possibly gravid?

[charchar]

hi everyone! my cham (F) has recently just shed, and at first i thought the changes in her habits have just been due to the normal stress from shedding. her sheds been over for about to day after she finally finished shedding her tail. shes continuing to puff up and curl her tail, she hasnt been sleeping in her normal spots, and hasnt been sleeping for very long either, she also hasnt been eating nearly as much, the crickets i put in her shooter have been the same ones from the last couple of days, and since she uses the shooter i keep count of how many shes eaten. she was about 2-3 months when i got her so shes coming up on 5-6 maybe even 7 months since i dont know her exact age. i know they start to lay eggs around this time too. i added a few pictures i just took of her.

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

What happened to her casque??

 

[charchar]

What happened to her casque??

its tilted over a little, its been like that for several months but is never bothered her before.

 

[kinyonga]

Please answer the questions in the how to ask for help thread near the top of the health forum.

The casque and her front right arm make me wonder if she's having a calcium issue.

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

its tilted over a little, its been like that for several months but is never bothered her before.

What are the temperatures?

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

Yes go ahead and fill this out so we can review all of your husbandry at once

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• 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?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• 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?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[Flick boy]

Hi and welcome it would be helpful for you and your chameleon if you could fill out a husbandry form and add pictures your analog gauges are OK but digital will be more accurate
@PoseidonTheChameleon could you pop a husbandry form on here thanks

 

[Flick boy]

Lol to slow at typing

 

[kinyonga]

Lol to slow at typing

Happens to me all the time!

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

Lol to slow at typing

Same here, I'm surprised I beat yall to it lol

 

[Flick boy]

Same here, I'm surprised I beat yall to it lol

I had it lol but had to delete and start again to keep politically correct and diplomatic lol

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

I had it lol but had to delete and start again to keep politically correct and diplomatic lol

I had to hurry up and edit all of my errors before someone noticed

 

[Haley Hendrix]

I had to hurry up and edit all of my errors before someone noticed

i always quickly type up something and then have to go back and fix all my spelling and grammar errors!

 

[charchar]

Yes go ahead and fill this out so we can review all of your husbandry at once

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• 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?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• 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?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - veiled, female, 5-6 months, been in my care for roughly 3 months
• Handling - maybe once a week for a several minutes
• Feeding - she eats crickets, mealworms, and wax worms occasionally (thats what they sell near us), i feed her in the morning and sometimes occasional snacks through the day, i used mostly carrots, blueberries, spinach, and apples.
• Supplements - i used zoomeds repticalcium on crickets every tuesday and thursday
• Watering - i have a fogger and a spray bottle, the fogger runs almost all day on a low setting, and i spray several timess throughout the day for several mins, i also use a dripper throughout the day. she drinks when i mist her & her cage and sometimes ill catch her taking a sip from her plants.
• Fecal Description - she hasnt been tested for parasites, but her poop is regular and normal. its brown and solid and theres never been anything out of place about it.
• History - shes sweet and friendly, it took her a while to shed her last shedding, shes a very healthy and active girl, her crest has been tilted to the left for several months but its never bothered her, i never saw her parents and i think it mightve been genetic or due to stress from pet store.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - she has a mesh cage, her cages are two 16x16x32 cages put together next to each other, you can do the math lol.
• Lighting - i have a basking bulb and a uv rod hanging almost directly above her cage. im pretty sure theyre zoo med. they get turned off at like 10 and stay off till 9 the next morning.
• Temperature - the temp at basking stays around 90-85 the middle stays at 80-75, i have a thermometer and a temp gun. the over night stays above 60.
• Humidity - my humidity stays around 80 in my room, i leave my fan off during the day but at night i have a dan that blows on my bed. i matain an average temp with my fogger and misting. i have a humidity meter.
• Plants - i have a hibiscus, 2 devils ivy, a schefflera, 4 bamboo sticks, and several vines throughout the cage. she eats the hibiscus leaves and i just bought more plants to put in the cage as well.
• Placement - her cage is about 2-3 inches from my 10 foot roof in the corner of my room, shes up on a shelf against the wall. like i stated earlier the only fan i have on is the one that faces my bed at night.
• Location - northwest florida

Current Problem - shes not eating as well, shes pacing her cage, sleeping in a different spot than normal (shes sleeping on the mesh), showing darker colors.

 

[charchar]

here are a couple more photos i just took.

 

[PoseidonTheChameleon]

Ok, so I will go over things that I can help with but females are a little different than males so @MissSkittles can you go over feeding amounts please, I dont want to get that part wrong.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - veiled, female, 5-6 months, been in my care for roughly 3 months do you have a laybin?
• Handling - maybe once a week for a several minutes
• Feeding - she eats crickets, mealworms, and wax worms occasionally (thats what they sell near us), i feed her in the morning and sometimes occasional snacks through the day, i used mostly carrots, blueberries, spinach, and apples.
• Supplements - i used zoomeds repticalcium on crickets every tuesday and thursday does it have d3? You want calcium without d3 6 days a week, then on the 7th day you want to alternate between calcium with d3 and a multivitamin.
• Watering - i have a fogger and a spray bottle, the fogger runs almost all day on a low setting, and i spray several timess throughout the day for several mins, i also use a dripper throughout the day. she drinks when i mist her & her cage and sometimes ill catch her taking a sip from her plants. you dont want to use a fogger that much or she will get a respiratory infection. Mist for a couple minutes when the lights come on and when they go off.
• Fecal Description - she hasnt been tested for parasites, but her poop is regular and normal. its brown and solid and theres never been anything out of place about it. I would get a fecal done just in case because she could have parasites even if her poop looks normal.
• History - shes sweet and friendly, it took her a while to shed her last shedding, shes a very healthy and active girl, her crest has been tilted to the left for several months but its never bothered her, i never saw her parents and i think it mightve been genetic or due to stress from pet store. I think this is because your supplements and possibly UVB, which is why we need to fix some things.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - she has a mesh cage, her cages are two 16x16x32 cages put together next to each other, you can do the math lol. she needs a 2x2x4 minimum. Hight is important for chameleons
• Lighting - i have a basking bulb and a uv rod hanging almost directly above her cage. im pretty sure theyre zoo med. they get turned off at like 10 and stay off till 9 the next morning. what type of uvb do you have? You need a t5 5.0 linear fixture
• Temperature - the temp at basking stays around 90-85 the middle stays at 80-75, i have a thermometer and a temp gun. the over night stays above 60. this Way too hot. You need to either raise the bub up or get a lower wattage bulb. Her basking temps need to be at about 80.

• Humidity - my humidity stays around 80 in my room, i leave my fan off during the day but at night i have a dan that blows on my bed. i matain an average temp with my fogger and misting. i have a humidity meter. this is too high during the day, humisy should not be over 50%. 80% is fine for night time
• Plants - i have a hibiscus, 2 devils ivy, a schefflera, 4 bamboo sticks, and several vines throughout the cage. she eats the hibiscus leaves and i just bought more plants to put in the cage as well.
• Placement - her cage is about 2-3 inches from my 10 foot roof in the corner of my room, shes up on a shelf against the wall. like i stated earlier the only fan i have on is the one that faces my bed at night.
• Location - northwest florida

Current Problem - shes not eating as well, shes pacing her cage, sleeping in a different spot than normal (shes sleeping on the mesh), showing darker colors.

 

[Flick boy]

Hi I have attached gutload sheet getting your ingredients and doing ice cubes can be less work and more convenient when I blend my mix this lasts my feeders around a month ( I change their food every 2/3 days you could also give more variety in her diet by adding bsfl and some dubia or other roaches and I would personally keep the mealworm to s minimum. Supplements @Beman. Foggers should only really be run at night when it is coolest preferably below 68/65 f I run mine from 3 to 6 am when my temps are below 65 ( obviously this will be different depending on where members live. You will want to think about an upgrade a 2x2x4 is the minimum recommended but bigger is better . I would also lower your basking temp as higher temps and over feeding your girl will produce more eggs putting more strain on her . Also your daytime humidity is to high 30 to 50 % max for veileds. This can can go up at night to 80/ 100 when temps are cooler . But you said your room is 80% is that correct?

 

[Flick boy]

Hi yeah lay bin as a permanent fixture either washed playsand ( which you can buy at a toy store or a50 / 50 mix with it and organic soil) what amount was your girl eating (feeders ) and what is is eating now? She is def old enough to be gravid

 

[charchar]

Hi I have attached gutload sheet getting your ingredients and doing ice cubes can be less work and more convenient when I blend my mix this lasts my feeders around a month ( I change their food every 2/3 days you could also give more variety in her diet by adding bsfl and some dubia or other roaches and I would personally keep the mealworm to s minimum. Supplements @Beman. Foggers should only really be run at night when it is coolest preferably below 68/65 f I run mine from 3 to 6 am when my temps are below 65 ( obviously this will be different depending on where members live. You will want to think about an upgrade a 2x2x4 is the minimum recommended but bigger is better . I would also lower your basking temp as higher temps and over feeding your girl will produce more eggs putting more strain on her . Also your daytime humidity is to high 30 to 50 % max for veileds. This can can go up at night to 80/ 100 when temps are cooler . But you said your room is 80% is that correct?

her cage is VERY big, and she currently has a laying bin in her cage, thank you for the help with gutloading, surprisingly this has been one of the harder parts, especially with not having alot of options w the pet stores near by. ill see about raising the light farther up from her cage to help with the temp. we live in florida so its already very humid and hot, especially since we are coming around to summer. ive found ive had to adjust some things, because we had her during the winter and we had a very dry chilly winter. she will eat 10-15 large crickets in a sitting, and when shes eaten them all she will continue to look for more. ill make sure to cut back and do some more research on feeding since shes getting past her growing baby phase. thank you so much for your help! ive figured out what the problem was, this morning my boyfriend was looking at her and saw her black spots/ stripes and yellow gravid colors!! so she is infact getting ready to lay.

 

[charchar]

Hi yeah lay bin as a permanent fixture either washed playsand ( which you can buy at a toy store or a50 / 50 mix with it and organic soil) what amount was your girl eating (feeders ) and what is is eating now? She is def old enough to be gravid

she has a laybin i keep in there, its mixed w organic soil and play sand. she eats large crickets and meal worms mostly (the pet stores near me are very limited), sometimes ill luck out and find wax worms or dubias. she will eat abt 10-15 large crickets in a sitting. she was showing her gravid colors this morning though! black spots and rings on her with some yellow lines, so im guessing thats whats been up with her.