Help, baby wont eat.

ericthornhill

ericthornhill

New Member
Please help....I've had a veiled chameleon for 2 weeks now, and he is very young. Until recently, he was eating his crickets as soon as I put them in his terrarium, (4-7 per day). But for the last five days or so, it seems as if he doesn't have any interest in food all together...As far as I'm aware, he eats 2-0 crickets per day, which really concerns me. All he does is sit in the top right corner of his cage, right next to the UVB bulb...which is a few inches above him; (this is a coil UVB bulb, which I've heard may be a problem). And once I turn it off at night, he moves to his vine, and goes to sleep. For the majority of the day he is a light brown colour, rather then a nice emerald green, which he was a week ago. His urine is white, but he only has a small amount of poop. He also has a soil substrate at the bottom of his cage, which I do plan on getting rid of tomorrow. Please, if anyone has any idea of what may possibly be wrong with my chameleon, please help me out. :(

Thank you, Eric
 
What are the temperatures like in the top of the cage? there is a basking bulb? whats the cage made of? The ambient temp is cool I assume, may need more heat? Is it possibly pre-shed? Is there anything in the room disturbing it? Has it got plenty of visual securety, i.e. plants to hide in, real or otherwise?
Filling out the ask for help questionaire will yeild you more helpful responses.
 
Chameleons Info

jojackson said:
What are the temperatures like in the top of the cage? there is a basking bulb? whats the cage made of? The ambient temp is cool I assume, may need more heat? Is it possibly pre-shed? Is there anything in the room disturbing it? Has it got plenty of visual securety, i.e. plants to hide in, real or otherwise?
Filling out the ask for help questionaire will yeild you more helpful responses.
Click to expand...

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Glass, 15*15*24 (heard it was okay for babies)
Lighting - one 13W Exo*Terra UVB coil light bulb and one 75W Zoo Med Infrared heat bulb. Infrared on 24/7, UVB on for 12 hours per day
Temperature - Floor-basking spot: 74-92. Lowest overnight temp: 70 all measured with a thermometer
Humidity - 50%-70% done by misting
What do you use to measure humidity? hydrometer
Plants - Are you using live plants? one fake vine and one fake fern
Placement - in our dining room, next to our kitchen, low-moderate traffic area?
At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 3-4 feet off the ground
Location - Calgary, Alberta (western canada)....dry climate.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, Male, 1 month-2months old.
How long has he been in your care? 2 weeks
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? once a week
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? crickets
What amount? 8 in cage per day, but he only eats a couple, if any.
What is the schedule? 12 PM I put them in his terrarium
How are you gut-loading your feeders? with gut loaded meal found at pet store and apples.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Repashy Superfoods T-rex Chameleon Calcium plus..every cricket is dusted each day.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Misting and Drip...3 mists and 2 drips per day, water is hard water.
Do you see your chameleon drinking? never, but urinate is white.
Fecal Description - 1 week prior, brown, not too runny. Today, almost no fecal matter, and all shrivelled and dry.
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? never
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. Bought at local pet store.
Current Problem - Hasn't been eating his crickets for the last few days.
 
ericthornhill said:
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Glass, 15*15*24 (heard it was okay for babies)
Lighting - one 13W Exo*Terra UVB coil light bulb and one 75W Zoo Med Infrared heat bulb. Infrared on 24/7, UVB on for 12 hours per day
Temperature - Floor-basking spot: 74-92. Lowest overnight temp: 70 all measured with a thermometer
Humidity - 50%-70% done by misting
What do you use to measure humidity? hydrometer
Plants - Are you using live plants? one fake vine and one fake fern
Placement - in our dining room, next to our kitchen, low-moderate traffic area?
At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 3-4 feet off the ground
Location - Calgary, Alberta (western canada)....dry climate.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, Male, 1 month-2months old.
How long has he been in your care? 2 weeks
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? once a week
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? crickets
What amount? 8 in cage per day, but he only eats a couple, if any.
What is the schedule? 12 PM I put them in his terrarium
How are you gut-loading your feeders? with gut loaded meal found at pet store and apples.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Repashy Superfoods T-rex Chameleon Calcium plus..every cricket is dusted each day.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Misting and Drip...3 mists and 2 drips per day, water is hard water.
Do you see your chameleon drinking? never, but urinate is white.
Fecal Description - 1 week prior, brown, not too runny. Today, almost no fecal matter, and all shrivelled and dry.
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? never
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. Bought at local pet store.
Current Problem - Hasn't been eating his crickets for the last few days.
Click to expand...
I said this before on another thread, but a device for measuring relative humidity is called a hyGrometer. A hyDrometer is something completely different :p
 
Please try to offer advice next time. That post didn't really help his chameleon did it? As for last time when you corrected me, I'm on my phone. Mistakes happen.

You should not use that coil bulb or you could have some problems later from it. You do not need a night time bulb unless your house drops below 50 degrees. His basking spot should be about 80-83 degrees. Does he have a lot of cover? It sounds like he may not. Try using real, non toxic, plants as veileds will often eat plant matter even if it is fake. If he ate a fake leaf he could be come impacted (blockage of the intestines) which can be deadly or leave you with a very large vet bill.

Remove the substrate for the same reason as the fake plants. Does your calcium have d3 in it? Does he get any other food beside crickets? If not, try flies, silkworms, or roaches and see if he likes those better.
 
I'm really sorry if I came off as calling anyone stupid or anything. I honestly didn't mean it that way, but feel really bad if that's how I made you took it :( , so I really just had to apologize.
 
I didnt see him mention substrate anywhere pssh, maybe im senile. *shrugs*

Eric, as advised, 92f is a bit too high for so young an animal, around 80f is good. Either lower wattage or move the bulb further away.
That young, my money would be on it simply finding crickets a bit of a challenge to catch. You could try suspending a plastic cup near and just below, a favorite perch, that the crickets cant escape from.
Another possibility that comes to mind is that the crickets may be a bit on the large side.
Very little chams are not as adventurous as say baby beardys. For this reason, I always prefer to offer more of smaller insects rather than fewer and larger.
If the crickets are bigger than the space between its eyes then they are too big.
Sometimes getting the right size is difficult, with a baby, my idea works well, you can offer pinheads if nessesary, though they may seem to small, just offer more.
Im not familiar with the size terms used in America but roughly pinhead up to 8 week old crickets should be ok for a lizard the size of yours.

You might mist an extra time or two a day if you rely on that method, just top be sure the lizard is getting enough water. Try different (apt sized) bugs aswell, variety is best.
You might find small silkworms will be readily eaten. Generally as much variety as you can get in your area, but keep size in mind.

See how you go withy smaller bugs and cup feeding, let us know.
best wishes
 
He said it in his first post. He said he was getting rid of it, so I just wanted to state why it would be a good idea.

Monties: I'm sorry, I was annoyed at something else when I posted that. I shouldn't have been as harsh.
 
thankyou

'pssh' and 'jojackson', thank you for your advise..Both posts were very helpful, and I will use your advise to try and deal with my problem. Today Bought more vines for his terrarium, and moved him to a less public area, (my room). He seems a bit less stressed with more plants, and this morning he pooped a half digested cricket. Is it possible that it may have been clogging him up causing him to not have the desire to eat? As well, when a chameleon is compacted, can he/she poop at all? He still hasn't eaten anything, but I'm going to try some pinheads tomorrow. Its only 90-92 at his basking spot, where the terrarium on average is around 82.....is that still too hot for a juvenile?

As for plants, I want to buy some live ones, but which ones are best for veiled chameleons? I'm really sorry for all the questions...I've just been stressed about my chameleon not eating, and its been getting to me. 'Monties', don't worry about it...again, I've just been desperate for someone to give me some advise, and knowing the difference between a hygrometer and hydrometer wasn't quite what i was looking for. But thanks anyways...I'm sorry for being rude.
 
If it were me, I would replace the UVB light with a repti-sun 5.0 long linear tube light and I would use a regular household incandescent bulb in a hood for a basking light.

I keep baby veileds temperatures in the low 80's F. There small bodies can overheat and dehydrate easily and I don't want them to grow too fast and develop bone issues.

At that age he should be eating more than a couple of pinhead/small crickets a day. Are the crickets you are feeding it of an appropriate size?

I gutload/feed my crickets with a wide assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, celery leaves, etc.)

You said you use "Repashy Superfoods T-rex Chameleon Calcium plus..every cricket is dusted each day"...I'm not familiar with what's in these...but I use Rep-cal calcium at most feedings, Rep-cal with D3 twice a month and Herptivite twice a month.
 
Possibly the reason for the half digested cricket, & possibly why its not eating is that temps are a little too high. Higher than normal temps may be discouraging your little lizard from basking long enough for proper digestion and to increase its metabolism enough to be hungry.
As I mentioned before, though your lizard is 2 months and wont be too long off requireing slightly warmer temps (they grow fast), these quoted temps are intended as a guide only, to avoid tradgic accidents.
Like I said, slightly cooler is safer than slightly hotter, your lizard will simply bask a little longer. So yes, perhaps drop the basking temp to between 80-85f, and the ambient temp in the 70's, at night 60f is quite acceptable.
As always keep up the water. :)

Impacted lizards can still poo, but it depends on the severity of the problem. It may initially feel unwell, leading to a lack of drinking which will make things worse. Eventually its intestinal contents will become insoluable (hard) and difficult to pass, it will strain to poo, and may even prolapse trying. In the worst case it cant poo and ofcourse, if you dont poo, you die. :D
Keep an eye on its toilets, look for undigested bugs (almost whole) which might suggest its not basking enough, and at the white part (urates) which if mostly yellow/orange will indicate its not drinking enough.
Urates are not always as white as driven snow, so dont panic if there's a tiny yellow bit.
See how ya go now mate. :)
 
Last edited:
What color are his urates? He could be dehydrated and that tends to make younger chams not eat as much. If his urates aren't white and are tinted yellow or orange he needs a dripper more often. If you use the dripper to drip onto a leaf that hold water well and that is within his vision he will drink from it. Probably just not in front of you as chameleons drink when they know you are not around until they get used to you. they if you spoil them they will drink straight from the spray bottle with their mouth wide open. lol. Also the ambient temp should be in the mid to upper seventies and shouldn't exceed 82 degrees as that means the basking spot is bound to be in the ninties and that is way to hot for a little guy like that. Are his eyes really full or a tad less bulgy than usual? Good luck.


Justin


EDIT: Wow I didn't relize there was a second page of posts and that jojackson already posted what I had posted.
 
Last edited:
Why not pssh? What has age got to do with using a dripper? I ran a dripper from around that age. The earlier it discovers an easily accessable drinking source the better.
 
The whole too small and possibly breathing in the water thing. We don't exactly know how big it is, and he said it is between 1-2 months old. If it's more towards 1 month, then the drips might be bigger than his eyes! Am I too cautious?
 
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