Panther cham not eating

so what is that on his butt? i have seen a cham that died before and i am afraid to say i saw that skin out of the butt...is it really bad to see that? or maybe it was just a sperm plug?
 
When was teh last time you took him to the vet? I mean before this problem? It isn't impossible for chameleons to get parasites from feeders that are NOT wild caught. Do you buy your feeders from a pet store? I'm asking this because one of my females got parasites from the crickets I got at a dirty local pet shop once. I know exactly what place it was because I went back right before I took her to the vet and got some more and ahd the vet check them. Sure enough they were carrying the exact same parasites. I had my vet call and inform the show owner that he should get a new cricket supplier/clean out his cricket enclosure and he banned me from the store because I was supposedly tring to "run his buisness into the ground" Even though I was just worried that other peoples pets, who don't know much if anything about parasites, were going to get ehm and die because of this cheap moron.
 
I do not know if this happens when every cham dies, as I've only been in the presence of one on it's deathbed, but when my old boss' cham was in his last day(like 4 hours before he died) he prolapsed and his "manhood" just hung out until he passed. He was just shy of 6 years and just couldn't handle the parasite treatment that he was going through in his old age. although the situation looks bleak anything is possible. Good luck.



Justin
 
shouldn't chams only drink/feed if they need to? as long as i have food/water available to him, aren't they independent enough to know when to eat/drink?
 
OldSkoolxReasons said:
When was teh last time you took him to the vet? I mean before this problem? It isn't impossible for chameleons to get parasites from feeders that are NOT wild caught. Do you buy your feeders from a pet store? I'm asking this because one of my females got parasites from the crickets I got at a dirty local pet shop once. I know exactly what place it was because I went back right before I took her to the vet and got some more and ahd the vet check them. Sure enough they were carrying the exact same parasites. I had my vet call and inform the show owner that he should get a new cricket supplier/clean out his cricket enclosure and he banned me from the store because I was supposedly tring to "run his buisness into the ground" Even though I was just worried that other peoples pets, who don't know much if anything about parasites, were going to get ehm and die because of this cheap moron.
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that's terrible...his last vet check up was a month and a half ago. I live North of Toronto (in the GTA) and have been getting my food from the same two pet stores...Reptilia and Concord Pet Store. Wouldn't he have had a problem in the past if this were the case?
 
Adult chameleons are better about feeding, but they still try to eat whenever there is food available. Keepers feed less as it makes them live longer. They usually know when they need water and will drink when they feel like it. Babies dont know when to stop eating and continue to eat as much as possible until they reach adulthood when they are less likely to be eaten by something.

Sometimes pet stores switch sources and get crickets/feeders from other places, which can sometimes lead to parasites.
 
In that case I would rule out the parasite guess. Chameleons aren't going to get this sick from parasites in only a month. My panthers will eat till they have so much food that it starts coming back up their throat if you let them. Thats why you have to control their food intake. On of my adult males from the chameleon company, who is such a picky eater in the first place, generally will only eat two days a week in the winter. I think he misses the warm sun and the wild locust. He will only eat the feeders I breed like hornworms/roaches/supers 2 days a week. If I have locust or grasshoppers he would eat 20 a day if I let him. He is still gaining weight/ maintaing weight and two seperate vets have given him a clean bill of health so I'm not stressing over it.
 
Just an example: A guy here in Germany feeds his Bradypodion thamnobates male nearly its hole life with house flies, this small chameleon reached 7 years
 
OldSkoolxReasons said:
I do not know if this happens when every cham dies, as I've only been in the presence of one on it's deathbed, but when my old boss' cham was in his last day(like 4 hours before he died) he prolapsed and his "manhood" just hung out until he passed. He was just shy of 6 years and just couldn't handle the parasite treatment that he was going through in his old age. although the situation looks bleak anything is possible. Good luck.



Justin
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the weird thing is he doesn't look as though he's on his deathbed to me...his eyes are alert and he's looking in his food dish
 
He may not be, but a vet visit would help/determine if he is or not. They fight till the very end. Though rapid weight loss doesn't sound good at all...
 
pssh said:
Adult chameleons are better about feeding, but they still try to eat whenever there is food available. Keepers feed less as it makes them live longer. They usually know when they need water and will drink when they feel like it. Babies dont know when to stop eating and continue to eat as much as possible until they reach adulthood when they are less likely to be eaten by something.

Sometimes pet stores switch sources and get crickets/feeders from other places, which can sometimes lead to parasites.
Click to expand...

yes, this is very true
 
i noticed that he doesn't always eat the food just because it's there, so i assumed it's ok to keep food in his container all the time, since he doesn't eat it all anyways
 
well..here's the status...Picasso has eaten a butterworm today and now he's sleeping...he took a little bit of water from the bottle but he was a bit fussy about taking it. I don't want to give him TOO much water or TOO much food, so I put a silkworm in his feeding dish so that when he wakes up he can eat it and hopefully rehydrate that way (if that's even the problem at all).
Any other suggestions on what I can do??? I am going to take him to the vet tomorrow. Is 4 years old an old age for panthers?
 
If you're still having trouble with humidity, you can wrap a towel around the cage. Another trick I discovered is that if your cham is in a room near a bathroom with a shower, run the shower for a bit with the door open and the fan (if it has one) off. My bedroom is right next to the bathroom and for some bizarre reason, the bathroom does not have a fan. So I usually leave the door open a little to air the bathroom out when I take a shower. It raises the humidity a lot in my bedroom. I had to run out and buy a humidifier because 30% humidity was killing me and my chams and even with that it seems dry in here. Other ways I've been told to raise humidity is to boil a pot of water, but that won't help unless he's near the kitchen.

You could try giving him some pedialyte to see if that helps hydrate him, but I would maybe wait to see what the vet says. If the vet suggests it, they'll tell you exactly how much to give him. Good luck with your little guy!
 
serenitystarlite said:
If you're still having trouble with humidity, you can wrap a towel around the cage. Another trick I discovered is that if your cham is in a room near a bathroom with a shower, run the shower for a bit with the door open and the fan (if it has one) off. My bedroom is right next to the bathroom and for some bizarre reason, the bathroom does not have a fan. So I usually leave the door open a little to air the bathroom out when I take a shower. It raises the humidity a lot in my bedroom. I had to run out and buy a humidifier because 30% humidity was killing me and my chams and even with that it seems dry in here. Other ways I've been told to raise humidity is to boil a pot of water, but that won't help unless he's near the kitchen.

You could try giving him some pedialyte to see if that helps hydrate him, but I would maybe wait to see what the vet says. If the vet suggests it, they'll tell you exactly how much to give him. Good luck with your little guy!
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thanks for the suggestions..i'm on pins and needles...i just don't want to stress him out either
 
well he's hanging in there, but i've been upset all morning worrying about him.
His eyes are still the same...i'm scared u guys r right...the colour looks like it's fading..... :(
He's still alert and I hope the vet can help. I'm worried the vet might just say he's too old in chameleon years.
I know this might sound weird, but what do you guys do when they pass? just bury them? is it true people stuff them? isn't their colour gone after?
it sounds a bit strange to me
 
so even if he isn't ill from anything i can help, what do they look like when they die of old age?
is it the same symptoms? looks like dehydration, etc..? faded colour? sunken eyes?
 
The color can be any color they've shown before or even some you may not have noticed... Some people have a necropsy done to see what the cause was, others don't. I didn't, I just burried him. Though, I kind of wish I had given him to a vet to learn more about him.

My chameleon became weak the night before and was crawling on the bottom of his cage. I set up an appointment but he was too old/gone. He was almost 7 when he passed.
 
pssh said:
The color can be any color they've shown before or even some you may not have noticed... Some people have a necropsy done to see what the cause was, others don't. I didn't, I just burried him. Though, I kind of wish I had given him to a vet to learn more about him.

My chameleon became weak the night before and was crawling on the bottom of his cage. I set up an appointment but he was too old/gone. He was almost 7 when he passed.
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was he a panther cham? i always thought mine would live that long too...not only 4. So for your cham, it happened instantly? that's why i think i might be able to save mine...his symptoms have been only for about 7 days now i noticed him slowly losing weight, but didnt realize how bad it was until 2 days ago, that's why i'm rushing him to the vet today.
 
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