Constipation?

[Silkyslim]

I been growing more concerned recently about Samson. I searched high and low for some dookies but I haven't found any for about a week now. He still eats daily but I am thinking something could be wrong.

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - 10 mo. Male Sambava Panther. Have had him for 3 months now.

* Handling - Every other day, hes very chill.

* Feeding - crickets, hornworms and supers (dubias in near future) gutloaded with lots of various fruits and veggies (no cabbage family or spinach)

* Supplements - RepCal Herpative & Cal w/ D3. Sticky Tongue farms Minerall indoor I will go Fridays alternating between the RepCal products with the sticky tongue the other days.

* Watering - I have a Mist King installed, that mists 3x a day for a total of 7 mins. He drinks i have seen it a lot.

* Fecal Description - White urates. Brown poo looks like it always has when it was present. Used to go every day

* History - have had Samson for 3 months or so now. He is a very active cham with a huge appetite.

Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 2x2x4 LLL Reptile aluminum screen

* Lighting - 18" ReptiGlo 5.0, 18" 5000k color "natural Sunshine" bulb, and 75 W reg. bulb in 8.5" ceramic heat lamp. Lights on @ 7:00 am and out at 7:30pm. Will be adjusting lengths with the seasons too.

* Temperature - Basking spot is at 82.9. Cage floor reads 73.4 right now. Lowest overnight temp so far was 68 bottom and 73 top. I use 1 Fluker's digital thermo/hygrometer on bottom and a digital thermo/hygrometer from Menards for outdoors.

* Humidity - Right now after 2nd mist its at 80%. Usually drops down to 60% by night time. Maintained with mist king on schedule listed above.

* Plants - Yes, 3' Ficus, and 2 umbrella plants. 12" of fake vine and lots of sticks of various depth within the cage.

* Placement - In my room it is very low traffic. The top of the cage is over 6' from the floor. The cage is close to a picture window with the shades closed.

* Location - Central Wisconsin.

I recently built a free range for him consisting of 2 pothos and another ficus connected with vines. There is also a 5.0 24" Repti-Sun and a grow light along with a 100W light about 1.5 feet from a pothos for him to bask in.


My concern is his lack of dookies lately and I don't want any problems to come about in the future. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[carol5208]

So dookies is poop? but then you said the past two days you found... urate, then and no poop?

 

[Silkyslim]

I think I found old urates as they were within the plant pot (not usually a spot I look around in) Ohh I see what you mean. I copied and pasted this card and updated it so I wouldn't have to go through the whole thing. ill go over it again make sure everything is correct

The last poo I found was the biggest one I have seen from him yet. It was a little bigger than a quarter I would say.

I cut his feeding back to 6 crickets a day. Yesterday he ate an adult dubia. His appetite is still as good as it ever has been I just can't find the dookies!

I have looked in all the areas of his free range too to no avail. As I mentioned, he is still a good eater and an active cham when not basking. I'm not overly concerned at this point because of those factors but want to prevent an issue if possible.

 

[carol5208]

Are you absolutley positive your scoured everything with like a magnifying glass!? I had thought the same thing one time and it was attached and dried to the side of a branch!! My Sambava is about the same age as yours and pretty much poops everyday so I don't want to tell you on this one!!! I hope you find the missing poo! All joking aside, I hope everything is ok.

 

[pssh]

When they eat less they start pooping less. If you still don't get any poop in a few days (with extra hydration and sun if possible) then you can try giving him a drop of mineral oil. Sometimes it helps things pass along more smoothly!

 

[Silkyslim]

Yeah I will try that if things don't come to an end?!?!?! Get it?! haha

What I was hoping to find out about mostly was little home remedies such as the mineral oil.

What about a warm bath perhaps?

 

[carol5208]

Yes, I was given that suggestion when I thought my chameleon had not gone but that was before I found the missing poop incognito! I was told to take a small container of warm water and submerge him in the water and massage the stomach and see if that helps. I know when I had my tortoise, putting him warm water was an instant way to get him to poop, so maybe it will work for chameleons!

 

[pssh]

I don't like giving mine 'baths.' it's so stressful for the poor guys. I prefer to make them sit through a long long warm misting (they don't like that either, but it's less stressful.)

 

[sandrachameleon]

I wouldnt worry too much - not yet anyhow. Increase water or juicy feeders perhaps, if you are concerned. Its not uncommon for them to go a week, even occassionally up to two weeks, without a poop.

 

[Silkyslim]

Well it has been about a week and half now since I saw his last poop.

I just got done observing Samson sit in the poop position for about 20+ mins.
Nothing happened. At the end of it all I even saw Samson close his eyes for about 10 seconds, so now I am pretty concerned. I grabbed a little pan of warmer water and set him in it, he chilled for about 2 mins. before deciding he was over the bath and crawled back into his cage, poopless

On the plus side, his appetite is still there (but I am hesitant to feed him a lot) and yesterday I actually saw him shoot his tongue at a water droplet which was pretty sweet!

Tomorrow I will be ordering some hornworms but by the time they arrive it will be over 2 weeks since his last movement. I am thinking maybe I should take him to the vet, but really what can a vet do to stimulate a movement?
Mineral oil was mentioned by one member but how would I "apply" it for lack of better term. My first though would be to inject a dubia with oil the way one would some Rept-Aid.

 

[kinyonga]

Do you have a substrate in the cage?

 

[Texas Panther Man]

You can give him the min oil by way of an eye dropper or a pippette. He only needs a drop. I'd try a nice long warm/not hot shower. At least 20 min. That makes most of my crew go every time.

 

[Silkyslim]

Nope, there is no substrate within the cage. He used to bite at the branches nubs when I first got him but I haven't heard/saw him do that for over a month now.

I'll have to try the shower thing tomrrow as I am now at work for the night. Plus I am sure the ficus could use a good watering as well.

I'm worried when he finally does go it'll be so big it will cause a problem for him.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

One of my gravid females didnt go for a cpl of weeks and she passed a massive poo. So he shouldnt have any issues if hes not got a blockage. I try the shower and if that doesnt work then I'd try the drop of min oil. You do that and give him horns and he'll go if everythings working properly for him. Horns usually make chams have slightly runny poo so that should help.

 

[kinyonga]

You can try babyfood pears.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Mineral oil was mentioned by one member but how would I "apply" it for lack of better term. My first though would be to inject a dubia with oil the way one would some Rept-Aid.

I do not recommend oil - chameleons do not like it, and it has the potential of bothering their airways if you're not careful.

However, what some people do is smear a small amount on the back of a cricket, or under a male crickets wings, or under a male roaches wings, or inject into a roach.

 

[Silkyslim]

I do not recommend oil - chameleons do not like it, and it has the potential of bothering their airways if you're not careful.

However, what some people do is smear a small amount on the back of a cricket, or under a male crickets wings, or under a male roaches wings, or inject into a roach.

Yeah I don't think Samson would be too keen on a dropper or pipette in his mouth. If he gaped at me then that might be a different story but hes too darn chill.

I am going to do this:

Tomorrow AM is shower time for 15 mins. minimum to 30 mins max. If there is no poo then what I will do is inject a dubia with a small amount of mineral oil and go from there. Tomorrow will also be hornworm ordering day. If he still hasn't poo'ed by mid next week after getting some hornworms in him then it's vet time for Samson.

It has to be uncomfortable for him to actually close his eyes while trying to poo. Poor guy even shook a little like he was trying to push, so I feel horrible and want to fix this asap.

Turns out this little guy climbed right my heart because this is dominating my thinking the past few days and I would be devastated if he didn't crap himself to death.

 

[seifer]

Mine just had a similar problem, it got to the point that one side was getting bigger. He probably hadn't pooped for a week and a half and i noticed this morning he was eating dirt (dangerous recipie for constipation!). I had given him a TON of water the day before which probably helped... So, i put some big river rocks over the dirt and gave him a bath with warm water and rubbed his bump (it definitely felt like some dookie). He even rubbed up against me realy hard while escaping the bath which i think helped the move it. 2 hours later and he finally passed it! I was going to take him to the doc if he didn't do it today so thankfully he did. It definitely might be worth a trip to the doc if he still hasnt done it soon...

 

[Silkyslim]

Warm shower time! Hopefully this whole situation will be over with shortly

 

[Silkyslim]

Wow did that warm shower work fast! In less than 5 mins out came the biggest poo I had ever seen from him. Glad that is over with too and now things can get back to normal for us. Now where is that camera........