New Baby Cham not Eating and Wobbling

[JessNT]

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for what you do here, this forum is an invaluable resource. I read a lot on the forums to prepare for the new addition to our family. We have dogs, cats, and rescued a bearded dragon a few years ago. My wife recently decided she wanted to get a chameleon, so we purchased a young (3-4 month old) panther chameleon about 10 days ago.

Unfortunately, he has not been eating much at all. He ate a few crickets each of the first couple of days from a cup we held up for him. He then stopped eating for 2 days while he was shedding. I started to worry that the cage was too big for him to hunt in (2x2x4), so we ordered a much smaller cage. While we were waiting for the cage over the last few days, we tried cup feeding the crickets, but he never seemed to find them. All in all, over the last 10 days he has eaten maybe 15 small crickets (gutloaded with breeder's recipe and dusted with Calcium w/o D3), 6 hornworms, and 4 wax worms; hardly seems like enough for a growing cham.

Today was the worst off all. He refused to eat from the cup she held up for him even though he seemed interested. We put him in his new enclosure (16x16x20) and filled it with crickets, but they all just crawled around the bottom and he didn't find any. He started crawling on the top of the cage, went to Pothos and ate a mouthful of soul from between the river rocks. We panicked, went out and brought some fresh waxworms (only thing PetSmart had) and he still refused to eat those. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but I feel like we're going to kill this little guy. I work for the county and just started conducting my yearly inventory, so although I want to take him to the vet, there is no way I can get out of work early until Friday and I just don't know if he has that long. Any help to get us through til Friday would be greatly appreciated. I will be posting husbandry info within the hour.

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?

Ambilobe panther; male?; 3-4 months old; in our care 10 days.

• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?

Only handled him on four occasions.

• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?

We have tried small crickets, hornworms, waxworms. We try feeding in the morning and early afternoon, sometimes in the evening when he won't eat. Gutload on crickets is collard green, carrots, water cubes and a dry cricket gutload from the cricket seller online.

• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?

We've only use zoo med calcium w/o D3 so far at every attempted feeding of crickets.

• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?

We mist cage 4x a day for about 15 seconds or until whole cage is wet and dripping.

• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?

First five days fecals were normal, days 6-8 days looked a little smaller and have not seem a fresh fecal in 1-2 days (may have fallen in the ficus pot, not sure).

• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

N/A

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?

Was in 2x2x4, transferred to a 16x16x20 today. Screen.

• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?

Reptisun 10.0 (switched to 5.0 today because of smaller cage) and 75w heating lamp. 12 on/12 off.

• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?

Basking spot is about 80, lowest temp depends on ambient temp, reptile room is slightly colder than rest of the house. Lows can reach about 65 at night.

• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?

40-65% depending on outside temps and misting.

• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?

Ficus and pothos in old cage, only pothos in new enclosure.

• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?

Guest bedroom, very low traffic. One air vent and fan, but never on. Cage is on two foot table plus the 20 inch height of the cage (previously about 6 feet total).

• Location - Where are you geographically located?

South East USA