Nnnooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

steppedinds

New Member
I woke up this morning to find my 11 month old veiled laying on the bottom of the cage, dead. He's had not been eating well the past few weeks. 3 weeks ago, I added a new mistking to his cage (I had a POS exoterra monsoon for a while, until it burned out about 2-3 months ago, in the meantime I used a dripper and hand misted). Within the same few days I put in the mistking I got a few new additions to the group. He could not see the others, but knew they were there because he could see them when I handled him or the others; he desperately wanted in their cages, and would try to leap out of my hands to get to their cage. I thought that he wasn't eating because of the new chameleons, and he was just stressed. He wasn't eating anything at first, ~3 weeks ago, then after a few days I got him to eat a few crickets and some mustard greens. He has been drinking well the whole time. He was using all his limbs well, and I was handling him yesterday and he seemed perfectly fine. I know now I should have taken him into the vet, but I had just assumed it was because of his new neighbors...he was my buddy and will be dearly missed...but please help me figure this out to prevent it from happening again. Should I take him in to the vet and have an autopsy?

also...I've always used crickets from petsmart/petco. 2 weeks ago I ordered 1000 crickets from georgiacrickets.com and 100 dubias....hopefully that's not the cause!!! I've got 4 other chams and tons of frogs the have been eating them, too!!

Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Veiled, M, 11 mo old, in my care 7 mo
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? every other week
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? crickets and dubias are gutloaded with flukers cricket quencher and high calcium diet, also apples, bananas, potatoes, carrots, anything veggie/fruit left over
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? exo-terra multi - twice a month, flukers calcium w/ d3 - 2-3 times a month, zilla liquid calcium - usually every feeding/sometimes every other
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? recently replaced the big dripper w/ a mistking. 5 times a day/ 30 sec intervals. water accumulated on the top screen and dripped down also, this is where he drank
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? white, solid plug separated from a dark brown pellet
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? 36x36x18 glass exoterra (the only glass tank I have)
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? 2 - 36" t5. 1-zilla uvb 5.0, 1 10k grow bulb
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? basking - 85, cage 75, night - 69-70
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? I have 2 non-electronic gauges on either side of the tank. it stays around 60%
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? live hibiscus, everything else was fake
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? the cage is the in dining area of my apt, towards the back, with very little traffic. It is not located near any vents or fans. The top of the cage is 6ft from the floor.
Location - Where are you geographically located? Ga, US
 
So sorry for your loss.
You didn't quarantine the new chameleons from him??

his tank was on the other side of a piece of furniture, plus a piece of plywood that covered the side of his tank. the new chams' tanks were covered with blankets the first 2 weeks, and every 3-4 days I would open their tanks up and check on them, pull them out and make sure they were eating

So the zilla uvb light and the grow light is that your light setup?

yeh I also had a worklight from lowe's with a 75w...forgetting the name...not a spot light, but the ones you use on your driveway...derp
 
I'm really sorry for your loss. That would be horrible.

Your husbandry looks like it was pretty good, although I think 36x36x18 is too small for a veiled of that age, and glass is not recommended for airflow reasons. I don't know if that contributed though.
 
Wow, I can't see anything really obvious in your husbandry either, but something was definitely off during the time he wasn't eating. I know male chams who are distracted by other chams can stop eating for a while, but that shouldn't have killed him on its own. There might have been something going on under the surface you wouldn't have known about.

I think the only way you will know what happened is to get a necropsy. At least it might pinpoint something outside your control (and might ease your heart a little) :(
 
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