Cham problems since leaving town

[kanjiman]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, female, 5-6 months. i've had her for 4 months
Handling - rarely.. probably twice a month during cleaning
Feeding - she only eats crickets.. i feed her about 8 medium crickets a day. except recently as she has been having less of an appetite. i feed her when i get home from work around 5:30pm. i gutload the crickets with carrots
Supplements - i dust my crickets with repashy, superchal HyD every day. twice a month, i switch to reptivite with D3
Watering - i've seen my cham drink once. i have a dripping system and she hasn't looked dehydrated till today. i fill it up twice a day, once when i wake up in the morning before i go to work and once right when i get back from work.
Fecal Description - the droppings are pretty regular i think. brownish (i'm partly color-blind) and the urates look pretty clear. never orange or really any color to them.


Cage Info:
Cage Type - it's a 2x2x4 screen cage.
Lighting - i turn on the lights a bit early. around 6:30am and turn them off around 7:30 or whenever it gets dark. the timing systems for the lights have been breaking on me.. i have an exoterra daytime heat lamp 60w. and an exoterra reptiglo 13w tropical terrarium lamp for the UVB
Temperature - temp is normally in the mid to high 80s. i have a little laser heat thing-a-majig
Humidity - humidity is sitting at 60 right now. i have a thermometer/hydrometer that sits on the side of the cage. the plant and the dripping system seems to be keeping it that way, along with the seattle, wet weather.
Plants - i have a habiscus.
Placement - i have my cage sitting on my dresser in the corner of my room. it's close to a window that i keep closed. no fans or anything are on in the entire apartment.
Location - seattle, wa, usa

Current Problem - i went away for the week for my sister's birthday celebration thing down in disneyland. i had talked to a person i know to have had reptiles before and wrote everything out, talked about what i needed done, and made sure everything was good to go. i got home last night and i found her really dehydrated.. probably not even given any water the entire time. and her eyes are closed.. both of them are staying closed. i haven't seen her open them yet. over the week, both my lights went out and weren't replaced till i got home from work today. i picked Amy up last night when i got home around 10. left for work this morning and just got home at 5:30. i'm very concerned. she didn't even open her eyes when i went and picked her up.. is she just really dehydrated??

 

[mcbdz]

Hello, someone should be along soon that can help. Not real sure on the UVB light. I'll post a couple good likes to read while you wait. You can use more variety in her feeders and gutloads. Also she's around the age of egg laying. Have you place a laying bin in there?

First if you have a dropped drip drops on her nose and see if she'll drink that way. You can also place a plant in the shower. Direct the warm spray on the wall so it splashes on the plant and place her on the plant for awhile. Hope so helps and someone corrects anything I may have gotten wrong.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

 

[nightanole]

Ive had good luck with a warm spray bottle directly to the cham when they cant open their eyes (almost every one i got in the mail drank like this out of the bag). The no likes for a week wouldnt have anything to do with it.

 

[carol5208]

did you ask the person taking care of her when the lights went out? I mean did it happen the day you left and for the whole week she had no uvb or no heat? I mean think about it, she would be sitting in the cold and dark 24/7. Try taking an eye dropper and keep dripping it on her nose. That can usually stimulate them to drink. Do it for several minutes, not just a couple of seconds.

 

[carol5208]

Ive had good luck with a warm spray bottle directly to the cham when they cant open their eyes (almost every one i got in the mail drank like this out of the bag). The no likes for a week wouldnt have anything to do with it.

I disagree with this. No heat AND no uvb for one week could have some effect. Especially the heat. How cold is the OP's house?. We need to find that out also. How could she digest food with no heat light??

 

[nightanole]

I disagree with this. No heat AND no uvb for one week could have some effect. Especially the heat. How cold is the OP's house?. We need to find that out also. How could she digest food with no heat light??

Good point, i had to reread. I thought the lights burnt out after the OP got back home, and it took him the week to get them replaced. The cham does look like it has a sick belly. Looks just like mine after he puked up some tainted phoenix worms.

 

[kanjiman]

i didn't ask when the lights went out.. i will ask them though. i was thinking that was a good possibility that that may have been part of the cause. as for how long it took for me to replace them, it was just one day from when i got back. i made sure to pick up a new light during my lunch break the day i got back to work.

i didn't realize she was already at the age that she could be laying... i'll get a laying bin today and set it up when i get home tonight.

i will try the eye dropper thing tonight too. i was also thinking about sticking the her and the plant in the shower.

thanks for the replies.

 

[carol5208]

good luck. I would hope if the lights went out right after you left they would have got ahold of you and asked you what they needed to get the lights back on again. I think it might be safe to say they are not the ideal cham sitters!!

 

[kanjiman]

good luck. I would hope if the lights went out right after you left they would have got ahold of you and asked you what they needed to get the lights back on again. I think it might be safe to say they are not the ideal cham sitters!!

sounds like it was a day or two after i left... yeah... i think that's safe to say too.. i'm not happy with them one bit right now.. probably overreacting though.. :/ just hurts that they wouldn't let me and it may have ended up hurting Amy..

 

[carol5208]

awe I am sorry to hear that. I mean common sense would tell you that if you have lights on the cage they are there for a reason!!! Hopefully she will get back on track if you can get her rehydrated and warmed up with the lights. Lets us know how she is doing. I don't think you are over reacting. If it were my animlas I would be P.O'd.

 

[kanjiman]

She was in a much worse state when I got home. I found a local reptile/exotic pet hospital that is with her right now. I'm hoping they can figure out what's wrong so she can get back to normal...

 

[MollyT]

I hope she gets the help she needs at the hospital and makes a recovery. I hate that this happened! You like to think the people you leave your pets with when you are gone are going to take good care of your pet. It really sucks when they fail to do that. I'm sorry. You seem to be doing everything you can do to help her.

 

[kanjiman]

from what the dr was saying, she was just in a bad spot from this past weekend and all that had happened.. she was responsive with the physical test and would open her eyes then. she even gripped when we Amy was held on the dr's hand. so i'm not sure why she looked so bad in the cage. i think i need to up the temp of the cage in the basking spot. they say i'm doing all the right things to get her back on track. in a couple of weeks, after Amy gets better, i'm going to take her back for a fecal exam. it was definitely a bit comforting to hear all this though. they seemed quite knowledgeable about chams though so i trust them.

 

[MollyT]

What a relief! I have been hoping you would give us an update tonight and it would be good news. Good to know she has a good prognosis.

 

[kanjiman]

What a relief! I have been hoping you would give us an update tonight and it would be good news. Good to know she has a good prognosis.

agreed. thanks!

it was a good visit.. i'll definitely go back in the future if anything else happens (along with the fecal exam in a couple weeks)

and on another plus! i got the tech's phone#. she was really cute and we hit it off pretty well even with all the stress i was in hahah...

 

[chipop]

i was gone for a week as well when i came home my cham was dehydrated and wouldnt drink or eat when i sprayed in the mesh cage... so i put him in a small glass terrarium so i can keep track of him better. and he tends to drink off the water drops from the glass wall

 

[mcbdz]

agreed. thanks!

it was a good visit.. i'll definitely go back in the future if anything else happens (along with the fecal exam in a couple weeks)

and on another plus! i got the tech's phone#. she was really cute and we hit it off pretty well even with all the stress i was in hahah...

So glad she will get better. Please keep us updated. Thumbs up on the number. Would be great to date someone that loves animals and if that doesn't work you have an extra number for emergencies anyway

 

[Elizadolots]

Can I ask where you are measuring the temperature? You want the basking temperature to be in the low 80s, falling to room temperature at the bottom of the cage.

Hopefully you were feeding her more smaller crickets when she was younger.

How you keep your females--the temperature and the amount of food--can affect their egg laying. In general, it's thought that the fewer times she lays eggs and the fewer eggs she lays when she does, the better it is for her.

Kinyongia wrote a very helpful blog post describing how she keeps her females to minimize egg production. You should add it to your reading list:

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html

 

[kanjiman]

i check in two places at least. one, i have a thermometer on the side of the cage, about halfway down. then i have the temp gun at the basking spot.

yes, she would get a lot more, smaller crickets when she was younger. she'd range from 8-15 at a time. that's slowed down a bit.

thanks for the blog!

and yes, Mcbdz. i will definitely keep this updated with how she's doing.

 

[kanjiman]

so i got home and she looked ok.. she's all fired up though.. the entire evening actually.. that's the part that's got me a little freaked now.. anyways, got home, gave her a 30 minute shower.. she seemed to liven up a little during it.. she did the suicide drop thing once and that scared the crap out of me!!! but she opened her eyes a bit and then walked around..

the thing that broke my heart the most was when she crawled onto my arm b/c i was scared she'd jump again, she walked up a little and would rub the side of her head against my arm and then would open her mouth and stick her tongue out a little. made me think she was drinking or something... but i just felt so bad.. i wanna be able to do more and just have her get better right now! after i put her back in the cage, she walked around a little and got fired up again. then i turned off the lights and she went to sleep..