Veiled Chameleon slowing down and falling.

[Chey8708]

Hey guys this is my first post here. So my veiled chameleon named houdini shown here:
Has been having some problems , recently we noticed he doesnt go to the very top like he normally does and always stays at the bottom. He doesn't have a good grip like he used to and keeps slipping and dangling upside down. He is around 7 years old but this happened so suddenly, we feed him regularly and water his cage every couple of hours. Due to him not being able to drink a lot off water we hand feed him the water. I will provide a picture of his cage below:

Im not sure of it being due to age or some other medical issue but if anyone has any ideas on what to help or what could be wrong that would be great!

 

[chemeleonboi1]

I can’t help you, but he is a cutie!

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi and welcome. Sorry that Houdini isn’t acting himself. Unfortunately at 7 years old, he’s quite an old man and he will be slowing down. But, I do need to ask about his uvb light. Does it have a plastic cover over it?

 

[Beman]

^^^^ this... That fixture is a T8 fixture and bulb so it is going to have a reduced output compared to a T5HO so this has to be compensated for. But looks like you have the plastic panel still attached to it covering the bulb, which means it is blocking out all UVB output. This alone would cause all of the issues your stating even with a young healthy cham. With him being older he is more high risk for a faster decline.

 

[MissSkittles]

After correcting his uvb, you probably should also redo his enclosure and add many more branches and such for him to grasp…prevent him from falling too far. You can either craft a scaffolding type structure, attaching sturdy branches to the frame corners (either with fishing line or thin wire) in an ‘H’ shape, which you can then further attach branches to. Or get some garden trellis and attach hat to the frame corners. I would then add some plants (pothos is perfect) to give him a shaded area. With you uvb being a T8, your bulb strength needs to be 10% and then have your basking area about 6-7” below the uvb light. Do be careful with his basking temps at this distance as we don’t want him to get a burned casque. Either raise the basking light off the screen by a few inches or try a lower wattage bulb. You’ve obviously done a great job to get him to the ripe old age of 7. Now just need to make some accommodations for his age.

 

[Chey8708]

Hey guys this is my first post here. So my veiled chameleon named houdini shown here:View attachment 362908
Has been having some problems , recently we noticed he doesnt go to the very top like he normally does and always stays at the bottom. He doesn't have a good grip like he used to and keeps slipping and dangling upside down. He is around 7 years old but this happened so suddenly, we feed him regularly and water his cage every couple of hours. Due to him not being able to drink a lot off water we hand feed him the water. I will provide a picture of his cage below:View attachment 362909
Im not sure of it being due to age or some other medical issue but if anyone has any ideas on what to help or what could be wrong that would be great!

So we are planning one working on the lighting issue but we are redoing his cage a lot in the next couple days. If there's anything else yall suggest let me know. Thank you all for the tips I will keep this updated on his progress. He is a lot happier and more sturdy with the new netting

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum!

You said…”recently we noticed he doesnt go to the very top like he normally does and always stays at the bottom”…one of my concerns with this is that he’s not going to get enough UVB exposure and thus lack enough D3 to be able to metabolize the calcium he needs for his bones and other systems. He also may not get warm enough if he’s not able to bask.

When you say he always stays at the bottom…do you mean on the floor of his cage?

You said…”He doesn't have a good grip like he used to and keeps slipping and dangling upside down”…it’s possible he has arthritis or the weakness may be the calcium issue he may have from the lack of UVB/D3 production.

Please be aware that I’m not a vet and only can give you my best guesses from my experience, etc from keeping chameleons and other reptiles for over 30 years.