Chameleon Poop!

Yesterday my female veiled chameleon ate about 10-12 wax worms and about a few minutes later her poop was runny and had a worm in it! This morning she woke up and seems darker in color than normal. She ate another 7 wax worms for breakfast. Is this a concern? She’s about 4 months old
 

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You should not be feeding wax worms as a staple feeder. There is nothing but fat to them.

I would fill out this form by copy pasting into your reply and post pics of your cham and the entire enclosure lights down so we can make sure you were not given other incorrect info.


Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.


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.

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?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

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Please Note:
  1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
  2. Photos can be very helpful.
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - The species-Veiled, sex-Female, and age of your chameleon-4 months. How long has it been in your care? 3 almost 4 months
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Only for feeding or cleaning cage
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? WaxWorms, MealWorms, and crickets. What amount? About 10 a day of either or. What is the schedule? Morning time. How are you gut-loading your feeders? No
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Reptivite W/D3 twice a month
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Misting and humidifier. Most for about a minute twice a day. While I’m away at work I’ll place ice cubes on top of cafe to melt down she drinks the droplets from time to time.
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Yesterday was the first smelly poop that had what appeared to be a worm in it. And she has never been to vet.
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Combo
  • 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? 90 overall throughout the day and 70-80 at night
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? Humidity stays above 70
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Yes palm tree and money trees
  • 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? My cage is on top of my nightstand and there is a fan nearby
  • Location - Where are you geographically located? Houston Tx

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about. One smelly runny poop

attached are pictures from the day I bought her to today
 

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More pictures
 

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Right now! Her eyes seem a little dark around the edges
Cage pictures!
 

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Smell could be a indicator of parasites.

As said above by Beman, Wax worms should be used as staples. Nothing but fat to them, it’s like feeding your child 10 Twinkie’s a day. Mealworms arent the best feeders either. Here’s a list of feeders.
36C403F8-28B1-489A-B42A-581C1A31C193.jpeg
 
As for lighting and heat, I would recommend getting a UVB light strip instead of a dome one. Gives more coverage for UVB. Your basking temps are way too high, the highest it should be is 80 degrees, at night there should be no heat and a temp drop for your Cham.
 
You also should be lightly dusting all her feeders with calcium No D3 every day then the reptivite with D3 twice a month. She’s a little young to be handled right now so try to not handle her unless you have to. The dome uvb lights don’t penetrate down far enough to be of any benefit to your Cham so a T5HO 5.0 or an Arcadia 6% linear bulb that will fit the width of your cage is much better for your Cham and make sure there is at least 8-9 inches between the light and the back of your Cham if she were sitting under it. This will give her the uvb she needs to prevent metabolism bone disease. Now since she’s a female you don’t want her basking temp to be more than 80 degrees, the temp should go down as you go down the length of the cage. During the day humidity shouldn’t be more than 50 percent. You’ll need a couple of temp/humidity gauges with wired probes. One will need to have its probe attached to her basking branch at the spot where she sits to bask and the other maybe in the middle of the cage. At night the humidity should be 75% or higher. Now as she gets older she’s going to require a cage that’s at least 24x24x48 inches and will also need a lay bin in the bottom because females will lay eggs even if they’ve never been with a male. The lay bin needs to be filled with moist play sand that will hold a tunnel when you dig in it. That’s what she will do to lay her eggs. This lay bin should be put in the bottom of her cage when she reaches sexual maturity and left in there all the time. I hope this info helps. Welcome to the wonderful world of chameleons!
 
@trinityjean1993 So you will want to make some changes. To her husbandry and to her cage. Smelly poop can be an indicator of parasites. Meaning you need to get a fecal done at the vet to be sure.
  • Your Chameleon - The species-Veiled, sex-Female, and age of your chameleon-4 months. How long has it been in your care? 3 almost 4 months How old was she when you got her?
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Only for feeding or cleaning cage
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Reptivite W/D3 twice a monthFeeding - You have to use a calcium without D3 at all other feedings. Then the Reptivite with D3 2 times a month say the 1st and the 15th. Otherwise she is not getting enough calcium to balance the phosphorus levels of the feeders. This can cause them to pull calcium from their bones. This lack of supplementation along with the compact UVB bulb leads to MBD. This is particularly dangerous for females since they lay infertile eggs.

  • What are you feeding your cham? WaxWorms, MealWorms, and crickets. What amount? About 10 a day of either or. What is the schedule? Morning time. How are you gut-loading your feeders? No So Waxworms are treats only, and mealworms are not nutritionally dense enough. See feeder image. And see gutload image. Feeding amounts will change as she matures.
    • As she matures you will have to start cutting back her food. By about 6 months she should be getting about 5-8 small feeders each day. At about 7 months you want to slowly reduce by cutting down feeder amounts so that she is on a feeding schedule of 3 days a week with 3 feeders. You want them to be on this schedule by the time they are 9-10 months old.
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Misting and humidifier. Most for about a minute twice a day. While I’m away at work I’ll place ice cubes on top of cafe to melt down she drinks the droplets from time to time. Make sure you are only using the humidifier at night and only if temps are below 67 in the cage. Otherwise this can cause a respiratory infection.
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Yesterday was the first smelly poop that had what appeared to be a worm in it. And she has never been to vet. Get a fecal done to rule out parasite issues.
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Combo She needs to be upgraded into a bigger cage. 2x2x4 ft so you have room for a proper lay bin.
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? UVB is the wrong type of fixture and bulb. These compact bulbs can cause MBD in chams. You want a T5HO fixture and a linear 5.0 uvb bulb for it. This should be put so there is 8-9 inches from the bottom of the fixture to her closest branches for the correct UVI level.
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? 90 overall throughout the day and 70-80 at night WAY too hot both day and night... You will not ever want basking to be over 78-80 for her. Very important for females because as she ages she needs this temp no higher at basking to help control the amount of eggs she produces. At night it must cool down at least to 65-67. They can handle temp drops down to 50. Most will try to get as low to 60 as they can.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? Humidity stays above 70 Way too high. Veileds have to have a 30-50% level. IN your cage with low air circulation and dirt that is not bio active growing bacteria this is very high risk with the temps your keeping and humidity levels.
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Yes palm tree and money trees All plants should be live veiled tested plants. https://chameleonacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Chameleon-Plants-061321.pdf
  • 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? My cage is on top of my nightstand and there is a fan nearby
  • Location - Where are you geographically located? Houston Tx

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about. One smelly runny poop

Additional resources for learning correct husbandry https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/


laybin graphic.jpg
chameleon-gutload.jpg
chameleon-food(1).jpg
 
This was in her poop! Is this the wax worms she ate or parasites?
That is an undigested wax worm. The fecal could have been runny from feeding way too many soft bodied insects. But she may also have a parasite issue going on. These you can not see. They put the fecal under a microscope to see them. These can cause smelly poop, runny poop, and mucous in the stool. With any sign of these issues a fecal is recommended because certain parasites can cause other issues including decline and death.

Please read through the feedback I gave you in this post https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/chameleon-poop.184133/post-1688556
There are things that have to be corrected. Improper husbandry can cause MBD, respiratory infections, and death.
 
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