Hunger Strike!

[MrColors]

My Jackson chameleon won't eat ANYTHING! He got bored with crickets, so I started mixing in some mealworms. He wouldn't eat those because they wouldn't crawl up the screen (sigh), so I tried superworms. I know that they are quite fatty, so I tried to space out his eating them, but very soon he got bored of those as well. I gave him white cabbage butterflies, which he relished for about two days, and then nothing. I also ordered blue bottle flies, which he refused from the get-go. I would love to order him some silkworms or hornworms, but the shipping alone is so expensive (I live in ND), and I don't know if they would survive 2-day shipping in this heat (97ish F) and 2 day shipping is already $17 on mullberryfarms.
He also has a very swollen eye, which I posted about in one of my previous threads...maybe that iss contributing to his hunger-strike? I don't know.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Jackson, male, unknown age (quite young), in my care since 6/23
Handling - once or twice daily
Feeding - See above
Supplements - I dust them with Exo-Terra Calcium + D3. I also have a Fluker's Liquid Vitamin supplement, though I am not sure the proper dosage so I have been holding off on this.
Watering - I have a make-shift dripper, as there is no way to have drainage in his type of cage--on top is a plastic cup with a hole poked in it which drips down past his favorite branch into a cup at the bottom. I mist him at least three times daily with warm water. I have just today taken him out and u sed a cloth to squeeze warm water on him (he LOVES it). I treat the water with StressCoat currently, as I am out of ReptiSafe. I am told that this is safe for him.
Fecal Description - Consistency of a raw egg; clear portion and a yellow-white portion; also a solid brown portion; it was tested on July 7th and both the float and direct came back negative

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen; 18x18x36; sits atop a 31 inch tall table
Lighting - UVB- Reptisun 5.0 Tropical; Day Heat- ExoTerra 50w Intense Basking Spot (He has climbing places and vines to be able to get about 2 inches from the light); no night heat as it never gets below 72
Temperature - The thermometer, near the top, reads a little over 75 during the day and closer to 70 at night. I have an ExoTerra thermometer/humidity gauge.
Humidity - Humidity levels never fall below 50% I mist him and his surroundings daily.
Plants - no live plants
Placement - His cage is on the first floor of my home in an extroardinarily low-traffic room. No other animals are allowed in. There is a large window in the room (not near enough for drafts) so he does get some natural sunlight as well. There are no nearby vents.
Location - Bismarck, North Dakota

Current Problem - See above.

Thanks so much!

 

[blackened]

I have no experience with owning a Jacksons, however I've been reading up on their care.

Handling once or twice daily is quite a lot for any chameleon. Unless he's really keen to come out I wouldn't do this quite so often.

Mealworms aren't very wholesome feeders. They have a poor Calciumhosphorus ratio and have high chitin because of their hard exoskeleton.

I would recommend doing some reading up on gut loading and nutritional values of insects. I've found sandrachameleon's blog to be very useful on this topic (and others): link

Jackson's require very specific supplementation. I'm not experienced enough to suggest how to go ahead with this. My understanding, however, is that currently he's getting too much D3.

Yellow in the fecal may be a sign of dehydration. Jacksons need to be kept more humid than other breeds of chameleon.

This is getting picky, but I'd personally prefer a little more distance between him and the light then 2". Don't want to risk any burns.

I would try keep the humidity between 70-80%. Live plants would help with this (see safe plants list - link) and I know a lot of Jackson's keepers use a fogger.

On your hunger strike problem. I'm not sure if slight alterations in your husbandry may improve appetite. When are you feeding him?

Best bet would be to get something new and tasty. Worms are always a treat. I understand it's difficult for you because of your location, but a silkworm, hornworm or butterworm would probably go down a treat!

 

[SpartyTessy]

IMO you should be giving him more mistings and by the sounds of you saying you are concerned with drainage you are probably not misting the cage long enough. IMO he should be getting misted at least 4 times a day and each time should be no shorter than 5 minutes. The humidity should never be below 70 during the day. Remember we need to accommodate to our Chameleon and figure out a way to drain the cage if that is the problem instead of not misting as much due to drainage.

Also it seems that your temp may be a little low. The basking area should be between 80-82 dropping to mid to low 70's lower in the cage. Also a more temp drop at night would not hurt. It is preferable that the temp drop 10-15 degrees at night. So I would get a more powerful bulb and place his basking spot further down than 2" from the light. He should not be closer than 6-8" of the light.

You should not be giving him Calcium plus D3 often and I hope that is not what you are doing here. You can give him Calcium with NO D3 about every to every other feeding but hold back on the D3 to once a month at max. In your case I would wait longer and let him flush it out of his system if you have indeed been over D3'ing him. Over supplementing is just as bad or worse than under supplementing. He may be rejecting food due to the amounts of D3 he has in his system.

Has anything changed since he started being more picky with food. Maybe you turned up the AC inside therefore causing his cage temp to drop?

To sum it up you need to work on all of the issues I stated but the most important is cutting back on the D3(if I assume you are giving to him often from your statement) and giving him plenty of water which will help in flushing out the excess D3. It should be very humid in the cage between 70 to 90 so you need to work on your drain system. Do this and I am sure he will turn around.

 

[MrColors]

As he is no longer eating crickets, he has not been getting D3. All I have to mist him is a spray bottle. Maybe if I got some sort of removable tray to empty the water out of every day for the bottom, I could get a mister?? I'm not sure what route to go with this. My sister is supposed to be sharing 1/2 the costs, but she has since gone cold on the idea, so I only have limited funds. If I cannot afford to provide good care for him, which I am trying my best to do with what information I have, I will try and find a better home for him. Is the tray thing a good idea? What kind of mister is good and fairly inexpensive? This should help with his lack of appetite?

 

[Andrew27]

well his urates getting yellow means he is mildly dehydrated. Just put him in the shower with a live plant with cool water. Make the water go on th back of the shower so water bounces back on the cham. Mine loves that. Also, Spray more than just 3 times a day. I spray 5 or more times. As for D3, they dont need a lot of D3. Jacksons in particular dont do well with supplements. He needs calcium maybe 1 time a week and D3 like once every month. So dont worry about that. Raise your temps so the basking spot is around 80 like 79-83 degrees and the rest of the cage can be 70 to 76 degrees. You need to keep it very humid. As a simple drainage system, make a tray of plastic that you can pull out and put back in. You will have to empty it out a lot though. Hand spraying is fine as long as you do it a lot. Just raise the humidity, raise the temps a little, and provide more foliage so he could feel secure, because this is probably stressful to him as well. Dont give any supplements for a while. He will bounce back if you do this. When he bounces back, only give D3 once a month, and calcium 1 oe 2 times a week. Good luck.

 

[ZombieChameleon]

I use a fogger from zoo med and it works great. If you need him to drink more just fill and eye dropped with water room temp water and drop 1 drop of water by his nose and he will lick it off. IMO you should never put a Cham in the shower from everything I have been reading all it does is stress them out a lot. Again that just from the info I have been reading. If you can't get him to eat anything after like 3 days you need to but a syrange and some powdered reptile food. mix it as it states on the package then force feed him. Just search YouTube for force feeding my chameleon.

 

[Ashleigh]

As he is no longer eating crickets, he has not been getting D3. All I have to mist him is a spray bottle. Maybe if I got some sort of removable tray to empty the water out of every day for the bottom, I could get a mister?? I'm not sure what route to go with this. My sister is supposed to be sharing 1/2 the costs, but she has since gone cold on the idea, so I only have limited funds. If I cannot afford to provide good care for him, which I am trying my best to do with what information I have, I will try and find a better home for him. Is the tray thing a good idea? What kind of mister is good and fairly inexpensive? This should help with his lack of appetite?

I have a mistking and it's totally worth it. I got the rain nozzle that I use on top of the cage along with a basic in the corner of the cage. This is how I drain my cage:
I have a wooden fish tank stand that fits my screen cage. The cage has a removable botton that's made of some sort of sturdy material that I have wrapped in a fishtank background that looks like rocks. I drilled a small hole through the background and bottom material and lined the hole with electrical tape. I also have a tray that I got from a feed store that is for rabbit cages that my cage fits and sits on. So we drilled a hole into the tray and placed a bulkhead and tubing connected from the tray through a hole we drilled in the fishtank stand underneath into a bucket that I empty out. So the water drains through the bottom of the tank, into the tray, through the bulkhead and tubing into a bucket that's hidden.

This system works for me, but I do think I need to drill one more hole in the bottom of the cage to get it to drain as much as I would like.

 

[ZombieChameleon]

Wow great looking cage

 

[Ashleigh]

Thank you! It took awhile, but I finally got it all together the way I like