Won't even eat silkworms :(

[JaxKiwiTiger]

I have 3 Jacksons and I live in Hawaii. Great weather for them, however not easy to provide great variety in the feeder department (can't ship feeders to Hawaii, plus I've failed at breeding insects). Luckily, 2 of them aren't picky. One of them (Tiger) is way picky.

He used to eat a lot, but I mainly give him crix or mealworms...then he seemed to lose interest and now he'll eat just a few crix a week. So I splurged on ordering silkworms (from the only website I could find that ships to Hawaii), which was a tough decision especially since it's the holidays, a.k.a. the season of shopping and excessive spending. But well worth the risk if it meant saving my cham.

Unfortunately, he doesn't care for silkworms either. I put 2 in his cage, and they dehydrated before he got to them...so, I'm thinking I have no choice but to resort to just going out and collecting feeders, which is a lot of work plus risks parasites...not to mention who knows if he'll even eat them

Thoughts?? Thank you in advance And Happy Holidays!!!

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

Here's some pics of him ("Tiger"). He's getting so skinny

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

Okay, so the dumb@$$ who makes a thread about some idiotic questions like "why is my chameleon trying to mate with me" and supposedly pooing on him gets more replies than my post about my chameleon not eating? I'm pretty sure he's gonna starve himself to death and I've only had him for 4 months.

 

[jcarlo17]

yaa

my cham had no interest for silk worms either. But chams go on hunger strikes all the time what i do ill wait a day or two and then put food out my cham will be starving by then and he will eat whatever i give him. and wats that on ur chams tail?

 

[ataraxia]

if you could please fill out the how to ask for help form. this would get you more responses as we need more information other than "my cham is not eating".

Ill start with a few questions but will need the form filled out to give you some advice.

Since you live where they are now native. Is the chameleon wild caught?

Have you had a fecal done on them? What does his poo's look like?

You said you fed crickets and meal worms mainly...Did you use meal worms in excess?

Is he drinking? What does his urates look like?

I will need to the parts of the form filled out...specifically gut loading, supplements, lighting, humidity, watering techniques, caging, etc.

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

my cham had no interest for silk worms either. But chams go on hunger strikes all the time what i do ill wait a day or two and then put food out my cham will be starving by then and he will eat whatever i give him. and wats that on ur chams tail?

It's a snail that I tried to feed him. guess he wasn't interested! He's been on a semi strike for a while so I'm thinking of changing up his husbandry

 

[RubyLee]

Hi, ive recently had a similar problem with my Cham, I've got a veiled who's only 5 months and he recently went on a hunger strike. I was so worried about him and although I'm not a particularly experienced chameleon husband he is now eating and drinking and has even begun to shed after only 2 weeks of tlc. my Cham stopped eating for 3 weeks. I'm in the uk and our current daylight hours had been messed up due to winter as well as the temps dropping, and that's what I initially put it down to, as well as a bad experience with some aggressive rather large locusts stressing him out. After 3 weeks of tempting him with waxworms (his favourite, he normally eats a mixture of crickets, locusts and meal worms) I got worried and took him to my breeder who was so helpful!

She force fed him some meal worms, which although not pleasant to do was necessary as he was really weak, she also tried locusts which he just spat out. He was also dehydrated as he hadnt been drinking either. After getting him stable it turned out our uv light wasn't giving off enough light, due to the metal grid on top of our vivarium. Before winter set in we had taken him out with us and he had got a lot of his uv naturally. As soon as I increased his uv levels his colours went amazingly bright and normal feeding resumed.

I'd suggest checking your uv levels, gut loading and supplementing everything you feed him be it by force or by patient waiting so you can be sure he's getting the nutrients he needs, and misting regularly.

My veiled is extremely friendly and allows me to do anything when it comes to handling so force feeding was easy, just hold loosely so you keep his legs out the way and gently pull on his beard and get someone to pop a worm or cricket in. I'm sure someone here will have a pop at me for this but I put a lot of trust in my breeder due to her years of reptile and chameleon experience and he's better now! So I don't care!

Good luck I hope he improves!

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

Yeah I think in the meantime I'm going to get my wife to assist me n some force feeding. tried doing it myself but to no avail =(

 

[RubyLee]

Try to be patient and don't be hesitant just be calm and you won't stress him to much Good luck hopefully it will kick start his eating

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Try brown moths if you can find any outside or online, I hold them by one wing so they flap ALOT, really gets Karma's attention.

 

[lslcronk]

if you could please fill out the how to ask for help form. this would get you more responses as we need more information other than "my cham is not eating".

Ill start with a few questions but will need the form filled out to give you some advice.

Since you live where they are now native. Is the chameleon wild caught?

Have you had a fecal done on them? What does his poo's look like?

You said you fed crickets and meal worms mainly...Did you use meal worms in excess?

Is he drinking? What does his urates look like?


I will need to the parts of the form filled out...specifically gut loading, supplements, lighting, humidity, watering techniques, caging, etc.

So you freak out and yell at everyone for not helping you but totally ignore the best response you have gotten? These questions were asked so ppl can help you. Ppl get tired of trying to fix a cham based on just "it wont eat" there are generally husbandry issues that are causing the anorexia and without know what those problems are no one can give you an educated response. Fill out this form https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ and answer the above questions and you will get help.

 

[jamncristian]

could it be infected by parasites??

 

[RubyLee]

You should do the form as well but it sounded similar to my issues and it's often better to temporarily solve a problem before finding out the cause. In the case of a starving Cham surely feeding and then solving later is better? Especially as chameleons can go down hill so fast.

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

So you freak out and yell at everyone for not helping you but totally ignore the best response you have gotten? These questions were asked so ppl can help you. Ppl get tired of trying to fix a cham based on just "it wont eat" there are generally husbandry issues that are causing the anorexia and without know what those problems are no one can give you an educated response. Fill out this form https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ and answer the above questions and you will get help.

Sorry, was on a tablet earlier so couldn't answer all of these...

Since you live where they are now native. Is the chameleon wild caught? I was informed from the seller he was captive bred

Have you had a fecal done on them? What does his poo's look like? Haven't done a fecal...poo looks normal. Side note tho: poo is very small since he's only eating a few crickets a week. Can't get him to take anything else.

You said you fed crickets and meal worms mainly...Did you use meal worms in excess? I've never given him more than 2 or 3 at once, and that's only after crickets.

Is he drinking? What does his urates look like?He loves getting misted, and yes he drinks. His urates are white with hints of yellow.

It's very possible he has parasites. He moves around all the time and is actually pretty fast when he wants to be. His grip could be stronger tho, which I figure is due to not eating as much as he should.

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Male Jackson Chameleon, have had him for 4 months.
Handling - A few times a week. Any time I open his cage he will either try to crawl out or crawl on my arm/hand
Feeding - Crickets (mostly give 'em oranges), some meal worms but he usually won't take. Have not seen him eat a silkworm.
Supplements - No supps
Watering - 24/7 dripper, 5-10min mistings twice a day
Fecal Description - Dark colored but very tiny
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? No
History - Purchased as captive bred. More like rescued from a seller on the side of the road. Probably had 50 chams cooped up in a 3 foot cage.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 2x2x3 screen cage
Lighting - All natural. We keep him in the backyard.
Temperature - Standard hawaiian outdoor temps
Humidity - 60-70'ish...2 plants we constantly water in his cage, plus natural hawaiian air is pretty humid
Plants - Both hibiscus
Placement - Elevated about 3-4 feet in the air in our backyard. Very low traffic/quiet area.
Location - Kunia, Hawaii

Considering trying a force feed tomorrow if he doesn't take any of the 3 feeders. He doesn't look anorexic or anything so I'm wondering if he's been sampling the hibiscus flowers/leaves.

 

[Action Jackson]

Try some smaller snails. That one looks a little on the big side. Make sure your feeders aren't too big. Also try to catch some flies. They are a Jackson favorite.

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

Will do...shouldn't be too hard to find more snails, on the right day I can collect up to 20-30 from our yard. I didn't feed too many of them, as I was trying to start a snail colony but I failed :-( Better luck next time, maybe?

So how do I catch flies? I'd rather just swat 'em first then let him pick 'em off the leaves or something.

 

[ataraxia]

From your description of where you bought them...I would take his next poo into any vet for analysis (take it while it is fresh). You will need to do this for all of your chameleons as soon as possible. Even though they are basically put back into a similar environment. Some animals are able to adjust with little to no effects while some will go down hill fast. The animals that arent able to adjust are susceptible to a over load of parasites as a result of stress and other factors.

My view on snails and it is a opinion. Try and collect from remote areas versus urban collecting.

I would also pick up some plain phos free calcium and lightly dust all feeders.

 

[burnedrose]

Howzit!!

When I was living in Hawai'i, I found that there was a possibility of too much humidity in my cage that caused some fungus growing in the corners that the crickets were eating and that were, in turn, making my Jackson's sick. Maybe check and see if that's a source of the problem? besides that, best bet for collecting feeders like flies or whatever are at the horse farms. Buy one of them fly traps that catches the flies alive. Then ask the horse farm if it's OK if you hang it there for a day or two. I used to work at Kualoa and would hang them near the horse farm and once a week, I'd bring them home and use them as feeders! Hope that helps.

Also, who you get your cham from? I know some the breeders up your way - got my first cham from one of dem!

 

[JaxKiwiTiger]

I purchased my Jacksons from a dude selling them out in front of Waipahu H.S. We were driving home from my son's soccer game one day and right before we got on the freeway, we saw a sign for $5 Jacksons. We thought it was too good to be true and ended up purchasing 3. We knew nothing about Jacksons back then, and laughed at the fact that he had about 60 or 70 Jacksons all cooped up in a single 3x3x4 cage hanging from a tree, spinning in the wind. Of course they were all black and stressed out, but I didn't think anything of it then.

I don't remember the sellers name, but he said he's been raising Jackson's for 18 years, and collects grasshoppers to feed them. I didn't realize it at the time why he was selling them for so cheap, but it was basically a rescue.

Thanks for the tip about the fly traps...too bad I live on the other side of the island, but I will try and hang it in my backyard. We still get our fair share of flies and I love Jackson's love 'em. I don't think fungus is the problem, I thoroughly clean out the cages weekly. I don't think Tiger was sick, I think he just hated his cage. I switched him with Jax, and they both seem fine now...here's some pics I took a few hours ago. As you can see, he's looking healthy as ever (his eyes are closed cuz I was misting him so he would be distracted)...he finally gave in to the silkworms! Think I'll be ordering more in the near future.