Possible help. New dad

[wyattroa]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Panther Chameleon 4.5 months old. How long has it been in your care? He has been in my care since Friday morning
Handling - Twice since I got him so I could give him a shower
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? Dubia roaches, I have only seen him eat 2 so far since Friday
What amount?
What is the schedule? Gut loading them with cricket gutload
Supplements -The first roaches had rep-cal calcium without d3
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist?
Do you see your chameleon drinking? Yes, I saw him start drinking more yesterday
Fecal Description - Posted a picture of the dropping. This is the only one I have found.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?18x18x36 screen cage
Lighting - 50watt halogen basking and 5.0uvb rept-sun
Temperature - Temp on cage floor is 65, middle is 76 and basking is 86? Lowest overnight temp? Temp over night is same as bottom 65
How do you measure these temps? Digital temp and humidtiy guages
Humidity -
What are your humidity levels? THey range from 50% to 76%
How are you creating and maintaining these levels? By misting and with a dripper.
What do you use to measure humidity? Digital guage
Plants - Are you using live plants? Yes
If so, what kind? Umbrella plant
Placement - Where is your cage located? The cage is located on a desk and above eye level in a not traffic room
Location - Outside of Chicago, IL

Current Problem - I am currently worried about a couple of things. First his urates seeing they are orange. I will have a better idea of this since I am not sure when this was pooped out. I saw him yesterday drinking from the leaves. His eyes yesterday seemed slightly sunken, but today look much better and full.

His left eye has been bothering him since I got him Friday since his box was pretty damaged and his lid was even cracked open upon arrival. I have given him 2 warm showers per the breeder telling me to do this. His eye seems to be doing better and not squinting as much through it.

Last he seems to be going to the bottom of the cage more often then I would like, since I have heard this is not a great sign. He seems to be going towards the bottom of the umbrella plant and hanging out there for a good amount of time. He does go to the top to bask and walks around the cage. If he is on the bottom of the cage and I start to mist the cage he moves quickly to get to the top of the cage and actually hangs on the top screen (included a picture right after misting). I am attempting to cup feed but have yet to see him eat from it. I have let a couple roaches loose right in front of him and he has ate two of them. This is all he has ate since Friday. I also moved the feeder cup to the middle of the cage directly to the side of his basking spot and down about halfway now.

I have included pictures of my new guy, his urates, and enclosure.

The first is him

This is how he acts during misting. Almost as if he hates the misting..I never point it at him either. You can see his colors at 4.5 months old.

His cage

The bottom where he tend to hang out. If you look hard you can see him.

Last the only urate I have found since I got him.

 

[reptimanny]

That urate looks suspicious but he looks relatively healthy if you just got him maybe he is stressing out because of the new home. I would say give him a couple days.

 

[skully23]

That urate looks suspicious but he looks relatively healthy if you just got him maybe he is stressing out because of the new home. I would say give him a couple days.

Its too orange. It shouldn't have that much orange. Needs to be more white. Keep up the misting and dripper

 

[Dez and Delilah]

The urate is the only thing I see that is really worrysome. Did you get him from a breeder or a pet store? Maybe they can give you some insight as to his previous watering schedule.

When he's at the bottom of the plant does it seem like he's looking for food? If you haven't, I'd try to drop a few feeders into the bottom of the enclosure and see if that's what he's looking for.

He looks gorgeous otherwise. I hope everything gets sorted out for you two!

 

[draetish]

Hey Robert glad you posted. He may be going down to the bottom to eat dirt. If he doesn't like to be misted, just mist around the bottom and work your way up and don't get him wet. That way he won't freak thinking "oh no here he comes again". He is still new to his surroundings and the best thing to do is let him be for a couple of days. Is the mesh on the top of the screen really dense? You may need a 10.0 bulb if so. Eating 2 dubias is good, you do need to gutload your feeders properly with collard or turnip greens, shredded yams, carrots, squash, apples, oranges. No broccoli or spinach though. You need better supplements to dust with. Rep-Cal with D3 2x a week, plain calcium every other day and reptivite vit suppl with no phos once a week. Make sure not to leave the feeders in overnight even in the feeder bowl. Main reason is you want him to eat early in the day since the heat from the basking light helps them digest their food.

 

[hallenhe]

His looking like he hates the misting is normal. My old guy used to thrash around like it was the worst thing in the world for the first minute or two, then settle down. Sometimes he'd walk away and I wouldn't chase him, but would keep spritzing where he had been and after a few minutes he would start opening and closing his mouth and usually walk back into the spray. With mine, it often took 5-10 minutes for him to really figure it out and start drinking.
The urate isn't beautiful, but he's newly arrived and has been through a lot getting to you. To the extent that you can get him water and mist while keeping out of sight (i.e. not check on him constantly, and not keep changing the routine while he's trying to figure out what the routine is) it may help. If you have access to sufficiently small silkworms or, especially, hornworms, those are relatively juicy feeders and can assist with rehydration.
Good luck with him; he's beautiful!

 

[wyattroa]

Thank you for all your suggestions. I know when I first saw that urate I was worried. I will only put the feeders in in the morning and take them out at night. I had a pothos in the bottom of the cage but took it out since it was so hard to find any droppings or clean the cage. I think it looks fine the way it is right now. The screen cage is from LLL reptile , I don't think the screen on top is too dense. I might change to a different basking light since the halogen concentrates the light beam on one area instead of spreading out a little. Would this be a good idea to do?
Robret

 

[wyattroa]

Just to give a little update. He still will not eat out of the cup. But I did put roaches in front of him and he snagged them up.. He ate 5 in total today. He is currently sitting under the light with very dark colors. I am guessing he is trying to get as much heat as possible to help with digestion.

He is still acting like something is in his eye. So I have been giving and extra mist. I looked in the cage but could not find any other poop. When I do I will post back.
Robert

 

[draetish]

Thanks for the update. If he is not eating much, he will not poop much. You might want to take him to the vet to get his eye looked at and flushed. Hand feeding is a great way to let the cham know you're not the enemy.

 

[glaceauz]

the longer they hold in their poop the more water it'll absorb, so he could be almost hydrated enough but the stress of the move could've made him keep in the poop.

 

[wyattroa]

just caught him eating a piece of substrate from the umbrella plant.. time to cover that as well.
Robert

 

[cambech]

just caught him eating a piece of substrate from the umbrella plant.. time to cover that as well.
Robert

What kind of substrate? If it's just dirt, not that big a deal. However, if your plants have the little white styrofoam balls and or mulch, try repotting them in just unfertilized soil and putting them back in the enclosure.

 

[wyattroa]

Another update. I have not covered the planter dirt with mesh so the little guy can not eat it.

He has ate 3 roaches so far today and 5 yesterday, so the eating is good. I am still concerned about the drinking though. I fond another urate at the bottom of the cage and the poo looked fine, but the urate had white in it and orange. So I am not sure if the orange is just left over from getting him since the first urate was orange.
Robert

 

[draetish]

Another update. I have not covered the planter dirt with mesh so the little guy can not eat it.

He has ate 3 roaches so far today and 5 yesterday, so the eating is good. I am still concerned about the drinking though. I fond another urate at the bottom of the cage and the poo looked fine, but the urate had white in it and orange. So I am not sure if the orange is just left over from getting him since the first urate was orange.
Robert

That is great news! The orange could still be left over. Check his eyes to see if they're sunken in at all. If they are nice and plump, he's getting hydrated. As mentioned before, hornworms and silkworms are excellent for new chams and all chams for that matter. Check our sponsers under classified to order some!

 

[wyattroa]

HAHAHA we got white urates!

Robert

 

[Kaianuanu]

as for his misting behavior, my little fella acts way more frantic when i mist then when i try to pick him up for daily natural sunlight basking. In fact, i wouldnt even call it frantic or panicking when i pick him up, and hes only 3 months.