Lazyness/Less active

Cuddlekitty

New Member
Lately my little guy has been really active and eating a lot but just a few days ago he started to shed for his first time at my house and he was very passive and I let him be, I just turned the humidity up for him so he can shed better. But the day after his sheding he didn't really eat much ate around 5 crickets and a few meal worms the entire day. And this morning I fed him, he looked really hungry, so i gave him 2 nice sized meal worms with around 4 crickets and after that he just sorta looked really fat and lazy, kinda like a food coma. Not sure if it is that, but now he just doesn't look active and likes to just sit in a spot for a long time. And he also just started squinting a little, throughout the day his eyes were kinda closing and opening frequently. My info is all below tell me if i missed something <3.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Veiled Chameleon, Male, about 4months old and has been about 2 weeks in my care.
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? I handle my chameleon about 2-3 times out of the week, he likes to run around.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? I feed my chameleon crickets, meal worms and wax worms. Sometimes I give him around 5-15 crickets a day with about 3-5 meal worms with around 1-2 wax worms, all depending on how he feels. I feed him around 10am-12pm then around the afternoon and then nighttime before bed. I am maily gut loading the crickets with Flickers cricket quencher, and Flickers Orange Cube.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? I am using Repti Calcium with D3 and I usually feed him about 1-2 dusted crickets a day up to 10 a week.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I use a Humidifier and I mist 2-3 times a day with a spray bottle. I see my chameleon drinking, I even had him drink from my finger tips before with the spray bottle dripping down.
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Its lately been a solid brown/black few clumps and his urate has been white, except for a few days it was mildly yellow but i made sure to mist more because of that and now its back to normal. I don't beleive my chameleon has been tested for parasites.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. I bought my chameleon from Sand Bar Pet Shop in Mission Viejo California.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Im using a combo cage, some screen sides and top and 2 sides are glass. The dimensions are 31 inches tall, 16 inches wide.
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? Im using the ZooMed Combo Deep Dome with ZooMed Heat+ UVB the Basking Spot Lamp and Reptisun 5.0 UVB compact florescent. I just recently switched to it today, from ZooMed Blue Bulb Daylight with no UVB only UVA which i beleive was bad, the person that helped us get it said it had both but it actually didn't. My lighting schedule is 12 on 12 off, 10am is wake up and 10pm is bedtime.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Cage floor temp is around 65 degrees and basking spot is around 80-90 degrees. I use a temp gage.
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? My humidity is usually around 40-60, Im using a humidifier, and use a Humidity measuring gage.
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Im using one live plant, a Ficus.
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? My cage is located in my room between to shelves one smaller and one slightly bigger, I have one fan that helps circulate the room and cool off cause my room usually gets around 80-90 degrees by itself lol. The cage is on the floor.
Location - Where are you geographically located? Southern California, about 15minutes away from the beach.
 
Hi!

I'm a bit concerned about your lighting. I suspect you are giving him too much UVB. That might be why he's squinting. If it were my animal, I would switch that ZooMed Heat+ UVB the Basking Spot Lamp bulb out for a regular household incandescent (the kind youc can buy at the grocery store). The Reptisun 5.0 will provide all the UVB your chameleon needs.

You are going to get flack on your gutloading. This board is big on a diverse, natural gutload. I'm not quite that intense about it, but I do think you need real food for the crickets, not just the gel cubes. Go ahead and use the gel cubes as hydration but get some real food in there too. The go to place for information on good gutloads is Sandrachameleon's blog: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/index5.html

The way you have to look at it is: your crickets are food "carriers"...what you feed them is what your chameleon eats.

I also think you need to get a plain calcium without D3. D3 is tricky. They need it, but too much causes problems with Vitamin A absorption and Vitamin A is necessary for eye health (for obvious reasons, eye health is a big issue for chameleons). This board recommends giving D3 2 times per month, no more. Calcium, however, should be given every day! So, you need plain calcium. You might be able to find that at a store that specializes in reptiles or you might need to order it online.
 
Hi there Eliza, I am using ZooMed Heat+ UVB, as for cricket food I will definetly switch to something that isn't gel, and yea I didn't know about how you can only give D3 2 times per month, So i will get some regular calcium as well. I was wondering if it would help if i posted some pictures of my chameleon and my set up too, maybe that could help some idk. And I was also wondering if they could possibly over eat and that may cause them to be droopy.
Thanks.
 
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