my 2 female Ambilobes not eating

[modest chameleon]

Hello, I've been lurking here for about 6 months and have done quite a bit of research and appreciate the wealth of knowledge found here.
I have a male Ambilobe who used to eat really well, he's about 1 year old.
I have 2 females about 9 and 10 months old.
I've had the male for 5 months and females for 3 months.
They all ate really well until about 6 weeks ago. They were eating so fast that I decided to skip the local Petco, $$$, and order 500 then 1000 crickets online. they burned through the 500 in a week or so (had a lot of die off) and the 1000 lasted another couple of weeks. Anyway, since then I have been breeding my own crickets successfully but the chameleons have all but stopped eating.
Male will eat a couple of super worms if I give in to him and maybe a couple of crickets a week.
Female 1 will eat a couple of crickets or small dubia per day but is slowing down.
Female 2 has eaten almost nothing in 2 weeks and losing weight and getting weaker. She drinks like crazy every day while I sit and spray her cage but won't eat.
I offer Dubia, crickets, and super worms by hand and cup.
My poor girl #2 is not doing well.
The only vets nearby are cat/dog and a couple of livestock (rural Utah).
I was wondering if they could have picked up parasites from the online crickets or somewhere else?
Not sure what to do at this point. I spend an hour or two per day trying to hand feed them because they have stopped eating.
Any advice would be very welcome.
Thanks

 

[modest chameleon]

here's the ask for help info

Your Chameleon - 1 male Ambilobe, 11 months old have had him for 6 months, 2 female ambilobes, 10 months old, have had them for 3 months
Handling - handle a couple of times a week generally, try to take them outside for some sunshine. I only hold them for maybe 5 minutes out of 30 when I have them out. The male I handle more, he's pretty friendly
Feeding - I feed crickets, supers, and dubia. mostly crickets. I give them 10 or so per day. They have not been eating much lately
Supplements - Calcium most days, reptical. D3 and vitamins 1X month
Watering - mistking and spray mister. I see 1 female who seems quite ill drinking daily a lot. the others I don't see drink but urate does not look orange.
Fecal Description - Never tested for parasites. Have not noticed anything abnormal about feces but lately have not seen much.
History - Male is from different breeder than the 2 females. They were all very healthy when I got them. Problem seems to have started about 3-4 weeks ago.

Cage Info:
Cage Type -Cages are all screen mesh. male is 3'X3'X4', females are in seperate 2'X2'x4'.
Lighting - heat lamp and Reptisun UVB tube lights, 12 hours/day
Temperature - Temps are generally abmbient 70-75 daytime and 65-70 night time. basking 85-90. measured by thermometer/hydrometer.
Humidity - 40-75, I know 40 is a bit low but I try to keep higher. I use a humidifier for the male and the mistking keeps the females humidity up pretty well.
Plants -Live umbrella plant, and ficus. each has 1-2 live plants.
Placement - cages are in rooms where no one is present for most of the day. no vents or fans. The male is in a bedroom but he has been fine until recently. They are all on stands so the top of the cages are just above 6 feet high.
Location - southern Utah desert

Current Problem - all 3 chameleons are barely eating for the past few weeks.

 

[yarvy]

Sorry to hijack your thread but I actually have the same problem with my red bar ambilobe panther...He's almost a year old and he used to eat like crazy. He went from only wanting crickets to only wanting superworms, but then he stopped eating both of them. I bought some Dubia roaches and as far as I know, he hasn't touched them at all. I haven't seen him eat anything at all this week...I'm not here for a large portion of the day so it's possible he's eating a roach or worm here or there but I don't know. I used to witness him eating at some point throughout the day.

Also looking for advice for this problem! Are there other foods I should try out aside from crickets/supers/mealworms/dubia roaches??

 

[Viggypop]

Same!

I have a panther, and he has been doing the same thing! Used to eat 6-10 worms a day and now Im lucky if he eats 2-3 a week. Talking to my mother-in-law who also has one a few months younger, she is having a similar issue. Is there a chance this is related to the change in the season? Seeing as other people are posting the same thing and my mother-in-law who lives 200 miles away is also having this problem.... Any thoughts?

 

[modest chameleon]

season change?

I also wondered about the possibility of season change!
Wish I had more experience with this.

 

[MamatoElvis]

My panther gets bored really easy. Stay away from mealworms they are garbage. Any time I offer a feeder over and over my Cham eventually boycotts it. So I just pull back on whatever he's not eating at the time and reintroduce it a few weeks later. I offer as much variety as I can. My Cham is offered silkworms, hornworms, crickets, discoid roaches, green banana roaches, Phoenix worms, blue bottle flies, stick bugs, dragonflies, butterflies, and as a treat butterworms ( high in calcium but also vary fatty ). I try any new feeder I can find if its healthy for him. The butterworms are only offered 2 x per week. I made the mistake in the beginning of giving them daily but he started to want only butterworms. I don't have Dubia because I live in Florida but I do use discoid roaches which a similar. My Cham won't eat them free range or in a cup, he will only grab them off tongs ( big 10 inch tweezers ). I grab them with the tweezers and I hold them out legs first so he sees them wiggling. I have tried to cup feed them but he ignores them, same with just tossing them in free range. His least favorite feeders are discoid roaches and crickets. If you are only offering 2 or 3 different feeders they will get bored really quick. Good luck.

 

[modest chameleon]

she's eggbound

Well, my sweet little girl has not eaten for weeks, 2 days ago she was on her basking vine and kept contracting like she was trying to pass something. She has never gone into her laying bin which has been available for months. I felt so bad for her, all I could do was mist her and watch her drink and drink.
I called all the local vets last week and none see reptiles. Called the vets an hour away and found one who would see her today. Took her there and they were all excited because they have seen so few chameleons and this was the first time they have seen a pregnant one! Not what I was hoping for.
Anyway, X-rays confirmed she is pregnant. They gave me some very very basic advice about giving her calcium and having a UVB light, etc. Basically $200 to verify she has eggs. They were nice and were at least trying to help. The Vet said he'd just have to refer me to an exotic pet vet 3 hours away for anything further. He did give me some 'Carnivore Care' food mix and calcium drops and told me to force-feed her 3 times per day and that was the best they could do.
I have set up a very nice garbage can laying bin with a plant in it and will try that along with the feeding and calcium drops.
I'm wondering if my girl has any chance at all with this or is surgery the only option at this point. She's fairly weak and its been at least a month since she put on her gravid colors, 3-4 weeks since she lost her appetite, more than 2 weeks since she's eaten a single thing.
Is it too late? How long from the time they show their gravid colors until they are ready to lay their eggs? I thought it was about a month but I don't know.
oh, and I was weighing her to try and figure out if she was pregnant but it turns out my scale is terrible. It was reading 34 grams for her and the vet weighed her and said she's 73 grams so I guess I'll be shopping for a new scale.

 

[Anna Anderson]

My female once a year old also slowed her eating way down, after fecal tests and vets we learned that is quite normal but she also has a funal infection and salmonella (we got her at a year old and very quickly started to worry) so always worth going even tho it's expensive. A good way to calm your worries is to do a weekly weigh if they have lost/gained a gram or two it's fine if more or constant weight loss go vets immediately