oustalet stopped eating

[Christiefan24]

This is Fred. I got him on 08-25-13, was told he was a male and about 9 months old. He was in a 18x18x19 glass terrarium and I moved him into a 18x18x36 screen cage on 09-24-13. He has been doing good eating 24 large crickets a day and a few worms 2 days a week (rotating with butter, silk, wax, meal all dusted with vitamins and calcium) and started adding dubia's 2 months ago. During November he went down to 12 crickets a day and a few worms 2 days a week, he has been slowly reducing his eating and now has not eaten anything since last Saturday. He weighs 110grams, last shed was 10-06-13, still active, loves to come out of his cage and climb to the top of the window treatments. Last out of his cage on Monday, noticed he lost his grip and fell in his cage once yesterday and once today.

This is my first Oustalet. I'm worried. Had him to the vet the first week I had him and had a fecal done (all clear) and the vet said he looked great. Should I take him to the vet?

 

[Montium]

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Fill it out and it will save some time for those that can help you.

 

[Christiefan24]

more information

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - I got him on 08-25-13, was told he was a male Oustalet and about 9 months old

Handling - Open cage daily and he comes to me and goes up my arm and sits on my head about 10 minutes. when he comes back down my arm I go to his cage and he goes back in.

Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? 24 large crickets a day and a few worms 2 days a week (rotating with butter, silk, wax, meal all worms dusted with zoo med reptivite with D3 and calcium) and started adding dubia's 2 months ago. crickets are fed cricket chow, oatmeal and bran cereal mixed with zoo meds reptivite with D3 and calcium, oranges once a week, water gels at all times. Dubia's are fed the same chow as the crickets and yellow squash and carrots.
What is the schedule? was putting 12 crickets in a container at 7am, home at noon all crickets were gone so gave another 12 and offered 2-4 worms. all crickets were again gone by 7pm when I got home from work.
How are you gut-loading your feeders? food and water gels available all the time.
Supplements - zoo med reptivite vitamins with D3 and calcium from Georgia crickets on Monday, Wednesday, and friday

Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? hand spraying
How often and how long to you mist? hand mist 3 times a day onto 2 plastic plants until they are dripping and from the outside of the top until the screen has water drops for him to lick. Do you see your chameleon drinking? Yes he comes to the spray and will drink when I very very gently spray his nose and he licks from the plants and the top of the screen.

Fecal Description - when he was eating they were a medium brown with some white stuff. but only has had 1 poop since he quit eating.

Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? yes, when I first got him and the vet said it was good.

History - no other history.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 18 x 18 x 36 screen

Lighting - zoo med naturalistic terrarium hood 18" with built-in reflector and two sockets with reptisun 5.0 uvb compact fluorescent bulb and a 60w GE light bulb. What is your daily lighting schedule? 9am to 9pm.

Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor is 72 to basking spot is 86.9)? Lowest overnight temp? house thermostat is set at 70How do you measure these temps? all living things temp gage with probe
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? 40% in the am before spraying, up to 80% after spraying.How are you creating and maintaining these levels? hand spraying 3 times a day What do you use to measure humidity? a hygrometer
Plants - Are you using live plants? no

Placement - Where is your cage located? in the living room.
Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? ceiling fan has not been on since the summer, air vents are on the other side of the room,

At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 66 inches up from the floor, sits on a desk.

Location - Where are you geographically located? central NC

Current Problem - stopped eating.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/mem...l-ethel-morty-picture24108-freds-last-poo.jpg

 

[nightanole]

You have a year old oust, in a 18by 18 cage, and he only weighs 110grams. How is that even possible. I have the runt of the forums, at he was 300grams at one year, and some on the forums are 500+ grams at one year.

Anyway if he is truly and oust, and 1 year, they will drastically cut back on feeding. Mine went from 3 dozen large cricket a day, to a few adult dubia and some supers, per week. Chams dont eat much when they are adults.

Keep him hydrated and check is weight every 3-4 days if you can. If he drops 10% then its vet trip time.

Ive had luck getting mine to eat by having supers climb up the side of the screen. Mine wouldnt eat dubia till 1 year.

PS: your lighting schedule is too little, you need to get him to 14-15 hours a day.

 

[Christiefan24]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not sure how old he is. I got him in August from a lady and she said she got him in January so I was guessing that he is close to a year in November? He was skinny when I got him and you could see all his ribs. Its hard to weigh them. Do you have any tips on how?

Is the 18x18x36 a good size? I have a larger one but was waiting for him to get bigger. Here is a picture of him in his cage tonight (he is in bed)

He goes to sleep around 8pm. Is it ok to leave the lights on even when he is asleep?

How often should I offer food? I've been putting bugs under his nose 2 times a day to try to get him to eat, I don't want to stress him.

Here is some pictures of him. The first one is from August and the second one is from November.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/mem...hel-morty-picture24121-fred-november-2013.jpg

 

[nightanole]

Yea thats a skinny oust. I feed mine out of a 1 gallon ice cream and just leave it where he can get to it. I dont think hand feeding will work. You might be able to tong feed if you have some 10-12" tongs. Or you can just throw some crickets in the cage and see if he hunts.

If hes 100 grams, and thats a 18x18 and not a 24x24, hes only 6-7 months old.

Here is rex at 10 months
https://www.chameleonforums.com/rex-my-giant-oustalets-108825/

and everyone at about 1 year:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-oustalets-t-rex-107220/index2.html

They are all around 300grams.

I weigh mine on a postage scale in a plastic tub.

 

[Christiefan24]

I'm going to try to weigh him tomorrow, maybe the first weight was wrong.
Did you see the November picture of him? Does he look ok in that one?
How do you get them in the tub? He climbs up my arm and I don't want to grab him around the middle. was told that would scare him.

 

[nightanole]

You scoop him up from the middle and pick him up, yea they dont like the hand coming in from above.

From the small pic of him in the cage he doesnt looks skinny.

 

[Christiefan24]

Update on Fred or should I say Fredalina.

Well I found out why Fred quit eating. Came home from work and found 28 eggs on the bottom of the cage. We are up to 41 eggs now and I hope she is done laying. Everyone told me that Fred was a boy and from all the pictures I have looked at I thought so too. But now I know differently! She went from 114 grams down to 84 grams. She has started eating a few crickets and I am trying to get her to eat some wax worms. I hope she starts gaining weight and growing again.

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

[ataraxia]

Hi, i have not read through the whole thread.

1. That cage needs more foliage. When you mist you need enough large leaf plants to form drops so that your chameleon can drink. Also, just spraying the leaves is not enough. Appetite can be directly affected by the lack of water. This is a large species and will drink a good amount of water. This usually results in long misting session up to 10-15 minutes or more.
2. You have been giving tooooooo much D3. They need plain phos free calcium at every feeding and a multivitamin with d3 twice a month.
3. Change your hood. Those hoods makes me wonder why zoomed is even in this business. Nearly every reptile that basks for heat absorbs uvb at the same time. That hood has the uvb and heat source on opposite sides. Your uvb and heat should as close as they can so the animal recieves uvb when they bask.

Sunken lobes and cheeks along with the skiinny body appearance. Much needs to change asap.

1. LOONG misting sessions. Your going to have to do some kind of drainage. LLL reptile sells trays along with many different home improvement stores.
Try this until then. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ataraxia/594-shower-chamber-treatment.html
2. Lay bin needs to be in the cage permanently.

Edit: All this aside her about to lay could affect her diet.

 

[Christiefan24]

I have added some live plants on the floor of the cage and a little dripper on the top of the cage that drips on the plants. I spray 3 times a day and she always comes to drink out of the spray bottle when I spray and I spray until she moves away. Looking to add more plants to top half of cage this weekend.

She bask until she is done and then moves to the other side under the uvb. Do I still need to change the hood?

The skinny picture is of her in August when I got her from the breeder. Here is a picture taken in November. And she still looks like this only a little thinner since laying 44 eggs.

She is slowly starting to eat more.

I am working on the lay bin. 50/50 top soil and sand and water.