Jacksonph617
New Member
Problem:
About 2.5 weeks ago my chameleon Casper seemed to lose interest in his food. Previously he would run down towards the feeder bowl whenever I opened the cage, but then stopped doing that, stopped eating unless I held the bowl up towards his face for a long-ish period of time, and then stopped eating altogether. For some time I thought he was on a hunger strike so I tried varying his food a fair bit, removing feeders from his cage for a day before trying to reintroduce them. However when the problem didn't go away and he had noticeably lost weight I brought him to an exotic species vet at Angells animal hospital. The vet thought he was impacted, gave me a laxative and an anti-biotic and a food powder and instructed me to force feed him food and meds with a syringe as well as give him daily bathes until he started eating live food again. I try not to force feed when possible as it stresses him out quite a bit, so I try to sneak in syringes of food/meds as he is drinking water I spray him with. However, this only works about half the time so I often resort to force feeding. I also stopped bathing him as it stressed him out immensely, and upon researching it I couldn't find any evidence of its benefits. It's been a week since I took him to the vet and there has been no visible up or down in his health, except that he is maybe more stressed from me feeding him. I am planning on taking him back for another appointment, but wanted to see if anyone had other advice.
Thank you for any help you can offer I'm really worried for my little guy.
My chameleon Casper is a Veiled, about 3 months old, and I got him when he was 1-2 months old. He hasn't been sexed as hes too young but I tend to refer to him as a male.
I used to Handle Casper pretty infrequently (once every 1-2 weeks), but now about once a day as I'm having to feed him
Before Casper stopped eating I fed him 4-7 feeders (almost all crickets and mealworms) a day. The crickets were gut loaded with a flukers mix and the meal worms with whatever cham-safe veggies I had in my house at the moment.
For supplements I was alternating between a calcium spray, repti-vite, and a calcium powder with D-3
I have a dripper which I fill up every 2 days or so and drains in about a day. Additionally I spray the leaves of the cage and Casper with a spray bottle for 30s twice a day. Recently (after he/she got sick) I bought a mister which I have on periodically.
Casper's poops and urates have looked fine compared to photos on the poop threads. Since he/she got sick and I have been feeding him, Casper poops once every few days and has urates more frequently. Previously, he/she was doing both about once a day.
Casper's cage is a fully mesh, 2 ft high and 18 in in width and depth
The cage has a hood lamp with a heat bulb and a zoo-med daylight blue bulb, they are on a timer for 9am-9pm
The basking area temp is 75-82 degrees depending on the day and closer to 68 at the bottom
I don't have a humidity gage
There is a large pothos plant, some artificial plants, and for a short period a mint plant, though I took it out when he got sick worried it might be contributing.
The cage is on top of a dresser in my bedroom, low-traffic area, and above or at eye level
I live in Boston Ma.
About 2.5 weeks ago my chameleon Casper seemed to lose interest in his food. Previously he would run down towards the feeder bowl whenever I opened the cage, but then stopped doing that, stopped eating unless I held the bowl up towards his face for a long-ish period of time, and then stopped eating altogether. For some time I thought he was on a hunger strike so I tried varying his food a fair bit, removing feeders from his cage for a day before trying to reintroduce them. However when the problem didn't go away and he had noticeably lost weight I brought him to an exotic species vet at Angells animal hospital. The vet thought he was impacted, gave me a laxative and an anti-biotic and a food powder and instructed me to force feed him food and meds with a syringe as well as give him daily bathes until he started eating live food again. I try not to force feed when possible as it stresses him out quite a bit, so I try to sneak in syringes of food/meds as he is drinking water I spray him with. However, this only works about half the time so I often resort to force feeding. I also stopped bathing him as it stressed him out immensely, and upon researching it I couldn't find any evidence of its benefits. It's been a week since I took him to the vet and there has been no visible up or down in his health, except that he is maybe more stressed from me feeding him. I am planning on taking him back for another appointment, but wanted to see if anyone had other advice.
Thank you for any help you can offer I'm really worried for my little guy.
My chameleon Casper is a Veiled, about 3 months old, and I got him when he was 1-2 months old. He hasn't been sexed as hes too young but I tend to refer to him as a male.
I used to Handle Casper pretty infrequently (once every 1-2 weeks), but now about once a day as I'm having to feed him
Before Casper stopped eating I fed him 4-7 feeders (almost all crickets and mealworms) a day. The crickets were gut loaded with a flukers mix and the meal worms with whatever cham-safe veggies I had in my house at the moment.
For supplements I was alternating between a calcium spray, repti-vite, and a calcium powder with D-3
I have a dripper which I fill up every 2 days or so and drains in about a day. Additionally I spray the leaves of the cage and Casper with a spray bottle for 30s twice a day. Recently (after he/she got sick) I bought a mister which I have on periodically.
Casper's poops and urates have looked fine compared to photos on the poop threads. Since he/she got sick and I have been feeding him, Casper poops once every few days and has urates more frequently. Previously, he/she was doing both about once a day.
Casper's cage is a fully mesh, 2 ft high and 18 in in width and depth
The cage has a hood lamp with a heat bulb and a zoo-med daylight blue bulb, they are on a timer for 9am-9pm
The basking area temp is 75-82 degrees depending on the day and closer to 68 at the bottom
I don't have a humidity gage
There is a large pothos plant, some artificial plants, and for a short period a mint plant, though I took it out when he got sick worried it might be contributing.
The cage is on top of a dresser in my bedroom, low-traffic area, and above or at eye level
I live in Boston Ma.
