pmsuzel
New Member
I just bought my first chameleon about a week ago. he's much less active then he was when I first got him but he still seems to be getting around the cage. he doesn't seem to be eating and he's gotten very thin. today he vomitted up the mealworms I did get him to eat yesterday. I'm not sure what's wrong with him!
CAGE: he is is in a full screen cage that measures 20x18x12.
LIGHTING: I have 2 lights on top of the cage, one is a 50 watt basking exo terra brand light and the other is a 5.0 uvb zoo med bulb. I turn them on when I get up in the morning about 9 am and keep them on until I go to bed at about 11 pm, only turning them off when I'm not home for a few hours just because I worry about fire hazards.
TEMP: the cage never gets below 70 degrees.
HUMIDITY: I mist the cage down often, no less than 4 times a day, being that it is a completely screened cage I know it is harder to maintain humidity, I use bark chips on the bottom to try to maintain good moisture as well.
PLANTS: I have two live tropical terrarium plants in the cage with him, I'm not sure what they are but one is bamboo like and he likes to sit in that one and the other is spider plant like. I also have a variety of different plastic vined plants in there as well, which he travels along often.
LOCATION: the cage is on an end table near the couch in the livingroom. I live alone and don't spend alot of time in the livingroom so it's not too high a traffic area and its not near any vents or fans. the top of the cage is about 3.5 feet from the floor.
CHAMELEON: I'm not sure of the sex or age but his body not including tail is about 3" long. he is a senegal chameleon.
HANDLING:I try not to handle him very often only maybe 2 or 3 times, not including transitioning home.
FEEDING:I've tried giving him small crickets, that's what the pet store said they were feeding him, but I've never seen him eat them and I cant tell if he's eating them when I'm not around or if they're dying on there own. they're hard to find in the bark. I picked up some mealworms yesterday and he ate 8 of them when I held them in tweezers and fed them to him, because he doesn't seem to want to hunt and I wanted to make sure he was eating something.
SUPPLEMENTS: I powder the feeders with 'tetrafauna reptolife plus' vitamins.
WATERING: I've seen him lick the leaves when I am misting so I tend to keep misting everything down until I see him stop drinking.
FECAL: I've only seen him excrete once, when I first got him, and it seemed solid but fluidy, almost like bird feces. it had both white and green/yellow tones.
like I said, I just recently got him and he is my first, so I'm pretty new at this all. I am very sad and don't want to see him die. if anyone can offer up any thoughts or advise it would be greatly appreciated. I feel I'm doing everything best to my knowledge but if I am missing something I want to quickly fix my errors.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
CAGE: he is is in a full screen cage that measures 20x18x12.
LIGHTING: I have 2 lights on top of the cage, one is a 50 watt basking exo terra brand light and the other is a 5.0 uvb zoo med bulb. I turn them on when I get up in the morning about 9 am and keep them on until I go to bed at about 11 pm, only turning them off when I'm not home for a few hours just because I worry about fire hazards.
TEMP: the cage never gets below 70 degrees.
HUMIDITY: I mist the cage down often, no less than 4 times a day, being that it is a completely screened cage I know it is harder to maintain humidity, I use bark chips on the bottom to try to maintain good moisture as well.
PLANTS: I have two live tropical terrarium plants in the cage with him, I'm not sure what they are but one is bamboo like and he likes to sit in that one and the other is spider plant like. I also have a variety of different plastic vined plants in there as well, which he travels along often.
LOCATION: the cage is on an end table near the couch in the livingroom. I live alone and don't spend alot of time in the livingroom so it's not too high a traffic area and its not near any vents or fans. the top of the cage is about 3.5 feet from the floor.
CHAMELEON: I'm not sure of the sex or age but his body not including tail is about 3" long. he is a senegal chameleon.
HANDLING:I try not to handle him very often only maybe 2 or 3 times, not including transitioning home.
FEEDING:I've tried giving him small crickets, that's what the pet store said they were feeding him, but I've never seen him eat them and I cant tell if he's eating them when I'm not around or if they're dying on there own. they're hard to find in the bark. I picked up some mealworms yesterday and he ate 8 of them when I held them in tweezers and fed them to him, because he doesn't seem to want to hunt and I wanted to make sure he was eating something.
SUPPLEMENTS: I powder the feeders with 'tetrafauna reptolife plus' vitamins.
WATERING: I've seen him lick the leaves when I am misting so I tend to keep misting everything down until I see him stop drinking.
FECAL: I've only seen him excrete once, when I first got him, and it seemed solid but fluidy, almost like bird feces. it had both white and green/yellow tones.
like I said, I just recently got him and he is my first, so I'm pretty new at this all. I am very sad and don't want to see him die. if anyone can offer up any thoughts or advise it would be greatly appreciated. I feel I'm doing everything best to my knowledge but if I am missing something I want to quickly fix my errors.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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Give him some time to calm down, it can take senegals some time. You should also consider a fecal sample taken to a vet to see if he has parasites, that is common in senegals but easily treated. Best of luck.
