my 5 month old chameleon is not eating!!

[ckmazdaspeed3]

Unless there is another purpose to a basking light that I am unfamiar w, wouldn't it be a good idea to turn it off if t is already so hot in there? The UVB light will provide enough light w/o the heat... I mean, the basking bulb is just making the whole cage hotter, especially because it is a small cage.

 

[pantherlover]

Hey it is hot for the age of your cham but veiled chams can tolerate those temps at an adult age. I would change the reptile basking light for a clear glass incandescent house bulb. Experiment with 40 to 60 watts to find a good temp. watch for heat spikes in the later hours of the day. Ones your cham starts eating, aim for the lowest temp that still yields a well digested poop. I would just go with a 12 hr photoperiod. No longer. jmo
Pertaining to your chams appetite, dont handle your chameleon for at least a week. This will give a sufficient amount of time for your cham to settle in. Even after that, id keep the handling to once a week, max. Maybe dont offer any food for a day or 2. If theyre not willing to eat, crix in the cage can become another stress factor. I gutload with kale, collard greens, sweet potato, red and yellow peppers, carrot, apple, orange, prickly pear cactus, papaya, dried plain oatmeal, dried plain mixed nuts, dried egg yolk, spirulina and bee pollen. If I had to choose 4 ingredients of all those, Id go with collards, sweet potato, carrot and dried oats.
As for the eyes being closed it is very possible that your cham has some debris in the eye turret. Possibly the fan is kicking up some dust? Debris in the turret is aided by extended and increased misting sessions. if that doesnt work, try to put a plant in the shower and make the water bounce off the wall before it hits the foliage. Keep the water at room temp and let your cham stay in the plant for a good half hour. If that doesnt work, eyes closing during the day can signify something more serious. I would let whoever you bought this cham from know about this eye closing issue before it goes on any longer.
Good luck.

 

[sam1996]

thank you all for the info what i did for day i have leanred i used to much vitamin d3 i went to my local petsmart and i asked a few question to an employee which he had owned sevral chameleons and he said that i use the dimmer on my lamp it will be fine i put a timer on my lights from 7 am to 7 at night and the chameleon is still settleing in so give hime some time if he still wont eat and he wont open his eyes then call the pet store i got him in. he said to put a wet towel on the back of the cage and just mist and i got my humdity up temp in the cage was 82 and the basking spot went down to 95 i am still working on getting it lower and he said as long as a mist really good i dont have to worry about a drip system all day which i now down graded to a regular water bottle 3 times a day and have a little bowl to catch the drips that dont get drunk. he also showed me a cricket gel type thing that if the crickets dont suck all the water out of them i dont have to add anything eles to the crickets such as a mutivitamins and a calcuim powder without d3 just keep the D3 vitamin powder down to once a week and the chameleon will start eating again. And clean the cage at least twice a month. And he said that the veiled chameleons are just lazy sometimes. so if the problem continues return him but it should stop in a few days. so thank you for all the tips i think i was just being stressed out because there was so much tips and info and i think my brain was about to explode and i was just worrying alot and freaking out!

 

[kinyonga]

There is no need to dust the crickets until you feed them to the chameleon. Chances are that the supplements can kill the crickets if its done ahead of time and done to "thickly".

You said..."oh and quick question how do decrease the temperatures at night?"...how hot is the cage at night? Do you have any heat (or light...hope not) on the cage at night?

You said..."He hasnt moved at all or opened his eyes even when i sprayed he normal books it away from the sound of the mister and the humdity is now in like 45 zone i have no idea what is going on!"...this is definitely not good. Are the temperatures in the warmest part of the cage in the low 80'sF yet??? You are going to kill the chameleon if you don't get things corrected quickly IMHO.

 

[ckmazdaspeed3]

Are the temperatures in the warmest part of the cage in the low 80'sF yet??? You are going to kill the chameleon if you don't get things corrected quickly IMHO.

THIS!^^^

If you are trusting some guy at petsmart over the members on this forum, you are in for major fail... petsmart is major fail! You need to listen to what everyone is saying about the temps. There may be more going on which I wouldn't even begin to try to suggest advice on, BUT I learned the correct temps for Veileds after being a member here for just a couple of hours. I don't see why you want a basking light emitting heat when your temps are already too high and your chameleon is doing that bad!

Veileds can handle temps in the 60's (and i've read even a bit lower) at night, and in fact you want a diurnal temp swing... though my male seems not to care. I have his lights on from 7:30 to 9:30 (which I know is too long), but he always passes out by about 8:00 or so and just hides under a leaf.

 

[mbondy]

Again, LOWER your temps! Quite honestly if all the info you have gotten is from a person a petsmart then I'm not surprised you think your temps are acceptable.

There are about 11 posts on this thread stating you need to lower your temps, 8 of which I have repeatedly told you your ambient temps need to be in the 70s with a basking of 85 at the most. If you don't do this then your cham will surely die.

You do need a drip system and regular mistings to keep your humidity up and your cham well hydrated. Without these changes the next post we'll hear from you is that your cham passed away.

We are only trying to help but we can only do so if you listen to the information we have offered you. You've taken in an animal and need to provide the proper care...if you can't do that, you've no business owning the animal.