Panther Chameleon not eating and does not shed well!

[chamelot]

So I have had my male Panther chameleon for about 7 months and recently I have been getting very worried. For the past 3 weeks my chameleon has been acting weird and I do not know what to do. My chameleon has not eaten in the past 3 weeks. After about 9 days I went to a Exotic herp vet and they thought it could be parasites so they gave Panacur to my cham and also I had a fecal sample in case. They took the fecal sample and went to test it. It was negative, I was glad for that but they couldn't help me solve my problem and 200 dollars went down the drain.

Also I realized that my cham wasn't shedding probably because he is not getting the nutrients he needs from the food he eats to shed. And from the long term eating I feel its getting very dangerous but his skin is turning yellowing ish. I feed him a base of crickets, with a mixture of superworms, waxworms, and mealworms. Very rarely a superworm beetle. Everything I feed I sprinkle a mixture of a calcium with D3 and multivitamin on the food.

He drinks plently like a normal cham would. Walks around a lot also. If anyone has any helpful info to get him back up to good health I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[jamjam]

you dust with d3 and multivitamin every feeding?? this should only be done twice a month

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Your only going to want to use the calcium with D3 twice a month. It is recommended to use calcium without D3 at almost every feeding, then use the multivitamin and cal. W/ D3 twice a month. I do alternating weekends

 

[chamelot]

okay I will change that thank you for the heads up. But, he is still not eating currently I feel a 3 weeks food strike is a bit much. Is there anything else that can be a possibility that is wrong with him??

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums. I'm sorry to hear that your panther's not doing well. Please fill out the attached Ask For Help Form and post some pictures of your chameleon and his enclosure. The more details you can give filling out the form, the more helpful it will be to try to help you figure out what's going on.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[Carlton]

After about 9 days I went to a Exotic herp vet and they thought it could be parasites so they gave Panacur to my cham and also I had a fecal sample in case. They took the fecal sample and went to test it.

Also I realized that my cham wasn't shedding probably because he is not getting the nutrients he needs from the food he eats to shed. And from the long term eating I feel its getting very dangerous but his skin is turning yellowing ish. I feed him a base of crickets, with a mixture of superworms, waxworms, and mealworms. Very rarely a superworm beetle. Everything I feed I sprinkle a mixture of a calcium with D3 and multivitamin on the food.

He drinks plently like a normal cham would. Walks around a lot also. If anyone has any helpful info to get him back up to good health I would greatly appreciate it.

Why a vet would tell you your cham isn't eating because of parasites is odd. I think you need a new vet with better herp experience.

I know we don't have all the details of his setup and husbandry yet, but the combination of not eating and difficulty shedding suggests he's dehydrated (among other possibilities). If he is drinking a lot every time you offer water it could be because he is overly thirsty too. Dry conditions often result in hard sheds. And, a dehydrated cham will often stop eating. If his coloration seems lighter or duller than normal this might also suggest kept too dry or possibly too hot.

 

[chamelot]

Cham Info

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - I have a Male panther chameleon and I have had him for about 7 months. To my guessing i would say he I would say he is 8-9 months old.
Handling - Almost never, gets very stressed and angry when I try to hold him
Feeding - I feed my chameleon crickets as a base. I also throw in a mixture of waxworms and superworms. I do not gutload the waxworms and superworms but i feed the crickets with cucumber slices. I try to feed him everyday whenever he will take food.
Supplements - I use Rep-Cal phosphorus-free Calcium with D3. Also I use Zoo Med's Reptivite. I dust all food with a mixture of both supplements everytime I feed.
Watering - I use a dripping system, also I mist about every two hours. I have taught him to come up to mister and when he does, I put a little bit of a squirt and squirt the water gently into his mouth. Drinks a lot of water.
Fecal Description - The fecal recently does not look good, A little orange at times and also Sometimes i see skinny white strands thinking this is urine, not 100% sure. Also i have had a fecal sample tested and came out negative.


Cage Info:
Cage Type - I have an exo terra terrarium 24x18x24 all glass but screen roof.
Lighting - I use 2 lightbulbs, a 26w reptile UVB 150 exo terra and zoo med's 100w repticare ceramic infrared heat emitter.
Temperature - The temperature stays at about 82-83 degrees during the day and drops to about 78-79 at night. The basking spot is about 87-88 degrees. I have a temperature gauge in the terrarium.
Humidity - My humidity levels are around 50%. I spray frequently all over to keep the humidity up. I have a humidity gauge in the tank.
Plants - I have a lot of fake leaves and vines, but I do use 1 gardenia plant.
Placement - My Cage is located in my bedroom. No traffic or vents are near the cage but an air vent is on the opposite side of the room. the top of the cage is located about 4 feet from the floor.
Location - I live in Northern New Jersey, USA.

 

[Juliaf3]

Just a couple things I've noticed from your info. Your ambient is to warm. Believe it or not, 3-4 degrees can make a big difference. Do away with the heat red light. His temps need to drop much lower then that at night. Atleast ten degrees from their ambient. As long as your house doesn't drop below fifty, you need zero heat at night. They need that drop in temperature to slow their metabolism down while sleeping, and complete darkness is crucial for good sleep. That combined with the poorly gut loaded crickets and over supplementation could be your problem.


You can easily get better gut load for them. Their are several commercial gut loads that would be drastically better then just cucumbers. If you like making the gut load yourself, there is a woman on here named Sandrachameleon. She has amazing gut load recipes!

Hope this helps

 

[chamelot]

Alright So I did change that I now turn off the heat light at night and also the temperature is about 80 degrees now. Also i bought a humidifier to make the humidity from 50% to about 75% which should help. He still is not shedding well and is still on a food strike is there something else I need to do to make him eat?

 

[sandrachameleon]

I know we don't have all the details of his setup and husbandry yet, but the combination of not eating and difficulty shedding suggests he's dehydrated (among other possibilities). If he is drinking a lot every time you offer water it could be because he is overly thirsty too. Dry conditions often result in hard sheds. And, a dehydrated cham will often stop eating. If his coloration seems lighter or duller than normal this might also suggest kept too dry or possibly too hot.

Agree. I was going to say the same thing as potential.

here are some other thoughts:
The terrarium is too small for a male panther over 4 months old.
I would suggest you provide a more varied diet. Waxworms are not nutritious. Try to have at least 4-5 type of good prey. Learn how to gutload (cucumber for the crickets is totally inadequate)
I suggest you review your supplementing. sounds like you are overdoing the vitamins.
Squirting water into his mouth, no matter how gently, is a bad idea. They can aspirate / breath the water into their lungs. daily Misting from above for about 5 minutes duration plus a dripper that drips several drops per minute for at least 15 minutes is what I suggest (more if you can).
the white strands are likely smegma/sperm plugs being cleared naturally.
what type of temp guage are you using? Is it the dial type or a digital? I believe your temps are likely too high. a 100watt bulb on a glass cage is pretty darn hot.

 

[chamelot]

I Have a dial type thermometer and dial type humidity gauge.
what wattage light bulb do you recommend?
what other insects are easily obtainable via a store or the internet that you recommend trying to feed?
Also, Is it completely neccesary to change the cage because it is quite expensive to buy another cage for my cham.

 

[oblgobl]

Dial thermometers can be very inaccurate I'd reccommend you get a didgital one for more accurate readings.
I have the same enclouse for one of my babies and I use a 40wtt bulb for mine and get good temps but it's in a warm room. I would recommend maybe bying a few diferent wattages and see wich ones give the best temps. I use houshold refelctor bulbs they're about £2 (less than $2) and I get them from the supermarket. You could always buy a thermostat but I've never used them myself and it would cost alot.
As a staple food source you can try a mix of crickets and dubia roaches (locust if they're available in your country). I think it's fine to feed just crickets as a main food. You can give him all kinds of stuff and it's usually easy to get them online ( depends were you're from). Butterworms and silkworms are a better alternative treat for them than waxworms and mealworms as they are good for them but I don't think they're good as a main feeder. Also think of the crickets as empty shells that you need to fill with nutrients yourself, gutloading is very important.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
Take a look at the link very good info there.
In my opinion it would be cruel to keep him in an enclouse that size his whole life. The general opinion is that a male panther needs double that size. Some keep them in a 36" quite happily but I wouldn't myself. Reptiles are expensive to keep unfortunately. Are you good at DYI at all maybe look online for some plans and make your own mesh cage.

 

[chamelot]

So my chameleon still wont eat and I am getting really nervous I had to resort to force feeding him by gently rubbing a recently killed worm by his mouth until he eats it. I bought a brand new cage 18x18x36 screen cage. Also, i bought a hibiscus bush he likes to climb all over. Still very active but by his spine the colors are very dark and not looking good. Drinks plenty of water all the time right out of the dripper.
Does anyone have any other suggestions on what I should do?

 

[KatiLemons]

How about mistings? Are you hand misting or have a mister? Also have you tried Dubia roaches of any other insects besides the worms and crix?

 

[chamelot]

I have a humidifier and I also hand mist for about 5 minutes 5 to 6 times a day. I have never tried anything besides crickets and worms.

 

[oblgobl]

Sounds like he does need to see another vet for a diferent opinion to be honest. You do need to change his diet for his long term health but since he hasn't eaten for so long I'd assume by now he'd be so hungry he'd eat anything so I'm not sure trying a new feeder will solve the eating problem, that's not to say you shouldn't try though. Post a picture of him if you can we might spot something.

 

[letilo]

Take him to a vet asap. It sounds like he can have kidney disease since he is drinking a lot of water. He needs blood work done unfortunately.

 

[Juliaf3]

Taking them to the vet is a good idea. And regularly. Just like you would a child. Plus because everything was so off for so long- you need to just get him checked out to see if any damage was done internally while you were learning. With that being said, if you are lucky and no damage was done, going from the way he was being taken care of, to the correct supplementation/gut loaded feeders/husbandry won't make him instantly better over night. It will take time to really see results just like it took time to get him to this point.