3 1/2 Month Old Panther Decresing His Food Intake

[UrbanChameleon]

So I'm having a bit of a problem with my baby Ambilobe. I've had him for a week and 1 day now, and he seems less interested in crickets. He was eating very well the first few days. Although he is pretty slow when it comes to eating. My Veiled would run towards the crickets when he was this age. I've heard many say that Veileds tend to have more personality, good and bad. So i figured he was just a bit slower in this department. He was eating, but it took me 15+ minutes to feed him just a few crickets, as apposed to my Veiled wolfing them down.

I was able to cup feed Loki from the first day of his arrival. I tried half cup, half free range to see which worked out best for him. Ive noticed he is not much of a hunter. He never goes to where a cricket is. I kind of figure this could be because he wasn't the alpha male in his clutch. The breeder free ranged all of the feeders. And as of today, he won't eat free ranged, hand fed, or cup fed crickets. And I'm pretty sure I made him stressed out because I spent a long time trying to get him to eat in any way possible. As of two days ago his appetite decreased more and more, until today where he didn't eat any. He may have eaten one free range but that's it.

Only two things have changed, other than his arrival to my home.

1) The breeder sent about 20 silkies with him. He was eating just fine, including crickets, until I ran out of silks. He would have about 2+ a day and the rest were crickets. I wanted to make them last. Problem is.. I've heard there is a huge silk worm outage. The only worms in my area are meal and supers. I plan on order hornworms and crickets on the first. I'm wondering if a mealworm might boost his appetite and entice him to eat the crickets. My crix are gutloaded with Cricket Crack and duste with Calcium Plus.

2) The other thing that changed is his UVB light. I'd had a 5.0 CFL in the Exo Terra top and I felt that big bulky fixture was hindering airflow. Not to mention linear has much more range. So he now has a 5.0 linear. Which I don't think caused the problem, because I just changed it last night and his appetite has been decreasing slowly for a few days now.

Because Loki will take so long to eat one cricket, ALL of the supplement is off of them. That's really why I prefer to cup feed him at least half. I'll have to watch him over the next few days, I'm just really hoping he isn't on a hunger strike as he is so young. I realize I just got him, but it should be getting better not worse. It just doesn't seem right to me. He seems hydrated by the way. He will lick everything. No joke. It's weird. Water or not. His fecal looks fine as well. I could be panicking over nothing, but I don't want this to continue or get worse. I'm on my phone right now so I couldn't post the how to ask for help. I will do that later tonight. In the meantime, he is set up exactly the same as Bodhi. The only difference is that Bodhi is in an adult screen cage, and Loki is in Bodhi's old 18x18x24 Exo Terra until he is big enough for his adult cage. Could he be stressing over his reflection? He doesn't get hostile or anything. But I know he can see himself in it and it might be distracting him. There is really not much of a point of ordering a baby cage as he will only be in it for 2-3 months. But I've entertained the idea. If it gets any worse I for sure will. Anything to keep him happy and healthy is worth every dollar.

I'm sorry for rambling on about every possible reason. I'm just really worried and want him to be a healthy young Chameleon. Please post. I'm desperate for some feedback. I want to get this sorted out before it becomes urgent. Thanks guys.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Anyone?

 

[reptoman]

If it got darker in his cage it would account for the change. You might try putting another linear flourescent with a 5500K or 6500K in it to brighten it up a bit. He might also be overfed. What size are the crickets you are giving him? Maybe cut back to a few less or just feed a couple one day to see if his appetite increases the next. He will not suffer any permanent damage if he does not eat till hes full for one day. Hope you get it figured out. Its stressful worrying about these guys.

He could do fine in an adult cage as well if you give him a place to get his food at first. I have 2 3 1/2 month old holdbacks in adult size cages that are thriving. I just cupfeed and they go right to the cup when I come into the room in the morning. If i get there later than usual they are on the branch above the cup waiting.

 

[pssh]

What do you mean all the supplement comes off? There shouldn't be so much that they look more than a shade or so lighter than originally. The should not look like white/grey ghosts.

What is his heat like? Are you trying to watch him the whole time? A lot of chameleons don't like to be watched while they eat. Try just leaving him be.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

No they are just lightly dusted. This is my second Cham. His heat is a little higher than my first Cham's was. It's around 85ish. Give or take a few degrees lower or higher.

He just threw up about an hour ago. I called the breeder and all we can do is wait and observe other the next day or two. I can't think of why this happened. I got a plant from Lowes, which was thoroughly cleaned, I asked and the don't use pestisides. Crickets are the right size. Maybe one of them didn't agree with him. I have no idea what the cause of this could be. The vomit was clear mucus with brown. So his stomach had digested it. He didn't eat again today either.

After he threw up he looked much better. He had been dark the last few days. He lightened up to red, white, and blue. His urate looks good. He did seem disoriented though. When Loki was climbing around after he seemed messy and kind of like he had a beer or two. I'm sure liking would make anyone feel that way. Hopefully he will eat tomorrow. His lights already went off 7 minutes ago. I sprayed him hoping he would get a little hydration after all of that. The only other thing I can think of is that he is stressed by his reflection.

I read a few other posts about vomiting. One guy said his Cham didn't eat for 2 weeks even after he threw up. I'm really hoping that this isn't the case with Loki. I've ha him for a week. No possiblity of RI or parasites. I'm stumped.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

If it got darker in his cage it would account for the change. You might try putting another linear flourescent with a 5500K or 6500K in it to brighten it up a bit. He might also be overfed. What size are the crickets you are giving him? Maybe cut back to a few less or just feed a couple one day to see if his appetite increases the next. He will not suffer any permanent damage if he does not eat till hes full for one day. Hope you get it figured out. Its stressful worrying about these guys.

He could do fine in an adult cage as well if you give him a place to get his food at first. I have 2 3 1/2 month old holdbacks in adult size cages that are thriving. I just cupfeed and they go right to the cup when I come into the room in the morning. If i get there later than usual they are on the branch above the cup waiting.

Thank you. I really appreciate you throwing out a couple of possibilities. And yes it is very stressful, I worry about my two Chams more than myself. His crickets are about the right size. The breeder said he was eating 3/8. Maybe a few of the crix are bigger than between his eyes by a very small amount, and he ate about 15 the first day or two. I don't think he could be impacted either because he's pooping daily. Loki was cup feeding by day one, even though the breeder free ranged. It could be possible that one of the silkies were too big. That, the live plant, and stress are really the only somewhat viable conclusions that I can think of.

He seems like he is watching the crickets more now that he threw up, but he still isn't going for them. Hopefully by tomorrow something will have changed for the better. I'm going to keep posting updates. I'll post any changes, that way we can get a timeline and hopefully figure out if this is a serious problem.

 

[reptoman]

Check the temp at the bottom of his cage. If its 85 throughout the cage that is too hot. He may not be able to cool down.
He may have been over supplemented as well which would account for him throwing up. Try not dusting for a day or 2. As long as you are feeding well gutloaded insects he can stand to eat straight crickets with out powder supplement. Could also be that he has sensitivity to supplements as well. Hope he improves after throwing up.

 

[pssh]

If he's throwing up and acting odd, I would get him to the vet as soon as you can. There might be something they can do.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Check the temp at the bottom of his cage. If its 85 throughout the cage that is too hot. He may not be able to cool down.
He may have been over supplemented as well which would account for him throwing up. Try not dusting for a day or 2. As long as you are feeding well gutloaded insects he can stand to eat straight crickets with out powder supplement. Could also be that he has sensitivity to supplements as well. Hope he improves after throwing up.

Thank you. That was exactly my thought. I have a 25 watt bulb in there, but the fixture is different. It's the dome fixture which is giving off more heat. His therm said 88 at the hottest but it's a glass enclosure. I think I'll get a 15 watt bulb and see how that goes. At first I wondered if he didn't like the cricket crack or the shops taste. That is until he regurgitated. I'll watch his behavior tomorrow. If it doesn't seem to be getting better I will be making a vet visit. They only see herps 2 days out of the week which sucks. Right now I just want him to be calm, drink, and hopefully eat. It wasn't until he had a cricket behind him and in front of him until he threw up. I think he stressed about it knowing he couldn't eat them and thought they would hurt him. Nobody wants their food surrounding them. It's hard getting those little pinheads out of a foliage filled cage. But I'll post tomorrow. Hopefully he wont be disoriented after a good nights sleep.