sudden death :(

[alexislailani]

• Your Chameleon - Female, veiled, 2 months old, a month in my care.
• Handling - As often as she was willing to climb onto my hand, almost daily, never by force.
• Feeding - Mix of crickets and superworms. Fed about seven crickets and half a superworm every morning around 6am. The crickets and superworms were gutloaded using a calcium block, kale, apples, and romaine lettuce. What are you feeding your cham?
• Supplements - The feeders would be dusted by PetSmart, and then I would dust them before each feeding.
• Watering - Humidifier would allow water droplets to build on the leaves in her cage, and I also manually misted. Since the humidifier did most of the work I only misted twice a day about three minutes each time. Often saw Frankie drinking off her leaves!
• Fecal Description - The most recent urates were white with a slick brown attachment of the poop.
• History - The two days before Frankie passed I noticed her grip was a bit loose-I didn't think much of it, though. She was still holding onto her perch and vines just fine, but I noticed while she was climbing on my glasses (she likes to climb from my arms up to the top of my head lol) that she was slipping more than usual. It made me slightly nervous so I let her climb onto my hand and kind of turned it so for her to stay on my hand her grip would have to be decent. She did great and stayed on! I then brushed that off. She also had been closing her eyes frequently, like waaay more than she ever does during the day. It wouldn't be a long period of time, just about 45 seconds. I thought that was strange, but since she was eating and drinking fine, and being active, I wasn't too concerned.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Glass/Screen combo. Not sure of the dimensions, but it was a bit wider than it was tall, because I was waiting to switch her over to a real cage when she was a tad bigger.
• Lighting - She used a 50watt UV bulb, and just an average day bulb the reptile specialist at the store recommended to me. Lights on at 6am and lights off around 8pm. Probably not the best schedule, but it seemed to be working well.
• Temperature - Basking spot was around 83 degrees, and the cage floor averaged 74. Lowest overnight temp dropped to 68-70, but kind you she had a heating pad near her sleeping spot. I use two separate in cage thermometers.
• Humidity - Humidity stayed around 80%. I use a humidifier and misting to maintain the humidity. I also use a humidity gauge kept in the cage to measure.
• Plants - The plants were all fake, as I wasn't too confident in the correct live plant choices.
• Placement - Cage was located on top of a low cabinet, next to the door. Air vents weren't close, the area isn't low traffic but the amount that occurred never bothered her from the body language I noticed. No ceiling fans, and the cage was about 3 feet off the ground. Where is your cage located?
• Location - Eastern shore, US. Maryland, specifically.

Current Problem - Frankie passed away I feel so awful. I'm not sure what I did wrong, and input is appreciated. I woke up, flipped her lights on, and saw her laying on the bottom of her cage, black. I feel so disgusted with myself for allowing this to happen. I feel completely deterred from even considering another cham. Frankie was my first, and I'm so sorry I wasn't able to provide her with a full life.

 

[blue_cham]

First off... Im so sorry for your loss. Hopefully the members here can help you understand what happened.

My two biggest questions... Especially since you only had her for 2 months. #1 where did you get Frankie? #2 what does PetSmart dust with? Just plain calcium? And what do you dust with? Brands? Usually there are calciums, vitamins, and D3 and combinations there of

 

[Carlton]

We all know how horrible it is to lose them!!

A few things I noticed in your info...but it would be hard to figure out exactly without a necropsy on her unfortunately.

She was very very young. Most good breeders don't sell their babies until they are 3-4 months old. Babies overheat and dehydrate much more easily than older chams and it is harder to manage their nutrition. So, there may not have been enough time to notice a problem and correct it.
People also tend to handle their chams a lot after they first get them. It can be stressful, and stress is cumulative over time. She may have been handled too much too often. Hard to say, as chams are individual about how much they will tolerate.

Assuming your cage hygrometer was accurate, 80% humidity is too high for a veiled. She might have been having some respiratory issues, but you didn't describe gasping or gaping behavior so maybe not.

I suspect she had some nutritional deficiencies going on. Supplement dusting schedule should have been plain calcium (NO added vitamin D3) daily. Dusting with calcium with added vit D3 every two weeks. Dusting with a herp multivitamin every two weeks. The gutload you were using could have been better. Not all "uv" bulbs are created equal. The specific brand matters. What brand was it? If it's not a decent brand, she was probably not getting the correct UVB exposure. If she didn't have correct UVB exposure she wouldn't be able to metabolize vitamin D3 and calcium properly.

Chams need a drop in temperature of at least 10 degrees at night. If you were using added heat from the pad at night she wasn't getting this temp drop. It can cause metabolic problems to never be able to cool off.

One thing that might help you figure out what might have happened is for you to read the basic husbandry articles located under the forum's "Resources" tab above. Compare your setup and your routines with the husbandry guidelines for veileds. You might see where they differed.