No Pooping...decreased food intake...looks depressed...

[Valentine]

I have a year old panther cross-- he was doing so well up until i changed his terrium from a planted tank to a bare bottom tank. It's an exo-terra tank-- 4' high and 2 x 2 (wxd). He has a few live plants and fake ones with many vines/branches. His temps for day time are 80-90 in the basking area. He has a mister king which goes off 4-6 times/day for 1-3 mins per spray. He gets outside when its warm; I force him out of his tank daily to make him exercise.

He has not pooped since Aug. 15. When he did poop he had a large hard urate and a large brown portion. When I cut it open there were undigested 'worm' bits. This has been the "norm" for the past month or so-- with him pooping once per week if that.

After he poops he is very interested in food...as the days go by he becomes less and less interested. Today I had to convince him to eat a horn worm...and he has hardly eaten anything for days. Not to mention he now refuses to eat crickets-- which he was raised on.

At this time he is lethargic, looks like he's "laying" on his branches with his head resting on his hands, with this hands wrapped around a branch. He seems to go to sleep at the normal time and looks "normal" when sleeping-- proper colors and curled tail.

*sigh* The vet have given him 2x enemas about a month ago... which after a day or two he pooped. Another vet suggested we bath him... we tried several times.. he looked terrified...and got cold pretty quick.

I would also like to note that prior to changing up his tank he was doing GREAT! he was a great size, ate and pooped well; social, etc. Currently he has lost about 40g ....I mean he still looks like a good but... its just not good .

I feel that our vets are not experienced enough with chameleons and I'm pretty worried about the whole thing.

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

ps. his feeders are gut loaded; they get dusted with multi-vitamin and with calcium + D3. I may have been over dusting in the past, but certainly not now.

Thanks

 

[Kayroxyoursox]

Are you dusting with vitamins and calcium + d3 everyday? If so, that's too much. The recommended schedule is calcium WITHOUT d3 everyday , and calcium with d3 and vitamins twice a month.

 

[Andee]

How often are you feeding? This sounds actually pretty normal to me... >.> around a year to 18 months they slow down on eating a lot, usually eat every other day to every two days, and poop maybe once to twice a week.

What are your feeders? I can't remember are exo-terra's all glass or a screen glass combo?

He looks great weight to me. He doesn't look bad at all. o.o

I think temps for a male panther are supposed to be around 92 degrees in basking area... Do you know how old his UVB light is? Undigested worm parts sounds like he might not be warm enough

Edit- Woops it's actually only 86 degrees F sorry about that XD. Forgot that's for my BTS when he was a baby >.> so many reptiles sometimes lol, anyway what kind of worms are you feeding him?

Instead of bathing... which I never suggest with a Cham because it's just stressful for them, I would suggest trying a shower? It's a good way to get them super hydrated and sometimes the warm mist and water gets things moving faster. Sunshine always helps with that too so if you can get him outside in a free range that's protected. I would try that too?

 

[Valentine]

Andee...

Hey -- so he usually eats superworms, meal worms, hornworms (1 every couple weeks), butters, wax sometimes. He will NOT eat crickets. And he eats mostly after he poops, and then it dwindles.

We do give showers...

His UV light has a month to go before changing.

The exo-terra have a mesh top and a vented front.

 

[kinyonga]

Please answer the questions in the how to ask for help thread at the top of the health forum so we can help you better. Please be specific about the supplements and how often you use each. Also, what do you feed / gutload the insects with?

 

[Valentine]

supplements-- exo-terra-multi-vitamin powder; zoo med calcium with D3-- I have to admit the dusting varied. Usually 2-3 x week for both (not at the same time).

Frankly he doesnt eat enough -- so I try to my best to give him something.

His bugs (mostly supers, meals, less often butters, waxes, 1 once every week or two for horns). The supers and meals are given potatoe, carrot, apple, and a gut load chow I made (all sorts of good stuff... ; got the recipe online).

He used to eat crickets which were also gut loaded--he stopped eating them... a bit after he finally had a poop...which was full of undigested cricket bits.

 

[Valentine]

UPDATE-- LOTS of urate crystals... see picture

He finally pooped after more than a week!

This is what I got....

Please see my attachments... (hope it works)

I have since upped his mistings about 80%.

Anyone know why I have a beautiful urate and crazy crystals in the same poop....