Not Moving or eating

[Un1ey]

Hello, new member here so I hope I do this correctly.

I have a female Jackson Chameleon who hasn't really been moving or eating for about a week now. I'm not sure how old she was when I first bought her but it has been 5 months since then.

The only time she has acted out of the ordinary is when she's about to shed but she just finished shedding about 4 weeks ago.

I fed her about 3 Super Worms a day, for about 3 days, on top of her 3 crickets. Then, in a 2-day period, I fed her about 4-5 Wax Worms (this is the first time she's had them), 2-3 Super Worms, and 4-5 crickets. I pretty much wanted to see how much she would eat until she didn't want to eat anymore.

This is around the time she started acting lethargic. At first, I thought I overfed her and she was being lazy but it's been about a week now and I'm especially concerned since I'm leaving for about 3 days. (I have a friend that will be misting her cage twice a day and feeding her.)

I also live in the dry desert so I try to mist her 4-5 times, daily and I plan on buying her a humidifier soon. Because of this, I like to make sure that she drinks so I let her lap up water from my spray bottle and she drinks quite a bit! While she has been having this behavior, the weather has been anywhere from chilly, to windy, to very warm. I'm thinking since everyone has been getting allergies because of the wind, maybe she has been getting them too? (Is that stupid?) And the air conditioner has just been turned on, almost nonstop, for the upcoming Summer season.

Her cage is kept at around 72 degrees (she gets hot when it's above that) and I try to keep the humidity around at least 50%. She's kept in a Large ReptiBreeze, which is 36x24x24. And here are some pictures of her...and her poop.

Has she been eating too much? Did she have a reaction to the Wax Worms? Is the weather getting to her? I need to know what's wrong with my baby!

 

[Video Master]

Here is a link to the how to ask for help which has some more specific questions as well. Please answer these and be as specific as possible. It is all information that will help to get answers.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

Also here is the care sheet for Jacksons. The care sheets are very good and are a great guide to follow.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/jacksons/

 

[Decadancin]

I would try to get the humidity up a bit more, but don't think that is the problem. I'm wondering if she may be holding some infertile yolk plugs that she will pass soon. If this continues much longer I would advise a vet visit just to be on the safe side.

 

[Lovereps]

Welcome to the forum!
Sorry your cham is having problems but you've found a great forum for reliable info.

It looks like you've done a nice job on setting up her cage.
She appears to have both a UVB light and a basking light plus plastic sheeting to help retain moisture.

Just from pictures and brief descriptions, it would be difficult to know for sure the exact cause of the problem but we can let you know if there are things that are obviously wrong, if you provide more info.
That's why cutting and pasting the questions from https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ then adding your answers is wise.

In addition to the good advice already offered, here's my input....
I very strongly doubt that it has anything to do with what she recently ate.
Since there are recent droppings (they are very recent, aren't they?), she would not seem to have any intestinal blockage.

Her colors are odd and she looks rather bloated.
She may be about to have babies or release infertile yolk plugs--or it could be a systemic problem or malnutrition.
Before you got her, she was likely housed with plenty of male Jackson's and she may very well have mated then.

If you have not been:
Dusting her feeders with plain calcium at every other feeding,
dusting feeders 1x a month with calcium that has D3 added
and dusting 1x a month with a multivitamin
--then her problems likely stem from that.
Most feeders lack the proper calcium to phosphorus ratio and the result of not dusting feeders as described above is often MBD, which needs to be treated.
The solution would NOT be to overdose her on vitamins or calcium with D3. That would do more harm than good but there are things that can be done to safely restore her health.

Before you go away for a few days, can you get her an automatic misting system ?

Few people would know enough to mist for several minutes at a time and even fewer are probably willing to do more than just a few brief spritzes.

A misting system can provide enough drinking water and can ensure that her surrounding air isn't so dry that it dehydrates her.
The air conditioning is probably removing most of the moisture from the air.
You might also need a humidifier if the room air is super dry.

2 mistings a day for a Jackson's (which need high humidity near 80%) isn't enough and may make whatever problems she is having worse.

The MistKing and AquaZamp systems are excellent and many forum members use one or the other.
One source for the basic Mistking system which has everything you need except a water reservoir, is this place:
http://www.joshsfrogs.com/mistking-starter-system.html
Aquazamp systems are only available here, AFAIK:
http://www.aquazamp.com/store_front/

Adding another mid size or large leafy plant would also help the humidity and give her a little more security.