Female panther not eating and orange urates??

Yzma<3

New Member
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Panther, Female, about 8 month old, had for 2 months
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon
Perhaps twice a week, depends when I go to uni
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders
Crickets, locusts, meal worms, superworms.
Around 7 feeders daily (morning),
Worms are fed sparingly as quite fatty.
I give them lettuce for water contemt and dry gut load them with Prorep Bug Grub.
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule
Calcium w/out D3 (zoo med) 5 times a week,
Multivit (zoo med) 2 times a week.
Dust them before feeding
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Big dripper (until the water runs out) and lucky reptile nano automatic mister (5/6 times a day for 30seconds to 1min- we have also had to hand spray her for about 5/10 mins every morning to make sure she is drinking.
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
Poop is healthy and brown, not too firm, not too wet.
HOWEVER!!! Her urates went from bright white, to half white and half orangy, to now mostly orange. There has been no changes appart from introducing meal worms.
Not beem tested- bred in captivity
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Nope- from a great shop who really care for their reptiles

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Currently in a glass exoterra, 2ft tall, 18" wide and deep. Screen top. I have bought a reptibreeze 4ftx2ftx2ft however don't wamt to move her while I think there is something wrong

  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule
Uvb light- Exo terra reptiglo 5.0, 15 watts, 15" tube. Also has a reflector to make the most of the light
Basking/heat light- prorep red spit lamp 100 watts, suspended by exoterra bracket (both lights outside on top of viv)
Both lights come on at 7am, and go off at 7pm daily

  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Basking temp is 28-30 celsius, measured by a Habbistat Dimming thermostat
Bottom of viv is around 22 celsius. Measured by thermometer x2
Lowest night temp can be around 18 celsius.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
60-80%
Have frequent misting and a dripper to have moisture in the air.
Dual Hygrometer and thermometer
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Mostly fake. Have a small devils ivy plant growing in the laying bin but it's still pretty small- tried getting an umbrella plant but waiting for the company to correct their mistake and send it to me.
  • 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?
Cage is in bedroom, to the side of the window, but not dorectly in the light. No noises or traffic. Go to work from 7:30-6 so alone most of the day apart from when I'm off or boyfriend sprays her
  • Location - Where are you geographically located?
Uk- England, Essex

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

Hi everyone!
So, my female panther is coming close to the end of her shed, however I could tell for a few weeks that she needed to shed soon because her skin would go white and patchy, then go back to normal (especially when misted).
However the past few weeks she has had very inconsistent urate colours. Poop is fine. But the urate went from bright white to mostly white, to mostly orange. We have monitered her and actually have been spraying her for longer, warm water in mornings and afternoons im addition to the dripper and the misting system. So why is this issue getting worse? She drinks when we spray her manually so it makes no sense to us. Also, her food imtake has reduced massively. We have pretty much sopped her eating crickets because she leaves them for days. She used to love locusts but barely eat them now- and will sometimes eat the worms (we cup feed, but we put a few locust hanging from the top of the mesh viv and she eats them- coaxing her to eat, but has lost interest again now).
She is showing bright colours like gravid but has not been interested at all in her laying bin. Been that way and colour for about a month amd a half now. Would she have laid by now if she had eggs? Other than eating and drinking,
she is absolutely fine and shows no other signs of dehydration... Loves getting soaked in the water- even stands infront of the mister(again which makes this problem more confusing)! Strong grip, confident in her cage, a bit jumpy and moody recently but what chameleon isn't!!! Please please help! (Here are some photos below)
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(She really hates my phone! So I have to do photos from a distance! Sorry!)

Thanks,
Karley
 
Usually they lay their eggs around 2months if all the condition are correct...I will suggest wrap that poo up or get a fresh poo find a chameleon specialist vet and hope the best.....yup....yup
 
And maybe move her to a all screen home,just in case she see her own reflection like a snow white....maybe she wanna be the only queen in her world without other female presence....every cham has their own personality...you will know better than anyone .... good luck.....yup...yup
 
I have bought a reptibreeze. but I was worried about moving her when she's not eating and drinking properly atm. What do you think?
Thanks for your help! does she look egg bound or dehydrated. could this all be linked to her shedding process? (though she didn't do this last time)
 
Well you still got about 15days..every female chams can be different like my sister and my other sister the baby can come early or late...just hope they laid their eggs out naturally without any problem....like some woman have to have c section....hopefully in time she will get those eggs out....I will suggest to see a gynecologist so she can be sure to be 100 percent healthy...yup...yup
 
She doesn't actually look that dehydrated to me- her turrets look pretty full, her casque isn't sunken, etc. How often is she having a bowel movement? The intestinal system is made to dehydrate urates, so the longer they sit in the tract the more dehydrated they become- constipated chams will often have orange urates as well. I can't say for sure that's whats going on, but it could be. Sometimes, if they are developing eggs, tehy can retain bowel movements for longer, making the urates oranger than usual. It's best to investigate every possibility, though, instead of just saying "It's eggs!", so good job for that!

Have you tried the shower method yet? Getting more water into her isn't going to hurt, and could help with a myriad of problems.

I would take in a fecal sample to your local reptile vet as soon as you have a fresh one. Captive bred reptiles can get intestinal parasites too! That's usually a good place to start as it rules out something fairly simple and relatively inexpensive, before moving on to the more "creative" options.

You may want to revisit her supplementation schedule, though- you may be over-supplementing her by a lot. The usual panther chameleon routine is:
Daily: Calcium without D3
Once Every Two Weeks: Calcium WITH D3
Once Every 2 Weeks: Multivitamin with prOformed Vitamin A (rotating with Calcium with D3)
By your schedule, you may be giving her 4x as much multivitamin as she needs, which can be very hard on their systems.

You will probably want to replace your red light with a simple incandescent light. There are several issues when using a red heat bulb, and using a bright white light for heat is generally a much better option. 100W red bulb seems like an awful lot of heat in a glass terrarium- have you checked the basing temp with your temp gun/probe? Unless it's raised much higher than the terrarium, I'd imagine your temperatures could get higher than 29C. I use a 100W plain white bulb in my Exoterra of the same size (not for my cham, for a skink) and it keeps the basking area at 33-34C by temp gun measurement.
 
She doesn't actually look that dehydrated to me- her turrets look pretty full, her casque isn't sunken, etc. How often is she having a bowel movement? The intestinal system is made to dehydrate urates, so the longer they sit in the tract the more dehydrated they become- constipated chams will often have orange urates as well. I can't say for sure that's whats going on, but it could be. Sometimes, if they are developing eggs, tehy can retain bowel movements for longer, making the urates oranger than usual. It's best to investigate every possibility, though, instead of just saying "It's eggs!", so good job for that!

Have you tried the shower method yet? Getting more water into her isn't going to hurt, and could help with a myriad of problems.

I would take in a fecal sample to your local reptile vet as soon as you have a fresh one. Captive bred reptiles can get intestinal parasites too! That's usually a good place to start as it rules out something fairly simple and relatively inexpensive, before moving on to the more "creative" options.

You may want to revisit her supplementation schedule, though- you may be over-supplementing her by a lot. The usual panther chameleon routine is:
Daily: Calcium without D3
Once Every Two Weeks: Calcium WITH D3
Once Every 2 Weeks: Multivitamin with prOformed Vitamin A (rotating with Calcium with D3)
By your schedule, you may be giving her 4x as much multivitamin as she needs, which can be very hard on their systems.

You will probably want to replace your red light with a simple incandescent light. There are several issues when using a red heat bulb, and using a bright white light for heat is generally a much better option. 100W red bulb seems like an awful lot of heat in a glass terrarium- have you checked the basing temp with your temp gun/probe? Unless it's raised much higher than the terrarium, I'd imagine your temperatures could get higher than 29C. I use a 100W plain white bulb in my Exoterra of the same size (not for my cham, for a skink) and it keeps the basking area at 33-34C by temp gun measurement.

Thanks for your reply!
I will switch up her vitamin routine! Thanks for pointing that out. Also which type of basking/heat bulb amd wattage do you recommend? The heat lamp is linked up to a dimmer stat which has a temperature setter dial. She likes this and actually basks on the sensor! But it's about 8 inches above her basking area.
She has been fairly constipated recently. She used to go every day nearly, but tends to go every few days now.
 
You could try giving her a few more hornworms and silkworms- they have plenty of moisture in them and can help "loosen" up stool if she is a bit constipated. I would get a sample to your vet as soon as you can though: some parasites can cause a 'slow gut', as it were.

Regarding your temperatures, I would probably double check the basing temp with a secondary thermometer (digital probe or temp gun)- just to be sure. I'm paranoid like that! lol I would switch out that red light, though, for a bright white. I'd try a 60W light to start, but if you really do need a 100W to keep her basking area about 29C, then go with that. You can usually find them fairy cheap so buying a few different wattage's to try shouldn't be a big issue.
 
Would a normal household spotlight bulb of 40W be ok? I've put it in and it seems to get to 28/30 celcius.
 
Usually the adult females require ambient 75-80F (23-26C), basking 80-85F (26-29C)and u saying u are using the 40w bulb,my question for u is have you try to adjust the space height in between her basking spot from the top of your heat lamp? And if that is a good distance in between ,then I would say the 40 watt should be fine,it just seems to me that is a lower wattage bulb to put out that much heat in her basking spot,maybe you just have a hotter room temperature thats all.:)
By look up my old replys above,this was and old thread from 2015,I do still remember those yup..yup day.lol:)
 
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