Pygmy Chameleon burping

[TimJess]

Please help! Advice Required!

Our bearded pygmy chameleon seems to be struggling. It's like he is burping but it often causes his body to quite violently bulge and compress. It has been happening for two days and there have been periods where he does it every minute or so. on occasion he also opens his mouth and seems to gasp.

Not sure of the sex of the pygmy but we think its about 4 months old and captive bred. we have a 30x30x45 glass tank and recently increased the amount of vegetation (this is not real). trying to keep temps circa 70 and have raised humidity to 80-85% in the last couple of days since we received some other advice. previously around 60%. this was because he had been shedding, we think due to dry heat.

a couple of days ago we saw him eat two crickets at once - we feed him small crickets with a standard calcium/vitamin supplement. the most we have observed him eat is 3 crickets in one day. we have been misting him regulalrly and increasing humidity as previously stated. keeping temp up has been difficult as weather has been extremely cold (southern England) so we did have an extra heater near him that we have now removed as we believe it was reducing humidity. temp has stabilised today between 67-70 F. we think this is ok?

We have had him for three-four weeks and have never observed burping to this extent before. He has also not eaten now for a couple of days and has moved very little in the last 24 hours. it is our first Pygmy so we may be over worry but the combination of the unpleasant looking burping and reduction in activity and feeding is worrying us. any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks! Tim and Jess.

 

[lisa h]

Are you sure he is burping and not gaping at you when you look in on him? Pygmies also do this funny vibrating thing and may even fall off their branch and play dead when they feel threatened. Is this possibly what he's doing? As for eating, they don't eat everyday, and when they do eat they can eat 2 or 3 crickets, depending on the size of course. Also, reduction in activity, well they don't really do much lol. Sometimes they'll spend 2 or 3 days on or around the same branch. Then for another day or two you can't find them if your tank is heavily planted. I don't want to minimize your concerns, but I wonder if it's "usual" pygmy behaviour you're seeing. You might want to up the daytime temperature a bit, maybe between 71 and 78 at the very highest. You can use a basking light if you're careful about keeping it really high off the top of the enclosure. I only say this because you guys are cold right now, and we are always cold, so I have to use one in the winter. Hope this helps.