Eating problems

Addisenxl2

Addisenxl2

New Member
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, not sure how old he is, Pet Supplies Plus didn't know. I've had him for over 2 months.
  • Handling - He just started going to his terrarium door when he wants out. But I don't always let him get his way, he needs to bask. But he's getting tame, he now lets me grab him with my hand instead of me having to put my sweatshirt on and pull my sleeve over my hand to grab him.
  • Feeding - As of now, super worms (2-3 times a week) and crickets every day. Normally 10 crickets, and 3-4 super worms. Crickets are fed normally around 7, when I get home. I have about 250 crickets setup into a rubbermaid tub, going to be breeding soon.. and I always gut-load them with apples and use the Flukers water cubes and their cricket food.
  • Supplements - I always dust his crickets with Exo-Terra MutliVitamin and twice a month I dust with Flukers d3
  • Watering - I use a spray bottle and a Flukers Mini Dripper. I normally mist mornings, afternoons, evenings and at night before bed. Not much, I've only been able to catch him a couple times. I thought he might've bean really dehydrated, so what i did was take a spray bottle and lightly sprayed his mouth with it, he started drinking and I kept spraying and spraying until he stopped.
  • Fecal Description - His feces are normal, brown and normally shaped. We are taking him to the vet Monday.
  • History - Well, he was a huge eater. He loved his crickets and super worms, but once he started being more adventurous and coming out of his terrarium for half an hour to an hour, he just stopped eating as much. I don't know what happened, but now I take him out for a minimum of 30 minutes and he just ate only one super worm and refused to eat another. (He wont eat anything else)

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - ZooMed reptile Breeze Open Air Screen Cage. 18 x 18 x 36 (Large)
  • Lighting - ZooMed Mini Deep Dome fixtures and ZooMed 5.0 UVB and a 50 Watt turtle basking bulb (I can't find anything that is 65 Watt) From about 8am to 10pm
  • Temperature - Well, his basking spot is I'd say about 6-7 inches away from his lights and about 34-36 inches from lights to the bottom. 65-70. ZooMed Digital Thermometer. His basking temperature is about 85 degrees on average.
  • Humidity - I'm not sure, I can't find anything to measure humidity with inside a screen terrarium. (Any suggestions, please do recommend) I help the humidity by misting about 4 times per day, but I am increases that to about 6. I also use a mini dripper system.
  • Plants - No.
  • Placement - In my room. No, I'm the only one who comes into my room. The cage is about 10 inches from the floor.
  • Location - Ohio.
 
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I'd try and add more variety to his diet. BSFL are a great feeder and naturally high in calcium. Silkworms are also great, waxworms can be used sparingly since they are high in fat. Maybe look into the various roaches too.
I'd also stop picking him up. I have NEVER picked up my chameleon but I let him crawl onto my arm if he so chooses. Some days, he prefers to stay in his cage. I respect his space and he has never bitten me.
 
Crashbandit05 said:
I'd try and add more variety to his diet. BSFL are a great feeder and naturally high in calcium. Silkworms are also great, waxworms can be used sparingly since they are high in fat. Maybe look into the various roaches too.
I'd also stop picking him up. I have NEVER picked up my chameleon but I let him crawl onto my arm if he so chooses. Some days, he prefers to stay in his cage. I respect his space and he has never bitten me.
Click to expand...

Okay, thank you. I just ordered some hornworms and I did just order BSFL from Dubai Roaches last night but unfortunately they won't be here until about January 5th :( But i'm going to the pet store today for my beardie and hopefully they'll have something...
 
In my opinion he needs a much bigger cage. How long are your misting sessions actually for? He looks ready to start slowing down on eating, there is pretty much no reason to feed him every day anymore, as he seems to be slowing down himself. Are you dusting with plain calcium every feed, the multivitamin twice a month, and d3 twice a month? Honestly this is the preferred method by most of the forum. However I use a multivitamin that has D3 included it's called an all-in-one multivitamin. Usually the most recommended one and the one I use because it is the easiest to adjust for you individual chameleons' needs, is the Repashy Calcium Plus LoD. I use it with all my various reptiles in various forms. For a veiled I wouldn't use it more than 3-4 times a week and then for the rest of the days just use plain calcium.
 
Andee said:
In my opinion he needs a much bigger cage. How long are your misting sessions actually for? He looks ready to start slowing down on eating, there is pretty much no reason to feed him every day anymore, as he seems to be slowing down himself. Are you dusting with plain calcium every feed, the multivitamin twice a month, and d3 twice a month? Honestly this is the preferred method by most of the forum. However I use a multivitamin that has D3 included it's called an all-in-one multivitamin. Usually the most recommended one and the one I use because it is the easiest to adjust for you individual chameleons' needs, is the Repashy Calcium Plus LoD. I use it with all my various reptiles in various forms. For a veiled I wouldn't use it more than 3-4 times a week and then for the rest of the days just use plain calcium.
Click to expand...

Usually 5-10 minutes. Should I get the extra large then and add an extra branch? I used the MultiVitamin 3-4 times a week and d3 twice a month. I'm guessing I should also decrease on the Multivitamin?
 
Andee said:
In my opinion he needs a much bigger cage. How long are your misting sessions actually for? He looks ready to start slowing down on eating, there is pretty much no reason to feed him every day anymore, as he seems to be slowing down himself. Are you dusting with plain calcium every feed, the multivitamin twice a month, and d3 twice a month? Honestly this is the preferred method by most of the forum. However I use a multivitamin that has D3 included it's called an all-in-one multivitamin. Usually the most recommended one and the one I use because it is the easiest to adjust for you individual chameleons' needs, is the Repashy Calcium Plus LoD. I use it with all my various reptiles in various forms. For a veiled I wouldn't use it more than 3-4 times a week and then for the rest of the days just use plain calcium.
Click to expand...

Also, I should go through with the vet appointment, right? Just to double check to see if he has parasites or anything?
 
Definitely reduce the multivitamin. You should technically be able to smell the parasites in his poop. Does it smell like sewage in the room when he poops? Is there any undigested feeders? Do you know if he's lost any weight? When you get the xlarge cage, definitely get a few more branches, in fact I would get more wooden dowels instead of the exo terra vines. However if you haven't taken him to the vet since you got him, I definitely think you should take him in general just to get a general check up just in case. Misting should definitely stay the same time frame, there is really honestly no need to do it six times a day in my opinion. If you want him to be more likely to drink from the mist use hot water and then when the mist comes out it will be warm. If his urates are white then you have nothing to worry about. If its yellow or orange, then he's honestly dehydrated a bit likely, depending how long its been since he last pooped.
 
To add to what @Andee said, yes, reduce the multi to twice a month but he sure to get a plain Calcium with NO D3 to dust with daily except the days you give the multi or D3.
 
Andee said:
Definitely reduce the multivitamin. You should technically be able to smell the parasites in his poop. Does it smell like sewage in the room when he poops? Is there any undigested feeders? Do you know if he's lost any weight? When you get the xlarge cage, definitely get a few more branches, in fact I would get more wooden dowels instead of the exo terra vines. However if you haven't taken him to the vet since you got him, I definitely think you should take him in general just to get a general check up just in case. Misting should definitely stay the same time frame, there is really honestly no need to do it six times a day in my opinion. If you want him to be more likely to drink from the mist use hot water and then when the mist comes out it will be warm. If his urates are white then you have nothing to worry about. If its yellow or orange, then he's honestly dehydrated a bit likely, depending how long its been since he last pooped.
Click to expand...

thank you. He just urinated earlier, and it was clear, which was a good sign and a reliever to me. His poop has never smelled before, but when I first got him i had him in one of those Exo-Terra little mini tall tanks with just the screen top, barely and ventilation and that was the reason. His poop has also gotten smaller, most likely from not eating as much. I'll try to feed him again in a little bit, and will cut down on the MultiVitamin. One question, what does it mean by him cutting back on eating?
 
Urinated? From what I know chameleons don't really urinate? They create what is called urates...
 
Why apologize? XD we are all learning here hun <3 It's natural to not know in the beginning, some reptiles do urinate. ^^
 
Because once they hit near 8+ months they cut back on food (at least the males do... females you have to do it on your own). It's not natural for chameleons to eat large amounts every single day. Adult males get fed around 8-12 adult crickets (or around that sized feeder) every other day. They get fat otherwise in captivity. Adults in the wild will usually eat around 4-5 bugs of various sizes maybe once a day if they are lucky at all. And they have huge territories to roam in the wild and regularly patrol. Think about, the MINIMUM cage size for your sized chameleon is 2ftx2ftx4ft cage, however they easily do much better and are generally much happier in larger cages and veileds tend to do better in free ranges all the time/most of the time.
 
Andee said:
Because once they hit near 8+ months they cut back on food (at least the males do... females you have to do it on your own). It's not natural for chameleons to eat large amounts every single day. Adult males get fed around 8-12 adult crickets (or around that sized feeder) every other day. They get fat otherwise in captivity. Adults in the wild will usually eat around 4-5 bugs of various sizes maybe once a day if they are lucky at all. And they have huge territories to roam in the wild and regularly patrol. Think about, the MINIMUM cage size for your sized chameleon is 2ftx2ftx4ft cage, however they easily do much better and are generally much happier in larger cages and veileds tend to do better in free ranges all the time/most of the time.
Click to expand...
Hey! Sorry for such a late reply. George is doing great he's drinking well and eating well. He gobbles down crickets again, but not as much as he first did. He also has eaten 5 hornworms within these 5 days, I wanted to get a little buff on him so I also have been giving him superworms and NutriGrubs. He adventures outside his terrarium still, today is cleaning day so he's hanging on his door right now just chilling. Thank you guys for the help and getting me to worry less! :)
 
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