He's a Noseby panther chameleon. She is very attached to him as his is one of a kind. He's very friendly and positively enjoys being handled.
He's in a 4ft tall, 3ft wide, 3ft deep vivarium. He gets heat all the time but it's on a timer to give him the night time drop. 30C daytime basking spot, the lowest it drops to on a night is 26C. She keeps him at 75% humidity during the day.
At the moment his UV is coming from this Lucky Reptile Bright Bulb which we've just found out needs replacing every 4 months and we just can't afford that so hence working out the T5. We were told it would last 12 months. He stopped eating after it had been in for 5 months. A few days back we changed it on the suggestion of the vet and that's when we discovered how little we knew about these bulbs. All we can find on it is it's a Jungle 70w. It is set to come on at about 6am as it takes a long time to become bright and isn't on full until 7am. It goes off at 7pm.
He did have a fig tree in his vivarium and a large piece of wood with fake bendy vines wound around so he could bask. However, we had to take it out for a number of reasons. It was possible that he was ingesting toxins via the locusts that were eating it, the tree was nearly had no leaves left thanks to the locusts, we suspect its roots were rotting since there were fungus gnats everywhere, there was an impaction risk from fallen leaves and we suspect it caused a severe allergic reaction in his owner. Now the tree has been replaced with a plant cone (the metal outdoor things for training plants up) fitted with lots of bendy vines and plastic plants. Will provide a picture when possible, right now can't go in or he'll stop whatever he's doing to come out. It isn't perfect at the moment but we keep tweaking it when we realise he has an issue with it. We are essentially trying to make him a tree so it will take a while to get right.
She has kitchen roll down on the bottom since otherwise he ends up with a pool and it really helps with the humidity. It is changed every day when she lowers the humidity on a night.
He has a very regular routine. His light comes on at 6, at about half past he wakes up stalks and eats a locust. We come down at 7 and see to the other animals then around 9 his owner takes him out. He refuses to toilet in his vivarium and takes this opportunity to defecate. At the moment the urates are fine but the faeces are hard and small though gradually getting back to normal. After this she handles him for a few minutes more or he'll try every trick to not go back in. Once back in she puts his dripper on which he drinks from directly, he will not drink from leaves. After leaving him for a few minutes so he'll drink she sprays his viv to bring the humidity up.
After this she puts in 8 locusts and a few crickets. Before putting in crickets we were temporarily feeding waxworms in an attempt to feed him up as he was, and sadly still is, very underweight. Thankfully he really took to crickets, eating up to 6 a day, and appeared to be eating 3 locusts each day. Once food is in it is rare anyone enters the room, a habit learned for his sake. If he sees someone he thinks he's coming out and will stop drinking or eating in order to beg to be out. He gets one early afternoon visit to check his humidity.
At 4 he is taken out for handling again although she can skip this if necessary. Usually he will get half an hour then get put back in. Then his dripper is put on again so he can drink and everyone stays out for a while again. Then we do the other animals while he constantly watches us, ever hopeful to be out.
Last thing of the day is just before his light goes out she takes the kitchen roll, wrings it out and uses it to soak up any excess water underneath. It's rare there is any now the tree is gone and any that is there comes from the dripper. Then she replaces the old soggy kitchen roll with fresh.
It did seem that the problem was the light, as he seemed to be gradually improving since we replaced it. It had so far gone that there was a very visible difference when the bulb was replaced so dread to think what was happening with the UV.
However, he has stopped eating again and any suggestions on the subject would be appreciated. I will phone the vets when I get a chance tomorrow, however, it may not be practical if we have to take him in as either one is 3 hours away at least. We aren't at all sure how we'd go about that and then if the subsequent weeks of not eating from stress would kill him.
Also one individual suggested maybe he wants variety. I wondered as to how this is possible without flying insects as his owner is squeamish of such things. Also it's not a good time of year to catch moths or spiders, there aren't very many showing up at the moment.
He's in a 4ft tall, 3ft wide, 3ft deep vivarium. He gets heat all the time but it's on a timer to give him the night time drop. 30C daytime basking spot, the lowest it drops to on a night is 26C. She keeps him at 75% humidity during the day.
At the moment his UV is coming from this Lucky Reptile Bright Bulb which we've just found out needs replacing every 4 months and we just can't afford that so hence working out the T5. We were told it would last 12 months. He stopped eating after it had been in for 5 months. A few days back we changed it on the suggestion of the vet and that's when we discovered how little we knew about these bulbs. All we can find on it is it's a Jungle 70w. It is set to come on at about 6am as it takes a long time to become bright and isn't on full until 7am. It goes off at 7pm.
He did have a fig tree in his vivarium and a large piece of wood with fake bendy vines wound around so he could bask. However, we had to take it out for a number of reasons. It was possible that he was ingesting toxins via the locusts that were eating it, the tree was nearly had no leaves left thanks to the locusts, we suspect its roots were rotting since there were fungus gnats everywhere, there was an impaction risk from fallen leaves and we suspect it caused a severe allergic reaction in his owner. Now the tree has been replaced with a plant cone (the metal outdoor things for training plants up) fitted with lots of bendy vines and plastic plants. Will provide a picture when possible, right now can't go in or he'll stop whatever he's doing to come out. It isn't perfect at the moment but we keep tweaking it when we realise he has an issue with it. We are essentially trying to make him a tree so it will take a while to get right.
She has kitchen roll down on the bottom since otherwise he ends up with a pool and it really helps with the humidity. It is changed every day when she lowers the humidity on a night.
He has a very regular routine. His light comes on at 6, at about half past he wakes up stalks and eats a locust. We come down at 7 and see to the other animals then around 9 his owner takes him out. He refuses to toilet in his vivarium and takes this opportunity to defecate. At the moment the urates are fine but the faeces are hard and small though gradually getting back to normal. After this she handles him for a few minutes more or he'll try every trick to not go back in. Once back in she puts his dripper on which he drinks from directly, he will not drink from leaves. After leaving him for a few minutes so he'll drink she sprays his viv to bring the humidity up.
After this she puts in 8 locusts and a few crickets. Before putting in crickets we were temporarily feeding waxworms in an attempt to feed him up as he was, and sadly still is, very underweight. Thankfully he really took to crickets, eating up to 6 a day, and appeared to be eating 3 locusts each day. Once food is in it is rare anyone enters the room, a habit learned for his sake. If he sees someone he thinks he's coming out and will stop drinking or eating in order to beg to be out. He gets one early afternoon visit to check his humidity.
At 4 he is taken out for handling again although she can skip this if necessary. Usually he will get half an hour then get put back in. Then his dripper is put on again so he can drink and everyone stays out for a while again. Then we do the other animals while he constantly watches us, ever hopeful to be out.
Last thing of the day is just before his light goes out she takes the kitchen roll, wrings it out and uses it to soak up any excess water underneath. It's rare there is any now the tree is gone and any that is there comes from the dripper. Then she replaces the old soggy kitchen roll with fresh.
It did seem that the problem was the light, as he seemed to be gradually improving since we replaced it. It had so far gone that there was a very visible difference when the bulb was replaced so dread to think what was happening with the UV.
However, he has stopped eating again and any suggestions on the subject would be appreciated. I will phone the vets when I get a chance tomorrow, however, it may not be practical if we have to take him in as either one is 3 hours away at least. We aren't at all sure how we'd go about that and then if the subsequent weeks of not eating from stress would kill him.
Also one individual suggested maybe he wants variety. I wondered as to how this is possible without flying insects as his owner is squeamish of such things. Also it's not a good time of year to catch moths or spiders, there aren't very many showing up at the moment.