Food and water refusal

[Bokaru]

Bad news today... At around 10:30 Peppers passed on. I tried to bring him back up to health, but with the fall yesterday and how fast the progression of his condition was occurring, I figured he was not going to come through.

In the end I hope I made him comfortable on the last day. He sat very high on the small branch I gave him to roost on and slowly turned very dark.

I really enjoyed the ten or so months I spent caring for Peppers. I just wish I would have tried to fix his loss of appetite sooner so as to hopefully have saved him. The immediate cause of death I know to be a combination of dehydration and not eating, but I don't know any more beyond that. We did not know his age, his gender, or much into his background before we owned him.

I would like to say that I did all I could and took care of Peppers in the best way possible, but today I know that as not true. As a first time Chameleon owner I feel my ignorance and naivety to probably easy to spot signs is in large part what did poor Peppers in.

I feel that one day I would enjoy getting another Chameleon, but for now I think I will call it quits. I want to make sure that I am fully capable of caring for one instead of improvising with back rooms and makeshift cages. I feel my care was adequate, but by no means superb.

I feel through this first experience with Peppers, I have learned a great deal of what to do with chameleon husbandry and a fair share of what not to do. I thank you all for the support, tips, help, and suggestions I have been given while caring for Peppers, and hope to one day use them again.

 

[YumeKitsune4]

We're gonna miss you Pepps. We'll always remember you this way, not how you were in your last days <3

 

[jannb]

I am so sad to hear the news about Pepper. My heart goes out to you.

 

[ChameleonNerd]

i had a similar problem (i did not read the other posts so i do not know if what i am saying is useless)
you can try to get your cham hydrated through simple methods like heavy misting and dripping, but when he is hydrated enough to eat food like crickets again, i suggest taking a small glass dish, fill it enough so a cricket can easily being dunked under, and stir some calcium powder in it. get the cricket wet but don't drown it, then pick it up by a leg or something and catch your cham's attention, then drop it in the bowl and wait. sometimes it will affect your chameleon's grip on the cricket so it will not be able to eat it, but it will hit it over and over again, just giving him calcium water. after a short while you can feed the cricket to him

 

[ChameleonNerd]

and now i see your little guy died. i'm sorry man

 

[fluxlizard]

Sorry for your loss.

A suggestion. If you decide to give it another try, next time get a captive bred veiled or panther chameleon.

Senegals have a reputation for crashing and dieing.

I think a big part of what happened with peppers was just the fact that he was a senegal and an import- it was a mismatched selection for your goal of just having a pet and your experience level. Had you chosen a captive bred veiled or panther chameleon, you probably would have been successful. You just chose the "wrong" species.

 

[YumeKitsune4]

We got Peppers under the assumption that you could take care of chameleons the same as any other reptile. We jumped on the computer the second we got home and found out how wrong we were, lol. We got him in a proper set up pretty quickly and he thrived for the 9 months we had him (thanks to all the help from all the awesome people on this forum).

Pepps really liked going outside for real sunshine. I feel like it was him being stuck inside as the cause for him not eating. The day after his vet visit, it was warm enough to take him out and we saw a huge improvement. I've never heard of this happening before, and I'm most likely totally wrong, but based on our time with him, that's just what it seemed like.

We're all still pretty upset about losing him, but after seeing his condition before he died, I feel like it was for the best. If we do ever try again, we will be getting a CB cham, just so we know more about the history. Senegals are great but getting one that looks exactly like Pepps would be a little much, as much as we love the species.

@chameleonnerd What a neat idea We would have definitely tried it but poor little Pepps never did get enough energy back to shoot his tounge We tried everything we could to get him rehydrated but nothing seemed to help out little guy.