My Jackson Chameleon both eyes closed

I have had my Xanth since he was 7 weeks old and his supplement schedule is as follows: plain calcium 1x per week, Reptivite WITHOUT D3 1x week and Reptivite WITH D3 once every 6 weeks. I have also paid particular attention to gut loading of his feeders as best I can. Also, I have found that it can take him a good 5 - 10 minutes of misting some days before he even begins to drink, although he will do plenty of eye cleaning. I have taken to giving him at least one long misting session a day on a plant outside (temps and wind permitting) so I can mist without flooding his cage. The other thing I found is if the spray setting is more like rain rather than mist coming down from above him it tends to get a faster drinking response than misting from the front of the cage with a fine mist.
 
Rock, for maintaining humidity, there's nothing better than live plants in the cage. if you can have them in terracotta pots, that's even better because the clay will hold moisture. You can also buy "hydro balls", tie some up in nylon net and hang around the cage....they'll soak up the mist water and then leach it back into the air.
 
Eliza Thank a lot for those great advice. I went to Home depot and bought more 3 live plants pathos plants. My room right now is soaking wet i totally not raising up this humidity. What am i doing wrong here??? bought more live plants, bought a reptifogger, bought a gallon mister, bought a little dripper. What else???? up to now my Jackson Chameleon's syes are still closed none of the crickets haven't been touched. Do you have any type of video on how to handfeed chameleons? i tried to pry up his mouth and he turned black on me. I know he is hydrated because sometimes i see him drinking. Is this the end of all chameleons? there gotta be something else to cure this kind of sickness. I'm going to get a $30 HUMIDIFIER tomorrow at CVS. Wow i under estimated and thought it was easy to take care of this wonderful creature.
 
I use live potted plants, a little dripper and a mist king for my Jackson. The mist king is awesome and is on a timer so you can program it to as often or long as you need.
 
Are you giving him long mistings? They need those to drink. You say he is hydrated "drinking sometimes" doesn't mean he is drinking enough.

I keep two very healthy Jackson's and the humidity is not that big a deal. A humidifier does great when needed. However, if I do not mist them they would get dehydrated. They need several minutes of misting. My sit in the mist for a couple minutes, then they clean their eyes for a couple minutes, then they drink for a few minutes, then they sit in the mist for a while until I am sure they are done drinking. Mine do not use a dripper. They only drink while I am misting.
 
Piglett, thank you for your reply, but what i have now (hubba mist) is also set on timer every hour which sprays for a good 60seconds. Aside from the hubba mist i have a little dripper which drops every second and i mixed MINERAL WATER with PEDIALYTE. I'm not losing hope but this is very exhausting to me and to see him everyday like that, as if i am just waiting one day i'll find him breathless on his cage floor. I wanted to take care of more chameleons but this is forcing me not to get one. Thank you.
 
thephotoprincess said:
Are you giving him long mistings? They need those to drink. You say he is hydrated "drinking sometimes" doesn't mean he is drinking enough.

I keep two very healthy Jackson's and the humidity is not that big a deal. A humidifier does great when needed. However, if I do not mist them they would get dehydrated. They need several minutes of misting. My sit in the mist for a couple minutes, then they clean their eyes for a couple minutes, then they drink for a few minutes, then they sit in the mist for a while until I am sure they are done drinking. Mine do not use a dripper. They only drink while I am misting.
Click to expand...

Ok Princess ill do it again. I bought the sprayer from Home Depot and i will place him on my HIBISCUS plant outside while spraying him i will MIST HIM LIKE CRAZY :) but please anyone should create and show us how to easily handfed this great creatures. Mine haven't eaten yet i believe for 3 days now. Thanks again!
 
I know you're getting advice from everywhere....I would be wary of taking him outside unless you're very, very sure he can't escape. They can be quick and you'll be busy fussing with the mister. If you could move his cage outside or put it in the shower for the big mist fest, that might be safer.

I'll look around for posts on hand feeding for you. Meanwhile, 3 days it not a long time in chameleon terms. I sometimes let mine go 3 days without food simply to get them interested in eating again.

**edited to add**

Okay, here's a thread with a very good description on force feeding: https://www.chameleonforums.com/force-feeding-78529/
 
Last edited:
r0ckm3l30n said:
Ok Princess ill do it again. I bought the sprayer from Home Depot and i will place him on my HIBISCUS plant outside while spraying him i will MIST HIM LIKE CRAZY :) but please anyone should create and show us how to easily handfed this great creatures. Mine haven't eaten yet i believe for 3 days now. Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Keep misting and I would not try to force feed at this point. If he is dehydrated, get him hydrated and he should want to eat. Force feeding/syringe feeding has risks and should be a last resort. Three days is not that long.
 
@ Princess i just took im out of his cage on to my front yard and he has another cage in there which is the hibiscus plant. I mist him for a good 10minutes and wasted the whole 1 gallon mineral water on him and i did not even see him open his mouth not once. He was totally soaked and his body is ao cold. After a good 10min. mist placed him back on his cage and on with the basking light. Im so sorry but that humidity temperature is pissing me off due to the needle was always at the middle and rarely seen high unless the cage mess is flooding with water. I dont want to give up but theres gotta be someway to cure this kind of illness.
My Vet is not even quiet sure to tell me what is going on aside from dehydration, i know tat he is also starving and some chameleon have this what you call a HUNGER STRIKE. I am so depressed on what is going on with Mike-L i always told him to hang in there and we're gonna sort this thing out. Thank you all for your care!
 
We're trying Rock. We really are.

You didn't waste a gallon of water. Despite you not seeing him open his mouth, chances are he benefited from the shower. He might have just washed out his eyes or he might even have snuck drunk...something they do.

I'm glad that the outside environment is contained. That makes me feel better.

You might need to really think about the drainage thing because utterly soaking the cage is an important part of chameleon care.
 
@Eliza, sorry i said wasted, what i mean is out of depression thats why i have it said in a wrong way. But im glad you said that he could have that snuck drunk something im not familiar with, but looks like some water maybe sipped or slipped into his mouth. Eliza, how can i feed or force feed him i am worried he has not eaten now for weeks...:( ok on the drainage thing i will think and kinda design a way that water goes to a bucket of some sort if that what he likes then that is what im going to do. Thanks again to this forum and totally your help is much appreciated!
 
If your not already doing this, provide a dripper that drips a drop every couple seconds on to a leaf or branch were he can drink. Where in so cal are you? Unless you somewhere where it's really hot I would not be worrying about the humidity level so much. If he has access to water and drinks, he will be ok.

Can you post a picture of your set up and Chameleon. It may help.
 
r0ckm3l30n said:
@ Princess i just took im out of his cage on to my front yard and he has another cage in there which is the hibiscus plant. I mist him for a good 10minutes and wasted the whole 1 gallon mineral water on him and i did not even see him open his mouth not once. He was totally soaked and his body is ao cold. After a good 10min. mist placed him back on his cage and on with the basking light. Im so sorry but that humidity temperature is pissing me off due to the needle was always at the middle and rarely seen high unless the cage mess is flooding with water. I dont want to give up but theres gotta be someway to cure this kind of illness.
My Vet is not even quiet sure to tell me what is going on aside from dehydration, i know tat he is also starving and some chameleon have this what you call a HUNGER STRIKE. I am so depressed on what is going on with Mike-L i always told him to hang in there and we're gonna sort this thing out. Thank you all for your care!
Click to expand...

Who is your vet? and I would not mist him at night.
 
@ Action --Yes i bought the Little Dripper and i let it drips like every second. Im in Lakewood off of the 91fwy.

@ Princess -- Oooopsss i didn't know you were not suppose to mist him at night, well now i know thanks!:) Here is the link to my vet please have some time to check it out please Princess. Thank you!!
http://www.eveningpetclinic.com/
 
I gave you a link to a thread with a very good discussion of force feeding, though, to be honest, I don't think you need to be forcing things yet.

Very, very often when they get seriously wet you'll see them "smack" their lips a bit...that's them getting water into their mouths.
 
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