Belied Cham not eating

[Danknight710]

Hi my veiled Cham haven’t been seen eating since I got him and can’t figure out how to get him to eat he has turned very light gray and dry I water him 4 to 5 and leave food in his bowl but I can’t keep track of it because I have a female in there to they both are like 3 to 4 months old please help

 

[ERKleRose]

They need to be separated into separate cages (with something in between to block their views of each other) ASAP! How big are the feeders compared to him? There are husbandry issues that need to be addressed, so if you could fill out this form in as much detail as possible, including more pics of your chams, it’d be super helpful! I’m also posting a helpful link that you need to read completely through, as well:
https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/

Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[Danknight710]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Veiled Cham, Male, 3 to 4 months. Have had for 2 weeks
• Handling - once a day for five minutes.
• Feeding - dusted small crickets without d3, small super worms also dusted and collared greens for the super worms. I put about 20 crickets in the morning before I go to work and 5 to 10 worms with a small amount of greens.
• Supplements - I dust with repti calcium without d3 daily on the 10th and 30th of every month they get with d3 and on the 20th reptivite on all the feeders I use
• Watering - I mist the cage with a spray bottle 4 to 5 times a day with bottled water that has reptisafe droplets in it. I spray him once in the morning.
• Fecal Description - black with a little white thing in it solid.
• History - Used to be housed in a glass container made for small insects pic below still stored with female working on getting another cage to separate them been together since gotten at expo.

Cage Info:

• Cage type - I have a full screen cage
• Lighting - I use zoo med mini combo deep dome with zoo med 5.0 reptisun uvb and a zoo med daylight blue bulb 60 watt heat bulb
• Temperature - bottem of the cage is about 73 f and top of cage is 82.2 f I have a digital scale and a scale that came with them I don’t know the brand of either
• Humidity -
• Plants - I have a live tree in there I don’t know the kind my buddy sold me this cage after his female got stuck egg and died
• Placement - the cage is in my room by my door I barely go in here besides to get close and feed my other Reptile’s or go to sleep. I might turn a fan in during the summer but not any other time and I don’t have vents in my room. The cage is sitting on my floor as of right now getting a stand in the mail soon.
• Location - Tennessee

Current Problem - Not eating is a light gray and is very ashy

I get 1/8’’ crickets and for them and I pick out the smallest of my small super worms for them to eat

another note these are not my person chams but I am trying to help them being them to good health

 

[Danknight710]

Forgot these

 

[Danknight710]

They have a humidly of 70 and a large reptibreeze for a cage

 

[Danknight710]

Oh one more thing this is the female I’m working to get out of his cage and his old cage

notes about the old cage it’s was very compact, had a water bowl and had no uvb lighting

 

[Lindasjackson]

I think those super worms look too big for him to eat. You also need to clean his dish or set a clean one in on top of it.

 

[Chameleoking]

70 is good for nighttime humidity. During the day humidity should be 30-50. No more than 50 In the day.

 

[Lindasjackson]

The compact uvb lights are not effective, the uvb doesn’t penetrate more than a couple inches into the enclosure. What you need is a reptisun 5.0 linear bulb or an Arcadia 6% linear bulb in a T5HO fixture laying across the top of your enclosure with the basking branch 8-9 inches below to get a uv level of 3 which is what they need. It looks like you have the reptibreeze 18x18x36 inch cage. You’ll need a second one as well as a second uvb light etc so you can separate them because they’re stressing each other out. Chams need to be housed individually. There will need to be a solid visual barrier between the two so they can’t see each other. I hope this info helps

 

[Lindasjackson]

That poor little guy looks emaciated and dehydrated as well. How long do you mist them for? You need to mist them long enough to entice him to drink. Maybe add a dripper to the top of his cage. Just take a plastic solo cup and add some pinholes to the bottom and add ice cubes and set it on top of his cage. It will melt and drip water down onto the plants and may entice him to drink.

 

[Danknight710]

That poor little guy looks emaciated and dehydrated as well. How long do you mist them for? You need to mist them long enough to entice him to drink. Maybe add a dripper to the top of his cage. Just take a plastic solo cup and add some pinholes to the bottom and add ice cubes and set it on top of his cage. It will melt and drip water down onto the plants and may entice him to drink.

I see him drink every time I mist the cage but I don’t know what emaciated means can you please elaborate thank you

 

[Danknight710]

The compact uvb lights are not effective, the uvb doesn’t penetrate more than a couple inches into the enclosure. What you need is a reptisun 5.0 linear bulb or an Arcadia 6% linear bulb in a T5HO fixture laying across the top of your enclosure with the basking branch 8-9 inches below to get a uv level of 3 which is what they need. It looks like you have the reptibreeze 18x18x36 inch cage. You’ll need a second one as well as a second uvb light etc so you can separate them because they’re stressing each other out. Chams need to be housed individually. There will need to be a solid visual barrier between the two so they can’t see each other. I hope this info helps

Yeah the cage he has for them was just to get them out of the glass container and with some form of uvb this was the best I could get in a short notice we are working with another buddy of mine to get the same kind of cage we are looking into different lighting systems for them so thank you for the very useful information

 

[Danknight710]

70 is good for nighttime humidity. During the day humidity should be 30-50. No more than 50 In the day.

How do I lower the humidity during the day it’s what my room usually sits at

 

[Danknight710]

I think those super worms look too big for him to eat. You also need to clean his dish or set a clean one in on top of it.

I was thinking they were to big but I don’t know where to get smaller ones also do you think a feeding box would be better until the other cage comes in for the girl

 

[Lindasjackson]

I see him drink every time I mist the cage but I don’t know what emaciated means can you please elaborate thank you

Emaciated means he’s very thin

 

[Lindasjackson]

How do I lower the humidity during the day it’s what my room usually sits at

Try using a fan not aimed directly at the cage but maybe a little to the side. The air movement will help get the humidity down.

I was thinking they were to big but I don’t know where to get smaller ones also do you think a feeding box would be better until the other cage comes in for the girl

I don’t know what a feeding box is

 

[Lindasjackson]

You’ll need a humidity guage also known as a hygrometer. You can get a temp and humidity gauge on Amazon pretty cheap, like 3.99. They need a humidity of between 30-50% during the day and 75-100% at night. I’m sorry to throw so much info at you all at once and I appreciate that you are doing your best to try to save these little guys.

 

[Danknight710]

Try using a fan not aimed directly at the cage but maybe a little to the side. The air movement will help get the humidity down.

I don’t know what a feeding box is

Some people use feeding box’s for snakes so they don’t become aggressive in there normal habits but it’s just an container with the feeder animal in it and you put your animal in their and let them eat then you put them back in their habitat after their done I use it with my baby Leopard gecko so she can get to them easily with out the super worms running away from her

 

[ERKleRose]

Okay, there is a lot of info to go through, and there are many changes that will cost money, so the person who owns the chams needs to be able to fund it. My feedback and any questions will be in red, and I've attached helpful links and images below:

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Veiled Cham, Male, 3 to 4 months. Have had for 2 weeks I'm not good with veiled ages, but he looks to be much younger than 3-4 months old. Care could have something to do with that, as well.
• Handling - once a day for five minutes. Do not handle them at all right now, and once they're settled and relaxed, you still want handling to be at a minimum.
• Feeding - dusted small crickets without d3, small super worms also dusted and collared greens for the super worms. I put about 20 crickets in the morning before I go to work and 5 to 10 worms with a small amount of greens. You're most likely going to need fruit flies (flightless are easier) and pinhead crickets right now, as he's very small. Every feeder needs to be properly gutloaded before feeding off. Use as many of the ingredients in the chart below as possible (in the proper ratios) for the crickets (the fruit flies need fruit fly food). Do you gutload 24/7 or use the good gutload overnight to a few hours before feeding with lesser quality food to the colony? At his size and age, feed as much as he can eat multiple times throughout the day.
• Supplements - I dust with repti calcium without d3 daily on the 10th and 30th of every month they get with d3 and on the 20th reptivite on all the feeders I use Does the Reptivite have D3 in it? I'm not good with baby supplementation needs, so someone else will have to chime in on the amount of times per month to use D3 and multivitamins.
• Watering - I mist the cage with a spray bottle 4 to 5 times a day with bottled water that has reptisafe droplets in it. I spray him once in the morning. How long is each misting session?
• Fecal Description - black with a little white thing in it solid. I would get both fecal-tested for parasites from an experienced chameleon vet. Make sure to drop off at least 2 more fresh fecals afterwards for both to make sure no parasites were missed. I'd also do x-rays on them, as well.
• History - Used to be housed in a glass container made for small insects pic below still stored with female working on getting another cage to separate them been together since gotten at expo.

Cage Info:

• Cage type - I have a full screen cage They each need their own cage (like another large ReptiBreeze) with no views of each other ASAP. Eventually the male will need a minimum cage size of at least 2'x2'x4' tall, but preferably 4'x2'x4' tall or bigger. The female will eventually need a minimum cage size of either 2'x2'x4' tall or 36"x18"x36" tall, but preferably 4'x2'x4' tall or bigger, too. The female will need a proper lay bin, as well. Each cage needs veiled-tested live plants only (no fake plants, they're an impaction risk that can lead to death), branches of multiple species and diameters (no wood from toxic or sap-producing trees), and vines (preferably all live, but Fluker's can work, just no Exo Terra vines, moss vines, or fake vines with leaves on them). A drainage system under and outside of the cages will be needed, too.
• Lighting - I use zoo med mini combo deep dome with zoo med 5.0 reptisun uvb and a zoo med daylight blue bulb 60 watt heat bulb That is the wrong type of heat and UVB bulbs. You can keep the double fixture and replace the UVB light in there with a plant light or leave that space empty. You want a plain white light incandescent bulb (plain ones from the hardware store are cheaper and work better if you can find them) for heat bulbs. The UVB needs to be a T5 High Output linear Arcadia 6% or Zoo Med ReptiSun 5.0 UVB bulb (preferably buy the fixture and bulb the length of the largest cages they'll ever be in). Again, not sure how much UVB babies that size need, but older/bigger babies should have the UVB bulb raised up off of the top of the cage by 4" and the basking branch in the cage 5" below the top, if you don't have a Solarmeter 6.5 to check, for the proper UVI levels of 3 at basking and 6 (the max that is safe) at the top.
• Temperature - bottem of the cage is about 73 f and top of cage is 82.2 f I have a digital scale and a scale that came with them I don’t know the brand of either I'm sure if they're big/old enough for these basking temps yet, but the basking spot should be 80*F max for both right now (measured with a digital thermometer with a probe, with the probe placed where the tops of their backs are when they're on their basking branches) if needed. The female's basking spot should be 78-80*F her whole life, and the male's should be 80-85*F (many keepers do 80-82*F max) his whole life. Some more digital thermometers (with or without probes) or digital thermometer/hygrometer combos (with or without probes) need to be placed in the cage (at least 2, if not 3 as a minimum for each cage, one at the bottom, one in the middle, and one at/near basking if you use 3) to properly measure temps throughout the cages. What are your nighttime temps?
• Humidity - You need digital hygrometers (with or without probes) or digital thermometer/hygrometer combos (with or without probes) (the amounts and places I said) to measure humidity levels throughout the cage and during the day and night. It should be 30-50% during the day (preferably on the lower end of that scale), and if there's enough airflow and the temps are at or below 65*F at night, it can go up to 100% at night. You could do that up to 67*F, but it'll be pushing it.
• Plants - I have a live tree in there I don’t know the kind my buddy sold me this cage after his female got stuck egg and died Where the cage and plants properly disinfected before putting these new chams in it? Veiled chams need veiled-tested live plants only. Every plant needs to be properly cleaned off, repotted into organic soil with no chemical fertilizers, and have rock too big for chams to eat covering the soil beforehand.
• Placement - the cage is in my room by my door I barely go in here besides to get close and feed my other Reptile’s or go to sleep. I might turn a fan in during the summer but not any other time and I don’t have vents in my room. The cage is sitting on my floor as of right now getting a stand in the mail soon. The higher up the cages are, the safer the chams will feel.
• Location - Tennessee

Current Problem - Not eating is a light gray and is very ashy

I get 1/8’’ crickets and for them and I pick out the smallest of my small super worms for them to eat

another note these are not my person chams but I am trying to help them being them to good health

Here's the links and images (remember to tell the owners to read through every module and the veiled species profile, as well as listening to as many podcast episodes as possible, from The Chameleon Academy):

• https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
• https://chameleonacademy.com/veiled-chameleon-care/
• https://chameleonacademy.com/setting-up-a-chameleon-cage/
• https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/
• (link no longer valid)
• http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html
• https://www.chameleons.info/en/
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/external-resources/
• (link no longer valid)

 

[ERKleRose]

How do I lower the humidity during the day it’s what my room usually sits at

You can use a whole room dehumidifier away from the cages but in the same room to lower humidity levels during the day.

Some people use feeding box’s for snakes so they don’t become aggressive in there normal habits but it’s just an container with the feeder animal in it and you put your animal in their and let them eat then you put them back in their habitat after their done I use it with my baby Leopard gecko so she can get to them easily with out the super worms running away from her

Just use another feeding cup, but they each need their own proper cages immediately.