Please help!!!

[Tudatuda]

It seems the problems never end... at feeding time today I noticed my Jackson Cham (about 5 months old) has a white cyst-like sac on his chest area. It seems soft and puss-y... I have no idea what could have caused this.

About his set up:
He has an exoterra screen cage with the dual light kit. Ambient temp here in Hawaii is around 80f, basking temp is 85-87 but I turn the heat light off and just leave the UV lamp if it gets that high. We mist him by hand at least 5x a day with filtered spring water.

His diet is mostly pinhead crickets from petco and I gutload with cricket crack and a revolving wet component like collard / mustard greens, hibiscus flowers, bell peppers, mango, carrot occasionally...

He has been in good form lately and just started a shed. He sheds kind of slowly... Yesterday I noticed he ate some poop I was just about to clean out of his cage and then today this weird slimy growth appeared on his neck— closer to the base of his arms/chest, actually. *See pics*

Please help me I don’t know what it is and can’t find anything like it online.

 

[SmithSe]

Are you sure that’s not a urate that adhered to his chest? Because it sure looks like one, and I highly doubt a growth of that size would appear overnight. Have you tried swabbing it lightly with a q-tip?

 

[Tudatuda]

Oh my god thank you. It was stuck on really hard so I was afraid to rub it off and hurt him... but you’re right. It was a slimy urate stuck on his chest..haha. What a relief.
Is the eating poop thing a symptom of something though?

 

[SmithSe]

@Tudatuda Haha, no problem! I understand with chameleon health issues it seems like when it rains, it pours! Then you're on high alert! Coprophagy (consumption of feces) is typical in animals like rabbits, but not chameleons. How often is he eating his poop, how often do you feed him, and are there undigested insect parts in his feces?

 

[Tudatuda]

I only noticed him doing it yesterday, but it’s possible he did it again today– with the urate stuck to his chest and not being able to find any feces in the enclosure...

I feed him once a day, letting him hunt in a feeding cage for about an hour. In that time he eats anywhere from 10-15 crickets. I haven’t seen any undigested bits in the feces either... maybe he just mistook it for an insect?

 

[SmithSe]

@Tudatuda I'd keep an eye on it, but wouldn't worry too much about it unless it's happening regularly on a consistent basis! Just make sure he has access to plenty of properly gut-loaded and supplemented food items and let us know if he keep chowin' on turds!