Jhatch
New Member
I'm sad to say that she did not make it. Thank you for all the help and suggestions.
3 week old won't eat
- Thread starter Jhatch
- Start date
Im so sorry for ur lost
A Thousand words won't bring her back;
I know because you've tried.
Neither will a Thousand tears;
I know because I've cried....
MeruJack
Avid Member
I'm sorry for your loss. And I am sorry as well that I did not see this thread until now. I have 18 tiny babies in individual ExoTerra enclosures and I may have been able to help you out had I been online earlier. When you are ready do try to get another chameleon but try to get one that is at least two or three months old. That little baby was so young and so tiny. Do take care. Read up on baby care here to help you prepare for a better outcome. I have lost several babies over the years and it's still painful even if you've only had them a short time. Be sure to check out my baby care methods (search threads by "MeruJack") and feel free to ask questions. I'm still learning new & better tricks and methods everyday it seems. Take care
Chachi
Established Member
My suggestion is put a piece of orange in the cage. What is he walking on, a live plant? Put the orange piece where he can get close to it. Then put fruit flies in and they will all congregate on the orange. If he stands close, he should begin to be tempted....I hope. Also, I put a towel around my cage so nothing scares them (I have dogs). Try it
Chachi
Established Member
I'm sorry. I wrote this and didn't push the right button and just saw it not posted. Now I read you lost her. I am so so sorry. I have lost that little of a baby. I'm sorry
Chachi
Established Member
Mere, I saw that you were not on, so I told him to do what you told me. Mine is doing beautiful since I did the fruit deal. Thank you so much. TH
jajeanpierre
Chameleon Enthusiast
I'm very sorry you lost this baby. How heartbreaking to go through this experience!
This part of the hobby makes me insane--selling tiny babies to novices. The end results are dead babies and heartbroken novice owners. It's not fair to anybody. Not fair to the person buying the baby because they just wasted a lot of money and emotional trauma on an animal they likely could never have been able to keep alive with their limited knowledge. Unfair to the baby because it was doomed in the hands of someone who didn't know what it needed.
Your cage set up was inappropriate for a baby so young but how would you ever know as a novice?
Unfortunately, tiny little babies don't have enough reserve to be able to survive long enough for a novice to tweak their set up. An adult or juvenile veiled chameleon's temperature and water needs are not the same as a neonate's needs. An adult or juvenile will have enough reserve to be able to cope with poor conditions for some time before they end up sick. Not so with a neonate; they have no reserve and they can dehydrate and die in a flash.
I hope you do not give up on chameleons. Keeping them isn't rocket science and a veiled is an incredibly hardy chameleon. Get a veiled that is at least 10g so it is big enough to last through your trial and error of getting his set up right. Get a male, too, so you don't need to deal with eggs.
While it is too late for this baby, perhaps others reading this are having similar problems so I feel it might be helpful to point out some of the problems with your set up.
Again, I can't emphasize enough you are not to blame for what happened. It would take someone with either a lot of experience or a lot of luck (to get it right the first time) to grow up that baby. Babies are not forgiving.
Your caging was inappropriate for such a tiny baby. While not perfect, it would have been fine for a larger juvenile chameleon while you tinkered around making it right.
Those big plastic vines offer nothing. They dry out very fast. A better solution would be a potted asparagus or sword fern with some of the fronds stripped for perching areas and tiny thin natural sticks throughout the cage. Think in three dimensions. If you are going to put those plastic vines in, separate the strands and string them around the cage so there are vines and leaves everywhere. Zip ties are your best friend. There were not enough surfaces for water to collect on for the baby to drink. It is unnatural for a chameleon to go to places to eat or drink--you need to have food and water in front of their faces when they are tiny babies or they will starve to death. I stick pieces of fruit on twigs throughout the cage as feeding stations for the fruit flies to congregate on--think three dimensions. The whole cage from top to bottom and back to front needs to have surfaces to collect water and have prey items on. The amount of food you put in a cage as large as that would be the same for one baby versus a clutch to 20--it is not the actual number of prey items but the density of the prey items throughout the cage. I'm not a veiled breeder, but I think your temperatures were too high. The higher the temps, the quicker they dehydrate and dehydration is probably the biggest problem with neonates. Also, I noticed your carpet was dry. If you were misting enough, that carpet should have been wet. Anytime you get a new animal, treat it as if it is dehydrated. I run misters for 10 to 15 minutes at a time every hour on my new animals.
I hope you don't take this as a criticism because it isn't. I can't emphasize enough--how were you to know? I hope someone can glean a bit of information so this tragedy is not repeated as often as it is.
Again, I am sorry for your loss.
Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
This is so sad and unnecessary. Whoever sold you that hatchling should be prosecuted for cruelty. In many clutches of new hatchlings there can be a few with congenital problems that are not destined to survive. At 3 weeks old it can still happen regardless how perfect their care is. Plus all the stress of travel to and from the show, stress of all the activity, changes, less than perfect care during the expo, it all adds up to misery for both cham and buyer.
