confused about my jackson

[skittles1234]

He is extermly active from sun up to sun down (then he curls up on his fav branch and falls to sleep, tail curled) but I've been monitering his food intake and its very low. Especially for a youngster (6 months) who I have heard usually eat at least 5-8 insects daily. So today i took him out of his enclosure and he is just plain skinny, yet his ribs are not yet visible. I thought he had lost a little weight during the time we got him (4/29/12) to now, but i did not see how much weight untill i compared photos today against him on my hand. Its the first time I had him out on my hand since we first got him. Is there Anything i can do to sitmiulate him to want to eat more?
I've tried everything i can think of so far (hand feeding crickets, trying meal worms, wax worms, silk worms and house flies) Nothing. He is just not intrested. For the last 2 days i have been placing a towel over top of his cage so he doesn't see me when i enter and exit the room and i have been placing his cage out in a sunny area in the morning time with me so i can watch him catch some rays for about 20-30mins. (i usualy try to be extermly quiet and calm and my movements are slow and not scarey or startling while were outside) He is also still showing signs of stress by his coloration. He has only become green on his belly while his back remains brown. I'm stressed though. I'll fill out the help form if nessasary but what do you think? Is it time to go back to the vet?

 

[Miss Lily]

Firstly, is he drinking enough? A dehydrated chameleon doesn't have much of an appetite for food either. What is his urate looking like? Monty has slowed down his eating in the last month or so, and although he is still small (compared to a Veiled of the same age) I realise that he is at the age where he will naturally eat less. Could you post the pics so we can see the difference? Also it can't hurt to fill out the 'form' in case there is something not quite right.

 

[skittles1234]

He is drinking fine as far as i can tell. I just set up my misting system that came in the mail and he sat there with the nozzle lapping up the water that dripped out while it was running. I'm going to fill the form out. These pics are the ones i took today of him. i attached an old thread where i posted pics of him when he first arrived a month ago. https://www.chameleonforums.com/rescuing-rex-please-help-82204/
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Jackson male 1 month
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? about 6 times since i've had him
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? crickets mealworms wax worms silk worms and flies. crickets gutloaded with leafy greens, collard musturd. carrots on occastion. and i give him about 8 insects at a time and he only goes for maybe 1-2 of them if he goes for them at all.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Rep-Cal is the brand of all of them. calcium daily without D3 and cal with D3 or herptivite every weekend
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I have a dripper system a humdifier and a mister system. I still spray about 4 times daily for 3 mins each time.
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Yes he was tested and no parasites were found. He has not been pooping as much as my other chams, i think thats from the lack of food intake? but its brown with white urate on occastion it has a tiny bit of orange.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. Bad pet store had him

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Its a homemade enclosure made of pet friendly screen and pvc pipe. the top is a metal grate that is coated in a white plastic layer and allows lots of light to flood through
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? repti glo 5.0 UVB tube light and a 40 watt house bulb that i set up just like in jdogs video
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? basking spot never goes over 83-85 and the cage itself stays a nice 75. I have 2 probes and a temp gun
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 50%-80% depends on when the mister goes off. i have ordered a fogger as well for them. and i use a hygrometer
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? I have just a ficus in his enclosure no fake plants. the only thing fake is his branches.
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? No air vents or fans near him. He is about 5 ft off the floor. there is traffic so i cover the front of the cage with a damp towel (keep humidity up)
Location - Where are you geographically located? Florida

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
not eating much. losing weight

 

[Miss Lily]

The only thing I can pinpoint is an issue with over supplementing. Hopefully Xanthoman will see this and add his opinion. I only give Monty plain calcium once a week and Reptivite (No D3) once a week too. I give Reptivite WITH D3 once every 6 weeks. If you were told to give calcium every day to aid recovery, I may have missed that somewhere.

Overall the temps and set up seem really good. I see from your other thread that you rescued him, so he may still have a problem that wasn't picked up on before. Have you tried offering different feeders? The only thing Monty shows any real interest in at the moment is silkworms and woodlice. You could start a culture of woodlice and breed them. What about flies - blue bottles are a good flying feeder to stimulate them to hunt. With regard to pooping, mine only poops once or twice a week since his appetite dropped off. He also won't eat every day any more either.

 

[skittles1234]

I was told by the vet to give dust my feeders with calcium everyday and then the D3 every weekend until he is back up to parr just to give him a boost. But i will cut that out if you think it might help. Sometimes these vets are good with reptiles in general but not chams for some reason, they get vets really stumpped (depending on the vet and his/her experience) but i really am clamming down now espcially now that you said your guy is doing the same thing. After we had this discussion and posted this thread i went and checked him and it appears he ate 2 crickets. I have been trying silkworms, wax worms, mealworms, crickets and i have a culture of house flies. He ignores all. sometimes the bugs will even sit right next to his head and he ignores the like they weren't even there. Thats where i got my concern from.
From what you can tell by the pictures does he appear to be too skinny or in a way that i need to get him help asap?

 

[Miss Lily]

To me, he doesn't look overly skinny. Did you weigh him when you got him and again lately? His colouring looks a little odd. Mine is bright green rather than the yellow/brown colour that yours is showing. I too can hold food right in front of Monty, but if he isn't hungry he just won't eat it!

 

[skittles1234]

He does get a little prettier when he isen't out. He darkend up when i brought him out. I'm gonna keep a close eye on him and hope for the best. He will go stright to the vet the min he starts sleeping during the day or doing any other odd behaviors. I'm hoping he wil pep up a bit more soon

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Is he that color all the time? Or was it just because you had him out to take pictures? I don't think he looks skinny really. How big are the crickets you're offering? If he's eating a few large crickets every day then I wouldn't worry. If those are small crickets then that might not be enough. Sometimes if there's too much food in the cage they get a little overwhelmed and don't go for any of it. Try giving him only 3 feeders in the morning and if he eats those then try another 3 around lunch time and see if he's interested. You don't want that many uneaten feeders running around the cage anyway.

It sounds like there is still too much activity around him. You put up the towel and take down the towel, you move his whole cage outside where his entire environment changes, then move it all to bring it back in. I suggest finding a quiet corner of your house where he can be without seeing you much and stop putting up a towel, and stop taking him outside. The towel is just one more thing that changes. And it might be scary to have something very large suddenly invade his environment. Remember, they're prey animals so they think that everything wants to eat them. That's just too much activity, despite your efforts to keep him calm. Let him chill for a month or two and get used to everything. It took my jackson a few months to settle in when I first got him.

 

[skittles1234]

thank you. i knew i wasen't helping much with the towl thing. i figured it was a better solution though. i'm going to move him one last time to the den in my house where barely any action occurs and see what happens then. I haven't been handling him in fear that that would cause more stress then i'm obviously already causing. I have a bug cup i leave in his cage that maybe 2 or 3 crickets at the most escape from so there isen't to much action. I usually only put 5 smaller to med sized crickets in the cup so i can moniter his intake. I only put one type of insect in at a time, except for the crickets i will drop 1 mealworm in the bottom of the cup to for variety. Flies i usually only use on occasion because they tend to fly out of the cage and bounce off my window for a few hours till i catch them. Wax worms are a treat and silk worms i use for a treat as well. I just ordered some horn worms.

 

[skittles1234]

just a quick update. i know i wasen't suppose to move him to much more but i had to move him while i moved his cage. so i misted him off and my boyfriend took him outside to ctahc some rays on his ficus. there a fly landed on his tree and he ate it!! omg i hope that fly doesn't cause any problems for him!! It was a wild fly. Anyway though my boyfriend ran in and told me what he had done so i ran outside and grabbed 4 crickets and he ate them all from my hand!!! my hand not from the tongs or the inside of the cage. he wants to get out to eat apparently. he was so happy he turned bright green and hid from me behind the ficus after he got his fill and then took off exploring. i'm still moving him to the den but i think that this is excellent progress by far!!! i'm so elated i almost cried!!

 

[OldChamKeeper]

Very nice pictures.

His body weight doesn't look to be low. He could gain a little but that's not what is catching my eye.

Based on what I've read here and seeing in his pictures, he looks stressed. I'd suggest what has been said already in that he needs a bit less excitment. He also looks a little dehydrated, which is common if the animal is stressing.

From your last post it sounds like he just got hungry enough to eat and ignore whatever has been upsetting him. That's a good thing since it menas he can overcome things enough to eat, now you just need to help him out with that and give him a bit more peace and quiet? They need places where they can sit and not see a flurry of activity, and they are quite smart. That meaning they like consistency and they know they know their way around their home... so set it up where he has places that don't change and he can dodge all the humans he'd like to hide from.