Hi eveyone,
for the past 2 months or so I have noticed my chameleon Chance getting weaker. Yesterday when I took him out of his cage he looked the weakest I have seen him. I took him outside for a while to get sun but then it got windy and cold and he did not seem to like it anymore. So I put him back in his enclosure and he tried to turn around on a bamboo dowel he uses to bask from to come back onto my arm and almost fell off because his hind legs looked as if the couldn't even grip the branch. As he was walking toward the front of the enclosure I put my hand back in to see if he wanted to get on m hand and he puffed up and in the process he lost balance and almost fell sideways off of the top basking branch. He barely had enough strength to catch him self and pull himself back up to the top. After this he seemed even more weak and took a poop right after that like it scared the sh** out of him literally. His hands and feet have some grip when he is on my hand but you can tell he can barely squeeze them to make a grip. I dont handle my chameleon that often maybe twice a weak and h never gets mad at me. He is very mellow and chill 90% of the time. Please help me I am afraid he is going to get worse and I dont want to lose him. I want to provide him wit ht e best care possible, any help would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you.
for the past 2 months or so I have noticed my chameleon Chance getting weaker. Yesterday when I took him out of his cage he looked the weakest I have seen him. I took him outside for a while to get sun but then it got windy and cold and he did not seem to like it anymore. So I put him back in his enclosure and he tried to turn around on a bamboo dowel he uses to bask from to come back onto my arm and almost fell off because his hind legs looked as if the couldn't even grip the branch. As he was walking toward the front of the enclosure I put my hand back in to see if he wanted to get on m hand and he puffed up and in the process he lost balance and almost fell sideways off of the top basking branch. He barely had enough strength to catch him self and pull himself back up to the top. After this he seemed even more weak and took a poop right after that like it scared the sh** out of him literally. His hands and feet have some grip when he is on my hand but you can tell he can barely squeeze them to make a grip. I dont handle my chameleon that often maybe twice a weak and h never gets mad at me. He is very mellow and chill 90% of the time. Please help me I am afraid he is going to get worse and I dont want to lose him. I want to provide him wit ht e best care possible, any help would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you.
- Your Chameleon - I have a Panther chameleon which is 1 year and 7 months old.
- Handling - I handle him a few times a week. He is a very relaxed chameleon. He will usually come to the front of the cage to get fed and then to come out onto my hand. He loves being held.
- Feeding - I will usually put 10 cricket in his home about every other day after I dust them with supplements (see below). He loves superworms and I will usually feed hime one or two of those a day when I can. Those are his staple foods. He isn't crazy about dubas but i feed them occasionally when I can. He also loves silks and horns but I can't get them often in my area. Lately He hasn't been eating that much but when I put crickets in for him he will usually eat at most 3 before he stops eating and lets the rest run away. It seems like he has an appetite nonetheless. I try and gut load all of the feeders with bananas, strawberries, apples, spinach, mangos, sometimes sweet potatoes.
- Supplements - I dust cricket, roaches, and superworms with the repashy calcium plus every feeding. The breeder i bought hims from at 3 months old told be to use this every feeding.
- Watering -i have a mistking starter kit. I have it set to go off at 7am for 6 minutes, 112 pm for 4 minutes, 4pm for 4 minutes, and then 5 for 1min. The humidity gauge i use I dont think works well cuz its been saying around 54-60% humidity.
- Fecal Description - dark brown\white sometimes yellow urate. I see him drink water pretty often though. His poop has been stinking pretty bad lately as well. It is kinda firm but not to much.
- History- i bought the cham at a local reptile show in Fresno CA at 3 months old in June 2017. He has been pretty healthy chameleon for the time that I have had him with no significant illnesses that I know off. I haven't weighed him lately so I don't have that info currently.
- Cage Type- i have a screen cage that is 4’x2’x2’ that has an acrylic door on the front. it is the zoo med deluxe cage.
- Lighting - im using a compact a dual sunblaze system with a 6500k grow bulb with a Arcadia D3 + 12% UVB T5 UVB bulb - 22” (D3 + Desert). His top branch for basking is about 8” away from the light but realistically 10 inches due to the space between the lamp and mesh top. I have a 100 watt bulb on a dimmer but right now i have it turned all the way up and when I point my zoo med infrared heat reader on him when he is basking it only reads 85 at the highest. But i feel like it should be hotter than that. His basking spot is about 8 inches from the light as well. These are on from 6:30-7:00 everyday.
- Temperature - Right now the basking spot is 85 at the highest and the bottom is about 70. the temperature never drops below 60 at night.
- Humidity - stays in between 56-60% maybe even lower at times. I need a legit way to read humidity because what I am using is not accurate I dont think.
- Plants - I have 5 live plants in his enclosure and jungle vines. No fake plant business for me.
- Placement - The cage is on top of a storage shelf in a room by itself. I am ey level with him when he is a t his highest point in the cage. He is alone most of the time in his room though.
