Change in behavior/bowel movements

[Peachypink]

I also use the Repashy Calcium Plus, at the recommendation of my vet, and one of his colleagues. It's a well rounded vitamin supplement, and calcium. About once a week (to ten days) I use a Calcium with D3, that I got from walmart. As far as shipping bugs, any reputable shipper should put them into a Styrofoam shipper with a warm pack, of some kind. Ask them how they ship, and if they guarantee live arrival. If they don't, look elsewhere.

I would ask your vet about adding the D3 when you are using the Rapashy Calcium Plus. It already has D3 in it. Even if it didn't the recommended amount is twice a month, once a week is a bit much especially adding to what is in the Calcium Plus already.

 

[Angelwolf]

I'll definitely look into supplements, thank you for the suggestions! I actually do have a reptile multivitamin (I think it's Nat Geo brand, but not sure) that I usually give to my skinks, I just haven't given it to Ramses before.

I checked through his plants a few times within the last couple days and couldn't find any droppings, unfortunately! I'm keeping an eye on them in case he does happen to poop in them, though. Since my female unfortunately passed away last week, I have a lot of extra vines and some plants that were in her cage, so I'll be adding some of those to his sometime this week to give him more climbing space.

I'll also be sure to give my crickets some greens starting tomorrow! I'll have to order silkworms (and hornworms) too, since they both sound like they'll be good for him. I've been sure to water him a lot and make sure he stays well hydrated for now. I'll be attempting to shower him again tomorrow with a slightly different set up to try and avoid stressing him out too much about it.

Thanks again for everyone's help! If anyone has any recommendations for showering him without stressing him out too much those would be great too! He doesn't even seem to like feeling the mist from the shower and spends his time trying to get out, unfortunately.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I don't recall you mentioning you lost a female cham. Do you know why she passed away? Perhaps whatever she had was contagious? You really don't want to use those vines from her cage, until you sterilize them, and have him checked by a vet. The advice on this forum is great, and invaluable, however, I think he really needs to get to a vet. Also, from the picture you posted, he is beautiful!!

 

[Angelwolf]

I understand that. I really did everything I could from what I knew based on the research I did. I know I didn't do everything perfectly for her (like with the D3) but, again, these are the first chameleons I have ever owned, and I have never had first-hand experience with an egg laying female. The moment she started showing signs of being egg bound I took her in, but she was too weak. Trust me, I would have saved her if I could, but they told me she likely wouldn't survive surgery. I do the best that I can.

Ok. I'm sorry. I hadn't read this far before I put up my last post. Now, I do remember you mentioning it and that she was egg bound. So sad. But you are obviously a good lizard keeper. Chams are just hard, until you get some experience with them. I had tried 3 times, before having success. And even now, I am still learning!

 

[Angelwolf]

I would ask your vet about adding the D3 when you are using the Rapashy Calcium Plus. It already has D3 in it. Even if it didn't the recommended amount is twice a month, once a week is a bit much especially adding to what is in the Calcium Plus already.

So this is very interesting. I was unaware that it had D3 in it. My vet said that it didn't. He also recommended using the Repashy at every feeding. Now, that is what the label reads, but of course now that I know it has D3 in it, I am also second guessing the instructions he gave me.

 

[Peachypink]

So this is very interesting. I was unaware that it had D3 in it. My vet said that it didn't. He also recommended using the Repashy at every feeding. Now, that is what the label reads, but of course now that I know it has D3 in it, I am also second guessing the instructions he gave me.

It does have D3 in it but it is blended with a safe amount that can be used every day. I grilled Briana at Kammerflage kreations before I switched. They did a 3 year trial before they would recommend to their customers and had great success. I dust every feeding with it. And it is the only thing I use.

Here is the ingredients list....

 

[Extensionofgreen]

In my opinion people are supplement crazy, all together. If you feed your feeders a halfway decent gutload, supplementing with even plain calcium is too much. 3 times a week for an adult male is plenty for calcium. You should be lightly dusting a portion of the feeders, not making them all look like they've been rolled in powder.
I'd follow the advice already given, but I'd not give ANY calcium with D3 for 6 to 8 weeks, then use the LoD for 1 out of your 3 calcium days, every other week. Same goes for the vitamin supplement, if it contains calcium, use it one out of the 3 days you'd give calcium every other week, and use plain calcium the other 2 days.

In case that is confusing: After 6-8 weeks of no D3
Day 1/ week 1:
Plain calcium
Day 2
No supplements
Day 3
Calcium LoD
Day 4
No supplements
Day 5
Plain calcium
Day 6
No supplements
Day 7
No supplements

Week 2:
Day 1
Plain calcium
Day 2
No supplements
Day 3
Vitamin supplement with preformed A
Day 4
No supplements
Day 5
Plain calcium
Day 6
No supplements
Day 7
No supplements

Week 3:
Repeat week 1

Week 4:
Repeat week 2

Research has shown that humans taking calcium supplements are doing more harm than good in many cases, unless they are deficient. You can google this.
It is always better to deliver vitamins and calcium in small doses all the time, through diet, which means eating a good variety of nutrient dense foods, which means feeding your chameleon's insects those foods.

 

[Geckoflora]

Thank you for the supplement advice! I'm definitely going to be setting up my feeders on a better gut loading diet, so I hope that helps with his overall health, too.

Another update: Ramses still hasn't pooped at all unfortunately! I'll probably need to take him in for a vet visit if he doesn't go by next week, but I'm really hoping he goes before then, as I'm hoping he doesn't have anything serious going on. I did try to shower him with his plants this time and he still didn't really seem to like it; he just kept climbing the plants and reaching around like he was looking for more to grab on to. I also added a second small UVB hood to his cage today, as I'm worried now that the first one isn't in a good place for him to get as much UVB exposure (if you can see it in my picture, it's in the back left corner). I put the new one along the open right side to cover more of the cage where he actually sits.

There was another thing that just occurred to me tonight from what you all were telling me earlier on. My other reptiles are set up in the same area (I have a leopard gecko and two blue tongue skinks). The leopard gecko doesn't have any lights to speak of but the skinks both have infrared night lights. The nearest cage is about 2-3 feet away from Ramses' cage. Is it possible the light is bothering him from the skink's lamp, even if it's only in the same area? The second skink is further away (7-9 feet) and blocked partially by the leopard gecko's cage, so I'm not sure if the light from that far away would bother Ramses either.

If my description is unclear I can take a picture of the whole area to show. Basically, my other three cages are lined up in a row, skink - leopard gecko - skink, with Ramses being in front of and to the side of the last skink cage. I can definitely try to move him or cover his cage partially at nights if it could be an issue, but I just wanted to check first before trying to move everything around.

 

[Angelwolf]

Thank you for the supplement advice! I'm definitely going to be setting up my feeders on a better gut loading diet, so I hope that helps with his overall health, too.

Another update: Ramses still hasn't pooped at all unfortunately! I'll probably need to take him in for a vet visit if he doesn't go by next week, but I'm really hoping he goes before then, as I'm hoping he doesn't have anything serious going on. I did try to shower him with his plants this time and he still didn't really seem to like it; he just kept climbing the plants and reaching around like he was looking for more to grab on to. I also added a second small UVB hood to his cage today, as I'm worried now that the first one isn't in a good place for him to get as much UVB exposure (if you can see it in my picture, it's in the back left corner). I put the new one along the open right side to cover more of the cage where he actually sits.

There was another thing that just occurred to me tonight from what you all were telling me earlier on. My other reptiles are set up in the same area (I have a leopard gecko and two blue tongue skinks). The leopard gecko doesn't have any lights to speak of but the skinks both have infrared night lights. The nearest cage is about 2-3 feet away from Ramses' cage. Is it possible the light is bothering him from the skink's lamp, even if it's only in the same area? The second skink is further away (7-9 feet) and blocked partially by the leopard gecko's cage, so I'm not sure if the light from that far away would bother Ramses either.

If my description is unclear I can take a picture of the whole area to show. Basically, my other three cages are lined up in a row, skink - leopard gecko - skink, with Ramses being in front of and to the side of the last skink cage. I can definitely try to move him or cover his cage partially at nights if it could be an issue, but I just wanted to check first before trying to move everything around.

I think it's possible that the lights from the other cages could be bothering him. Try switching them to ceramic heat emitters. They put out heat, but no light. I'm not sure if I would wait until next week to take him in, because if it's been many days already, just adding on that many more could prove to be very bad. I understand, if it's all you can do, though.

 

[Geckoflora]

I'll try switching to some heat emitters, then. I'll pick some up tonight. Do they get to be the same temperature as the normal infrared bulbs? It gets cold in that area of my house so I need a lot of heat output.

I would take him sooner but my vet is only open for a few hours on Saturday and I have a work shift at that time. I'll try to get him in next week if he still hasn't pooped.

No bowel movement today. Misted him heavily since he doesn't seem to like the showering at all. I also started gut loading crickets using endive/escarole, so I'll feed him those tomorrow.

It's honestly baffling me- he is still acting fine, and feeling along his underside I can't feel any sort of impaction (though I'm not a vet of course so I could be missing something that's there). He is interested in eating and readily takes crickets from my hand if I hold them up, and he still climbs around and acts just fine, the only difference is he hasn't pooped in at least 1.5 weeks. Has this ever happened to anyone? I would have expected if something was really wrong with his digestive sysmtem he would be exhibiting other signs/acting off.

 

[Angelwolf]

I'll try switching to some heat emitters, then. I'll pick some up tonight. Do they get to be the same temperature as the normal infrared bulbs? It gets cold in that area of my house so I need a lot of heat output.

I would take him sooner but my vet is only open for a few hours on Saturday and I have a work shift at that time. I'll try to get him in next week if he still hasn't pooped.

No bowel movement today. Misted him heavily since he doesn't seem to like the showering at all. I also started gut loading crickets using endive/escarole, so I'll feed him those tomorrow.

It's honestly baffling me- he is still acting fine, and feeling along his underside I can't feel any sort of impaction (though I'm not a vet of course so I could be missing something that's there). He is interested in eating and readily takes crickets from my hand if I hold them up, and he still climbs around and acts just fine, the only difference is he hasn't pooped in at least 1.5 weeks. Has this ever happened to anyone? I would have expected if something was really wrong with his digestive sysmtem he would be exhibiting other signs/acting off.

Yes. They do get plenty hot. He may also be going into brumation. (Just type it in the search bar for more info.) I would think that after a week and a half, he would be showing some other signs, too.

 

[Geckoflora]

I know I haven't updated recently, but the good news is Ramses finally pooped this morning! It was a monster, too!

Thank you all again! I think he's alright, probably just brumation signs as you said. It was still very helpful to get everyone's advice and I made a lot of adjustments! He's getting fed crickets that I gut load on endive now, so that might also have helped him to finally go. I did call the vet to ask questions yesterday and she recommended I wait and if he still hadn't gone by next week then I should take him in. Luckily he ended up pooping on his own this morning; probably overheard me and remembers how much he hates the vet!

I've also ordered a large dripper for his cage and a big jar of calcium without D3 so I think I'll be all set.

But again- thank you guys a ton, it's been super helpful, and I'm sure I'll be posting here more sometime in the future!

 

[Peachypink]

I know I haven't updated recently, but the good news is Ramses finally pooped this morning! It was a monster, too!

Thank you all again! I think he's alright, probably just brumation signs as you said. It was still very helpful to get everyone's advice and I made a lot of adjustments! He's getting fed crickets that I gut load on endive now, so that might also have helped him to finally go. I did call the vet to ask questions yesterday and she recommended I wait and if he still hadn't gone by next week then I should take him in. Luckily he ended up pooping on his own this morning; probably overheard me and remembers how much he hates the vet!

I've also ordered a large dripper for his cage and a big jar of calcium without D3 so I think I'll be all set.

But again- thank you guys a ton, it's been super helpful, and I'm sure I'll be posting here more sometime in the future!

I's so glad! Yay for poop!!

 

[alphakenc]

What goes in ,eventually will come out,Im happy that he drop the big doo doo