Cham not eating

[joneill]

How long can chameleons go for without eating? I know that species, sex and age make a difference and I know that their metabolism slows down in winter but at what point should you be concerned if your cham is not eating? One week, two?

My veiled will not eat anything thats not moving or wriggling so I can not think of ordering anything freeze-dried off the internet. Also, we don't get a wide variety of feeders here in South Africa. Only super worms, meal worms, crickets and roaches. I have tried all of these and he is not interested. He looks at them and watches them walking around but that's it.

It doesn't make sense, everything is the same and he was eating well before, even ate off my hand but then he suddenly stopped. His colours are even vivid and bright green so I don't know what is bothering him. What could cause a chameleon to just stop eating? Could he be constipated or impacted? How would this happen? His belly still hangs down off the branch when he is resting but I know that he has not eaten anything for a while.

I am very worried, have even made my fingers raw from chewing, please can anyone offer advice here? I will take him to the vet if I have to and have made a temporary appointment but I don't want to stress him out even more. I know that vets have studied for many years and I wouldn't hesitate to take my dog or rabbit to them but chameleons so specialised. They are extremely prone to stress that a trip in the car and an examination could freak them out. Not what they need if they are already trying to fight off an illness! And some of the stories that I have read on this forum from people who did take their chameleon to a vet - SCARY!!! I have never had to take any of my reptiles to a vet before so I want to make sure that I am doing the right thing. But I also don't want to wait and let my chameleon suffer. What should I do, PLEASE HELP!!!!

 

[ralph0312]

not eating

Is he drinking?
This sounds slightly like impaction, was you feeding the cham worms often?
Too many can cause impaction or runny poop.
Just to add with staple diets being crickets with other bugs being treats my panther chameleon has had 1 poop in 2 weeks and it was very dry and dark.
My panther will not touch any kind of cricket although he ate these daily before i brought him home, I feed him on locusts, hoppers, morio worms and wax worms in variations. I think this has caused this dry poop. It was so dry that i could only break it with scissors. Keep encouraging crickets or try to catch wild flying bugs/flies.

 

[joneill]

Yes he does drink. I am starting to think that he could be constipated from eating too many super worms. These were his favourite. Ok, so if he is constipated how do I fix it or is it best to just take him to a vet?

 

[camimom]

A trip to to vet wont kill him.

While yes it can stres them out.. its not such a stressful situation to kill them, unless they are already on deaths door.
fill this out, so we can see what else is going on.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[joneill]

Cammimom, I did fill out a health questionnaire but did not get enough response so I posted about it in other sections. Please would you have a look under the "Health Clinic" forum and look for my post titled "Unhappy Veiled Cham" and let me know if I am missing anything. I am such a paranoid parent and thought I was giving him everything he needs and more but now that something is wrong, I obviously could have done a much better job!

 

[camimom]

Cammimom, I did fill out a health questionnaire but did not get enough response so I posted about it in other sections. Please would you have a look under the "Health Clinic" forum and look for my post titled "Unhappy Veiled Cham" and let me know if I am missing anything. I am such a paranoid parent and thought I was giving him everything he needs and more but now that something is wrong, I obviously could have done a much better job!

I posted there.

can you get a pic of him and the cage please and post it in that thread?