my chameleon puked!

[georginab]

Its been about an hour since I woke up my 8 month old panther, as I was spraying his leaves for him to get a drink as I do every morning he put his mouth up to the nozzle of the spray bottle, and as he pleased he would open and close his mouth for me to spray water on his tongue, after 10 minutes of this he started acting weird (he's never drank from the nozzle) so I took him out and that's when he started puking so much water, lots of bubbly saliva and bits of black (I'm guessing his crickets)
Also in the past week I've noticed he's become pickier with eating, sometimes he will refuse to eat his crickets and it can take him the whole day to get 10 crickets in his belly compared to it taking like 15 minutes

 

[Lathis]

You have two separate issues here.

For the puking, he probably (inhaled) some of the water. Unlike people where our airway is in the back of the throat, chameleons have the airway opening about midway in the bottom of the mouth. They use the back of the throat for swallowing - that is why you always want to be careful when injecting water or medicines. It is generally recommended to not spray directly in a chameleon's mouth. The water stream may have been too fast directly from the sprayer, and he got too much water to swallow. If that was his first time drinking like that, hopefully he has learned a lesson.

This is a great diagram from Olimpia's (a well respected long-time member on CF) blog:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GdxK_inMy...YNYMWGiVs/s1600/Medicines+illustrations+1.png

If he was able to clear it and it sounds like he was, he should be okay. Keep an eye on him for difficulty breathing, crackling or popping sounds when he breathes, or lots of spit over the next few days. Those are early signs of an upper respiratory infection, which would be a result from inhaling water.

As for the feeding, it could be a few different things. He could be tired of crickets. Have you tried offering him something different, like superworms, silkworms, or small dubia roaches? That might be enough to perk him up. Low appetite could also be an early sign of illness or parasites. Have you have a fecal check done recently? It's good to have them done a few times a year. Also, it could be his temperatures. If he's a bit cold, his appetite might be low.

Have you checked the care sheets here to double check your temperatures and other husbandry?
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

Best of luck to your little guy!

 

[georginab]

I most deffinitely think he has learned his lesson, I haven't been able to get a good look down his throat so I will keep an eye out! He's been given mealworms, butterworms, superworms and hornworms on the occasion, at one point he was refusing his crickets because all he wanted was superworms. I haven't been able to find either roaches or silkies at any local pet store unfortunately so I plan on ordering lots soon