My baby won't eat :(

Jmesmith

New Member
I am new to owning a Cham.. And I have done lots and lots of reading about them. When I got my little guy about 2 months ago he ate like a little piggy :) now he hasn't eaten for about 2 days and it looks like his mouth is swollen (taking him to the vet first thing in the morning) I'm just curious if its something that I have done.. I feed him crickets and meal worms (its what I was told to give him) and I dust them with exo terra calcium and multi vitamin. He has a uv bulb and a heat lamp that I leave on for him for about 10-12 hours a day and a red heat bulb that I leave on for him at night.. He has a water system that sprays his terrarium every 2 hours for 4 seconds.. I clean his terrarium twice a week as in replacing the reptile terf.. I clean the "droppings" every single day.. Since he is so young I do not handle him very often because I do not wan to stress him out. Please help me if I am doing something wrong I will correct it rite away. I love my little guy and don't want him to be sick
 
Welcome to the forum. What kind of Cham do you have? Only 2 things really jumped out at me. He needs complete darkness when he sleeps, so take away the night light. Where are you located, does it get very cold in you home? If so there are ways to add heat with no light.

Next do you know if you have calcium that is plain or does it have d3 added? Different chams take different amounts of supplementing, so without knowing what kind, and a guess at his age, it is difficult to accurately give you a schedule for supplements.

We will get this all worked out.
 
He is a veiled chamelion.. I bought him on 6/14 that's all I know about his age.. Not really even sure if he is a boy or a girl.. We named him pascal. I checked the calcium supplement and it says nothing about the d3.. Is that bad? Do I need something with d3? I turned off the red light and when I checked on him an hour or so ago he was on one of his vines sleeping but now he's sleeping on the ground... Wish I had 24 hour vet care in my area :( I am posting 2 pictures one was taken about a week ago and the other was taken today. As soon as I figure out how
 

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He looks kinda scrawny. Where did you get him from?? has he lost/gained any weight since you got him?

From the colors he looks to be a male. Does he have spurs on the back of his feet? They may not be large but you should be able to see at least a little protrusion

DSCN2720.jpg


females lack any protrusion in this area.

Sorry for the huge picture lol
 
He is way dehydrated. He need lots of warm misting. Hopefully you will see him drink. He does need to see a vet asap, it looks as thought he has a bad case of mouth rot. That can be cured, you just need the medication, and make sure you clean his mouth, each time before his meds. He will not like this! You need to be very careful and gentle.

His mouth may hurt to the point he doesn't want to eat. Make some bug juice and drip it slowly on his mouth to see if he will take it. I use crickets, either mushed really, really well, or blended, with some pedalite and ensure. Pedalite in found with baby supplies and ensure is found with supplement for older people. Mix it to a liquid then strain it to remove stuff like cricket legs. Use a needle-less syringe if you have one, or use an eye dropped if you have no syringe.

The supplement you have is correct but you will also need calcium with d3. We will take more about that later.

Right now he needs water, water and more water.
 
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He is way dehydrated. He need lots of warm misting. Hopefully you will see him drink. He does need to see a vet asap, it looks as thought he has a bad case of mouth rot. That can be cured, you just need the medication, and make sure you do it every time after you clean his mouth. He will not like this! You need to be very careful and gentle.

His mouth may hurt to the point he doesn't want to eat. Make some bug juice and drip it slowly on his mouth to see if he will take it. I use crickets, either mushed really, really well, or blended, with some pedalite and ensure. Pedalite in found with baby supplies and ensure is found with supplement for older people. Mix it to a liquid the strain it to remove stuff like cricket legs. Use a needless syringe if you have one, or use an eye dropped if you have no syringe.

The supplement you have is correct but you will also need calcium with d3. We will take more about that later.

Right now he needs water, water and more water.


I agree. He does look very dehydrated. When mine gets dehydrated and doesn't drink much, I put her in the shower.

You may try that. It will really hydrate his skin and hopefully get him to drink a little bit. If you have really harshly treated water you may want to be careful though.

Just turn it on pretty warm/hot water and hold him down near the bottom of the waterflow. He may even stay in by himself if you have some foilage you can place in the tub for him to latch onto.

My female veiled realllly enjoyed the shower. She stayed in for about 15 minutes and slept for almost 12 hours afterwards. It really relaxes them and makes them feel great.

If he doesn't like it, don't force him to stay in though.
 
I would not use hot water, if it is hot to you, then it is much too hot for a chameleon. The chameleon will not feel how hot it is until it could hurt him. Even after the shower he needs do be misted every other hour while he is awake. I would mist at least 5 minutes and 10 is also fine.

I agree. He does look very dehydrated. When mine gets dehydrated and doesn't drink much, I put her in the shower.

You may try that. It will really hydrate his skin and hopefully get him to drink a little bit. If you have really harshly treated water you may want to be careful though.

Just turn it on pretty warm/hot water and hold him down near the bottom of the waterflow. He may even stay in by himself if you have some foilage you can place in the tub for him to latch onto.

My female veiled realllly enjoyed the shower. She stayed in for about 15 minutes and slept for almost 12 hours afterwards. It really relaxes them and makes them feel great.

If he doesn't like it, don't force him to stay in though.
 
I would not use hot water, if it is hot to you, then it is much too hot for a chameleon. The chameleon will not feel how hot it is until it could hurt him. Even after the shower he needs do be misted every other hour while he is awake. I would mist at least 5 minutes and 10 is also fine.

I don't mean scalding hot obviously.

If you turn on the hot water and put the chameleon in the bottom it is going to be much cooler than what it would be at the shower head.
 
Yeah that is a pretty bad case of mouth rot. Like Laurie said, his mouth prob hurts too much to eat. You will need to see a vet to get meds
 
I just got home from the vet.. He said the same thing gave me some meds to give him... And I have been giving him water since we got back.. What are some thoughts on a bath for him possibly? I don't know just want him to get better
 
Thank you all so much for helping me. He is looking a bit better the meds the vet gave seem to be helping. And he is enjoying his warm mist. Please let me know if I should be doing more or something else for my little guy.. Don't feel so bad for calling him a him now that I know :)
 
Thank you thank you!!!!

I took my little guy to the vet first thing this morning... He gave him an antibiotic. He seems to be doing a little better since I put him in the shower he was in for about 10 minutes he loved it!! Also I change his mist time to 30 seconds every hour. I really appreciate everyone's help thank you all very much!
 
Did the vet clean out the infected areas of the mouth?? It's hard to get rid of mouth rot and it needs to be cleaned out as a rule.
 
The vet said that he is dehydrated and that he seems to have an infection in his mouth so he made a chameleon cocktail for him that has the medicine to fight the infection in it along with some other things that will help him gain some weight back. He did clean his mouth and showed me how to clean it also. How did he get mouth rot? Was it something that I did?
 
He could have got the mouth rot from a cricket leg scratching his mouth, or any one of a dozen other ways. You took him to the vet, and are doing as the vet said, so you are doing all you can for pascal.

Did the vet give you meds for after you clean his mouth every day? Which kind did he give you?
 
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