Concerned owner.

[NerveDamage]

Ok so I have been posting a few threads lately and doing some research on the usual suspects for my chameleons health but I havn't concluded anything. So i'll try and see if someone can answer this.

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - ~9 month Male Nosy Be, owned for about 6 months

Handling - couple times a week (2-4)

Feeding - 90% crickets (I posted another thread regarding this, he won't hardly touch anything else.) He eats about 10-14 daily. Gutloaded with rotations of mustard greens, collard greens, oranges and apples.

Supplements - 5-6 Days a week with Repcal Calcium w/o D3 and Fridays rotating between Repcal Cal w/D3 and Multi-vit

Watering - Misting is done with an Aqua Zamp Rain Dome. His cage is misted 5 times daily 1min 30 one hour after lights on and one before lights out. 2 minutes twice a day and 3min in the middle of his day. I do see him drink but I do work most days so I cannot see him throughout the day sometimes.

Fecal Description - His urea(?) mostly white or all white (the latest had some brown). He was tested ~6months ago (right before I received him)

History - He is my first chameleon, and from the looks of others I always felt he was a little small, weighed 3/14/14 at 63g. (I do not have any weights I just bought the scale to gather more information for you guys as I sensed there was a problem)

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 2ft wide, 2ft long, 4ft high all screen

Lighting - ZooMed 75 basking bulb. ZooMed 5.0 UVB long tube kind 18inch

Temperature - Basking is usually between 80-85 depending on time of day measured with digital thermometer.

Humidity - Normally stays around 40% but has peaks during misting measured with digital hydrometer.

Plants - He has a hanging pothos and a umbrella plant on the cage floor soil covered will large pond rocks.

Placement - In my bedroom, only traffic is me at my computer desk but not a lot of movement. Airvent on the other side of the room. The top of his cage is roughly 6 feet off the ground.

Location - Orange County, California

Current Problem - Ok so lately I have noticed he had been basking a lot and not being very active, then he started to sorta lay on his branch (never with his feet dangling). And always a very dark color unless eating or drinking. I became concerned when he would literally only move to eat or drink then back to his branch. Then I noticed his urea(?) had a little brown in it (maybe 15% brown rest was white). He still eats fine but seems very very lazy, and as I mentioned above I bought a scale to weigh him as he seemed very small to me. His grip is still quite good and turns bright blue when he goes to move, but always just wants to bask.

I don't even know if this is a problem I have about ruled out MBD, but I just doesn't seem normal and with his size I am very concerned.

 

[kplatvoet]

First I'm not an expert - My panther did seem to get less active darker when winter began - I had a fecal done which came back clean and changed his basking light (i just use regular "daylight" bulbs you can get in the grocery stores) to a slightly higher wattage. It only change the temp by a couple of degrees but the results were good.
Take a look at Poop 101 which will give you a good idea on his hydration - since he had a fecal 6 months ago I would up his temps by a couple of degrees by either a 100 watt bulb or moving your lamp a little bit closer - and see if it helps any- making sure he has a cooler place to get to if it gets too hot. You could also try longer less often misting so he has time to warm up in between- as long as he drinking - If none of these work I'd get another fecal done
I found I had to tweek my temps/humidity over time and when the outside temps change -

 

[mowryrd]

Just a little confused about your fecal discription. There should be the white part witch is the urine and then brown part, the poop. If it's always just white or a very small amount of brown and he's eating well then something might be wrong. For the most part you should be getting more poop then urine.

 

[Ninkylou]

Since you said you have had him for 6 months, that would probably put the age of your UVB at at least that. Its time to get a new bulb if its not one of the Arcadia's

Not sure if that would cause excessive basking, but it is an incidental observation.

 

[fluxlizard]

From his behavior and coloration (lying under his basking light, dark color, only leaving to eat or drink and then returning) I would say that your temperatures aren't as warm as his instinct is craving. He is trying unsuccessfully at the best possible location using his best dark coloring which absorbs heat most effectively to warm up. Because he never reaches his preferred temperature, he stays hoping to reach it.

At this point someone will probably jump in and ask what your temperature is and check to see if it conforms to the care guidelines.

My response to that is that the chameleon does not read care guides, nor does he know what temperature it is. He only knows what his body tells his instinct, and then his brain responds appropriately to do the best it can in the given situation. He knows he feels cooler than he wants to be- he doesn't know the rest.

So my advice- warm your temps a bit and watch for changes. Don't change temps dramatically, just ease things up a little bit at a time, and warm the ambients slightly along with the basking. You don't want to create a hot spot that might burn him, but a thermal gradient with lots of things to climb on at varying distances from your heat source. So be careful to avoid that- better he's a little too cool than burned- especially if your ambient temps are going to go up in a few weeks when spring arrives anyway...

 

[NerveDamage]

Ok to clear up the poop confusion. If there is two separate parts. The part that should be all white and then the much larger brownish black stuff. The white part is mostly white but has partially a brown orange color to it. I know that is a sign of mild dehydration but he has all the opportunity to get water.

Edit: Ran out this morning and grabbed a new UVB tube light, and a 100w. I am going to wait and see with the uvb first as the 75w is a somewhat new addition(changed from a 50w about a week ago) and added when I noticed his excessive basking under his 50w.

 

[kplatvoet]

Poop is better with pictures- I know it might sound like there are people on this forum who spend a lot of time thinking about poop- (guilty)

https://www.chameleonforums.com/poop-101-a-120171/

Most likely it would be good if you posted a picture for comparison.

Sounds like though like his poop is normal- I did find out that panthers,veilds and jacksons have different poop this week so it might just be that I'm looking for the differences.

 

[NerveDamage]

Update, I went through the poop thread and concluded his poop appears normal with hints of mild dehydration in 1 of his recent 3 droppings. However today I noticed he was no longer holding on with all 4 legs and kind of had two just hovering, not really dangling but not perched either. He is also not going for water as much which I assume means he will become dehydrated.

 

[NerveDamage]

Well after a vet trip, a fecal exam and tons of stress we have discovered he has a parasite. I was prescribed medicine to be used once daily for 1 week. Today was day one and he was not happy and been very dark ever since it was given.