Male veiled hunger strike???When to worry???

hollypops

New Member
My male veiled seems to be on a hunger strike.I moved him to a new cage about 10 days ago and i have not seen him eat for about 7 days now.(though i am not in room 24/7, though i am most of the day.)

He still has worms (in cup) and locusts free-roaming in his cage that he has not bothered with.He has been shedding for about a week.
He has never refused food before for more than a day or two.
Do you think it is due to the move of cage and the fact he is shedding?

When do i really need to worry?





Cage- All wire mesh screen.48 inches high x 24 x24.On a table 18 inches high so top of cage is about 5 and a half foot high.
Cage has exo terra vines,large fiscus benjamina and umbrella plant.(repotted in eco earth.
Kitchen roll on floor of cage.
Lighting-10% zoo med uv tube in a canopy that is about 3-4 inches high and a 2% zoomed uv tube.2x exoterra sunglo basking halogen bulbs.I zoomed deep dome fitting with a 40 watt white spot bulb.
Basking temp 84.2 meaured with digital thermometer.Bottom of cage 70 and night time temps drop to about 68.Basking temp was higher but lowered it as told on here last week as he was gaping.
Lights an uv On for 12 hrs a day 9-9.

Chameleon- Male yemen chameleon.Roughly about 9-10 months old weighs 134g today.(not lost any weight).
Currently sheddibg,has been for a week.
Fed daily on gut loaded locusts,crickets,and morio worms,butter worms,wax worms (ocassional).I saw him eat a large locust 7 days ago.

Handled-Daily,his choice.He always walks on to my arm as i open his cage and has a wander around.He often hangs on the door waiting for it to be opened and then comes straight out if we open it.He is usually trying to turn and come back out when we put him back in his cage.

Problem-Not eating ,not drinking as much.Has been dehydrated and eyes look slightly sunken still.Skin returns when pinched in about 1 second.Seems to be walking around cage as normal..Last week he did not move around much and took himself to bed about 4-5pm each night.

He is back to going to bed about 8 pm now...Is active as normal when cage is opened as he walks out on my arm and is happy to wander.Bright colours when out but seems dull in cage.Urates still a yellowy colour,poop is hard an dark as normal.Not as much poop as not eating.Not drinking when i spray.
 
Well first of all...My chameleon only takes 1 day...or 2 days to fully shed, Im not sure if they take longer to shed when they are older(larger)...But yes he may not be eating because he is shedding...My 6month old panther does not eat when hes shedding...

And im sure the cage transfer might have something to do with it as well...

I dont know how long to wait...But I would wait for a more experienced member on the forum or a VET VISIT WOULD NOT hurt...

Keep us updated!
 
My male veiled seems to be on a hunger strike.I moved him to a new cage about 10 days ago and i have not seen him eat for about 7 days now.(though i am not in room 24/7, though i am most of the day.)

He still has worms (in cup) and locusts free-roaming in his cage that he has not bothered with.He has been shedding for about a week.
He has never refused food before for more than a day or two.
Do you think it is due to the move of cage and the fact he is shedding?

When do i really need to worry?





Cage- All wire mesh screen.48 inches high x 24 x24.On a table 18 inches high so top of cage is about 5 and a half foot high.
Cage has exo terra vines,large fiscus benjamina and umbrella plant.(repotted in eco earth.
Kitchen roll on floor of cage.
Lighting-10% zoo med uv tube in a canopy that is about 3-4 inches high and a 2% zoomed uv tube.2x exoterra sunglo basking halogen bulbs.I zoomed deep dome fitting with a 40 watt white spot bulb.
Basking temp 84.2 meaured with digital thermometer.Bottom of cage 70 and night time temps drop to about 68.Basking temp was higher but lowered it as told on here last week as he was gaping.
Lights an uv On for 12 hrs a day 9-9.

Chameleon- Male yemen chameleon.Roughly about 9-10 months old weighs 134g today.(not lost any weight).
Currently sheddibg,has been for a week. I have heard of chameleons going of off food when they shed
Fed daily on gut loaded locusts,crickets,and morio worms,butter worms,wax worms (ocassional).I saw him eat a large locust 7 days ago.

Handled-Daily,his choice.He always walks on to my arm as i open his cage and has a wander around.He often hangs on the door waiting for it to be opened and then comes straight out if we open it.He is usually trying to turn and come back out when we put him back in his cage.

Problem-Not eating ,not drinking as much.Has been dehydrated Thy giving him a shower, put him on a plant in the shower and spray warm water at the wall so the mist is getting him, this will help with the dehydration, also water seems to trigger eating in chameleons. and eyes look slightly sunken still.Skin returns when pinched in about 1 second.Seems to be walking around cage as normal..Last week he did not move around much and took himself to bed about 4-5pm each night.

He is back to going to bed about 8 pm now...Is active as normal when cage is opened as he walks out on my arm and is happy to wander.Bright colours when out but seems dull in cage.Urates still a yellowy colour,poop is hard an dark as normal.Not as much poop as not eating.Not drinking when i spray.

It also could be that he was moved into a new cage, when i got my female veiled, she did not eat for several days, i administered reptaid and she started eating in about 1 day from time of first dose, witin a week she was back to normal.

Try taking all the food out for two days and then offer again. He may be snacking when you are not looking, also he may be getting bored with the food, seeing it all day everyday. When i feed my guys I put food in about 9:30-10:00 in the morning and i take out hat ever is not eaten by 2 or 3.
 
Thanks for posting all the info in addition to your question.

Lighting-10% zoo med uv tube in a canopy that is about 3-4 inches high and a 2% zoomed uv tube.2x exoterra sunglo basking halogen bulbs.I zoomed deep dome fitting with a 40 watt white spot bulb.
Basking temp 84.2 meaured with digital thermometer.Bottom of cage 70 and night time temps drop to about 68.Basking temp was higher but lowered it as told on here last week as he was gaping.

Am I reading this right in that you have FIVE lights on your cage? Two UBV, Two Sunglo bulbs, and One 40 Watt? All that and his basking area is still only 84 degrees? Your cage doesn't seem THAT huge that you need that many lights. Is this because of the climate where you are? I'd expect all you'd need would be one UBV and then one basking bulb to get his basking area to ~90-95. He should be fine otherwise.

However, you didn't ask about lighting... just sort of noticed you seem to have a LOT of it. :)

It sounds to me like your chameleon is taking a very long time to shed, and that could be contributing to his hunger strike. His long shed could be due to low humidity. How often are you misting him and for how long? Do you know what the humidity is in the cage?

My advice:

- I concur with the shower idea. Not only will this help hydrate him, it will hopefully also progress his shed a bit.

- Remove all free-roaming prey from his cage. After the shower, don't offer him food for a day. Then try offering him something he really loves, whether it be worms or locusts, etc. See if he goes for it.

- Put his food in a feeding cup if he eats, and stop free-roaming prey, at least for awhile, so you can better monitor what he's eating.

On a final note, I can't believe your Veiled enjoys being handled. If that personality stays with him after he's a year old, you'll have one of the friendliest Veileds I've ever heard of, which is great! Don't be surprised if he gets grumpy with you as he gets older though!
 
Thanks for all replys,will try shower in a min.

Humidity is 50%.The canopy that sits on top of his cage holds 2 linear tube bulbs and 2 exo terra halogen day bulbs.

However the temps only reached 70 with the 2 tubes and 2 exo terra 35 watt bulbs so i added a spot bulb, it pushes it up to mid to high 80s.Any higher and he was gaping.
 
whats is humidity level normally at, and how do you hydrate him. his hydration levels may be low, and he cant pop off the dry skin easily in a dry climate.

as for normal hunger strikes. try changing the locusts in their to crickets, and she was he does, or a nice big fat hornworm for a treat. im not sure if you do that already, but you didnt post the feeding schedule.

when ever a cham goes to sleep early, or looses activity its normally a bad sign. since i think the sun actually helped ocillie im going to say this take him outside for a few hours, and let him romp around for a while, and maybe the sun may start his feeding cycle, but 7 days is going on a stretch

the exoterra halogens get super hot. whats the temp in your house?
where do you live?
 
Hi , live in uk.Temps in house drop to 70 at night.Cage drops to 68 at lowest at night.

Usually he has a cup of worms (either super worms, butter worms ,mealworms, wax worms ) changed regularly.At min he has superworms and wax worms (though he is not eating them).Crickets are also in cup (brown)

He has locusts roaming as they climb out the cup.All are gut loaded and dusted with calypso calcium 5 times a week and nutrabol (multi vitamin) at weekends.I also have chameleon dust that i use once a month.
 
chameleon dust is made by t-rex.It is designed especially for chameleons to dust on food.Has vitamins,minerals and calcium.Says it can be used daily but i got told on uk forum that calypso calcium 5 x week and nutrabol 2 x week were better.
 
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