA.

I included a bunch of pictures of the set up where you can see everything. The heat lamp is 60w. Let me include more details in a bit

 

[Beppo]

Sorry I thought I mentioned, they say he was 2 months when we got him at the reptile show in San Mateo, CA.

I included a bunch of pictures of the set up where you can see everything. The heat lamp is 60w. Let me include more details in a bit

Ok sorry I think I just missed that. One thing I do know is he needs a lot more branches, of all sizes so he can exercise his little mitts and bogey around in there, also more plants for places to hide and feel secure. If he’s still adjusting and feels insecure that could be why he’s not eating much, he feels too exposed. I’m still fairly new to it all, I’m in my first year of keeping. But those are the things I can see right off the bat. Also when you fill in more details please do include your supplements and the schedule you are using them in

 

[Girca]

• Handling - 2-4 times since we got him (1 week) to set up his cage
• Feeding - he has that suspended feeder you can see on the pictures. But he haven’t been eating out of it (dubias and crickets) we only been able to tong feed him dubias and crickets. 2-4 a day, what seems very low.
• Supplements - zoo mes repti calcium
• Watering - he has a small cup and misting 2-4 times a day. I got automatic mister but didn’t install yet
• Fecal Description - fecal seemed normal but will check again today
• History -

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - screen, repti breeze 16x16x30
• Lighting - Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED Bar
• Temperature - 65-75F
• Humidity - 60-85%
• Plants - pothos and money tree
• Placement - living room, kept my dogs out of that room since we got him. Almost no traffic except in the evening when watching TV but not too loud.
• Location - San Francisco, CA

 

[elizaann2]

Hello and welcome! Your sweet baby needs a vet ASAP. He is so young that he does not have the resources to fall back on if something goes wrong. I've attached a spreadsheet of exotic vets with chameleon care experience. Please check it out and make an appointment now. Let them know this is an emergency, that he is a baby and will die without immediate care.

 

[Girca]

hello, I just talk to the breeder and said that I need a UVB in addition of the Arcadia? Is that true? I removed that light bulb pictures below on Tuesday.

I hope I didn’t do anything wrong, I feel so bad now.

I’m going to look at the vet list, what would they do? Can they force feed him?

 

[Girca]

I checked the one in my area is closed today and only opened tomorrow

 

[Beppo]

I checked the one in my area is closed today and only opened tomorrow

I would call first thing in the morning and let them know it’s an emergency. Yes you do need ubv for sure. I’m sorry you’re going through this hopefully you can get your little guy into the vet first thing in the morning! There is still hope let us know how things go

 

[elizaann2]

See my answers below in red. Unfortunately your baby is very young and it looks like he is declining very quickly. I cannot express this enough, you need to act quickly and get him into a vet now. He will not last long. I believe you were not set up for success with your sweet baby. He was sold to you too young and buying a reptile from an expo you do run risks of him having a parasite from all the animals and handling often done in those places. Secondly your set up does need some work to get things where you sweet baby boy will thrive. What is really needed for these guys isn't often found in expos.

• Handling - 2-4 times since we got him (1 week) to set up his cage Ok, chameleons are very shy lizards and handling them is often very stressful. Chameleons are a 'look at but don't touch' kind of animal. Understandable you hand to handle him to get his enclosure set up, not ideal but understandable. In an ideal situation you would have his enclosure set up, temps and humidity dialed before baby comes home.
• Feeding - he has that suspended feeder you can see on the pictures. But he haven’t been eating out of it (dubias and crickets) we only been able to tong feed him dubias and crickets. 2-4 a day, what seems very low. The feeder I use is from sunset chameleons. It is set up so that the feeders cannot escape easily (photo attached). I strongly recommend this if he didn't seem to be eating well. He might not have been able to find the bugs possibly, if he can find them fine then maybe don't mess with it.
• Supplements - zoo mes repti calcium. Can you share a photo of this? You need multi vitamins as well and something with D3 on top of the calcium. This is my supplement schedule:
• Every feeding phosphorus free calcium without D3. This is my calcium supplement
• On the 1st and 15th of every month I use Repashy Lod, this has all the vitamins he needs plus D3. This is is the Repashy here
• Watering - he has a small cup and misting 2-4 times a day. I got automatic mister but didn’t install yet. We acutally dont recommend cups for hydration. If you think about it logically there are no cups in the trees in the wild so where do chameleons get their hydration? Studies have shown that they actually get the majority of their hydration through the fog that rolls in at the late night/early mornings as well as from dropplets on leaves. Chameleons ahve to be trained to recognize and drink from standing water. Below is my hydration method:
• 7:30 mist enclosure with hand mister for 1-2 minutes
• 8:00 lights come on, chameleon drinks his fill with droplets on leaves when he wakes up
• 3:00 dripper placed over top of enclosure and placed strategically so the water drips fall on a leaf that is easy for the chameleon to reach and drink from.
• 8:00 lights turn off
• 9:30 mist enclosure
• 10:00 temps have dropped in enclosure to 68 degrees or lower, fog turns on and runs from 1 hour on to 1 hour off until 6 am. The misting before the fog comes on helps the fog stick around.
• If I see my chameleon drinking or see in his urates that he is dehydrated (orange) then I will add extra misting sessions or dripper sessions throughout the day to get his hydration back to where it needs to be
• Fecal Description - fecal seemed normal but will check again today. If you have any pictures of this please share. What did his urates (chameleon pee) look like? Were they white? Orange? Half of each?
• History -

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - screen, repti breeze 16x16x30. Unfortunately this is a little small for baby, right now because he is so small its ok but you will ahve to upgrade soon. He will need a 24x24x48 inch enclosure or larger. You can buy them on Amazon, Pangea, DIY Cages or other places. Lets touch base again when you get to this point
• Lighting - Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED Bar. Baby needs UVB daily. He needs a T5 HO linear fixture and bulb that is either 6% or 5.0. This is very important. There are lots of UVB types out there and not all of them are effective. Actually, since you need an enclosure and lighting I would strongly recommended getting Neptune the Chameleon it has everything you need to raise a healthy chameleon including the UVB lights. This will take a lot of stress off of you on what you need to get for baby

Neptune the Chameleon Kit
in case you don't want to or can't purchase this right now the needed light and hood are below as well:
Linear hood and UVB light

 

[elizaann2]

I checked the one in my area is closed today and only opened tomorrow

Are there any animal hospitals nearby that will see him? He looks really bad and I worry he won't make it that long.

 

[elizaann2]

Finishing this:

• Lighting - Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED Bar. Do you have a heat lamp? What are his basking temps? What kind of heat bulb do you have? How long is it on for?
• Temperature - 65-75F. This is too cold for baby. During the day he needs a basking temp of 80-85 degrees, the rest of his enclosure needs to have a temp gradient of 78 degrees to 72. His night time temps need to be 68 degrees or lower if possible. How are you measuring temps?
• Humidity - 60-85%. During the day or night? During the day baby boy needs humidity levels of 50-60%. At night he needs humidity of 80-100%. How are you measuring humidity?
• Plants - pothos and money tree. Perfect. Baby needs lots of coverage so he feels safe. He does need more plants and sticks. I'll share a photo of one of my enclosures to give you an idea of what you need for your little sweetie.
• Placement - living room, kept my dogs out of that room since we got him. Almost no traffic except in the evening when watching TV but not too loud. Is his enclosure by any vents? Windows? Where is his enclosure? On a table, bookshelf, floor?
• Location - San Francisco, CA

 

[elizaann2]

Las things, if you can get baby in you need to get him tested for parasites as well. He is bad so obviously focus on getting him back to a good place, the vet can force feed him and hydrate him if needed.

This what I follow for care for my panther, read this and let me know what questions you have after.

I also wanted to attach other feeders you can use for your baby as well as recommended gut load. AND...a list of chameleon safe plants.

Keep us posted on how he is doing. I am sending him love and prayers.

 

[elizaann2]

hello, I just talk to the breeder and said that I need a UVB in addition of the Arcadia? Is that true? I removed that light bulb pictures below on Tuesday.

I hope I didn’t do anything wrong, I feel so bad now.

I’m going to look at the vet list, what would they do? Can they force feed him?

Don't beat yourself up. Chameleons are a harder reptile to care for and requires a specific environment in order to thrive. Lets just focus on getting baby the care he needs and we can work on the other stuff and get you squared away easily.

 

[Girca]

I’m at the pet store now and they only have 7% or 12%.
Would you not recommend 7% at all?
What’s the percentage represent?

 

[elizaann2]

I’m at the pet store now and they only have 7% or 12%.
Would you not recommend 7% at all?
What’s the percentage represent?

Darn, they don't have what you need. You want a 6%.

 

[elizaann2]

Usually you have to order it online. I haven't seen the ones we need in a pet store yet. At least not in Utah.

 

[Girca]

Nevermind fond a hidden light bulb 6% that would fit in that 12% kit

 

[Girca]

Got that