Feedback please :)

[Lucie]

Thanks everyone! Well OK the "reptarium" I purchased was the ZooMed Reptibreeze Aluminum Screened Cage (http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/zoo-med-reptibreeze-aluminum-screen-cages.html). It should arrive tomorrow and I am setting it up WITHOUT BARK! I originally thought the bark was OK because the bag had a big picture of a chameleon on it and it listed the animals that the bark should be used for, the first animal listed was chameleon... idk.

How can you tell your cham is drinking? I mist QID & I have the dripper on... never see Lucie going up to the leaves to drink or anything...

So, I took Lucie to my vet today. She palpated & took X-rays- said that she did not see or feel any eggs and that Lucie is not gravid. This is strange because now Lucie has started digging this elaborate tunnel in the sandbox I put in the tank. It is at least a foot deep and she has already reached the bottom. sigh. She looked like she was about to lay this morning, she had backed up to the hole but nothing was happening. Is she just digging this hole for fun?! I am so confused.

The vet did say Lucie looked dehydrated & malnourished. No bone deformities though. I force-fed Lucie like 10 waxworms/day for 5 days or so + letting her eat the free-roaming crickets in her tank (I never saw her eat any though...), but about 3 days ago I stopped. I kept seeing these blobs of undigested whole waxworms stuck together at the bottom of the cage, which I thought she was throwing up, until I saw a waxworm sticking out of her butt yesterday. So I guess she's just pooing them out without digesting. Vet gave her B12 injection to stimulate appetite b/c I haven't seen her going after any crickets, and a calcium injection too, so we'll see... she did say that she saw food in Lucie's stomach on the X-ray. She also told me to start cutting the waxworms in half, maybe it would help Lucie digest.

Help, what do you guys think?

 

[Elizadolots]

There are a load of products that suggest they are good for chameleons but aren't. I know I've seen at least one "water bowl" that had a picture of a chameleon on the label...i

A lot of people never see their chameleons drink. The only recourse is "poop check". Frankly, even if you're seeing your chameleon drink, it's a good idea to look at the poop. Somewhere around here there are pictures of "good poop". I think it looks a lot like bird poop: mostly brown grey, fairly solid, with a white bit at the top or end. That white bit is called the "urate". It should be white or cream colored. A bit of yellow or orange at the tip isn't too bad, but if it's all yellow or orange, your chameleon has a hydration problem.

I think you might have overdone it on the wax worms. They are basically blobs of fat and if you think about what would happen to you if you suddenly started to eat like 2 sticks of butter a day....well...it would probably be nasty. They are good for fattening up a chameleon who needs it though. Maybe give her 1 or 2 a day? Or even every other day.

Are the crickets disappearing? She might be eating when you aren't looking. Again...poop check is your friend! If she's producing that brown/grey blob, then she's eating.

Did you get the x-rays? Or, can the vet send you the file? There are people here who have probably seen far more chameleon x-rays than your vet has. I'm just sure people here would want to see that. I'm not a "veiled" person so don't know if they experience "false" pregnancies where there are no eggs. I also don't know if eggs might or might not be misread as "food" in an x-ray...

It seems like you're making a lot of progress and really working to help her. That's great.

 

[pssh]

I would get her more nutritous feeders that are worms (as she may be on a worm binge.) when allowed to eat only fatty foods or she has the option to choose between fatty foods and nutritious foods, she will choose the fatty ones and may not eat the nutritous ones without a little starvation. Try ordering some silkworms, hornworms, superworms, Phoenix worms, butter worms, roaches, and/or some flies. Most chams LOVE flies and silkies.

She may be digging because her cage is too hot. What temps are you keeping her at?

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."she had backed up to the hole but nothing was happening"...how long was she in the hole butt down? Did she sleep there? Did she fill the hole in?

I can't remember if anyone said this already....but when she is digging do not let her see you watching her.

You said you don't see her drink...have you tried dripping water on the end of her nose?

What is the temperature in the basking area and where Lucie sits?
Have you got the lights yet?

Are you using any supplements that have prEformed vitamin A in them or feeding anything to the insects with it in?

 

[Lucie]

Hooray!

So Lucie's new enclosure is all set up!

It has a hibiscus plant in it, with the sandbox, this reptile carpeting stuff like astroturf, a bunch of branches & plants & vines. She seems to enjoy it. She hasn't gone back into the sandbox to dig since yesterday. It looks like the appetite stimulant the vet gave her worked and she is eating everything in sight. She ate a couple of superworms yesterday and has been popping the crickets off of the screen like crazy. I put 5 or 6 crickets in last night, I saw her eat 2, this morning there were none left so I put more in, she has been hunting them down since. Hopefully she chubs up a bit. I haven't seen her poop but once I do, I'll bring it into the vet to check. The humidity is ~70 and the basking temp is 90.

Wow, I guess I did overdo it on the waxworms, I had no idea they were that fatty and should be used in smaller quantities! lol

So what kind of flies should I get? Petco has fruitflies, are those OK? They seem really small... what do you guys think about freeze-dried food? I've seen it @ the pet store in bottles & cans but I don't know how I could get her to eat that.

When she was digging the hole, she was doing it for about 2 days and was butt down for quite a while, usually before I went to bed @ night to the time I woke up in the morning. We just moved the sandbox to the new enclosure and covered up the hole.

I'm giving the crickets the orange cube thing for supplementation. I tried the calcium powder but by the time Lucie gets to the crickets, it's usually off. Dripping the water on Lucie's nose did make her drink, great idea.

Yes I have the lights- Reptisun 5.0 & the heat lamp.

 

[skully23]

You need more coverage and highway branches. The center of the cage is empty..what if she falls? She will have less chance of catching herself.
Where is the dripping tube? Sometimes my veiled will actually drink from the tube instead of waiting for the drops and on the leaves.
Im not an expert but many say that heat may cause her to dig. Well your cage is open and no leaves to let her hide besides the bottom left so the light basically just heats every open area. What size is ur bulb?

 

[pssh]

Be careful about over feeding. With her basking spot so high and with extra food she may start to cycle amassive clutch of eggs. That in turn would shorten her life (which I'm sure you dont want) I would lower the basking spot to about 80-83 ish. Also, a nice bushy plant in the middle of the cage would be awesome!

How deep is her laying bin? It should be able to hold 10-12 inches of moist sand plus have a few inches of side left so that the sand doesn't spill out when she digs.