Emilio the veiled chameleon won't eat! And he stresses in his cage! !

asyatic

New Member
Hi I have a veiled chameleon (male) and he will not eat, and I am very worried!
He is my first chameleon, and had a hefty appetite as a baby. We gave him horned worms, superworms, crickets AND silkworms in the last 8 days. He ate one horned worm only. He has been finicky for about a month when he was eating only superworms.

He shows his stress colors every time he is in his cage since I added syntheytic branches from Petland (he freaked when he first saw them) I took the out yesterday to see if that was the problem, but he's still dark all the time until I let him escape his cage onto my hand or the bamboo he sits on in the shower. I have been showering him every couple days to keep him hydrated as he sees disinterested in water as well. Any advice is appreciated!

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Male veiled cham 4 months, is usually dark stressed colors in his cage
* Handling - He tries to escape on my hands every time I open the door now, he tries to escape onto my hands and almost immediately turns nice green colors.
* Feeding - We always make sure he has crickets, superworms and have tried horn and silk worms but he didnt see interested. We gut load with oranges apples or carrots
* Supplements - flukers calcium, dusting often but not at 100% yet
* Watering - we mist him a couple times a day (he hates it mostly, running away) and give him 2L of drip water 1x day
* Fecal Description - black, small as of lately when he isnt eating. last "real" one was after a horn worm and it had clear stickyness on it.
* History - I love Emilio and am so scared for him! He used to eat crickets and superworms like crazy, now he is licking at dirt occasionally, and I put a clear container of crickets in his cage and he licked at the outside a couple times as he ignored the ones in his cage. He began a hunger strike from his superworm only diet about a month ago had a couple crickets and went back to a hunger strike until he had that horned worm.


Cage Info:

* Cage Type - Screen, 20x20x24 (we are saving for one 48" high)
* Lighting - UVB exoterra repti-glo 5.0 26watts/120 volts PLUS a zoo (200?) ed 50watt heating bulb
* Temperature - 2 gauges measure 65 on the floor and 85 in his basking light
* Humidity - I dont know the humidity levels. He gets misted a couple times a day, and I give him 2Litres in a home made drip every day.
* Plants - Yes a ficus
* Placement - by a widow, and where we walk by several times a day i the dining room
* Location - Canada


Thank you very much!
 
This is my Mister Emilio after a shower...

You can see his colors appear to be happy here! But he turns brown and spotted black after a short while i his cage and wants to be out and seems to prefer being on me to the cage. If he would only eat...
 

Attachments

  • emilio.jpg
    emilio.jpg
    117.2 KB · Views: 1,708
babies do not usually go on hunger strikes, it is more common in older chameleons. At 4 months your chameleon should be eating like crazy. A couple of things, are your feeders appropriately sized for HIS size? If feeders are too large he might not eat them. What size crickets are you using. I used 1/4 inch or a little larger at 4 months. Your dusting(which is extremely important). What do you mean not at 100% yet. You chould be dusting with a plain calcium with no d3 at every feeding. A multivitamin should be used a couple of times a month as well as calcium with d3 twice a month. Your lighting...all you need is one UVB bulb, reptiglo is fine but what is this 200 plus you are talking about?
 
Thank you for your reply!

Thanks Carl, I appreciate all the constructive criticism! I got Emilio as a surprise and have tried to learn and do all I can online to keep him healthy. He never had a problem eating inch long superworms, and and has always eaten loads of 1/2" crickets. Do you think I need to find smaller crickets? There is one 1/4'' one in his cage right now, and a couple a bit bigger which have been ignored for days :( I have had a few times put food (crickets especially) into his cage without dusting them on accident and been unable to catch and dust them afterwards, I'm determined but a novice with husbandry at this point!
 
I have one UVB light and one heating lamp.

if he has been eating those size crickets with no problems before then no, you don't need to get smaller. I just thought if you had introduced a new size and they were too large he might not want to eat them. I would order the 1/4 inch and of course they would grow, so they were bigger within a few weeks. Just what had worked for me at the time.... a couple of other things,... you mentioned him eat dirt. If the dirt is in the bottom of the cage, remove it. If it is dirt in a potted plant, then cover it with some large river rocks so he cannot have access to the dirt. Also, do not use a clear cup to put feeders in. Opaque would be better as you said he is shooting at the outside of the cup. You wouldn't want him to injure his tongue that way and he might. Just a thought, but if he has been eating dirt, then maybe that has something to do with his loss of appetite? Be sure and get the other two supplements I mentioned. You need three and you only have one
 
the veiled in the picture is not 4 months old. if it possibly is you have a mammoth veiled in the making :) the picture shows more like 1 1/2 years or more old VC. his colors arent bad and look fine to me. i would bump his temps up to 90 and move him from the window. cold air could be coming in from the window and making him cold (reason he is dark).

1.being cold could effect his appetite.
2.superworms imo arent a bad feeder but ive noticed some of mine becoming dependent on them and not liking anything else. ive also notice them eatting them like crazy then going on strike. personally i think it has to do with the nutrition of a superworm. throws there chemistry out of wack.
3. your boy looks healthy he can go a while without eatting. just make sure he is misted.
4. check him over. look especially in his mouth.
5. change your dusting schedule.
 
Last edited:
Good catch on the age. You are correct, he is a lot older than 4 months. He may be wanting out of the cage as the size you listed is mostly likely too small and making him want out.


the veiled in the picture is not 4 months old. if it possibly is you have a mammoth veiled in the making :) the picture shows more like 1 1/2 years or more old VC. his colors arent bad and look fine to me. i would bump his temps up to 90 and move him from the window. cold air could be coming in from the window and making him cold (reason he is dark).

1.being cold could effect his appetite.
2.superworms imo arent a bad feeder but ive noticed some of mine becoming dependent on them and not liking anything else. ive also notice them eatting them like crazy then going on strike. personally i think it has to do with the nutrition of a superworm. throws there chemistry out of wack.
3. your boy looks healthy he can go a while without eatting. just make sure he is misted.
4. check him over. look especially in his mouth.
5. change your dusting schedule.
 
stressed chameleon

Hi guys
I am having trouble here. Hope anyone can help!
I am new here and new to owning a baby veiled chameleon.
I first had him in a small glass container then he started digging into the ditdirt so I buibuilt him a screan cage that is 29" highth, 18" length, 16" width. I have a bunch of plants and climbing branches in the cage have a uvb light that is angled to shine through the whole cage and a 60 watt bulb for warmth and basking spot.
Have a small container of moss in the cage to keep humidity up. Top of cage is 78-80°f bottom of cage is low 70s During the day. I spray the leaves at least 3-4 times a day to keep him hidrated. He also eats and drinks like crazy.
At night he is perfectly fine but during the day I am having trouble.
He keeps pasing the cage turning dark green with brown spots. (I think he is stressed)
once I let him walk onto my hand he is a nice light green color without the dark spots but as soon as I put him back in he stresses again.
I don't know what to do. Hope someone could help please!
 
Start your own thread- you will get a much better response. Go to the top of the section and click on "new thread". Also, if you can answer all of the questionas the OP did that will help a lot! BTW- welcome!
 
Please start your own thread. It makes it easier for us to follow. Click on the word forums to do this and then select the forum you want to post it on (likely the health forum) and on that page you will see a blue box near the middle near the top that says start new thread...click on that and start your thread.

Please answer the questions in the how to ask for help thread at the top of the health forum once you start your thread and post some recent photos of your chameleon and it's setup.
 
Back
Top Bottom