Need critique and advice desperately!

[ZacharyLeesWife]

I bought 2 veiled chameleons 2 weeks ago and lost one last night. I'm HEARTBROKEN. She had an impaction from a superworm and went from fine to gone in 24 hours so now I'm incredibly worried about the other baby. Giving her the worm was a mistake and I couldn't live with myself if I hurt my other baby! I have to mention; Petco told me superworms were great treats for the veiled chameleon aND theoretically they are. BUT they can kill babies because of the type of shell. Nice to know. So this is the info for little foot, my other baby... Could you please go over it with a fine tooth comb??

• Your Chameleon - Male veiled chameleon, just guessing but I think he's about 2 months old.
• Handling - Daily, he's very curious and likes to sit in my hair...
• Feeding and supplements - I am keeping 1/4 inch crickets in the cage always available. I gut load them for 3-4 days with Mazuri brand gut load before I put them in the cage. When I put a new batch of crickets in about every other day I dust them with Zoomed calcium without d3, and I use reptivite vitamins to dust a batch once a week. I'm definitely starting to transition to cup feeding though, because I want to be able to monitor intake and poops better and it will be easier to keep his cage clean. I think the gut loading and dusting will be about the same.
• Watering - I'm keeping about 50 percent humidity, I spray several times a day and she has a dripper.
• Fecal Description - Beautiful poop this morning, lol. Nice white urate...
• Cage Type - He's in a medium zoomed breeze chameleon cage, it is all mesh with a vinyl back round that I added.
• Lighting - voo med reptisun 5.0 UVB and a 60 watt daylight blue reptilebulb, also zoomed brand.
• Temperature - the cage floor is 75 day and night, middle branches average 80 daytime and 75 at night, basking spot is 85-90 during the day and around 75 at night
• Humidity - The humidity is always between 40-60. I mist 3 or 4 times a day and that brings the humidity close to 70. I have a petco brand humidity gage set where he spends most of his time, a few inches from the top of the cage. He also has a zoomed little dripper that drips down a live plant 24 hours a day.
• Plants- I have plastic and a live dracaena plant.
• Placement - He is set up at the foot of my bed on my dresser. The top of her cage is a little higher than eye level, the bottom is waist level.

I have a picture of the inclosure and little foot this morning, I would sincerely appreciate ANY feedback or advice. I got little foot and big foot at the same time and their enclosures were nearly identical because I bought 2 of everything when I realized that they had to be separated.

 

[Remkon]

Dracaena may be toxic... I'm not 100% sure... It's also a plant that doesn't need to be watered to much so I'm not to positive that it will do very well in the cage. You may want to play safe and buy something like a ficus since veiled chams can eat from your plants. Ficus also has more branches and gives better cover for your chameleon.

Other than that I think you and your cham just had very bad luck on that impactation... I wouldn't beat myself up to much about it, your setup looks decent enough and from your info it looks like you've done your homework on them.

Maybe some veiled keepers can give some more pointers.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

Dracaena may be toxic... I'm not 100% sure... It's also a plant that doesn't need to be watered to much so I'm not to positive that it will do very well in the cage. You may want to play safe and buy something like a ficus since veiled chams can eat from your plants. Ficus also has more branches and gives better cover for your chameleon.

Other than that I think you and your cham just had very bad luck on that impactation... I wouldn't beat myself up to much about it, your setup looks decent enough and from your info it looks like you've done your homework on them.

Maybe some veiled keepers can give some more pointers.

Thank you so much! The dracanna is safe, but temporary. The fronds are too weak for him to climb but I needed something that would absorb the drip I have set up and I haven't found a small enough ficus. I would really like to find a small hibiscus...

 

[jajeanpierre]

I'm so sorry you lost your new baby. How heartbreaking. Is this the baby someone posted about that they thought was impacted from the superworm and was so dehydrated? Were you the one soaking with coconut oil? (I just wanted to know we are talking about one chameleon with a problem from eating a superworm and not two different animals.)

One other thing I wanted to mention, how do you know for sure she died of impaction from a superworm? Did the vet make a diagnosis? Did the vet do a necropsy or just make a diagnosis based on her symptoms? I ask because sometimes what we lay people think happened isn't what really happened. Two days ago I lost young wild caught female that had been doing incredibly well. As I was feeding, I heard a funny rasping sound, looked into her cage and found her blanched and in distress. She was gone in minutes. She had chewed up cricket on the outside of her mouth. It looked very much like she vomited and aspirated or choked to death even though her throat was clear. Yesterday I opened her up and was surprised to find two very large lung worms that had punctured out of her lungs. What seemed obvious to me, choking (sudden death of a fat, healthy chameleon during feeding), proved not to be the case and it was only revealed on necropsy. I always like to know why because I want to make sure I change everything I can so it won't ever happen again. I am just saying that what you think happened might not have. I understand the guilt you are feeling right now and want to reassure you that really, it's not your fault. How could you have known? We do the best we can with the information we have at the time and strive to do better. I am truly sorry for your loss.

On a side issue, I don't know how you were housing the two chameleons, but I just wanted to bring up if you have more than one chameleon that they need two separate cages with a visual block. You might already know that, but wanted to be sure you knew that in case you end up getting another chameleon.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

That was my baby that passed last night. They had separate cages, they were next to each other but I had a backdrop between them. I got them together so I set their homes up pretty much identically. I'm still so heartbroken. I have an appointment at 11 to have her looked at, but I'm pretty positive just because she had a knot in her belly and she pushed so hard trying to poop, her little cloaca(I think that's the proper way to say butt?) prolapsed. It seemed like it happened so fast! She was fine but passed 18 hours later. I can't help but blame myself!

 

[Lizzie The Chameleon]

That was my baby that passed last night. They had separate cages, they were next to each other but I had a backdrop between them. I got them together so I set their homes up pretty much identically. I'm still so heartbroken. I have an appointment at 11 to have her looked at, but I'm pretty positive just because she had a knot in her belly and she pushed so hard trying to poop, her little cloaca(I think that's the proper way to say butt?) prolapsed. It seemed like it happened so fast! She was fine but passed 18 hours later. I can't help but blame myself!

Chams are very different from ALL reptiles no matter how much experience you have. Do a little bit of research on what chams need such as the level of humidity, plants that are safe, etc. Chams need to have AT LEAST 50% humidity but try to get it around 70-80% You can get hibiscus, ficus trees, and a few more. The ficus trees can be hard to find sometimes so I got a hibiscus. Make sure you feed lots of crickets and occasionally a mealworm. I feed mine 1-2 mealworms a month(not at the same time) as a treat. Hornworms are GREAT for hydrating chams but if yours isn't dehydrated it can make their poop runny and it's harder to clean their tank. If you get super worms again, wait till he's a little older and MAKE SURE YOU CRUSH THE HEADS!!!! Don't beat yourself up for what happened to Big Foot. It happens more often than you would ever think even the people with the most experience make mistakes sometimes. It just happens. Good luck with your chameleon!