Chameleon not eating

K

Kenshiro

New Member
I recently got my first Veiled Chameleon about a week ago and I am having trouble with having her eat tot he point where you can start to see the outline hf her ribs. I've been mainly trying to feed her crickets, but I have also tried with meal worms At the most she has been eating 1-3 crickets a day and didn't eat at all for the first 4 days that I owned her, and she has ate none of the worms.
I've both tried to increase and decrease the size of the crickets, but it has had no influence on her eating habits so far. I have also found some sort of white/yellow paste appear on the plant I have in the cage and was wondering if that had anything to do with why she isn't eating.
 
I am not an experienced keeper, but no one who is experienced has replied yet and I think you need a reply sooner rather than later.

The yellow paste are urates. They are part of the urine and should be white. Yellow or orange indicates dehydration.

A chameleon might not eat if they are dehydrated. Stress will also stop them eating as will illness. Eating is not your biggest problem right now--dehydration is.

Please fill out the "how to ask for help" form, it will help the experienced keepers get to the bottom of your problem. I would suggest you also include photos of the chameleon and the enclosure.

In the mean time, I suspect getting this chameleon hydrated is critical for its survival. Do a search on this site for hydration and showering. You can put this chameleon on a plant in a shower stall and turn the shower on for at least a half an hour. You want the spray of warmish water (don't chill it and don't cook it) to bounce off the walls onto the plant, not directly on the chameleon. You might have to do this several times a day.

Good luck.
 
Kenshiro said:
I recently got my first Veiled Chameleon about a week ago and I am having trouble with having her eat tot he point where you can start to see the outline hf her ribs. I've been mainly trying to feed her crickets, but I have also tried with meal worms At the most she has been eating 1-3 crickets a day and didn't eat at all for the first 4 days that I owned her, and she has ate none of the worms.
I've both tried to increase and decrease the size of the crickets, but it has had no influence on her eating habits so far. I have also found some sort of white/yellow paste appear on the plant I have in the cage and was wondering if that had anything to do with why she isn't eating.
Click to expand...

She may still be adjusting to her new location. My cham did not eat for the first week and then started eating 1-3 dubia roaches. Try introducing more variety feeders to entice her appetite. My cham was on a cricket diet only before I got him and now he eats dubias, phoenix worms, butterworms, and superworms. He still only eats a maximum of 4 feeders a day and is very small for 5 months compared to other chams. As long as he's drinking, he should come around with time. Can you take a picture of her and the enclosure?
 
ChamDE86 said:
She may still be adjusting to her new location. My cham did not eat for the first week and then started eating 1-3 dubia roaches. Try introducing more variety feeders to entice her appetite. My cham was on a cricket diet only before I got him and now he eats dubias, phoenix worms, butterworms, and superworms. He still only eats a maximum of 4 feeders a day and is very small for 5 months compared to other chams. As long as he's drinking, he should come around with time. Can you take a picture of her and the enclosure?
Click to expand...

http://imgur.com/a/uxW37
Those are a few pictures of the enclosure and her.

I took the advice of a friend and found a guide on showering and did that.
As for the temperature, it is about 87 to 89 in the basking spot, 77 around the top of the cage, and around 74 in the bottom. She also does have access to enough water, I run the drippier for the 12 hours that the lights are on and I mist heavily 3 times a day to spike the humidity, but at night the humidity gets really low, even though i do have a humidifier running.
And for the feeders, where would I be able to buy a variety of them? Cause my local pet stores only sell crickets and meal worms.
 
Does she have a horizontal perch to sit on so she can bask?

87-89 in the basking spot is a little too high for a female too, try dropping it to 85 or slightly less to see if that helps.

It looks as if she's balanced on a plant trying to get to the heat on those pictures.

Valid point above too, does she have a UVB light. Just looks like one basking light in the picture.... unless it's a Mercury Vapour bulb then that is heat and uvb combined
 
JamesBryan said:
Does she have a horizontal perch to sit on so she can bask?

87-89 in the basking spot is a little too high for a female too, try dropping it to 85 or slightly less to see if that helps.

It looks as if she's balanced on a plant trying to get to the heat on those pictures.

Valid point above too, does she have a UVB light. Just looks like one basking light in the picture.... unless it's a Mercury Vapour bulb then that is heat and uvb combined
Click to expand...
Yes she does have a uvb bulb and a 75watt heat buld, might just be the picture. Where can I find this form to fill out?
EDIT: Found the form, filling it out now.
 
Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Veiled, female, around 9ish months from what I know and I have owned it for about a week.
Handling - I only took it out to shower once and to weigh once. No other handling besides that.
Feeding - Feeding crickets, I try to give it 5 a day around 6pm but she barely eats. eating maybe 1- crickets at a time. Also tried to feed mealworms but she ate none of them. I gutload the crickets with mango's potato's oranges and carrots.
Supplements -I have repticalcium calcium w/o d3 5 times a week, reptical calcium with d3 2 times a month (Every other Friday) and reptical multivitamin 2 times a month (Every friday that I do not use the d3 calcium)
Watering - I use a dripper and I mist about 5 times a day because i have a hard time keeping humidity up. The dripper stays on while the lights are on and I mist for about 10-15 minutes. I saw her drinking once but she stopped as soon as she noticed me watching her.
Fecal Description - The poop seems very small, and the urate is sometimes white and sometimes slightly yellow.
History - I don't really know much about herr life previously since I got her not too long ago.
Cage Info:

Cage Type -24x24x48 screen cage
Lighting - exo terra Reptile UVB 100, 13W, and zoo med reptile basking spot lamp 75 W. Lights are on a 12 hour schedual from 11 am to 11 pm
Temperature - basking is 87-89, upper of the cage is 77ish, and lower cage is 74ish
Humidity - Humidity was an issue for me. I can maintain it over 30% but it requires a lot of misting, but I do get it to 75% when I need to but it goes down in about 30 minutes. I got a humidifier and a live plant to try and help, but it they haven't really helped. I use a humidity gauge that I got at the store, is it possible the device may be busted and I'm just getting inaccurate readings? Cause I have never had this hard of a time keeping moisture in a screen cage?
Plants - I use a mix of live and fake plants. the live plant is a devils ivy.
Placement - It's located next to the door in my room. I guess it would be a high traffic area because people have to walk through there to get to the garage. the top of the cage is a little more then 6 feet from the ground.
Location - New Jersey on the coast.


Current Problem - seems to not be eating, urate is sometimes yellowish and chameleon starting to look bony.
 
Your chameleon looks like a male from the pictures you have provided. Can you post a few more pics and pics of the back of the back feet. The markings your chameleon have look like a male.
 
Carol has made a valid point, it could actually be a Male.

Looking through your info and one of things I noticed is that you feed at 6pm.

I'd suggest feeding in the morning if possible, as they then need to bask throughout the day to digest the food.

If you're struggling with humidity, try covering the cage with some shower screen or similar.
 
carol5208 said:
Your chameleon looks like a male from the pictures you have provided. Can you post a few more pics and pics of the back of the back feet. The markings your chameleon have look like a male.
Click to expand...


I was just told it was a female when I bought it, so I guess it could very well be a male. I was gonna take a picture, but I couldn't really get to her back legs.
But, I woke up to her with giant white spots on her that were not there last night, and I have no idea what they are. http://m.imgur.com/rDDVD0J
 
Kenshiro said:
I was just told it was a female when I bought it, so I guess it could very well be a male. I was gonna take a picture, but I couldn't really get to her back legs.
But, I woke up to her with giant white spots on her that were not there last night, and I have no idea what they are. http://m.imgur.com/rDDVD0J
Click to expand...

Your cham appears to be in the process of shedding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Picks
Chameleon not eating
Replies
13
Views
1K
egk
egk
M
Does she look healthy including poop image
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
MistakenCritter
M
S
egg bound veiled? infertile
Replies
12
Views
815
SteveH
SteveH
JenniK
Chameleon Abdominal Mass
Replies
8
Views
970
MissSkittles
MissSkittles
N
My veiled girl refuses food
Replies
10
Views
502
kinyonga
K
Back
Top Bottom