Juvenile chameleon pooping

[BritishPsych-O]

So I just pick Showbizz up three days ago, he is a panther chameleon 3 and a bit months old and seems to be adjusting well. He is eating around 10 but a day and all the husbandry seems to be ok. I was just wondering if he should have pooped by now. I’m not completely sure how often they’re supposed to poop, but I read somewhere that it shows whether they’re drinking enough? Not completely sure how that works either…

 

[Fridolyn]

Hello @BritishPsych-O
I'm pretty new to husbandry, too, so I can not really give a "experienced" recommendation, but at the beginning I was looking for poop, too and saw my chameleon only twice "doing it" and I was kind of concerned. But what I later found was, that he pooped on some hidden spaces which were hard to see from outside of the terrarium. Not sure how your terrarium is build, but I have a lot of plants in, so it's sometimes hard to oversee everything. But from the number (not sure if I found everything) I would say it's all 1-3 days. Here are some information which helped me to "judge poop": https://chameleonacademy.com/basics-hydration-for-chameleons/ Hope that helps.

 

[BritishPsych-O]

Yeah, thanks so much this does help. And I do have a large planted enclosure so maybe it just missed it

 

[BigSkyCham]

I have a 4month panther. I’ve had him for about a month. Next week is our first trip to the vet. (Reading up on how that adventure should go down).

I need to collect some fresh pops for the vet. Hoping to catch a poop in the next two days. I’ve never obsessed over the poop yet. But I am now.

I am curious to know if there is a proper frequency for a juvenile (one a day or every 3 days) or for an adult.

 

[MissSkittles]

Just like us, each will have its own poop frequency. Some might do daily, some might go weekly and everything in between. I haven’t really noticed what any of mine do as they’ve all been bioactive until recently. Now I’m learning what their individual patterns are and they are all different. Much will depend on how much/often they are fed and basking temps. Plus if you give a lot of moist feeders, like silkworms or hornworms, expect poops & maybe even runny ones.
About collecting a sample for parasite testing, the fresher, the better and it does need to be no older than 24 hours. If you aren’t able to get one in time for your vet visit, ask your vet about dropping it off when you can get a fresh one.