Three-year-old veiled will not eat

[betzjen]

Hi
I have a three year old mail veiled chameleon He will not eat. He was doing great for years in the same enclosure for years until I went out of the country for a month and had somebody watching him. I don't think he ate much at all While I was gone. I am a small animal veterinarian so I took him to work ran blood work and x-rays which were normal. Gave him sub fluids for days. Did warm water bath soaks. I even tapped his belly and sent fluids for analysis to the pathologist which came back normal

I pretty much force-feed him about every five days. If I let it go longer he will eat about three super worms once a week to 10 days. He used to love supermoms the best. Of course I have tried everything crickets wax worms, horn worms , silk worms, super worms, cockroaches, moths. I had even grown my own painted Lady butterflies.

I have pretty much been force-feeding him every five days or so since December. I've tried increasing the heat in his cage, I have tried decreasing the in his cage. tomorrow morning I'm moving him to another cage in a back bedroom in case the dogs running by his cage is starting to stress him.

He looks a sickly brown color unless he is sleeping then he is bright green. His color does not change if I decrease the temperature in his cage.
He is on a mist king Mister. that goes off every hour. Plenty of foliage in his cage.
Anyone have any suggestions. He's very skinny and difficult to look at but still hanging in there.

 

[betzjen]

Ps.

I was even thinking that it might be my tapwater because all of his leaves had a lot of calcium deposits. I stripped the entire cage put all new leaves new plants new everything and have gone to making my own distilled water that I fill up his misting system with. Nothing has helped.

 

[kinyonga]

So being a small animal vet I suppose you would know if he had MBD or gout or a number of other things. Can you post some recent photos of him and answer the questions in the how to ask for help thread at the top of he health forum please.

When you say force feeding do you mean putting the insects in his mouth and letting him chew or true force feeding?

 

[betzjen]

I was putting in his mouth and letting him chew. A couple months ago he started eating on his own after I switch to only distilled water in his misting system. He gained all his weight back any eats like a pig. However now he hates me

 

[kinyonga]

Regarding the water..has anything changed in it around the time this started?

Can you post some photos please and answer the questions in the how to ask for help thread at the top of the health forum?

 

[anwisnie]

Interesting distilling the water changed the behavior. Are you connected to well water or treated (city, etc)?

 

[betzjen]

I am on a community well and started noticing calcium deposits on the leaves which i never had before. I also put him in a different cage. Maybe it was the cage maybe it was the water I don't know but he is back to normal gained all his weight looks great

 

[kinyonga]

Good to hear he's back to normal.

 

[Lovereps]

If you moved his cage and distilled his water, perhaps it was the new location.
Not saying that the water is not a possibility.
The "safe" levels of chemicals for humans may be many times greater than what a cham can tolerate.

It's great that you've posted a follow-up, as we all enjoy knowing the things that have helped---and everyone loves a happy ending!