Our 6 month old chameleon found dead

[Cswitz33]

We woke up to find our Sweet Pumpkin like this in the bottom of his cage. He seemed fine last night. He was molting, but this time I will say he was kind of slimy/sticky.

He was kept in a screen cage
Had UVB and heat lamp
Sprayed 3-4x a day with filtered water
We have even let him soak recently
Was fed tiny meal worms daily and eating fine
Dusted in calcium 2-3x a day
Cage cleaned regularly
Seemed like
Normal urate and deification
No substrate, we wanted to wait until he was older

We were novice at reptiles but I felt like I did adequate research. We loved him dearly and are very heartbroken over his loss so please be kind.
Does anyone know what the slimy stickiness could have been?

 

[brownie64]

I'm sorry about your loss. I think you are referring to his tongue. Mill worms aren't a good staple food kinda like potato chips too us. They can also cause impaction. Chameleons are pretty good at hiding their illness if you don't know what your looking for sometime the signs can be real subtle. I don't believe soaking does anything for them, but stress them out. In the future might try showers instead. Now to say any of this contributed to his death can't really say. Again sorry for your loss.

 

[trickedoutbiker]

Were the eyes sunken in before the death? Or did that occur post-mortem? Kinda looks a little dehydrated.

Dusted in calcium 2-3x a day

How thick was the dusting? Was it lightly coated or heavily coated? Were you using plain calcium with NO D3 during these daily dustings? Were you using any calcium WITH D3 twice a month and were you also using a MULTIVITAMIN twice a month.... or was it just the one single supplement you were using?

Was fed tiny meal worms daily and eating fine

I agree with @brownie64 in that daily mealworms would be very bad for their health. Mealworms aren't good for chameleons AT ALL really, as they are high in fat, provide almost no nutritional value, and have very hard exoskeletons. Were you using any other feeders? A good variety is key to the health of a chameleon, as is making sure all of your feeders are gutloaded if it is possible to gutload them.

He was kept in a screen cage

How big was the cage? What were the temps like? Did you have gauges to monitor the temperature of the basking spot and the ambient temps of the cage? Did you also have a humidity gauge to check the humidity levels in the cage?


I'm very sorry for your loss.

 

[Peachypink]

I am so sorry for your loss. That is absolutely heartbreaking!

When you are ready and you are interested in trying again it would be good to cover all areas of husbandry that you had with this one so that we can help you be more successful the next time. It is devastating to lose a pet even if he was only in your care for a little while. And I know it will be hard to pick apart how you kept him and it may seem harsh for parts of it, so when you are ready to fully break it down, we are here to help.

As for the stickiness, I have no idea, I wish I could help.