So my chameleon is about 9 months and last month she we took her to the vet and was pinworm positive and she had to have two rounds of pinworms treatment and her eating habits were all the same but I notice yesterday and today she will not eat any crickets but she will eat super worms. Dose anyone know why? Please help and thanks.
Chameleon stoped eating
- Thread starter Fintalian
- Start date
Graves923
Chameleon Enthusiast
First, copy and paste the help form and fill out all the questions. Help form is found here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
Photos of the chameleon and enclosure are helpful as well. Please be detailed when answering the questions. It helps us narrow down possible causes of the issue.
Photos of the chameleon and enclosure are helpful as well. Please be detailed when answering the questions. It helps us narrow down possible causes of the issue.
Chameleon Info:
Cage Info:
Current Problem: her pinworms going away and she has slow down on her eating and only interested in eating superworms.
- Your Chameleon - Veiled, female, and age about 9 months. We have had her for about 3 months now.
- Handling - I take her out everyday for about 10 minutes
- Feeding - I feed her crickets everyday and a super worm every two days. She gets 6 crickets total. I give her first cricket at 11:30 am and then every two hours one intel 9pm. I am gutloading my crickets with fruit and I put it in their cage I keep them in.
- Supplements - I give her calcium every day I use repti calcium. Then every 1st and 15th calcium with vitamin d by repti calcium with vit d and liquid vitamin for vitamin A every two weeks by Fluker’s.
- Watering - I use a the little dripper. Own mist her cage if I see her cage when her humidity is at 20%. Yes I notice she drinks in the morning around 11 am and once or twice in the late afternoon.
- Fecal Description - Poops and unrates have been normal. She was tested for pinworms in Jan and came back positive and had two rounds of medicine.
- History - I don’t have much info about my Cham we bought her back in Oct at Petsmart.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Full screen cage and I am not sure how tall it’s. Maybe 4ft tall.
- Lighting - Heat light is philips 65w and her uvb is 24 w bought from a website call bio dude. Both lights are on at 10:40am and turn off at 11pm.
- Temperature - Top temp stays about 88-90f, middle about 75f and the bottom 60 f. Lowest overnight temp about 60f. measure the temp by a temperature gauge.
- Humidity - humidity levels stay around 30-25. I maintain the levels by watching the gauge and spray her cage if it gets to low.
- Plants - No live plants at this time.
- Placement - Cage is in the living room next to a window on top of a table.
- Location - Louisiana
Current Problem: her pinworms going away and she has slow down on her eating and only interested in eating superworms.
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon - Veiled, female, and age about 9 months. We have had her for about 3 months now.
- Handling - I take her out everyday for about 10 minutes
- Feeding - I feed her crickets everyday and a super worm every two days. She gets 6 crickets total. I give her first cricket at 11:30 am and then every two hours one intel 9pm. I am gutloading my crickets with fruit and I put it in their cage I keep them in.
- Supplements - I give her calcium every day I use repti calcium. Then every 1st and 15th calcium with vitamin d by repti calcium with vit d and liquid vitamin for vitamin A every two weeks by Fluker’s.
- Watering - I use a the little dripper. Own mist her cage if I see her cage when her humidity is at 20%. Yes I notice she drinks in the morning around 11 am and once or twice in the late afternoon.
- Fecal Description - Poops and unrates have been normal. She was tested for pinworms in Jan and came back positive and had two rounds of medicine.
- History - I don’t have much info about my Cham we bought her back in Oct at Petsmart.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Full screen cage and I am not sure how tall it’s. Maybe 4ft tall.
- Lighting - Heat light is philips 65w and her uvb is 24 w bought from a website call bio dude. Both lights are on at 10:40am and turn off at 11pm.
- Temperature - Top temp stays about 88-90f, middle about 75f and the bottom 60 f. Lowest overnight temp about 60f. measure the temp by a temperature gauge.
- Humidity - humidity levels stay around 30-25. I maintain the levels by watching the gauge and spray her cage if it gets to low.
- Plants - No live plants at this time.
- Placement - Cage is in the living room next to a window on top of a table.
- Location - Louisiana
Current Problem: her pinworms going away and she has slow down on her eating and only interested in eating superworms
JoshD49
Chameleon Enthusiast
Sounds like you got a case of food strike. Your cham is holding out for superworms. This is very common as something about superworms are very addicting to chameleons. Give it some time and as long as it's healthy they won't starve themselves.
That said do you have a lay box for her? Female chams can stop eating when they are getting ready to lay eggs.
That said do you have a lay box for her? Female chams can stop eating when they are getting ready to lay eggs.
CamoChameleonsHuman
Chameleon Enthusiast
Can you give us some more information about your UVB lighting? Is it a compact bulb or linear? 5.0 or 10.0? I'd say she's also at the age where she doesn't need to be feed everyday either. Also her humidity levels are way to low! Invest in an ultrasonic cold air humidifier for her ASAP please. It makes a world of difference. Her humidity levels should be in the 50-70% range. Chameleons are very sensitive creatures and if one thing in their environment isn't right they will let you know. Our job is to find out what those problems may be.
Graves923
Chameleon Enthusiast
Could be a few things...
First, feed her once per day or every other day and keep feedings during the first half of the day. She needs time to bask after feeding to aide her digestion. Feeding at 9pm don't give her much time to digest which could lead to issues such as impaction which would cause her to stop eating.
Second, get a laying bin in the cage ASAP. She is old enough to lay eggs and if she doesn't have a place to dig a hole she can become eggbound which is lethal. When females get close to laying, they will sometimes stop eating and become restless.
Third, change up the feeders. Chams can get bored of the same bugs every day. Add more leafy greens to the gutload as well. Fruits are full of sugar which isn't always the healthiest. Use the resource page for gutloading info
First, feed her once per day or every other day and keep feedings during the first half of the day. She needs time to bask after feeding to aide her digestion. Feeding at 9pm don't give her much time to digest which could lead to issues such as impaction which would cause her to stop eating.
Second, get a laying bin in the cage ASAP. She is old enough to lay eggs and if she doesn't have a place to dig a hole she can become eggbound which is lethal. When females get close to laying, they will sometimes stop eating and become restless.
Third, change up the feeders. Chams can get bored of the same bugs every day. Add more leafy greens to the gutload as well. Fruits are full of sugar which isn't always the healthiest. Use the resource page for gutloading info
