NynWitt
New Member
Hey, I'm having some weird issues with my cham and I'm not sure what to do. Here is his info, the problem is at the end.
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Jackson, male, just over 2 years old. We got him when he was 6 months old
Handling - As often as once a week, commonly a lot less though.
Feeding - Dubia roaches, sometimes crickets, and hornworms. 5-6 smalls every other day for dubias, when we feed crickets it's usually the same. 1 or 2 hornworms a month and when he sheds. We don't gut-load at home, we rely on the supplier we get them from. We get them a dozen or two at a time so there isn't a lot of time between when we get them and when we feed them.
Supplements - He gets Repti Calcium without D3 every feeding. And Reptivite with D3 once a month. I've been thinking of adding Bee Pollen or maybe another supplement to his diet, would this be beneficial?
Watering - He and his cage get hand-misted throughout the day for 1-2 minutes each session. He has a dripper in his cage and he has a fogger that runs throughout the night. During the summer when it's dryer, we run the fogger a little during the day as well. Usually, when we mist his cage he comes up and drinks from the spray bottle and I've seen him drink out of the dripper and the droplets off the plants in his cage.
Fecal Description - Poo is good. White is white and shows he's hydrated and the dark looks like the right consistency. For as long as we've had him, he has never been tested for parasites.
History - He has had a previous burn on his back that is now fully healed and he did lose two spikes from it. The cage setup has since been adjusted. He has had previous issues shedding as well. It usually takes him a week or two to get through one shed. Because of this, we try to keep him extra hydrated, hence the hornworm each shed.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - XL Zoo Med ReptiBreeze screen cage. 24"L x 24"W x 48"H.
Lighting - His heating bulb is a 50W Zilla Day White bulb. His UVB is a Zoo Med T5 HO lamp. Both are on 9am-9pm. At night he has no lights except occasionally our bedroom light stays on an hour later or so.
Temperature - The temperature ranges from 70-75 degrees in his basking spot. And about 65 degrees throughout the rest of his cage. The lowest it gets overnight is between 62-65. We have a thermometer at the front of his cage, as well as one on top nearest his basking spot.
Humidity - Could be better. Low 40 during the day but it's usually around 50, at night it's about 65-70. We use a Zoo Med thermometer and humidity gauge to track it.
Plants - There are multiple live plants. All cham safe, a few pothos plants, one small rubber fig, and a small, I believe, corn plant. They aren't doing the best though so I am planning on getting him new ones soon and possibly a plant light.
Placement - His cage is in my sister and I's bedroom on top of a dresser about 3ft off the ground. It's not the best location but it's the best option we have. It's next to a window but we have a curtain up. We don't have any heating in the upstairs of our house (yay old houses), so during the winter we have a small heater in our room to try and counteract the chill. It's pretty low traffic, just me and my sister and occasionally a sibling or friend. We are only really in our room at night, so there isn't much movement. We haven't noticed any indicators of stress so hopefully where he is is ok.
Location - We live on the northwest coast of the US.
Current Problem:
Ok, so for the last few months, he's been struggling to get his shed off. I (the primary caretaker) have not been home for those months as I was going to school. My brother sent me a photo of him starting his shed in October and when I got home in December he still had shed along his spine. I checked and made sure his spikes were ok and there didn't seem to be any shed actually stuck to them, the shed was stuck along his rib/vertebrae, and with just a little moving my sister and I were able to pop it off where it was stuck and it came right off, no harm done to any of his spikes. It worried me a little bit but it's always taken him longer to get his shed off so I figured it might be ok.
The next day, however, I noticed that his legs looked a little chunky. My brother had been feeding him more than usual so I thought maybe weight gain but then my sister also noticed it and asked if his legs looked swollen. Since both of us noticed I started looking into it and I first thought maybe it was gout from other people's posts. He's on almost a strict roach diet and I read that a high-protein diet is one theory for the cause of gout in chams, so my mom went to get crickets from our local exotic pet store. She talked to someone there and they suggested it might be a hydration issue and recommended putting him in a container of 80-degree water, I had seen this suggestion previously disputed on one of the posts here and didn't want to risk it.
The reason I think it might be gout is 1) the chunky swollen-looking legs and him not being able to move his legs up to itch his shed off, 2) when he is sitting still he isn't using his front claw and is holding really loosely to the branch. 3) he seemed to be acting a little lethargic, not moving around as much as usual and whenever I spray his cage he isn't coming up to the water bottle like normal. He's still showing 1) and 2) but after adjusting the fogger to be on in the daytime and spraying his cage longer each time, he seems to be less lethargic but still not coming up to the water bottle. There have been multiple times while moving around that he would miss a branch or almost grab his own foot causing him to fall a little, each time catching himself with his tail. We've also noticed him using his tail a lot more to get around his cage.
I got thinking the next few days after making a few changes and I'm not sure if it's gout or not so I decided to make a post here and get suggestions. Here are some photos from before we got his shed off as well as the last few days.
Next stupid issue. We noticed he was having some serious issues eating his food. Usually, he gets to his dish and immediately starts eating but the last few times he'd go to his dish and sit there staring at his food. Whenever he tried to eat he'd put his whole head all the way in the dish and couldn't shoot his tongue out further than the tip of his horns. After not getting any food he'd keep his head stretched into the dish with his mouth gaping just following the roaches with his eyes. After doing that twice I put my hands in and got him to move away from the bowl.
This worried me, duh, he wasn't using his tongue and he's a chameleon. Anyway, I decided to try and look in his mouth and see if I noticed anything off-putting. I had seen suggestions on how to do it so I got him my hands and tried to gently pinch around his jaw. This boy didn't budge. He didn't even go dark and his eyes got just a little sunken but nowhere near as dark or sunken as he usually does when I bug him. All he did was wiggle around and maneuver out of my grasp. I don't know if maybe I was doing it wrong or if he genuinely just didn't care that I was manhandling him.
I put him back in his cage and decided to try again tomorrow. My sister and I started writing this post and I looked over and saw him hunting down a loose roach in his cage. He tried and failed to shoot his tongue at it. We got a better look at the inside of his mouth but didn't get a picture. We had just looked up possibly hand-feeding chameleons with hurt tongues and I decided to try. Even with the roach wiggling in front of his face, he was hesitant to open his mouth but I was able to feed him one roach. It was a struggle for me because I kept dropping the dang roach right when he'd start opening his mouth and I felt bad for teasing him. It was his bedtime though so I gave up and am going to attempt it again tomorrow.
After seeing a mark on his lip I realized what was up. A few days ago he had tried to eat a loose roach on the bottom of his cage and caught a small piece of wood from the potting soil in his plants in his mount. I was in the room when it happened and saw the piece of wood stick to his lip. It was still there over a day later and I thought since he hadn't eaten that day, he just hadn't spit it out yet. I gently grabbed the tip of it and I allowed him to pull away, I didn't think it would be too bad if I did but now I'm thinking I should have let him get it off himself.
I feel really stupid about it because I've been meaning to re-pot his plants, I know that the soil we have right now isn't what it should be and I've had to use rocks to cover the dirt. I'm not sure if with the spot on his mouth, we have to just wait till it heals and continue hand-feeding him or if the problem might be deeper and that we should just take him to the vet.
Here is a photo of the inside of his mouth and how I was holding him when trying to get his mouth to open.
I know it's a lot but whatever suggestions and advice help. Thank you for reading this whole post!
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Jackson, male, just over 2 years old. We got him when he was 6 months old
Handling - As often as once a week, commonly a lot less though.
Feeding - Dubia roaches, sometimes crickets, and hornworms. 5-6 smalls every other day for dubias, when we feed crickets it's usually the same. 1 or 2 hornworms a month and when he sheds. We don't gut-load at home, we rely on the supplier we get them from. We get them a dozen or two at a time so there isn't a lot of time between when we get them and when we feed them.
Supplements - He gets Repti Calcium without D3 every feeding. And Reptivite with D3 once a month. I've been thinking of adding Bee Pollen or maybe another supplement to his diet, would this be beneficial?
Watering - He and his cage get hand-misted throughout the day for 1-2 minutes each session. He has a dripper in his cage and he has a fogger that runs throughout the night. During the summer when it's dryer, we run the fogger a little during the day as well. Usually, when we mist his cage he comes up and drinks from the spray bottle and I've seen him drink out of the dripper and the droplets off the plants in his cage.
Fecal Description - Poo is good. White is white and shows he's hydrated and the dark looks like the right consistency. For as long as we've had him, he has never been tested for parasites.
History - He has had a previous burn on his back that is now fully healed and he did lose two spikes from it. The cage setup has since been adjusted. He has had previous issues shedding as well. It usually takes him a week or two to get through one shed. Because of this, we try to keep him extra hydrated, hence the hornworm each shed.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - XL Zoo Med ReptiBreeze screen cage. 24"L x 24"W x 48"H.
Lighting - His heating bulb is a 50W Zilla Day White bulb. His UVB is a Zoo Med T5 HO lamp. Both are on 9am-9pm. At night he has no lights except occasionally our bedroom light stays on an hour later or so.
Temperature - The temperature ranges from 70-75 degrees in his basking spot. And about 65 degrees throughout the rest of his cage. The lowest it gets overnight is between 62-65. We have a thermometer at the front of his cage, as well as one on top nearest his basking spot.
Humidity - Could be better. Low 40 during the day but it's usually around 50, at night it's about 65-70. We use a Zoo Med thermometer and humidity gauge to track it.
Plants - There are multiple live plants. All cham safe, a few pothos plants, one small rubber fig, and a small, I believe, corn plant. They aren't doing the best though so I am planning on getting him new ones soon and possibly a plant light.
Placement - His cage is in my sister and I's bedroom on top of a dresser about 3ft off the ground. It's not the best location but it's the best option we have. It's next to a window but we have a curtain up. We don't have any heating in the upstairs of our house (yay old houses), so during the winter we have a small heater in our room to try and counteract the chill. It's pretty low traffic, just me and my sister and occasionally a sibling or friend. We are only really in our room at night, so there isn't much movement. We haven't noticed any indicators of stress so hopefully where he is is ok.
Location - We live on the northwest coast of the US.
Current Problem:
Ok, so for the last few months, he's been struggling to get his shed off. I (the primary caretaker) have not been home for those months as I was going to school. My brother sent me a photo of him starting his shed in October and when I got home in December he still had shed along his spine. I checked and made sure his spikes were ok and there didn't seem to be any shed actually stuck to them, the shed was stuck along his rib/vertebrae, and with just a little moving my sister and I were able to pop it off where it was stuck and it came right off, no harm done to any of his spikes. It worried me a little bit but it's always taken him longer to get his shed off so I figured it might be ok.
The next day, however, I noticed that his legs looked a little chunky. My brother had been feeding him more than usual so I thought maybe weight gain but then my sister also noticed it and asked if his legs looked swollen. Since both of us noticed I started looking into it and I first thought maybe it was gout from other people's posts. He's on almost a strict roach diet and I read that a high-protein diet is one theory for the cause of gout in chams, so my mom went to get crickets from our local exotic pet store. She talked to someone there and they suggested it might be a hydration issue and recommended putting him in a container of 80-degree water, I had seen this suggestion previously disputed on one of the posts here and didn't want to risk it.
The reason I think it might be gout is 1) the chunky swollen-looking legs and him not being able to move his legs up to itch his shed off, 2) when he is sitting still he isn't using his front claw and is holding really loosely to the branch. 3) he seemed to be acting a little lethargic, not moving around as much as usual and whenever I spray his cage he isn't coming up to the water bottle like normal. He's still showing 1) and 2) but after adjusting the fogger to be on in the daytime and spraying his cage longer each time, he seems to be less lethargic but still not coming up to the water bottle. There have been multiple times while moving around that he would miss a branch or almost grab his own foot causing him to fall a little, each time catching himself with his tail. We've also noticed him using his tail a lot more to get around his cage.
I got thinking the next few days after making a few changes and I'm not sure if it's gout or not so I decided to make a post here and get suggestions. Here are some photos from before we got his shed off as well as the last few days.
Next stupid issue. We noticed he was having some serious issues eating his food. Usually, he gets to his dish and immediately starts eating but the last few times he'd go to his dish and sit there staring at his food. Whenever he tried to eat he'd put his whole head all the way in the dish and couldn't shoot his tongue out further than the tip of his horns. After not getting any food he'd keep his head stretched into the dish with his mouth gaping just following the roaches with his eyes. After doing that twice I put my hands in and got him to move away from the bowl.
This worried me, duh, he wasn't using his tongue and he's a chameleon. Anyway, I decided to try and look in his mouth and see if I noticed anything off-putting. I had seen suggestions on how to do it so I got him my hands and tried to gently pinch around his jaw. This boy didn't budge. He didn't even go dark and his eyes got just a little sunken but nowhere near as dark or sunken as he usually does when I bug him. All he did was wiggle around and maneuver out of my grasp. I don't know if maybe I was doing it wrong or if he genuinely just didn't care that I was manhandling him.
I put him back in his cage and decided to try again tomorrow. My sister and I started writing this post and I looked over and saw him hunting down a loose roach in his cage. He tried and failed to shoot his tongue at it. We got a better look at the inside of his mouth but didn't get a picture. We had just looked up possibly hand-feeding chameleons with hurt tongues and I decided to try. Even with the roach wiggling in front of his face, he was hesitant to open his mouth but I was able to feed him one roach. It was a struggle for me because I kept dropping the dang roach right when he'd start opening his mouth and I felt bad for teasing him. It was his bedtime though so I gave up and am going to attempt it again tomorrow.
After seeing a mark on his lip I realized what was up. A few days ago he had tried to eat a loose roach on the bottom of his cage and caught a small piece of wood from the potting soil in his plants in his mount. I was in the room when it happened and saw the piece of wood stick to his lip. It was still there over a day later and I thought since he hadn't eaten that day, he just hadn't spit it out yet. I gently grabbed the tip of it and I allowed him to pull away, I didn't think it would be too bad if I did but now I'm thinking I should have let him get it off himself.
I feel really stupid about it because I've been meaning to re-pot his plants, I know that the soil we have right now isn't what it should be and I've had to use rocks to cover the dirt. I'm not sure if with the spot on his mouth, we have to just wait till it heals and continue hand-feeding him or if the problem might be deeper and that we should just take him to the vet.
Here is a photo of the inside of his mouth and how I was holding him when trying to get his mouth to open.
I know it's a lot but whatever suggestions and advice help. Thank you for reading this whole post!
) and I am terrified of my chams getting gout. I did have them a while back though and was sure to only feed them once or twice a week but no more than that.
