Cham not eating!!

[Tomtom]

i dont know what the problem is, shes only eaten one cricket in the 3 days that i have had about 5 crickets in the cage. i just recently put a hibiscus in the cage with her and my dad (not knowing anything really about chams) said that he wonders if its too cramped. it could either be that or that she is still just getting used to having a lot more things to climb on and threw off her "hunting mode". also the crickets seem to be stationary at the top of the cage under the heating lamp. they dont really move much and i flick them to get them to move in hope that she will see them moving and go for them. fail. so basically i dont know what to do. any and all advice or tips would be really appreciated and ill attach a pic of the new setup and see what you think about if its too much. by the way, in regards to that, a lot of the hibiscus leaves are falling off and it looks like its already dying. am i doing something wrong? grow light a neccesity? i appreciate the help

 

[beeze]

She might be ready to lay eggs. Do you have a laying bin for her? Normally they stop eating a few days before laying eggs. I would not leave crickets in the cage with her over night.......they can eat on your cham while they sleep.

 

[jojackson]

The plant will be adjusting to the change in enviroment, dropping leaves is normal, it should adjust and recover in time. Its not too cramped. Your lizard is also adjusting to this new plant, it wont starve in a few days, let it settle in.

More info is always better


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?

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.
Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.

 

[Tomtom]

ill fill out what i can due to me adopting her from a friend that knew nothing of what he was doing.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen, 28 1/2 tall, 16 inches width, 15 length
Lighting - exoterra uvb 5.0 compact bulb, 75w heating bulb, i turn on the lights when i wake up and off when i go to bed.
Temperature - basking spot stays at about 85, lowest part about 75-80. overnight i would say it stays between 70-75 and i measure with a crappy petco dial (non electronic)
Humidity - humidity is kinda the hard part for me right now. its at about 45-50 via crappy dial again, and is sustained with misting 2 times a day and a habba mister rigged to the top of the cage.
Plants - have two vine type plants that really serve no real purpose on the bottom, hibiscus, and fake vines intertwined in the hibiscus.
Placement - The cage is located on top of a 4 1/2ft tall dresser. the air vent is on the other wall on the ceiling so not really too close. the cage is also next to two windows that i open to give her a lil bit of natural sun (cant take her outside its getting cold in texas this time of year). the room is just my room and the office. no other pets and its pretty quiet most of the time. the top of the cage is 7 ft from the ground.
Location - dallas, tx area

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled Cham, female, and i would say almost a year old. not sure. she has been in my care for about 5 weeks or so.
Handling - The only time that i handle her is to clean out her cage. at which then i put her in the blinds next to the window to keep warm from the sun. She loves it there
Feeding - Right now just crickets. im working on getting silkies right now but have been busy. she will usually eat about 5-8 crickets and i feel the crickets flukers hydration crap and a combo of fresh greens.
Supplements - I just got the supplements a couple days ago and gave her one dose of rep-cal with d3 (2 times a month schedule) and rep-cal no phosphorous or d3 twice a week.
Watering - i mist 2 times a day, once before work and once before i go to sleep. the habba mister is set to go off for 45 secs every 3 hours.
Fecal Description - never been tested for parasites, her poo is mostly brown with sometimes like a yellow piece in it.
History - i think she might have edema due to the swelling in her neck and my ignorance with feeding crickets carrots. i was supplementing with calcium and d3 almost every time i fed her. that was lack of experience with chams and quickly discovered how bad that is. possibly due to her neck swelling. so completely dropped the d3 for a while. i research chams literally everyday to try and provide a healthy and happy environment for Lupita. but it kinda sucks because its almost like trial and error. i have experience with other reptiles, just never chams. i have not seen her lay eggs yet and my friend said she layed like in May. but i dont really think he knows for sure. i do have a place in the cage that i used the substrate in a container for her to lay her eggs. i keep it damp and in the back away from view of us.
Current Problem - not eating for a couple days.

thank you so much for your time in trying to help me out with this. i havent had her long but i love her a lot (even though she doesnt like me too much ahahah) and i want to see her be healthy because i care, and so that i would feel accomplished.

 

[Tomtom]

also. so do i need a grow light or will the uvb and heating (i know the heating doesnt make much difference) be sufficient as long as it is getting water? i dont want all the leaves falling out and have a dead looking plant in there either lol. the leaves help puddle water that i think my cham drinks from. then again i havent seen her drink directly. im assuming that she is getting it either from sitting under my mister which i have seen, or from droplets when i mist

 

[jojackson]

She only stopped eating since you added the plant?
Have you seen her poo/found fresh poo? Is the lizard basking?
Mention of compact UV's will trigger the 'linear please' brigade, so they can deal with that.
Can you explain a little more about what changes you have seen in her behaviout since the plant or since you noticed she stopped eating. Leave no detail out. What has been different to before, apart from not eating?

She will drink when you mist and from water on leaves. You cant do much about the hibiscus dropping leaves, some thrive, others dont. My own hibiscus carked it after a while
Live plants are really good to include for above reason, and for aiding humidity. If the hibiscus dosent make it, you can either buy another and rotate them, week outside, week inside, or try a diffrent plant like ficus or shefflera.
re grow lights, some folk use them and claim success, it wont hurt your cham any.

 

[pssh]

Yellow urates indicate dehydration. Should be pearly white. Describe the laying box, measurements, laying substrate, etc. That cage should be about three feet tall at that age. She's probably ready to lay so make sure she's well hydrated. Take out all crickets at night.

Also, compact UVB lights aren't recomended and can cause eye problems. It's best to play it on the safe side and get a linear tube instead.

My plant has been fine so far without a grow light, however some people buy two and switch them out every couple months or so.

 

[Tomtom]

linear please? im confused about that part lol umm wow now im really freaked out. i just looked in her cage and i dont see any poo.....sigh. the only changes in her behavior since the hibiscus is she is climbing around a lot. shes always up and down the cage and right now shes sitting on a branch right under the uvb. i guess that would be different that i dont see any of her crap. and yeah, thats the first ive noticed that she has stopped eating is since i fixed up her cage. she ate like a beast before. im wondering if the crickets not moving has anything to do with it, but i dont know how to really fix that situation
ill look more thouroughly for her poo while you respond back

 

[pssh]

Linear bulbs are long and tube like, most recomend the reptisun 5.0. Look it up.

She could be adjusting or she could be ready to lay, it's important you describe her laying bin.

Cup feeding can solve the cricket problem, she'll always know where they are and you can monitor feeding more readily.

 

[jojackson]

Linear refers to long tube type uv lighting, not the short kind your using.
Some compacts like yours have been found to cause eye problems for lizards, so most people recommend the longer tubes.
At a year old, not eating much over a few days isnt abnormal or a real concern. Given its not eating much, it may be a week before it poo's.
She will hunt the crickets if she's hungry, but variety is good both for feeding response and health, so maybe try some different insects each feed.

Did her last owner tell you much about how he/she had it caged/setup or was feeding etc?
If you can take a pic of the lizard this may help too. Has it been spending time on/near the floor/laying tub in the last weeks?
do you think it looks like it might be full of eggs?

 

[Tomtom]

sigh. great lol. i just bought the topper and the bulb :[ meh. well so your saying her poo should be white? and yeah i searched thouroughly, found nothing the box is kinda small, im kinda tight on room so i used about a 4 inch wide 6 inch long plastic container with the same coconut substrate that i use, but i spray to keep moist. and i know you recomend that i get all that and i really want to, just sucks that i bought the cage and all of that stuff and now i have to buy even more. if my friend hadnt rushed me i would have researched this a whole lot more before taking her in. now i feel like im failing :[

 

[pssh]

You're off better than most. The cage size can wait, but make sure you have a larger laying bin ready. When you see her start to dig in her small one take her out and place her in the larger one, larger bucket sized is usually good, ten inches deep. Make sure she has room to move around though. Also, if you're using a substrate take it out except for her laying bin.

The light should be changed as soon as your able to, but it's not a 'do it or she'll die' situation right now. However it could quickly become a 'do it or she'll go blind' situation.

 

[Tomtom]

she doesnt look prego at all. i mean, shes a lil chunky dont get me wrong lol, but i looked up pics of what a cham looks like when theyre ready to lay and she doesnt look like that. i actually know the owner and saw his cage he kept her in. if i knew what i know now, id be horrified to see what he did. it was like an exotera vertical glass cage, with 2 frogs in there with her and fake pot leaves and fake vines for her to climb on. makes me sad to thing of that. he did have the uvb and heating light though.

 

[pssh]

Not all chams look pregnant before they lay, some have very small clutches and look rather normal. It's better to be prepared than sorry.

 

[jojackson]

No big deal, bad luck, but no big deal. The lizard will survive without the uv till you can afford the linear type. A spell on a plant outside (supervised due birds etc) as often as possible will benefit her greatly.
Poo has two parts, one brown (standard crap) one white..ish. The white part is solid urine called urates, it should prefreably be mostly white, but small yellowish bit isnt a drama, just indicates the lizard may need a little water.
Setting up a dripper (and nessesary drainage) will greatly help in this regard, giving your lizard much more opportunity to drink at will. especially if you can make one that drips for atleast a few hours at a time.

Carrots for crickets is not a concern, infact its a great souce of moisture, but other food shopuld be provided them, fresh greens/veg etc This also makes the crickets gut contents more moist and nutritious.

Im a little concerned about the neck swelling you mention. Is it still swollen? (need pics)
If it is, how long has it been like that?

 

[Tomtom]

well thats at least good to hear. yeah ill get on the substrate thing right away. like when i think that she is ready to lay eggs (whenever that will be) do i just keep her out of the cage untill she lays them? cuz i have 2 jobs and i cant really sit and babysit 24 hrs a day and wait for her to lay lol. ill keep checking her little one for signs of digging around. i have seen her down there exploring a couple times, but she didnt really stay down there long

 

[Ryan123]

my little girl laid approx 3 weeks ago and wont eat either but mines poop is red??? its pretty messed up idk what to do but i did by some reptaid and i also have hibiscus plants in her cage where did yours come from....oes yours gape at her food...mine does

 

[pssh]

Yep, just leave her down there and when you check on her make sure she doesn't see you! If she sees you she may abandon the first hole and have to dig another which could exhaust her, or she could become egg bound.

 

[Tomtom]

lemme see if i can get you a pic from off the comp i dont have the camera right now. it has been like that for a while but i think it is going down now. it is just still noticable. i just read that if you feel crickets carrots too much that you can od your cham on vitamin a or something like that. about the drippage. i have the sprayer from the habba mister (forgive me for not getting a mistking XD) rigged to the top to spray down the leaves and drain into the hibiscus (two birds with one stone) and like i said i have it set for to go off for 30 seconds every hour. i could make it spray longer for every hour if you think that that is a good solution as well

 

[Tomtom]

mine doesnt gape at her food. she just destroys it lol. when she eats that is. i got my hibiscus from lowes. oh and red poop? dang that sounds brutal. i couldnt even begin to tell you anything about that lol