Newborn Impaction? meal was too big?

Zanish

Member
I was wondering, if a newborn chameleon ate a huge meal, say about 4 crickets the size of the space between its eyes,,,, and the next day it went to do it's business but only urate, the white part and little else came out, are we in trouble? Say it looks like it keeps attempting to finish the job for about an hour without sucess, is it time to worry? Can something be done to help?

edit- Yes it's definately trying hard again right now, without success. I know there isnt any forien mater causing the impaction because it does not have access to anything it could ingest. I'm 100% sure it's a super-poop that it cant seem to squeeze out. Repeated failed attempts..... more times i see it try, more failed attepts, the more worried i become, someone give me someting to work with here...Please, I'll even take any bashing, just gimme anything =)
 
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I'd say lots of misting, possibly showers to stimiluate drinking for the little one. I don't know if this will help but I know when baby birds are impacted they need their bottoms stimulated by rubbing. And baby mice need to be stimulated all the time just to go to the bathroom by rubbing their bottoms and tummies. I know baby chams don't need this but it might help to go to the bathroom for this little one. Not sure though. Good luck and keep us updated
 
I'd say lots of misting, possibly showers to stimiluate drinking for the little one. I don't know if this will help but I know when baby birds are impacted they need their bottoms stimulated by rubbing. And baby mice need to be stimulated all the time just to go to the bathroom by rubbing their bottoms and tummies. I know baby chams don't need this but it might help to go to the bathroom for this little one. Not sure though. Good luck and keep us updated

Thank you for your response Andee, I've read about the cod liver oil, the warm mistings/showers....and will try both if needed. What worries me is that the it is a newborn and so delicate, and that it does keep attempting,,,
When it first went, and only the white part and tiny liquid came out, it remained in position for some time. When it decided to move, it drug its vent on the branch a little. Not sure if trying to stimulate, or "wipe".....Also, the other thing that makes me worry is its not ate today, and its eaten healthy every day before, maybe 2 times a day sometimes. If it will eat later, I'll attempt the cod liver oil, but the dosage has to be so tiny...ugh/ Also, I do have a question about the warm mistings.... What is warm? I'd like a specific temp to try and achive. dont want to over-do it...
 
I usually boil the water then put the water in the mister and usually its warm when it comes out. Though ALWAYS test it with your hand before you spray it on the baby. Showers should be just above luke warm I think.
 
I usually boil the water then put the water in the mister and usually its warm when it comes out. Though ALWAYS test it with your hand before you spray it on the baby. Showers should be just above luke warm I think.

TY again Andee, for being here for me...

Wow...boiling? Never in a million yrs would i have thought that..but it makes sense...by the time its shot through the air a foot in a super fine mist, it will kool alot .. I'll heat up some water, set the misting nozzle and spray my arm to find the right distance of spray to achieve 'barely warm"...ty

I'll head off to try this now, and check in when complete.

I'm back, instead, i was advised to try a warm vent soak and did, without results. It's visually apparent the little one is in discomfort. Tummy is round, and it just moves from place to place and trys to take care of unfinished business. sits.......inactive....crinkled up...hunch-backed....gona see if its interested in some flies.
 
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Four appropriately sized crickets for a young chameleon is not a big meal.

Lack of hydration could be the problem but it's hard to be sure. It won't hurt to try to hydrate it more anyway.


Babyfood pears often helps with constipation.

Are your basking temperatures in the low 80'sF? What temp is the rest of the cage at?
 
Four appropriately sized crickets for a young chameleon is not a big meal.

Lack of hydration could be the problem but it's hard to be sure. It won't hurt to try to hydrate it more anyway.


Babyfood pears often helps with constipation.

Are your basking temperatures in the low 80'sF? What temp is the rest of the cage at?

I started basking temp at 80....I,ve let it get to 83 at it's warmest. just shot it with laser,,, hottest point at 83.5 (darker coloring on branch)rest at 82.5 after dinner yesterday it basked for hours, flipping sides periodically. the ambient temp is....shot all over 79.4 hottest...78's mostly, alot of 75&74s...and i found a single spot 72.9

I have a reptifogger i could raise humidity, but its not in a screen cage yet so that i can control humidity better..........and its just so young...nose to vent is about an inch streched out.. and 3-4 other normal humidifiers, to raise the rooms anbient humididty
 
That's sounds perfect for a juvenile panther, the basking temp is fine.

Kool, ty. I only raised it from 80-81 to 82.5-83.5 today to help it digest better. I still see it constantly hanging it's vent to the side...no luck yet...lol.. its mood and behavior are definately different today...more annoyed at me, at anything. I saw my BB take a dump once, that i swear was almost as wide as its waist... I was in shock a pooh that sized came out of it... lord it looked painful, lol.. I'll keep hydrating the newborn.
 
POOOOOOP! several times! not much each time, but i saw times... also, It's wiggling its body like a snake, gotta be something to do with digestive tract, ty for those who've offered help. I,,l check in soon.
 
POOOOOOP! several times! not much each time, but i saw times... also, It's wiggling its body like a snake, gotta be something to do with digestive tract, ty for those who've offered help. I,,l check in soon.

Well, I'm not sure that we're out of the woods yet =( poops i spoke of were small & watery and its still lethargic. It ate some flies, and , well, I'm not impressed with it's recovery. I still see the bulge in its lower abdomen and it's keeping me quite concerned. I've offered enough hydration to drown it, hand mistings, drips, drips by hand, taken it out on a little stick and lined up the stick with water droplets, ran water down the stick to it...but no matter i never see it drinking. and i don't just do these things for a couple minutes, i spend 1/2hr to an hour each time. As long as it can take it. I stop when it starts seeming worn out from running away from the water. .....so much that I'm keeping it in a 10gl glass aquarium and I had to put a couple chunks of sphmagmus moss to soak up the pooling water today, and I think i'm about ready to take another 10gl tank (I'm prefering glass now, to keep humidity up... moss helping too) and drill a drain hole in one corner of the bottom pane, and when I set it up i'll tilt it 1-2 degrees towards the drain hole. That way, I can really get some serious automatic misting and a constant drip-vine and maybe even some 1/4 or 1/2 gl-hr drippers going all day when lights are on. But right now, it refuses to drink, and I believe i see clear signs it's dehydrated. most hydrated babies i've seen have huge bulging eyeballs.... this one, not so much. Right before lights-out tonight I think i saw it's hip bone at the begining of te tail...you know where i mean? like...right where the legs come out and right before the tail begins, I see a tiny outline of hipbone on its back. not sure if thats normal or not, but i did not notice it earlier. Speaking of earlier... I gave it a luke-warm soak for about 10 mins. I felt so bad... I put it in a wooden bowl with sides that round back over the top edges, if you can picture it... the sides just don't stop at the normal 90 degree angle like a cooking pot does... the actually bend inward...concave kinda. Well, this thing fought until almost dead to get out of the water. I only put in 1/8th to 3/16th inch water.... just enough to submerge its vent when it was scratching and clawing to get out... the angle of the sides did not let it stand up on back legs to claw at sides,,, it seemed to keep its vent almost on the bottom touching the bowl....good... But the poor thing just went in circles for longer than i could watch. I had to walk away the last few minutes... when I returned the water had cooled to the touch, yet the little one was all white like it was 150 degree water, i repeat though it had cooled all the way down and the baby should have been dark & cold.......instead it was white as a gohst, eyes closed and almost limp... so, my point is, this thing HATES HATES HATES water as if it's going to die from it. Is that normal? I believe had I left it sitting another 10 minutes in the 1/8th inch cooled water, i may have returned to a completely limp cham, dead.

Thanks again to all whom have responded to my concerns, I'm more greatful than you know.
 
Hmm I wonder what's wrong that they are getting constipated o_O

Sorry if there is any confusion Andee, it's only this newborn that's constipated. The post in which I mentioned another cham was totally off-topic Andee. sry again for any confusion. That cham has not had any problems going in it's entire life so far anyways. it eats me out of house and home and one particularly large meal of pheonix/calci/reptiworms resulted in a horrifically large load. I was shocked, I thought something was wrong at first...scared the heck outa me until i took a closer look and realized what was actually going on. hehe.. that's all.
 
Four appropriately sized crickets for a young chameleon is not a big meal.

Lack of hydration could be the problem but it's hard to be sure. It won't hurt to try to hydrate it more anyway.


Babyfood pears often helps with constipation.

Are your basking temperatures in the low 80'sF? What temp is the rest of the cage at?

Also, thank you for your response Kiny, the crickets were the smallest i had out of a 1000 box i got a while back. they were not quite PH size, but they were really close to fitting between the eyes but definately the largest i'd ever offer to another baby again, and then only in an emergency food shortage . One thing though, it was likely its first time eating crickets, may have only ever eaten flies prior, and the 4th and final cricket took some time of working at to get it down properly... a few minutes after first trying to swallow it, i saw the cricket kick the hell out of the chams throat..then, silence..... but the cham seemed to have some trouble getting it down the esophagus. thats when it spent the remainder of the day & evening in front of the basking lamp, flipping from side to side periodically. I personally believe it will survive all of this, one way or another....

What did you think of my temps... the cham always is in the 74 to 83.5 gradient, I got rid of the one coolest spot. It never hung out there anyway, and I am thinking to keep it's temp up and above 75 at all times, to hopefully improve digestion. Tomorrow night maybe I'll get some baby food as you mentioned, and see if i can get it to eat any, if i still notice the abdomen, and it's discomfort. It had quite a time today, once the flies arrive, I was going to put some on a small chunk of banana and place the banana clost to where the cham hangs out, but, my luck, I must have let loose 100 flies... to many IMO//// I started wiping the glass to squish and remove some of them, until there was a small enough number remaining that I didn'e see any crawling on the cham, annoying it. Wasn't enough room on the banana piece for 100 flies.........Off to see about drilling drainage in a piece of glass.. I'm sure I have some sort of bit that will drilll glass... maybe my dremmel, it has tons of those diamond tip thingys...

I'll check back in with youguys tomorrow morning, or tomorrow night, and also give you any updates on the babay

Thanks again.
 
Sorry I was gone for a while at someone's house been worried about this little one and thinking of you, I was wondering do you have any small hornworms? IT might be a good way to get some hydration into the baby and won't add too much actual meat to the meal since they are mostly water. Getting a little poop is better than none though
 
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