Stopped eating and hanging around at the bottom of the enclosure.

[Ste]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Veiled, female (I think), 7 months'ish. Had about 6 months.
Handling - Every 2 days.
Feeding - Locust, about 20 per day. Approx. 5 in the Morning, 5 at noon and 10 at meal time. I feed the locust romaine lettuce.
Supplements - Trixie 'reptiland' Vitamin/Mineral compound with calcium. I dust every third Locust.
Watering - I use a spray bottle of warm water with the nozzle set to spray/mist, three times per day until the enclosure is very wet. I see the chameleon drink, not everytime I mist/spray.
Fecal Description - Inch long brown turd, three to four times per day. Never been tested.

Cage Info:

Cage Type - Exo Terra 36x36x36
Lighting - Exo Terra compact top with two Exo Terra Repti-glo 5.0 UVB. Lights on at 8am, lights off 8pm
Temperature - Temps are about 80°c with lowest night temps approx. 60°c measured with an exo Terra Thermometer.
Humidity - Unknown as I have no way of testing this.
Plants - No live plants but I do have a planted baby leaf Romaine lettuce plant growing inside the enclosure. Which is eaten very often, mostly after feeding.
Placement - The enclosure is located in the dining area at about three feet near NO vents, fans or traffic.
Location - Telford, SHropshire. England.


Current Problem - The past few days the chameleon has stopped hunting for food and lies at the bottom of the cage. The chameleon will eat if hand feed by waving the locust around in front of the face. The chameleon just seems so not interested in doing anything at the moment since these last few days. No poops, no nothing. Not shed for approx 6 weeks. Just lying there watching the world go by......

 

[laurie]

First thing I would do in get a laying bin in for her ASAP. Does she look any bigger lately? A picture would help.

There are a few other things you could fix that would help. Her feeders should be gutloaded much better. Start with some collared greens, squash, mustard greens and them check the forum for "gutloading"

You will need to get a hydrometer to check the humidity lever in the cage, that is important.

If you are feeding appropriate sized food items, them you are way over feeding. She should eat every other day & them only 6 or 7 feeders.

You only describer the brown part of her poop, do you see a white part also?

Several other things could use a touch up, but those should help get her on the right tract.

 

[lindawaz]

Hi sorry your Cham is not feeling well. I noticed your lighting is the compact bulb- it can be bothering/hurting her eyes. Most of us use a tube 5.0 bulb. You should change that.


A female at that age could be looking for a place to lay eggs whether or not she was mated- they lay eggs

Her is a link to JannB's blog for the laying bin

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html
this could be another reason why she is at the bottom and loss of appetite.

I am sure others will be on to help you more Good Luck

see knew other people would be here!

 

[kinyonga]

I would advise you to improve your gutloading/feeding of the insects to include a wide variety of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet red pepper, zucchini, sweet potato, etc.)
I'm not familiar with your supplements but its recommended to dust at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder and twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder, lightly and twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene source of vitamin A. If needed they can/should also be given a bit of prEformed vitamin A once in a while. For good bone health its important to have a balance between phos., calcium, D3 and vitamin A.

For years now I have used the long linear fluorescent Repti-Sun 5.0 tube UVB. Some of the others have caused problems but this one doesn't have any bad reports.

Does she have a place to dig in her cage (as Laurie asked) so that she can let you know when/if she needs to lay eggs? Veileds can produce eggs without having mated once they are sexually mature...and they mature earlier if overfed as a rule. The minimum size for the opaque container of washed playsand that she should have to dig in is 12" deep x12" x 8".

As Laurie said, you are overfeeding her...and that can lead to early reproduction, constipation and even prolapses and MBD.