hannahbanana13
Member
My chameleon Elphaba is not doing well. She is a 5y 9m old female veiled chameleon. she had a fall a week ago and seemed to be getting better for about 4 days but over the last 2 days she has really slowed down. Right after the fall I moved her to a smaller screen enclosure and she was still climbing around but she could not reach the basking spot and kept falling. I moved her to a hospital bin so she can regulate her temperature better and keep her from falling. She is aware and eating but seems very weak and does not want to move around. I have been giving her water with a pipet and she will lick that. I have been doing that supplementally for a couple months now just to make sure she gets enough water (she started needing me to hold the food items closer to her a couple months ago so I started giving her water with a pipet in case she had trouble seeing the droplets on the leaves — I read that their vision can change just like humans as they age). I know she is older… what does dying look like for chameleons? She is my first one so I don’t know what to do or expect. Is it better to euthanize or just keep her comfortable? I don’t want her to suffer. I have been giving her metacam Just in case she is in pain in any way (it prescribed by her exotic vet a couple months ago after she climbed onto a new misting nozzle and fell off of that before I could catch her — she’s always been very inquisitive. She bounced back after a couple days on that so I’ve just had it on hand just in case.). I just want to hear from experienced cham owners what they have done it the past for their older chams and what they would do in my situation.
She is currently in a hospital tank but here is the info for her previous cage that she was in for all of her adult life:
2x2x4ft screen enclosure
5.0 linear UVB
Basking: ~83F and the bottom of the cage stayed between 72-74F
Daytime humidity ~40% with peaks of ~60% rig hr after misting.
Nighttime humidity ~80% and temps of 66-70F (I live in TX so it’s hard to keep it as cool as I would like on summer nights)
The enclosure had only live plants including: pothos (so much pothos), bromeliads, rubber plants, monstera, and hibiscus in the summer time when I could get them at Home Depot or Lowe’s (hibiscus are her favorite and she would always march around to find and eat all of the flower buds)
Lay bin: 12x12x12 inches with a 50/50 mix of play sand and coconut fiber. She laid about once a year with an average clutch size of 25 eggs.
For food she gets dubia roaches as her staple, crickets every few weeks, and wax worms, super worms, and horn worms as a treat. Dusted with calcium (without d3) at every feeding. Average of about 4 roaches and 1 super worm (or 2-3 wax worms or 1 hornworm) per feeding. Twice a month she would get the reptivite multivitamin with d3.
For the hospital tank
The basking side is 80F
The cooler side is 74
Daytime humidity is 45%
Nighttime humidity is 80%
Nighttime temp is 68F
Also using 5.0 linear uvb
I am including pictures of her from the last week. The first is her the day of the fall, 2nd is a couple days after, and the 3rd is today. I am also including 2 picture of her in her in her prime from a couple years ago for reference.
She is currently in a hospital tank but here is the info for her previous cage that she was in for all of her adult life:
2x2x4ft screen enclosure
5.0 linear UVB
Basking: ~83F and the bottom of the cage stayed between 72-74F
Daytime humidity ~40% with peaks of ~60% rig hr after misting.
Nighttime humidity ~80% and temps of 66-70F (I live in TX so it’s hard to keep it as cool as I would like on summer nights)
The enclosure had only live plants including: pothos (so much pothos), bromeliads, rubber plants, monstera, and hibiscus in the summer time when I could get them at Home Depot or Lowe’s (hibiscus are her favorite and she would always march around to find and eat all of the flower buds)
Lay bin: 12x12x12 inches with a 50/50 mix of play sand and coconut fiber. She laid about once a year with an average clutch size of 25 eggs.
For food she gets dubia roaches as her staple, crickets every few weeks, and wax worms, super worms, and horn worms as a treat. Dusted with calcium (without d3) at every feeding. Average of about 4 roaches and 1 super worm (or 2-3 wax worms or 1 hornworm) per feeding. Twice a month she would get the reptivite multivitamin with d3.
For the hospital tank
The basking side is 80F
The cooler side is 74
Daytime humidity is 45%
Nighttime humidity is 80%
Nighttime temp is 68F
Also using 5.0 linear uvb
I am including pictures of her from the last week. The first is her the day of the fall, 2nd is a couple days after, and the 3rd is today. I am also including 2 picture of her in her in her prime from a couple years ago for reference.
