Hello everyone,

I've been reading this forum for weeks and it's been a great help so far. We are baby sitting our friends chameleon while they travel, so we are VERY inexperienced!!

Firstly, they (the owners) ownly found out the chameleon was a female a couple of weeks before they left her with us, and they nonchalantly said "oh she might lay eggs, so just sift the sand every now and then to check". Anyway, after a week she stopped eating, would show signs of stress (clinging low to the branches, digging in the sand, CONSTANTLY trying to escape from the enclosure, puffing out her throat and darkening in colour) which is why we turned the net (and our local pet store!) to find out what was wrong.

We tried everything to make her happy - we bought a thermometer for the tank and found out it was too cold, so we bought a heat lamp to warm it up. We bought more sand for her to lay in, bought some more greenery for the tank for her to hide behind, and more wooden tree type things so she could dig around to lay. While she didn't eat, she was exceptionally thirsty so we were misting her 3-4 times a day for 5 minutes straight. At one point she was so thirsty she grabbed the spray bottle and drank directly from it! Eventually after much work (over 17 hours of digging!) and finally getting the tank to 30 degrees, she did lay eggs, 88 of them in fact - now that seems like A LOT to me, especially for her first time. How many do they usually lay?

So the day she laid she finally started eating again thank goodness (no wonder she didn't eat for a week though, there was no room in her body for food!) and in fact, now she is eating more than double what she was before. She will eat 10 crickets/locusts a day without a hiccup, plus a couple of worms. She is so ravenous that as soon as she sees us pick up the container with the bugs in, she races to the door to get them. She is so keen that she sometimes has lashed out with her tongue before I have even got the lid off, and a couple of times she has collected 2 at once and gulped them down.

So the first question is: is that normal for her to be eating so much, and should we continue to feed her what she is currently consuming or could we be overfeeding her?

The second question is: how often should they be having bowel movements? I have not seen her poo since she started eating again, and I'm sure she had a movement at least every day or 2 before the laying. I've read threads about impaction, so this is an obvious concern, but she appears healthy, strong and very lively, and I thought she would stop eating if she had constipation? She still seems very plump though (definitely not as plump as she was before she layed!) and does not appear to be in any discomfort.

She's drinking normally (we mist her a couple of times a day for 3-4 minutes and set up a water dripper using a plastic cup) but I've seen a suggestion to try and shower her to encourage a movement?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Many thanks!
Angie

FYI: yes that is her in the photo!!

I'd love to see the photo you alluded to. Could you please reattach?

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1.3 veileds and 0.1 ambilobe

do you have a uv light. i didnt see that in your post. also, what kind of chameleon is it?

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Not to unlearn what you have learned is the most necessary kind of learning. -Antisthenes

I meant my profile picture.... it doesn't appear to be showing though...

I'll try and upload another one somehow...

Yes there is a UV lamp on the top of the enclosure.

I believe she is a Yemen Chameleon, and she's only about 6-7 months old (I think!).

Hey Angie, looks like your doing things right! I am glad you found the forum and were able to help the little lady out. The eating is sorta normal. People will say you should limit a females intake so they don't lay lots of clutches and wear themselves out. After laying, this isn't really necessary. You can let her eat what she can for now because it takes a lot out of them when they lay eggs. I am not sure of the size of your food items, but 10 a day isn't too bad. They do need a calcium supplement now more than ever because of the deposit of the eggs. Are you dusting her food with any sort of supplement? A shower would be a good idea maybe every other day to help her rehydrate. A lot of fluids are lost when laying.

As for lighting, what are brands are you using? What wattage? What kind of tank/cage is she in? How big is the tank/cage? How old is she? what kind of chameleon is she?

There is a sticky thread at the top of the health clinic forum that is a template for asking for help. If you could fill it out as best you can, you will get a lot more help rather than questions clarifying your setups configuration.

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Veiled 2.1 - Fred, Jake and Caddie, Panther 1.0 - Steve, Jacksoni 1.0 - Jackson , Melleri 4 - Pat, Lenny, Henry and The New Guy. DIY Auto Mister. DIY Silk Chow.

holy crap! 88 eggs. are they fertile (i hope not)? my cham poops about once every 2-3 days. so if she hasnt pooped in a day or 2 dont worry.

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Not to unlearn what you have learned is the most necessary kind of learning. -Antisthenes

The UV lamp is 15w and its Exo Terra, while the other spot lamp is 60w and it's EuroRep.

We took her to the vet before she layed for a calcium injection, and we have been gut loading her food (medium - large crickets and locusts) with Bug Grub, which has a lot of calcium as well.

The vivarium is quite small, only about 20x20x20 cm, and it's all glass, with a mess top.

And no the eggs aren't fertile, so that is a helluva lot of energy to waste.

But the real concern is the poo, she hasn't done one since before she layed (which was last Wednesday) and then it was really watery anyway because she hadn't eaten in a week before that.

Thanks for your replies!!

The showers might help her with poo a little bit. Make the water warm to increase success.

People have tried a small dab of cooking oil on a cricket. A small amount will help the cham pass the food. I think I have heard this from kinyonga

I just read a thread about pooping issues. One person had placed the cham in a bowl with warm water about half way up the body of the cham. They provided a stick for the cham to hold onto and the cham was able to make a deposit

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Veiled 2.1 - Fred, Jake and Caddie, Panther 1.0 - Steve, Jacksoni 1.0 - Jackson , Melleri 4 - Pat, Lenny, Henry and The New Guy. DIY Auto Mister. DIY Silk Chow.

Take a look at the post by brad ramsey, He is one of the forums best knowledge bases. He just ran into a problem of impaction with his cham.

Eartha trouble

Hope your cham feels better


OPI

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1.1 jackson, 1 orange spotted day gecko, dog,
Herp Mist www.Herpmist.com