Male Veiled Chameleon extremely lathargic and not eating, strange behavior

Jay8173

New Member
cham- about 6-8 month old veiled chameleon

handling- not much anymore. used to be extremely introverted and did not enjoy handling. after a while he warmed up to be but the past couple weeks i have not been handling him much at all

feeding- crickets, hornworms every now and then. a few days ago i gave him one of the newly hatched hornworm moths because i thought it would be interesting, i checked on the forums first to make sure they were okay for them to eat. they do come from food that the chameleons can already have but i had to make sure. this is what im afraid messed him up, i feel like the moth may have been to large. although his did poop recently, so i dont suspect any major intestinal blockages

supplements- (long story ill try to keep it short) A long time ago (years) i got my first chameleon, my mother purchased the calcium dust required. after that (female) veiled had developed mbd she passed away. 6-7 months ago around christmas my parents gave me a new one, we used the old dust and i had NO IDEA about any of the husbandry necessary to care for a chameleon since i had trusted my parents with the info they found out. with my NEW veiled we used the old dust, and after many months i discovered the importance of proper husbandry and discovered that this whole time i had been feeding him calcium WITH D3 and i realize how big of a deal it is. as soon as i found that out i made sure to purchase calcium without D3 and have been feeding him calcium with D3 the 1st and 15th of each month, and calcium without D3 all of the other days. the point is, aside from minor calcification of the skin around his spine, and the top of his head, my chameleon has been perfectly fine and has not exhibited any abnormal traits.

watering- i have a dripper dripping all day and every time i see him at the dripper i increase the flow so he can get as much water as he needs in the time hes at the dripper

fecal- have been mostly regular, the most recent one after the moth feeding it looked crazy like it sort of exploded out. and its been about a day without any fresh poop.

history/ current issue- two mornings ago i wake up to find my chameleon in a very abnormal as if he had fallen in his sleep, he was upside down position hanging from one or two of his hind legs and mainly his tail. i was extremely freaked out so i tried helping him around, he behaved as if he were sleep walking, and all his movements were somewhat automated. he eventually woke up a bit more and he seemed to return to his normal activity minus eating. i was a lot less concerned until this morning when he was sleeping in another abnormal way as if he were limp but his hands were gripped on the sides of the cage. hes continuing to act very strange and slow and im unsure what to do. he climbs around and hangs upside down A LOT for how old he is and he is still continuing to try to do that.

cage info- 15x15x30 reptibreeze
lighting 10.0 UVB bulb and infrared heating lamp
temp- around 82 under the basking light, usually between 85-95 under the heating lamp
he does not hang around the bottom much at all
plants- i have a pothos and another cham approved plant ready to go in, but no live plants currently in the cage
location- Northeastern, central New York
 
he is pretty aggravated right now that's why he is so discolored. and going through a molt as well. i accidentally posted the threaded before i could finsih typing, but i added all the cage specs just a moment ago.
 

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not sure if this could be one of the reasons why, but I have heard that 10.0 UVB is too much for a Cham and could irritate their eyes if left on all the time. Are you able to get him outside into natural sunlight? If you can, do that for a while and turn his UVB bulb off for a day or two and see if he gets better. If he seems to not get better, try taking him to a vet to see what they say.
 
not sure if this could be one of the reasons why, but I have heard that 10.0 UVB is too much for a Cham and could irritate their eyes if left on all the time. Are you able to get him outside into natural sunlight? If you can, do that for a while and turn his UVB bulb off for a day or two and see if he gets better. If he seems to not get better, try taking him to a vet to see what they say.
Oh wow I didn't know that, ive always thought that 10 was good because I've seen other posts about 5 being too low and possibly resulting in MBD. I appreciate the suggestion, I'll definitely give that a shot because I have seen posts about the UVB bothering their eyes. They don't seem swollen or anything but it's definitely worth a Shot. I'll probably move him over to my window for a day or two as well
 
Oh wow I didn't know that, ive always thought that 10 was good because I've seen other posts about 5 being too low and possibly resulting in MBD. I appreciate the suggestion, I'll definitely give that a shot because I have seen posts about the UVB bothering their eyes. They don't seem swollen or anything but it's definitely worth a Shot. I'll probably move him over to my window for a day or two as well
I think it also depends on the brand of UVB bulb you are using and how much UVB is filtered through the cage. Do you know what brand of light bulb you are using?
 
So sorry you lost him!

FYI, the calcium/D3 he got for most of his life probably did do some organ damage that he didn't show evidence of until the last few days. Chams are very good at hiding their problems until they are really in trouble. Showing signs of weakness makes them a target for predators in the wild. Also, the 10.0 UVB might or might not have had much to do with this. So much depends on how far away from the bulb he could get most of the time. Most likely he would have shown eye problems or hidden from the light if this was the main problem. Did the hornworm moth cause trouble? Probably not unless he just happened to get something stuck oddly in his GI tract. Again, if there was already organ trouble the odd fecal you saw may have been caused by this rather than the moth.
 
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