Bump??

[ThatOneDisease]

I just woke up, was about to feed him and saw this. I didn't see it yesterday and I would've because I literally was home for most of the day with him-

I thought it was like his joint at first but as you see on the other side he doesn't have it. I have work very soon and I'm freaking out. I literally just had a scare yesterday- the closest vet visit I can get is Wednesday

 

[Beman]

Do you let your insects run free in the cage? If so it could be from a bite. It is really hard for me to see as there is not a lot of detail to the image.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

Do you let your insects run free in the cage? If so it could be from a bite. It is really hard for me to see as there is not a lot of detail to the image.

I 90% there's like 1 - 2 pinhead crickets in the cage. Let me get a better photo sorry-

 

[Beman]

I 90% there's like 1 - 2 pinhead crickets in the cage. Let me get a better photo sorry-

How old is this boy? He looks far too big to be fed pinhead crickets. Note when crickets get hungry they go for sleeping chams. This is where a feeder run is especially useful with chameleons. Less chance of escape. And at the end of the day if you still have any in there I recommend removing them.

This would be a watch and wait situation. Cham is not sluggish and eyes look normal. So it is not urgent. If you have the vet appointment for Wednesday have them take a look. Make sure you are going to a reptile vet.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

Okay here's that better photo and this was his poop he literally had as I took the picture.
I'm pretty sure poop like that isn't good- his poops the day before looked fine.

 

[Beman]

Okay here's that better photo and this was his poop he literally had as I took the picture.
I'm pretty sure poop like that isn't good- his poops the day before looked fine.

Where did you get this guy? No the fecal is not ideal. However runny poop can happen if you over feed hornworms and silkworms. Can also happen when you are fogging too much at night.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

How old is this boy? He looks far too big to be fed pinhead crickets. Note when crickets get hungry they go for sleeping chams. This is where a feeder run is especially useful with chameleons. Less chance of escape. And at the end of the day if you still have any in there I recommend removing them.

This would be a watch and wait situation. Cham is not sluggish and eyes look normal. So it is not urgent. If you have the vet appointment for Wednesday have them take a look. Make sure you are going to a reptile vet.

I do have a feeder run cup. I put all his feeders in there in the morning and dump any excess. Lately he eats most of them. I did start introducing hornworms to his diet recently. Is that a sign to maybe lay off? I only give him 1 with his 10-15 crickets in a separate cup I hand feed.

He's not sluggish per say. He's been walking around kinda all morning. Sunning branch, probably ate a cricket when I wasn't looking, saw him go down to drink.


As for where I got him, I did get a choice. This was a gift to me. They had gotten him from a pet store. Also I'm not sure of his age but asking around I was told a general mix of 4-6months old.

 

[Beman]

I do have a feeder run cup. I put all his feeders in there in the morning and dump any excess. Lately he eats most of them. I did start introducing hornworms to his diet recently. Is that a sign to maybe lay off? I only give him 1 with his 10-15 crickets in a separate cup I hand feed.

He's not sluggish per say. He's been walking around kinda all morning. Sunning branch, probably ate a cricket when I wasn't looking, saw him go down to drink.


As for where I got him, I did get a choice. This was a gift to me. They had gotten him from a pet store. Also I'm not sure of his age but asking around I was told a general mix of 4-6months old.

One hornworm with that many hard bodied feeders would not produce runny fecal. Since he is a pet store baby you do want to get a fecal run to ensure he does not have a parasite load. He is too big for pin head crickets you want to kick over to smalls and nothing larger than a medium. I would also recommend ordering your insects from a reputable seller like dubia.com or rainbowmealworms.com. If you are buying from the pet store you have no control over what they do with them meaning if they are being kept clean and not being contaminated.

Have the spot looked at and get a fecal test. With chams if you see a shift in behavior that is your major cause for concern. It does not mean to not watch everything but you gotta breathe because stressing non stop is going to make you nutty in cham keeping. The more you learn and the more you observe his behaviors you will feel more confident. When you go to the vet.... If they suggest a vitamin shot. This is a hard pass! Some will just do this and it can cause a chameleon to have a decline. If they give you a dewormer or parasite treatment medication without having the fecal tested this is a hard pass as well. Not all parasites respond to the same medications. So you want to know the exact type for the right medication and for us to tell you how to clean. He may not have a positive fecal. If that is the case. Get it retested in a few weeks. Parasites shed in cycles so false negatives are possible. With chams you do not want to medicate unless there is a specific reason as meds can be hard on their system.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

One hornworm with that many hard bodied feeders would not produce runny fecal. Since he is a pet store baby you do want to get a fecal run to ensure he does not have a parasite load. He is too big for pin head crickets you want to kick over to smalls and nothing larger than a medium. I would also recommend ordering your insects from a reputable seller like dubia.com or rainbowmealworms.com. If you are buying from the pet store you have no control over what they do with them meaning if they are being kept clean and not being contaminated.

Have the spot looked at and get a fecal test. With chams if you see a shift in behavior that is your major cause for concern. It does not mean to not watch everything but you gotta breathe because stressing non stop is going to make you nutty in cham keeping. The more you learn and the more you observe his behaviors you will feel more confident. When you go to the vet.... If they suggest a vitamin shot. This is a hard pass! Some will just do this and it can cause a chameleon to have a decline. If they give you a dewormer or parasite treatment medication without having the fecal tested this is a hard pass as well. Not all parasites respond to the same medications. So you want to know the exact type for the right medication and for us to tell you how to clean. He may not have a positive fecal. If that is the case. Get it retested in a few weeks. Parasites shed in cycles so false negatives are possible. With chams you do not want to medicate unless there is a specific reason as meds can be hard on their system.

Mixed with hornworm he does drink quite a bit normally since I got him. When I made the dripper(based on Neptune's video) he used that. So maybe that's why? I just clean it, it doesn't smell like stink up a room. Really whenever I clean his poop it smells only when it's near my face for like a second.

I will get a fecal test and DEFINETLY watch out for vets recommending stuff like that. I just ordered him new vitamin/supplements. The one I had gotten had phosphorus in it so I just ordered the Reptivite one to do every other week(I got recommended that via this forum and the bottle should be here today or tomorrow).

As for where I buy the bugs, yes, unfortunately with money right now I'm buying my crickets from a pet store. I store my crickets in a cricket cage and just bought the Repashy Bug Burger and plan to buy some fresh stuff to make puree ice cubes. Speaking of crickets, what type of crickets should I move to? And I do live in Florida so sadly I cannot do Dubia roaches to his diet(which really sucks because that'd be so perfect). Silkworms I don't think are even sold in any store here so I'm going to have to order those. I've heard Joshsfrogs a few times, is that a good place too?

Edit: I just checked out dubia.com and they seem like they'll be good for me and have decent prices

 

[DocZ]

Check out the mantis place for bottle and house flies
They pupate fast so you will have a lot of flies quick for one Cham, but your Cham will love the chase and you will love watching

 

[DocZ]

Mixed with hornworm he does drink quite a bit normally since I got him. When I made the dripper(based on Neptune's video) he used that. So maybe that's why? I just clean it, it doesn't smell like stink up a room. Really whenever I clean his poop it smells only when it's near my face for like a second.

I will get a fecal test and DEFINETLY watch out for vets recommending stuff like that. I just ordered him new vitamin/supplements. The one I had gotten had phosphorus in it so I just ordered the Reptivite one to do every other week(I got recommended that via this forum and the bottle should be here today or tomorrow).

As for where I buy the bugs, yes, unfortunately with money right now I'm buying my crickets from a pet store. I store my crickets in a cricket cage and just bought the Repashy Bug Burger and plan to buy some fresh stuff to make puree ice cubes. Speaking of crickets, what type of crickets should I move to? And I do live in Florida so sadly I cannot do Dubia roaches to his diet(which really sucks because that'd be so perfect). Silkworms I don't think are even sold in any store here so I'm going to have to order those. I've heard Joshsfrogs a few times, is that a good place too?

Edit: I just checked out dubia.com and they seem like they'll be good for me and have decent prices

Banded crickets will last longer, stink less, and sing more than brown crickets
Most of your big stores have brown crickets

 

[ThatOneDisease]

I have an appointment at Friday at 10:40am. Wednesday was booked. All the list of good reptile vets are very far from me so unfortunately I'm going to have to take my chances the vet an hour away from me. I gave them a call and asked quite a bit on if they had someone that took chamleons and they said they do- so for now I'm gonna keep an eye on him. He's been basking and eating crickets and moving around his whole enclosure.

The bump isn't crazy prominent til he lays down or is in his basking pose. He very well may have gotten bit to which I'm going to get the stupid crickets out of his cage. Also I do have work shortly so I can't keep an eye kinda so I'll update this thread later.

 

[Beman]

I have an appointment at Friday at 10:40am. Wednesday was booked. All the list of good reptile vets are very far from me so unfortunately I'm going to have to take my chances the vet an hour away from me. I gave them a call and asked quite a bit on if they had someone that took chamleons and they said they do- so for now I'm gonna keep an eye on him. He's been basking and eating crickets and moving around his whole enclosure.

The bump isn't crazy prominent til he lays down or is in his basking pose. He very well may have gotten bit to which I'm going to get the stupid crickets out of his cage. Also I do have work shortly so I can't keep an eye kinda so I'll update this thread later.

Do you know how to transport him so that he will be the least stressed?

 

[ThatOneDisease]

Do you know how to transport him so that he will be the least stressed?

From what I've been told, people place a branch inside of a box(someone said to lure with food or something). They said a box because when it's dark he'll just sleep.
Since he's not used to me yet, I dont expect him to climb on my hand- so that's where I'm a little worried on how I'd even get him in there.
Please correct me if that's wrong-

 

[ThatOneDisease]

By the way, last night I came home and there still was lots of crickets left. I could understand however if he didn't "see them". When I looked in they were all in the corner of the feeder cup. So I moved the jug to a more open space, closer to branches so he can look in. I started with less this morning so I could track what he's eating.

I also want to switch to the bigger crickets but I still have...lots of the smaller ones. Is there a good way to dispense of crickets? I wanna ask before I either dump them in my grass or anywhere else.

 

[kinyonga]

You said…”I also want to switch to the bigger crickets but I still have...lots of the smaller ones. Is there a good way to dispense of crickets? I wanna ask before I either dump them in my grass or anywhere else.”…why not just keep them and grow the up, looking after them properly, so you can feed them to your chameleon in the future? It doesn’t take that long.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

You said…”I also want to switch to the bigger crickets but I still have...lots of the smaller ones. Is there a good way to dispense of crickets? I wanna ask before I either dump them in my grass or anywhere else.”…why not just keep them and grow the up, looking after them properly, so you can feed them to your chameleon in the future? It doesn’t take that long.

Oh alright! Yeah, in the batch that I have now, there's a couple big pinheads in there and the bug burger is coming into today. I can do that.

 

[Beman]

From what I've been told, people place a branch inside of a box(someone said to lure with food or something). They said a box because when it's dark he'll just sleep.
Since he's not used to me yet, I dont expect him to climb on my hand- so that's where I'm a little worried on how I'd even get him in there.
Please correct me if that's wrong-

That is correct. you will anchor the branch in the bottom though so it is secured. You can do this by punching holes through the box so it slides in tightly. Place it about an inch off the bottom.

Do not use tape on the box and dont put it across the top to secure the box. This is an accident waiting to happen.

He will sleep. He may be pissy the first 10 minutes but he will settle. Remember the car should not be overly hot if it is cold where you are. Your wanting the same ambient temps.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

So he pooped today and it was much less than yesterday and the urate was smaller, still cream/white color. No smell. I'm glad now that I book a vet visit-

Edit: I can get a picture if needed because I'm about to clean it.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

So updating this for my record sake and for who ever wants to reply.
He didn't eat whatsoever on his own(not using feeder) and literally turned his head away from a hornworm. I held my hand out with a cricket in it a couple times and he took 3. I have his new vitamins( i didnt get Phosphorus-free ones the first time and didnt give it to him)and his bi weekly supplement. Pretty much until later in the day (5pm-Lights off) he even started basking and spent most of the day in the lower part of his enclosure which is very off from his normal "schedule".
This morning I woke up and hear him huffing? Popping breathing noise when his lights came on. He did this for a good 10-15 minutes and now he stopped. I looked at him, he didn't sleep looking up so maybe he was just, hissing??
I don't know what to look out for in a decline but I want to know if this is cause for a vet before I panic and rush him before his scheduled visit.