my jackson is sick please help!

[jessielow]

my jackson chameleon began spending mre time on the bottom of his enclosure recently. when we first got him he was very healthy and active and ate regularly, but now he is just becoming worse and worse. he is very lethargic and does not move much. he does not appear eating and does not even show interest when i have attempted had feeding. he mostly just loosely grips his vines and lays around. his stool has become very liquidy. he shares a large mesh enclosure with a female, but she never used to be a problem. i put the enclosure outside in the day time so that they can get fresh air. and have been cleaning the cage every other day. the surroundings have changed a little because i moved the cage, but this doesn't seem like a soley stress related issue.

cage temp: 70-80's
enclosure: mesh, large, with fake plants, fake vines, as well as a living ficus
water supply: a dripper, as well as regular misting
food: crickets which are fed fruits and veggies, with calcium dust

 

[Fearaffect]

Take to vet, get fecals done........and I'd separate them asap....

If they are WC, then most likely parasites(both) and WC chams can be a challenge at best to acclimate.......

 

[ataraxia]

agree with fear effect.

also what brand and type of supplements are you using?

how long have you had them?

 

[lecham]

can u upload some pics..?? u should remove the lady cham... maybe put him in a high place were he wont be bothered easily

 

[melrito]

also make sure there is no d3 in that calcium if you're giving it regularly - jackson's are very sensitive to supplementation and do not need it very often.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Do you use a UVB light and how often is it changed?

 

[xanthoman]

cage temp: 70-80's
enclosure: mesh, large, with fake plants, fake vines, as well as a living ficus
water supply: a dripper, as well as regular misting
food: crickets which are fed fruits and veggies, with calcium dust

was the calcium with or without d3?
if he gets regular outside sun, then he shouldnt be getting d3.
do you use other supps?
do your feeders look like ghosts when you dust them?
how do you measure your basking temps,?,
your temps and humidity should be measured with a digital hygrometer/thermometer, you need an exact reading of his cage temps not just a general idea.
specifically, what kind of lighting do you have?, do you use nightime heat?
see, this is why you really need to fill out the help form in its entirety.

as far as his stool, it would be prudent to prepare the cage for stool samples, if he isnt better in a few days then you should probably collect a sample and submit it to a herp vet for a fecal float analysis.

as for a diet of mainly petstore crickets, xanths need a varied diet, consisting of things mainly other than petstore crickets. crickets are too high in phosphorus, and too exoskelatal to be a good frequent feeder, imo, order a dubia colony, some blue bottle fly larva and learn how to raise both, wouldn't be a bad idea to order some smaller silks also.

imo your male should be in a separate enclosure and preferably with a divider between them or otherwise out of site of your female. the inescapable presence of the female, could be causing ongoing stress (which could be fatal) and which a newer keeper may not be able to recognize.

my advice;
1. separate, keep each in their own fully setup enclosure, xanths like it high, so the tops of the cages at least 6' off the ground, failure to do this may cause stress, stress reduces overall health and immunity.

2.give them a food break for several days until you can offer something other than crickets.

3.other than plain cal 2x a week, i would discontinue any further supplementation, until you have a little better idea of supplementation issues.

4. we all had to start someplace, so i am not trying to harsh on your husbandry. but you need to understand, that you need to have a fairly in depth understanding of their husbandry and care requirements, in order to keep them successfully, and the reality is, thats not something you can learn in a few posts. i could post an entire page of links and it still wouldnt be enough.
if i were you, i would start reading past posts in all forum sections as far back as you can get, and start using forum search to research specific subjects like, jacksons, supplementation or feeders. use google to search for all of the non forum jacksons info you can find, read all of the posts and articles you can find by at least the following people; dr gary ferguson, dr ivan alfonso, cf posters; sandrachameleon (supp issues), kinyonga (longterm generall husbandry/health issues), dave weldon (lots of great general husbandry, as well as technical lighting issues, microscopy etc), sommoner12 (lots of good technical equip type posts). noted reptile keeper allen repashy has now joined the forums, i know i for one will be following every post he makes.

5. repost using the help form, but i wouldnt count on the responses given, to offer enough info to learn how to keep jacksons,
xanths can go downhill fairly quickly, so, if he is not looking better in 48hrs, then you should probably take him to a vet. jmo