Veiled Not moving much...

T

Tenny

New Member
Hello,

So I have a female veiled, I've had her for about a year and a half. When I purchased her she was a baby, so I'd estimate her age to be about two years. She has laid eggs before, and she isn't too thick right now, getting skinnier by the day too.

This past weekend I went out of town for two days, and my gf said my Chameleon wasn't moving much, her eyes still move around, and now it's been about five days like this I am getting worried. She is not on the ground or anything, she is vertical in her location, hanging on to plant branch.

I have "water" drip twice a day (about 500ml each day), and I have crickets and mealworms available for her, but she still isn't taking to them at all. She has been in the same "setup" (cage wise) for about 6 months, with no new changes. The climate has changed a bit here in the past week (a few days getting to 100), but she is inside, and that's usually around where I kept her cage (one part at least) during the day.

So my gf tells me to touch her, but I am afraid to aggravate her. Anyone have any ideas?

PS: I searched, but a lot of stuff came up about them moving the whole enclosure, not the chameleon not moving.
 
Fill this out in detail.
Brands, days, etc are very important

Cage Info:

* Cage Type - What kind of cage are you using? What is the size?
* Lighting - What kind of lighting are you using? How long do you keep the lights on during the day?
* Temperature - What temperature range have you created? Basking spot temp? What is the temperature at night?
* Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels?
* Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
* Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas?


Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon.
* Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What kind of schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
* Supplements - What are you dusting your feeders with and what kind of schedule do you use?
* Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
* Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings.
* History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
* Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.
 
Cage Info:

* Cage Type: Not sure brand, but it's a screen style. I think it measured to be 24"x24"x26".
* Lighting - 1x Zoomed Reptisun, can't remember which one. 1x Heating Lamp
* Temperature: typically stays around 60 at night, and reaches around 100 during the day int he basking spot, rest of the cage (where she is right now) reaches roughly 80.
* Humidity - Not sure.
* Plants - Pothos
* Location - In a walk-in closet. There is a server next to her, which blows warm air towards the cage (maybe 12" away). The sliding doors to the closet are typically open (to keep the server from over-heating), so there's a fan blowing "towards" that area... but not too strong of a breeze. Very little traffic overall though.

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, Female, ~ 2 years old
* Feeding - Crickets / Meal worms. Mostly Crickets. The crickets eat Flukers Orange Cubes. I buy 50-100 / week depending on how fast she's eating them. I usually feed her 90% of them, and just discard the rest when I buy new ones.
* Supplements - Flukers Repta-Calcium
* Watering - Water Drip twice a day (500ml / day) Trips onto live plant, and she drinks from it normally.... but not since this problem has occured.
* Fecal Description: Brown / White (part of it white at least)
* History: Cat got a hold of her over a year ago. Deep Wounds. Healed completely. No visible marks.
* Current Problem: Chameleon not moving around cage at all. Just sitting in place, not drinking / eating as far as I can tell.
 
Greetings, and sorry to hear about your little one.

Can you be more specific about the lighting? The shape of the lights, and the wattage. It is very important. And a photo would be crucial. You should be measuring humidity. Your set up doesn't sound like she gets humidity. With warm air blowing on her, the drip system is probably not enough. Though she may drink from the drip, She should very likely be getting misted several times a day for the sake of her eyes and skin. Thermometers and hygrometers are so affordable (just a few dollars) that you really should be able to track the temps and humidity, since these are life sustaining issues.

I realize these Yemen chameleons are canopy dwellers when in their natural habitat, which means they like to get a bit of air movement and lower humidity then most chams. But they still need humidity and moisture for their skin and eye cleansing. Chameleons like to do a neat sort of ritualized eye cleansing routine daily.

Without a photo, and more specific details, it is really hard to say what may be wrong. If she looked normal otherwise, and it was my chameleon, I would shower her for about 45min today, and for the next few days. I would probably also figure out a way to get some food into her. Sometimes the lack of appetite is due to dehydration.

However, with your description of her movements, and not eating, if the least other thing looked wrong, I would get her to the vet. Or, if she didn't rebound by tomorrow, I would schedule a vet appointment.
 
Tenny said:
* Feeding - Crickets / Meal worms. Mostly Crickets. The crickets eat Flukers Orange Cubes. I buy 50-100 / week depending on how fast she's eating them. I usually feed her 90% of them, and just discard the rest when I buy new ones.
* Supplements - Flukers Repta-Calcium
Click to expand...

I would definitely have a vet check her out.

Do you feed the crickets anything else besides the Flukers Orange Cubes?

The Flukers Orange Cubes are usually just used to water the crickets. Instead of giving them water, these orange cubes are given so they don't drown. You need to feed the crickets more than this. You need to gutload them before feeding them to your cham. If all you are feeding the crickets are the cubes, then your chameleon is not getting anything nutritious.

I do not use the orange cubes at all. I usually rotate the fruits and veggies I give the crickets. I usually use orange slices as water for them, cricketfood.com and different vegetables such as dandelion greens, collard greens, watercress, etc.

Do you gutload them?

Do you dust the crickets with anything else other than the Flukers Repta-Calcium?

You might also want to try bringing her out to get some sunshine.

You also said your veiled is already 2 years old and you have a reptisun. Do you have a tube or is it a coil bulb?

How frequently do you replace the bulbs on your reptisun?

Try to also give her more food variety such as roaches, silkworms, hornworms etc. I wouldn't use mealworms as a staple either.
 
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I forgot to mention it, I do mist her, but it's not set schedule. Some days she gets one, while some she gets up to 4. When I am out of town though, my gf rarely will mist her.

I looked at the weak walk thread, and found what you were discussing, but I also wanted to note my chameleon, has never walked like most chameleons I see / read about. She has never "emulated" a leaf / swaying, she always walks fast and persistent of whatever she was doing. I always thought that was rather strange.

As far as the lighting, it's a fluorescent tube, I think 18" long. The first time, it took me a while to replace it, not realizing it "goes bad". But it was replaced just over a month ago on the current bulb. The basking lamp, is a red 75watt one. Lately I've been replacing them every 6-7 months.

I was not aware the Orange Cubes did not "gut load" the crickets. I thought on the package it was saying it feeds them lots of vitamins, etc. I'll begin to supplement them with other stuff.

I don't have any cameras, so it will be kind of hard to get a picture... but over the past few days, her color's have been as they have always been. Although this morning she did have her black "stripes" as I would best describe. Not sure if I startled her or what though about that. Usually she's bright green with a little orange / blue showing.
 
I don't use the orange cubes, so I don't know how well they gutload. Is your tube light 5.0 or 10.0? I would replace her red lamp with a standard "white" reptile basking bulb. 75W sounds fine, as long as it produces the appropriate temps.

The misting is an essential part of her life support. It should be done several times a day, for several minutes at a time. Not just a few squirts.

Do you actually see her drinking?
 
gesang said:
I don't use the orange cubes, so I don't know how well they gutload. Is your tube light 5.0 or 10.0? I would replace her red lamp with a standard "white" reptile basking bulb. 75W sounds fine, as long as it produces the appropriate temps.

The misting is an essential part of her life support. It should be done several times a day, for several minutes at a time. Not just a few squirts.

Do you actually see her drinking?
Click to expand...
I can't remember if it was the 5.0 or the 10.0. I'll have to look at the bulb when I go home today.

And yes, I do see her actually drinking typically. I have it drip down to about two leafs before it goes into the Pothos bowl, to water that. Both leaves are pretty "level" so that it fills a bit, and I see her there typically every other day drinking.
 
When was the last time she pooped? When our females get too still, they tend to get constipated, and I take them out for a little "exercise". That depends on the animal. We have one girl that will simply climb from my left hand up to my right hand, and then up to my left hand again, over and over again. Then I put her back in her cage and later she poops. I have another that I simply place in a shefflera that is outside her cage. This stirs her up enough to get her climbing around a bit, and then later she poops.

The black lines you are seeing on her may be a sign of discomfort. If she hasn't pooped in a few days it may be that. But, remember, they have to be well hydrated in order to poop well. The poop should be nice and wet and the urates should be white.

Also, check her eyes, and make sure she is keeping them open during the day and that they are clear. When I mist I actually do directly, lightly, mist my cham's body and face. They are used to it by now, except for one of our male veileds who still acts like I'm throwing poison darts at him.
 
Tenny said:
I was not aware the Orange Cubes did not "gut load" the crickets. I thought on the package it was saying it feeds them lots of vitamins, etc. I'll begin to supplement them with other stuff.
Click to expand...

Hi, this is the description of the Flukers Orange Cubes on Amazon:

Formulated to be easily digested by all feeder insects.
Made from nutritious items such as kelp, spirulina, and brewer's yeast.

Product Description
Use of Orange Cube will drastically reduce your number of drowned, dehydrated, and nutrient deficient crickets.

Product Description
Flukers Orange Cube Complete Cricket Diet is the best one step feeding solution for your crickets and other feeder insects such as mealworms, super worms, and fruit flies. Orange Cube provides the three things crickets need most--food, water, and vitamins. There is no need to water your crickets when using this diet. It is specially formulated to be easily digested by both crickets and the animals that consume them. Use of Orange Cube will drastically reduce your number of drowned, dehydrated, and nutrient deficient crickets.

It seems to me from the product description these are made to provide for the crickets needs, not the chameleons.

In the adcham diet though, kelp, spirulina and brewer's yeast are a part of the gutload but you would need more than these 3 for gutloading.

If you've only replaced the bulb a month ago and only once out of the 2 years you have owned your veiled, that could be contributing to the problem since she's in the closet and gets no sunshine or uvb before, plus the only supplement you have been giving her is calcium and she wasn't getting nutritious food since the only thing the crickets were eating were the cubes.
 
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Kind of in the same topic, I remember when my brother in law had a beardie, he said the beardie was not moving at all and looks like he could not use his back legs.

Well come to find out, he needed to replace his Reptisun because he's had it for a year and had not replaced it. It took a while for the beardie to recover but it did and it was moving normally again. All he did was replace the lights. I just forgot how long it took.

Anywayz, I say take the cham to a vet if you can. Beardies are much, much hardier than chams. I know because I used to own several of them.

I think chams are more fragile. If i water my veiled only once a day even with a dripper running all day, he gets dehydrated because I check his feces and there's a lot more yellow to it than usual and his eyes look a little sunken.

He needs 2-4 mistings a day including a dripper while if I neglect my beardies for a 2-3 days, they do fine.
 
Alright so I just got home about an hour ago.

The bulb is a Reptisun UVB 5.0. And it wasn't the first time I replaced it a month ago, sorry for the misunderstanding. The first year I didn't replace it at all, but since then this is the third bulb. I've been replacing them every 6 months after the initial year.

I also misted her a lot. Before when I misted the cage, I'd hit her once, and then the whole cage a few more shots, but this time I focused it all completely on her, and it pissed her off enough for her to get much smaller (but not change colors (she was bright green / blue)).

It seems like she was dehydrated to be honest, because I started the drip, and she moved "slightly" to the drip, and is now drinking it, and she also took a few bites of the Pothos plant she was next to.

I put a peice of orange (we have an orange tree here...) into the cricket holder. I guess I read the flukers thing wrong, I alwyas thought that was a gut-loader for them. I will throw a few crickets in, within the next 15 minutes and see if she takes them.
 
Tenny said:
Alright so I just got home about an hour ago.

The bulb is a Reptisun UVB 5.0. And it wasn't the first time I replaced it a month ago, sorry for the misunderstanding. The first year I didn't replace it at all, but since then this is the third bulb. I've been replacing them every 6 months after the initial year.

I also misted her a lot. Before when I misted the cage, I'd hit her once, and then the whole cage a few more shots, but this time I focused it all completely on her, and it pissed her off enough for her to get much smaller (but not change colors (she was bright green / blue)).

It seems like she was dehydrated to be honest, because I started the drip, and she moved "slightly" to the drip, and is now drinking it, and she also took a few bites of the Pothos plant she was next to.

I put a peice of orange (we have an orange tree here...) into the cricket holder. I guess I read the flukers thing wrong, I alwyas thought that was a gut-loader for them. I will throw a few crickets in, within the next 15 minutes and see if she takes them.
Click to expand...

Awesome news! Let us know how she does. Wow, I wish I had an orange tree, save me some money and time going to the grocery store.. lol

You might want to check this site out to find what vegetables and fruits to provide to your crickets..

http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm
 
gesang said:
Sounds great. Glad to hear she's responding. What a relief. Thank you for the update. Let us know if she's eating again.
Click to expand...
Yup, she ate. I put a few crickets into my palm and she ate from my palm as he usually did. Now she is back to her basking spot.

Glad she is looking better, and thanks to this 'problem' I realized a few errors on my side, and will correct them now.
 
mika said:
Awesome news! Let us know how she does. Wow, I wish I had an orange tree, save me some money and time going to the grocery store.. lol

You might want to check this site out to find what vegetables and fruits to provide to your crickets..

http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm
Click to expand...
Heh, yeah I moved in with a friend, and despite having such a small amount of land, they have so many different tree's its amazing.

Trees:
Lemon
Orange
Cherry
Peach
Persimmon (SP)

They also have a few other vegetables they grow like artichoke, peppers, etc.

Despite all this, I still eat fast food far more than I should...

Thanks for the link though!
 
Really?? Wow, I live in an apt and we do not have that luxury. With summer and all, you can probably make a shake with that.. Jamba Juice?
 
mika said:
Really?? Wow, I live in an apt and we do not have that luxury. With summer and all, you can probably make a shake with that.. Jamba Juice?
Click to expand...

Well I used to live in an apartment. It was in a pretty bad area of town. I moved out eventually because there were two gang-related murders within one building of mine. Now I live in another "ghetto" area, but its houses instead, so in reaility it's not that bad. Just I have an 45 minute commute to work / school, before it was about a 5/10 minute commute.

Jamba Juice does sound good...
 
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