My veiled chameleon is extremely sick please help

[johnpdonovan]

My recently adopted chameleon is about 6 months old. He was doing great until i left for vacation, my cousin was staying and he said he would feed him but he never fed him, he went 5 days without eating and when i got back i found him hardly moving, eyes closed, eyes sunken in head, strange pale color. My chameleon also doesn’t really eat that much, i read they are suppose to eat 8-15 bugs a day at this age but he seems to only eat 2-3 sometimes less, but he seemed healthy. I don’t know what to do, i will show pictures of my Enclosure now.

Glass enclosure: 16x16x30

Live Plant: Benjamina Ficus

Fake plants & sticks

Lights: Heat lamp 75 Watt, his basking area is around 85 degrees
LED lamp for plant growth
Reptisun T5 UVB 14” bulb

Food: I try to feed him in morning, i out food in little bird feeder cup and hang it high in cage. I feed him Wax worms, meal worms, sometimes crickets but they usually get away from him so i don’t feed them as much.

Minerals: I dust his food everyday with calcium without D3 and then Reptivite with D3 twice a month.

Water: 2 misters in back corners that mist 2 times a day, once in morning after lights on, once before lights out for 55 seconds each, it isn’t a light mist it’s a good spray

 

[SteveH]

I see no mention of hydration or humidity. I highly recommend running a fogger/humidifier at night to give the higher humidity they need at night. You want 80-90% humidity at night and 50% or lower during the day with a drying out period during the day. Try a bigger variety of foods, things like black soldier flies and larvae, silkworms, dubia roaches, hoppers, crickets etc.

 

[kinyonga]

While you were away, were the lights on? Was your chameleon getting water?
I know you said he wasn’t fed, but they can go a few days without being fed.
Your chameleon‘s arms and face and casque are quite thin…so I would think there was something going on for longer than 5 days.

The wax worms are useful to fatten up a skinny chameleon, but there are better choices of insects than mealworms to feed to the chameleon. Crickets are a good staple IMHO because they are easy to feed/gut load and get…but I would add silkworms, bsfl, roaches, locusts, and once in a while superworms and tomato horn worms.

Regarding your fake plants, I would replace them asap…veiled chameleons tend to eat vegetation and ingesting any fake plant parts can lead to an impaction and death.

Do you have any photos of him the day you got him or within a few days of that?

Have you been feeding/gut loading the insects well?

I would set up a dripper that drips at the rate of one or two drips per second and hope he will drink from it.

I really think he should see a good exotics chameleon vet asap… I hope it’s not too late. He does not look well.

 

[Shauna_T]

I see no mention of hydration or humidity. I highly recommend running a fogger/humidifier at night to give the higher humidity they need at night. You want 80-90% humidity at night and 50% or lower during the day with a drying out period during the day. Try a bigger variety of foods, things like black soldier flies and larvae, silkworms, dubia roaches, hoppers, crickets etc.

What are hoppers

 

[ChamelaChameleon]

@Shauna_T grasshoppers

 

[Shauna_T]

@Shauna_T grasshoppers

Ok ty

 

[kinyonga]

Have you looked on the heels of your chameleon? I’m wondering if it’s a female.

 

[Shauna_T]

Have you looked on the heels of your chameleon? I’m wondering if it’s a female.

I was wondering the same but as I don't even have mine yet I didn't feel qualified to ask.