Panther Cham- hungry, thirsty, and clumsy

[orchid14]

Chameleon Info:
My Chameleon - Our panther cham. is a female and is about a year old now and we have had her about 3 months from a previous owner
Handling - We handle her about once a week to clean her cage
Feeding - We feed her gut loaded crickets (loaded with Flukers orange cubes) once every morning
Supplements - We have used reptivite with D3 about once a week and just began using a calcium supplement spray called Zilla
Watering - We water her using a mist bottle 2-3 times a day. When I mist her cage she generally rushes to the water. I see her trying to get more water. She will also follow where I spray.
Fecal Description - She has some brown fecal matter and some orange and white fecal matter. It seems to be normal.
History - We got her recently from a family who wasn't sure about how to care for the chameleon and were looking to find a new home. She wasn't being fed gut loaded crickets or supplements before we got her.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - It is a screen cage with dimensions:16x16x20inches
Lighting - We use Reptile UVB 100 Exoterra and a 60Watt heat lamp. We have our lamps set to a timer from 6:45am to 7:30pm
Temperature - The basking spot is generally near 82-83 Lowest overnight temp is about 70 - 75 we use an analog thermometer on the side to measure the temps.
Humidity - Between 40-60% we use a humidity gauge from ExoTerra
Plants - Currently we have 1 fake leafy vine and 1 fake bendable vine
Placement - Our cage is on top of a table against a wall with a leafy backdrop. It is about 4 feet from the floor.
Location - Where live in dfw texas

Current Problem - The current problems we see is that our beloved chameleon is having trouble eating, catching prey, climbing, and basic movement. She has also been sleeping a lot and is occasionally on the floor of the cage, hanging upside down, or partially on a vine and partially on the floor of the cage. I am really worried because she also seems to not be able to close her mouth and really struggles catching prey. We normally let her eat free roaming crickets but I haven't seen her eat any of them in while. The only crickets I've seen her eat recently are when I put some in a container and she ate a few of those. When I see her climbing and walking she seem to be struggling and really weak. Please help our chameleon!! In addition she has also been closing one eye and keeping another eye open. PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

 

[zlew]

I'm not sure what exactly the problem is, but there are a couple of things it could be:
-sleeping during the day could indicate that she is having trouble sleeping at night
-the mouth and climbing issues could be due to slight MBD, or malnourishment
-All of these symptoms I believe could be caused by parasite, so you will want to get a fecal sample from her (make sure it is nice and fresh) and have your vet run a fecal. You should also schedule an appointment with an experienced reptile vet (hopefully you already have one.

A couple of things with your husbandry should be changed:
-flukers orange cubes are useless, other than keeping feeders alive. You want to gut load your feeders with all kinds of fruit and veggies. I give my feeders baby spinach, sweet potato, apple, carrot, banana, and cucumber. You should also have more than one type of feeder, to give her a varied diet. I have at the moment crickets, hornworms, mealworms, phoenix worms, and dubia roaches.

-Supplements: The feeders should be dusted lightly with Calcium powder that has no D3 in it every day. Once every two weeks, you can use calcium powder with D3, and on the off weeks use a multivitamin. For me, I dust with Rep-Cal calcium powder without D3 every day, and alternate thursdays between calcium with d3 and the multivitamin.

-You can raise her basking temperature to 85-87 degrees. One of my chams wouldn't eat until I raised his to 92 (that is usually too warm.) What are the temperatures near the middle and bottom of the cage? They should be in the low to mid 70s. At night, you will need the temperature to drop to at least 65, lower than that is even better. They need a nighttime temperature drop to sleep properly. It also has to be pretty dark, they need the darkness to sleep undisturbed as well. Get a thermometer that uses a probe to measure temperatures, it is more accurate,.

-The cage is looking a little sparse. You should add more plants and vines, and a horizontal branch/vine under the basking lamp at the right distance to keep her from getting burned so she can bask comfortably.

-Drinking: Have you seen her drink? They will either shoot their tongues at droplets or lick them off leaves and vines. One of mine even comes right up to the nozzle and licks away. Mist until you see her start to drink, and then keep misting until you see her stop completely. She may also open her mouth and close it to drink while the water sprays on her.
-She looks younger than a year old. Maybe 5 months?

 

[laurie]

The person below posted some good advice, I would follow it carefully. The only thing I would add it that a cham that size should have a 18x18x36 cage. Lots of people would go larger and that is better. What I listed was the smallest cage I would use for your cham.

Also read the care info for your girl.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

I'm not sure what exactly the problem is, but there are a couple of things it could be:
-sleeping during the day could indicate that she is having trouble sleeping at night
-the mouth and climbing issues could be due to slight MBD, or malnourishment
-All of these symptoms I believe could be caused by parasite, so you will want to get a fecal sample from her (make sure it is nice and fresh) and have your vet run a fecal. You should also schedule an appointment with an experienced reptile vet (hopefully you already have one.

A couple of things with your husbandry should be changed:
-flukers orange cubes are useless, other than keeping feeders alive. You want to gut load your feeders with all kinds of fruit and veggies. I give my feeders baby spinach, sweet potato, apple, carrot, banana, and cucumber. You should also have more than one type of feeder, to give her a varied diet. I have at the moment crickets, hornworms, mealworms, phoenix worms, and dubia roaches.

-Supplements: The feeders should be dusted lightly with Calcium powder that has no D3 in it every day. Once every two weeks, you can use calcium powder with D3, and on the off weeks use a multivitamin. For me, I dust with Rep-Cal calcium powder without D3 every day, and alternate thursdays between calcium with d3 and the multivitamin.

-You can raise her basking temperature to 85-87 degrees. One of my chams wouldn't eat until I raised his to 92 (that is usually too warm.) What are the temperatures near the middle and bottom of the cage? They should be in the low to mid 70s. At night, you will need the temperature to drop to at least 65, lower than that is even better. They need a nighttime temperature drop to sleep properly. It also has to be pretty dark, they need the darkness to sleep undisturbed as well. Get a thermometer that uses a probe to measure temperatures, it is more accurate,.

-The cage is looking a little sparse. You should add more plants and vines, and a horizontal branch/vine under the basking lamp at the right distance to keep her from getting burned so she can bask comfortably.

-Drinking: Have you seen her drink? They will either shoot their tongues at droplets or lick them off leaves and vines. One of mine even comes right up to the nozzle and licks away. Mist until you see her start to drink, and then keep misting until you see her stop completely. She may also open her mouth and close it to drink while the water sprays on her.
-She looks younger than a year old. Maybe 5 months?

 

[ChamDE86]

I think most new owners make the mistake of not misting long enough. I would highly recommend combining a dripper with your misting. I like to mist for 2-3 minutes to stimulate my chameleon to want to drink, then I turn on the dripper shortly after, so he has access to water hours after everything drys up. Another route would be an automatic mister, but they will run you around $100.

 

[carol5208]

Your chameleon definitely has Metabolic Bone Disease. Most likely caused by the previous owners, although your lack of calcium in the diet over the past 3 months might have contributed slightly. That is why your chameleon cannot grip or hang onto things. Make sure that you change out your uvb bulb every 6 months. Just because they are shining, does not mean they are effective. Don't know if you are aware of that or not. If you get a UVB meter you can check the output, as they may last a little longer than 6 months or so depending on the bulb. Here is a link for you to read on MBD. The eye closing could be the start of an infection or possibly a Vitamin A deficiency. From what you have been feeding your crickets and supplementing with, your chameleon is most likely not getting the proper Vitamin A it requires.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/wha...ase-mbd-looks-like-how-happens-how-fix-95071/

 

[orchid14]

Thank you guys so much for your help! My husband and I are going to the store to get as much as we can. I read on a forum and found some live plants that may be better for her and am going to try to get her some pothos, hybiscus, and schefflera. Do you have any recommendation for a drainage system for the dripper and where to find a bigger cage? We've been having trouble with finding that.

Yes she is supposed to be a year old. She has shed once in the time we've had her (since October). The previous owners said she was 9 months old when they gave her to me. She is still very very small now but seems to have grown some since we got her. As I said they didn't gut load or give her any supplements before so I don't know if maybe thats why she is so small.

Thanks again so so much!

 

[JamesBryan]

For a bigger cage just search for a Zoo Med Reptibreeze and get the XL version.

 

[zlew]

The XL is very big, and expensive and you would only need it for a male. I think that the L should be fine, I think its 18x18x36

 

[ChamDE86]

Thank you guys so much for your help! My husband and I are going to the store to get as much as we can. I read on a forum and found some live plants that may be better for her and am going to try to get her some pothos, hybiscus, and schefflera. Do you have any recommendation for a drainage system for the dripper and where to find a bigger cage? We've been having trouble with finding that.

Yes she is supposed to be a year old. She has shed once in the time we've had her (since October). The previous owners said she was 9 months old when they gave her to me. She is still very very small now but seems to have grown some since we got her. As I said they didn't gut load or give her any supplements before so I don't know if maybe thats why she is so small.

Thanks again so so much!

There is a drainage section on the enclosure thread that will show you plenty of ways to create drainage. I'd take a look there and see which method works best for you. Cages can be found almost anywhere. Just look up Reptibreeze. If you're on a budget, I would look on craigslist to see if someone is selling one for cheap. Most importantly though, I would really try to nurse the chameleon back to a healthier state.