New Chameleon suddenly not eating

hollyd777

New Member
Hello. We are the new owners of Caspian, a male juvenile veiled chameleon, and our first one. He came on December 28th, a little over a week ago, and started eating crickets within hours of arriving. For 4-5 days, he ate way more than we expected, I would say, even up to 15-20 small crickets on some days.

Although he seems still healthy and active, he has now stopped eating completely. For the last 48 hours he has eaten nothing. Is this normal or not?

I just bumped him up to a 75 watt basking bulb today (a 60 watt is what came with our kit). I was using the bulbs that came with our zoomed kit, but the temp at his top branch never seemed more than about 77-78 degrees. From reading on this forum, it seemed like he needed to be higher, so after changing to the 75 watt bulb now his top branch is reading 80-81.

We have been misting him 5+ times a day and have seen him drinking from the leaves. He has been kind of a brown/green color since we got him when awake and bright mint green when sleeping. He came from Fl chams, and we did pay extra for premium bloodlines, though I am guessing his color will come in more as he grows. My main concern right now is keeping him healthy and wondering if it is OK that he has not eaten now for two days.

As for his enclosure, we have added a live plant and more foliage (plastic) at the top since this picture was taken. He is in a room of the house where he gets a lot of attention for our family, but this did not seem to bother him when he came. He has even eaten crickets out of my hand before he stopped eating.
 

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Welcome to the forum!

I would bump the temperature a little higher still...he's old enough to take it. Hopefully it will get him back on track.

If you answer the questions in the thread @renzo0684 gave you we can make sure everything is ok.
 
The lighting is not adequate. CFL bulbs? Not enough for a veiled chameleon. Okay for short time and then a lot of problems will arise. Lessen the misting as well. Veileds do not need so much and it can actually lead to more problems. And like kinyonga said above, 80 is a bit cool for a veiled unless you WANT them to slow down. Bump it to 90.

Also, in the winter, they can slow down due to cooler ambient temperatures and this slows their eating as well.
 
Well I could be wrong. But that is one of those double dome fixtures for a cfl and a heat lamp.Unless the uvb is elsewhere or off or something. In the fourth picture?
 
@CharlesYamaguchi said..."Well I could be wrong. But that is one of those double dome fixtures for a cfl and a heat lamp.Unless the uvb is elsewhere or off or something. In the fourth picture?"... I must be getting tired...I missed that! (I don't like those CFLs either.)
 
haha do not beat yourself up haha. I always look at lighting first anyway. Just knee jerk reaction... Yeah CFL are okay but not the best. Certainly not for a veiled.....or anything else for that matter in my opinion haha
 
@CharlesYamaguchi said..."I always look at lighting first anyway. Just knee jerk reaction"...and I always look at supplements first....then temperatures then lighting...maybe it works out well if we all look at different things first!
 
Thank you everyone. He is active today and I saw him drinking, just not eating yet. I am still a little confused on the lighting issue, though I understand he needs UVB and heat light. If what they gave us with the zoo med kit is not best, can anyone send a picture or direct link of what exactly you recommend for this guy? I'll try to get it today.
 
Thank you to everyone who has responded to me. I felt that I needed to go out and get some better lighting for him today, so I picked up a villa slimline tropical 25 UVB fluorescent bulb. I also got him a 75Watt intense basking spot bulb. I had that one for awhile but then was measuring 95 degrees at the top branch so I quickly went back to his 75 blue daylight bulb. I am hoping that helps with the 25 UVB. He has been very active today but still not eating. I have noticed every time I mist his cage (About four times today) he is licking the leaves and branches.
 
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