Please help!

[oliveview]

Darwin has stopped eating. I thought about 2 months ago she was going to lay eggs and I gave her a 9 or 10" bucket with washed play sand. She never laid any eggs but I left her bucket in the cage as I felt it was coming soon.

The last couple of days she has totally stopped eating. Last night we noticed that she had dug in the sand for the first time. I see now that the sand is dried out.

I don't know what to do. Should I take the container out and rewash the sand and get it warm and moist? Do I leave it alone? Is there a reasonable chance that she is egg bound now? Her stools were fine but I haven't seen any in a couple but that doesn't mean she hasn't had any.

She is in 7, 8 maybe 9 month old veiled who has been very healthy until now.

She lives in a large enclosure in a corner area of a room. Her temps and humidity have been consistent. She is misted twice per day and a drip system runs for several hours per day. She eats mostly crickets which are dusted daily with a non D3 calcium powder and once a week dusted with a D3 calcium powder and multi vitamin. She has always refused any food other than crickets. She has been offered mealworms, wax worms and silk worms. The crickets eat sweet potatoes, greens, carrots, apples and such.

Please help us! This is our first chameleon and I am just so unsure as to what to do!

Thank you,
Sherri

 

[carol5208]

I know the playsand has to be moist in order for her to make a tunnel to lay the eggs.

 

[oliveview]

Okay, I will rewet her sand and see what happens. She is our first and I am so afraid that I am going to do or not do something and she will get sick and die.

 

[ghettomike]

you dont really need to rewash the sand, pouring some warm water over it and allowing it to soak in should do the trick.

 

[Scott85]

Make sure when you add the water, it is warm. They don't like digging if it is really cold. At the same time you dont want to cook her. Slightly higher than room temp is good. After adding the water thouroughly mix the water and sand together. Otherwise you will end up with pockets of dry sand that will collapse on her.

 

[oliveview]

That's great to know. Thank you everyone. The sand was moved significantly in the opposite direction today. I see no tunneling per say. She still is not eating much but she took a VERY long drink today from the dripper, by far the longest I've ever seen. I am concerned as we are leaving town in two days. I have a house sitter coming but she has no experience with chameleons. This being a chameleon mom is very stressful!

 

[laurie]

That's great to know. Thank you everyone. The sand was moved significantly in the opposite direction today. I see no tunneling per say. She still is not eating much but she took a VERY long drink today from the dripper, by far the longest I've ever seen. I am concerned as we are leaving town in two days. I have a house sitter coming but she has no experience with chameleons. This being a chameleon mom is very stressful!

I am also a fretful cham mom. I would try to take the laying bin out if possible, without destroying the cage. It will be a lot easier to wet the sand evenly if you can get at it. But if you can't just do your best at wetting it, give her complete privacy and wait, wait etc. Sorry but that is what you have to do.

But go read threads, tell people what you think, have a cup of coffee, just try to distract yourself. Let us know how it goes with her.