Chameleon at bottom of cage and wont eat!

preston83

New Member
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon -Male ambilibe panther chameleon, owned him for roughly 3 months
Handling - Once every few weeks
Feeding - Crickets, 10 a day, 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening, with collard greens, dandilion leaves, and flukers gutload
Supplements - Repcal, im doing calicum without d3 every feeding, a calcium with d3 twice a month, and a multivitamin twice a month.
Watering -Hand misting,every two hours for roughly 40 seconds, yes almost right away everytime.
Fecal Description - black with white and tiny orange tones, from. no he hasnt been tested for parasites
History - I dont know anything else.

Cage Info:
Cage Type -Screen 18x18x36"
Lighting - I'm using two exo terra bulbs, one UVB and one UVA/Basking. The lights are on 12 hours on a timer from 7am to 7pm
Temperature - Ambient temperature is 70. The lowest overnight temperature is 60 at the bottom, these are measured with two thermometers.
Humidity - about 50% Im creating this with regular mistings, I use two hygrometers to measure the humidity level
Plants - No im not using live plants
Placement -In a separate room in the house, its not near any fans vents and is out of high traffic, the cage is roughly 5 feet from the ground.
Where are you geographically located?- Canada, Ontario

Current Problem - My cham has been found at the bottom of the cage when we wake up in the morning, its been like this for two days now. He is also not eating I saw him sit there and let crickets crawl on him when i put them in. He does drink though.
 
Your care acctually looks pretty good I would add some live plants but that wont be causing your current
 
If 70 is the highest temp he may be too cold to eat and digest his food. Chams may not eat if they know they can't digest properly, I would raise the hottest point in his cage to 90, and see it that makes a difference. I think it will, but let me know. Also he needs to be able to get away from the heat and back down to the 70 he is used to.
 
Agreed, your husbandry looks good. Can you post a picture? Are his eyes open or closed?
ill try to get some pictures up in a bit, and his eyes are open they aren't sunken in either. I have missed a couple dustings the past few days and didnt put new gutload in this week. So i dont know if that could be the problem
 
If 70 is the highest temp he may be too cold to eat and digest his food. Chams may not eat if they know they can't digest properly, I would raise the hottest point in his cage to 90, and see it that makes a difference. I think it will, but let me know. Also he needs to be able to get away from the heat and back down to the 70 he is used to.
The temperature of the bottom away from the basking is 70 under the basking its at 93
 
NOTE: I just sprayed him, he seemed to like it and was trying to get hit by the mist but afterword he was doing this weird thing with his eye when he blinked it would go in a bit and than there would be some red, as if his eyelid or something was getting caught. I've never seen anything like it so im unsure what the problem might be.
 
Sounds like he really wants/needs the water. He was most likely rinsing his eye. Puffing it up and filling with water to rinse any debris. I also have a opinion that they can take water In through their eyes but that's just a thought.
I would set him up a nice shower. Take a big tree or plant and place it in the shower then set the water warm but not hot and bounce the stream off the wall so the Cham and tree just get the residual mist and humidity. Keep and eye on him and keep him in there as long as he seems to enjoy it. It may take him a few min to settle in. Watch the water temp where the Cham is and keep a good eye on him.
 
Sounds like he really wants/needs the water. He was most likely rinsing his eye. Puffing it up and filling with water to rinse any debris. I also have a opinion that they can take water In through their eyes but that's just a thought.
I would set him up a nice shower. Take a big tree or plant and place it in the shower then set the water warm but not hot and bounce the stream off the wall so the Cham and tree just get the residual mist and humidity. Keep and eye on him and keep him in there as long as he seems to enjoy it. It may take him a few min to settle in. Watch the water temp where the Cham is and keep a good eye on him.
Okay thank you i will try that, im still confused on why he's going to the bottom of the cage!! we keep seeing down there in the mornings he's been eating, drinking, and moving around the cage fine! My mothers thoughts are that its because when we put the crickets in we toss them in at the bottom so he may be waiting down there for more!
 
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