not right after being outside

jmart

Member
I have a male oustalet's chameleon, that I have had for 2 months. He is wild-caught, but has been doing very well. I put him outside for a couple of hours, 2 days ago (along with my other chams-in their respective cages). He ate 1 green insect that flew in and drank. He was fine yesterday, but today he does not seem right. His pupils are not completely round , as usual, and he does not seem as alert. He will not eat or drink, almost like he has a stomach upset!?
I live in Canada, so there are not alot of strange insects.There is no pesticide use either. I am supplementing with Miner-All I mostly once/week, as they do not go out in sun much. Could he be having a reacting to too much d3 for 2 hours in sun?
The other chams are ok.
Thanks for your help.
BTW I am new to the forum but not to chameleons.
 
Perhaps it was something with the little green bug he ate? I'd think the best thing to do would be to take a fecal sample and bring him, and the sample, to the vet. Better to be safe!
 
I will try, but reptile vets here are not very good, especially with chameleons and I will not be able to go until next week for sample as I live far from work and city. Hopefully, whatever he has will pass.
 
I also would wonder about it being the bug. If he's not better in a couple of days or gets worse, then I would take it to the vets.

IMHO you need to make changes to your supplements as well.

Since most of the feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus its important to dust with a phos.-free calcium powder at most feedings to make up for it.

I also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder to ensure that the chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. I leave it to produce the rest of the D3 it needs from its exposure to the UVB. D3 from supplements can build up in the system while D3 produced from exposure to UVB should not as long as the chameleon can move in and out of the UVB.
 
I'd just keep a really close eye on him, give him lots of water to drink so that maybe it'll help "flush" him out (not sure if that'll do much, but it couldn't hurt!)

What about shedding? Has he shed recently or is he maybe due for a shed soon? I know a lot of chameleon owners claim their chameleons don't eat or move around as much when they're getting ready to shed.
 
He shed a few weeks ago. He has a few bits left on dorsal spines where he has some scabbing from something. He might have gotten that from fighting with other males in wild or when he got caught.
Captive bred chameleons are rare here and I am trying to maybe breed later on.
I had a large collection in 1995, and had oustalet eggs, but the babies died full term in egg due to ice storm power outage. I got out of chams since then because most of them died off slowly as I had no where to bring them very soon after the storm and they all got very cold. Alot of people lost reptiles and fish during that time.
 
From what I understand, naturally produced vitamin D3 cannot be overdosed. You can over dose them with supplements, but if their body produces it, there's not an issue.

Was this the first time you took him outside? While I agree you need to be concerned that the green bug might have caused a problem, I also just wonder if he didn't love being outside and is moping a bit because he's back inside?
 
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