Piko is not eating

[spottea]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Jackson's female, one year old. I've had her since July 2013

Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Not that much. Just to help her in and out of her cage when she free ranges. Or I use a stick.

Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Dubias, crickets, flies sometimes. Gutload dubis with Cricket Crack, yam, sweet potato, oranges, green veg sometimes. Crickets mostly the same thing. Superworms occasionally. Tried hornworms...fail. Silkworms were sort of liked.

Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Plain calcium, Repashy Supercal no D twice a week, Repticalcium with D twice a month. Exoterra Vitamins once a month.

Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
MistKing set to 5 mins at 8, 3 at 11, 3 at 2, and 5 at 4p.m. I warm handmist when I am not working and I saw her drink this morning. I also have a dripper going.

Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
Normal brown poo last seen last Tuesday. White urate seen once this week.

History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Reptibreeze 36 by 24 by 24 outside

Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Basking light from 8 til 4 during cooler months.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
I don't really measure the temps anymore, unless it's too hot outside. Today the temp was around 70 and it will be 55 tonight I believe.
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
I run the MistKing as I said, and will adjust the timer when the weather turns hot to run for longer periods.

Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Abutilon which is outgrowing the cage

Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Outside on a shelving unit.

Location - Where are you geographically located?
Los Angeles area.

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
She hasn't been eating for about a week, no matter what exciting bugs I place in her cage. My MistKing has been acting up, so today I attached a new nozzle unit. This should improve the humidity. But I don't think that's the problem. She doesn't seem like herself, and didn't even want to come out today. I think she's a bit weaker too.
I have a vet appointment tomorrow with Dr. Greek's practice so I hope he can help me. Maybe it's my supplement schedule, as I'm not very good about it. It always seems like she doesn't eat the dusted bugs, and I'm afraid to redo it, as I know Jackson's are sensitive to too much supplementation. I'm also making her a larger cage, as she was being feisty about wanting to come out before, so I thought I would give her more space. Any advice welcome. Thanks!

 

[carol5208]

Do you have a UVB light or does your chameleon live outside?

 

[ir0k]

I hope everything goes well at your vet apt tommarow.

I cant help you with why she is not eating but I can share this piece of advice.

Above my chameleons cages I have a calendar and I used a highlighter to mark every other Saturday and Sunday that helps me know when to do my special supplements as d3 and multivitamin.

Also sometimes my mistking knocks the daily dust off my crickets. not all of them but some of them. Im not 100% sure if that's a horrible thing as my chameleons do get some type of daily dusting.

i'd like to find out if its somewhat normal to have the daily calcium dust knocked off by the misting system?? And what others do when that happens?

hopfully this helps me and the OP out as well.

good luck again

 

[spottea]

Please help. Piko still not eating

Update. Went to the vet, Dr.Greek's practice, although I didn't see him. Doc thought she looked pretty good, but that the left eye had blood in it. I hadn't noticed the red eye, just that she was cleaning it more. So I got ointment for that. Suggested a warm bath, which did not go well. Yesterday I tried warm shower for 30 minutes, no result.
Today I am at work, so i can't give her a warm misting as I have for the last couple of days.
I'm thinking about a drop of mineral oil next.
Getting desperate now. Please poop Piko!
Her colour seems OK and she did free range for a bit yesterday. I thought it might help. But she didn't really want to come out. Her eye is bothering her, so I'm sure it's harder to get around.
I will be back at the vet's again if something doesn't shift soon. Apparently her Xray showed poop and gas!

 

[Psychobunny]

Your vet has already given you something for the eye, so lets just talk about the other problem, sounds like constipation?

Do you have her on any other meds besides the eye ointment?

Lets get her bowels to move first, then think about the reason she got that way later.

Do this:

Put a few drops of mineral or olive oil on a feeder early in the day so she can bask.
Before lights out, get a wash cloth and soak it in warm (not hot) water and apply it to her stomach as a compress for as long as you can.

You should see poop the next day, if not, repeat the above.

After you get her to poop, you need to figure out what when wrong (if anything) with your husbandry. Review EVERYTHING you are doing, and check all temps, etc.
Jax can be difficult to keep hydrated, and this may be partly to blame for her constipation.
Are you sure she is drinking enough water?
Year old jax can go some time w/o wanting to eat much, so, they don't poop much either!

 

[spottea]

I'm sure you're right about the hydration, as my MistKing was clogged earlier last week,,and is fixed now. She didn't actually drink from that though. I have her dripper going extra fast today while I'm gone.
I will try the warm cloth tomorrow when I'm off, as I don't get home until 8 p.m. tonight!
I was hoping the shower would work, but she just sat there half asleep.
I will get some mineral oil tonight on the way home and try 1 drop of that in the morning also. There's no point putting it on a feeder, as she's not eating.
Thank you so much for responding,
I wish I wasn't at work, as I just want to stay home and watch her, not that it helps. Weather is nice and sunny today, but I do have a basking light on the top of her cage, which she loves.

 

[Psychobunny]

I'm sure you're right about the hydration, as my MistKing was clogged earlier last week,,and is fixed now. She didn't actually drink from that though. I have her dripper going extra fast today while I'm gone.
I will try the warm cloth tomorrow when I'm off, as I don't get home until 8 p.m. tonight!
I was hoping the shower would work, but she just sat there half asleep.
I will get some mineral oil tonight on the way home and try 1 drop of that in the morning also. There's no point putting it on a feeder, as she's not eating.
Thank you so much for responding,
I wish I wasn't at work, as I just want to stay home and watch her, not that it helps. Weather is nice and sunny today, but I do have a basking light on the top of her cage, which she loves.

You can just rub the oil around the seam of her mouth if no feeder.
I have done that, and it works, they still get the oil inside them.

Does she get let out of her cage for some exercise ?

 

[spottea]

Yes, she gets out and loves it. Usually, she marches along the fence and stares at the pepper tree trying to figure out how to get to it. So cute!
I'm setting up a larger cage for her this week, a 48" dragonstrand, as she's been so antsy about wanting to get out as soon as she sees me.
But, I don't want to stress her out anymore than I have to, so maybe I'll wait on the cage until she's feeling better. I read that some chams hate having their environment changed. She's been through enough this week.

 

[Psychobunny]

I agree, no changes right now until she gets better.

In general, chams HATE change, but jax seem to tolerate it much better then veiled, which are way more territorial and aggressive.

So when she is well, she will love that new cage

 

[spottea]

Update on Piko and the poop

So, I stayed home today in a desperate attempt to get Piko to poop. I gave her a nice warm misting in the morning and she had a good drink. Then I gave her a couple of drops of mineral oil, which wasn't easy. Mostly, she got a shiny face!
In the afternoon, I got her out for a bit of exercise as I remembered she likes to poop while free ranging. Well, I didn't get any poop, but she did pass a huge urates which made me happy. At least i think it was urates, as it was sort of clay coloured and wasn't firm enough to be poop. She seemed to have a bit more energy after that and did her usual patrol of the fence.
Still hasn't eaten however, so tomorrow I'm off to buy some Repti boost. Then maybe I'll get lucky!

 

[Bush baby]

The mineral oil may help, but your issues sound very similar to the issues i started having with my Jax.

This may not be popular, as they are a favorite feeder around here, but i noticed that i didn't start having constipation/appetite issues with my Cham until i started feeding him Dubia roaches. Their thicker meatier body/exoskeleteon might be a little harder for Jax to digest compared to Veilds, who as studies have shown have a strong complex digestion system allowing them to eat insects, plants and other vertebrates..just food for thought, so to speak…..