Sad Looking Chameleon...

[trickedoutbiker]

I don't think he did anything intentionally with malicious intent

I don't think ANYONE does things wrong intentionally for malicious intent.... at least I'd hope not. I just think that proper research before owning ANY pet is essential, not just chameleons. Too many times, I see or hear about people who purchase animals and have no clue what they are getting into. You see it with reptiles a lot because they are a lot different to care for as opposed to cats and dogs, or rabbits and gerbils and such. I've seen so many posts in all of my time spent here with help topics that could be answered simply by consulting the tried-and-true "RESOURCES" tab at the top of this very site or even performing a quick Google search. Granted, some help questions are tougher topics to discuss and sometimes the opinions vary from person to person depending on the topic ----- I'm talking like good/bad basic cage setups and prime temperature/humidity levels and such, or good/bad gutload options, etc. ........ I've seen stories where chameleons perish because owners had no idea what was going on or what they did wrong..... It's saddening every time. I wasn't trying to be rough, it was constructive criticism. When I got my first chameleon, I did hours upon hours of reading up on things beforehand. I was researching almost daily when I'd get off work, for about two weeks straight or more. I wanted to try to learn everything there is to know, and I took notes on everything from husbandry to health issues to feeders to plants.....everything. When you purchase a pet, that pet's life is literally in your hands. It's health, happiness, and entire life depend on the owner. And sadly, most of the time, people purchase a pet on impulse from a pet store and know only what the pet store owner tells them (which generally amounts to jack...) This site has a lot of great info, and a huge, helpful community. You won't find that at any pet store...

One thing that I do wish moderators would do though, is to get rid of all the super super old threads if there are many others like it, or, group together a lot of the valuable info from some of the old threads and compose it into a newer sticky'ed thread. I noticed when doing research here myself in the past, I'd find lots of info in bits and pieces from various threads. That made some of it a bit hard to discover, as you had to dig a little deep for some harder-to-find information.

Nonetheless, good luck on your journey DevaneySM and keep everyone posted on the upgrades you make.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Your chameleon desperately needs professional medical help ASAP. He looks severely dehydrated.

While a lot of your husbandry needs changing, your chameleon is in dire straits today and changing supplements, lighting or cover will do nothing for him today except turning off the lights at night.

Please make sure you read the care sheets for panthers in the Resource section to make sure you have his temperatures correct.

In the mean time until you can get him to the vet (today if at all possible), put him on some sort of bushy plant in the shower and run a body-temperature shower bouncing off the walls so just the mist falls on the plants. I would leave him in there for a good 20 minutes many times today. If I could, I would leave him in all day. Just don't let the big drips of the shower hit him or the plant--you want the mist from the water bouncing off the walls.

Good luck.

 

[shrum]

someone please get that guy a drink his eyes are sooooo sunken....Like everyone said before plants are not your issue here at this moment. This cham needs fluids like now or you wont have to worry about what plant is in a cage because you wont have a chameleon.

 

[trickedoutbiker]

someone please get that guy a drink his eyes are sooooo sunken....Like everyone said before plants are not your issue here at this moment. This cham needs fluids like now or you wont have to worry about what plant is in a cage because you wont have a chameleon.

The truth has spoken. Chameleon is severely dehydrated and needs water pronto.... Or else it might not make it much longer. It needs to see a vet at this point for sure.

 

[carol5208]

Have you changed out your UVB recently?. Also, what type of calcium with d3 were you using?? Some have very high concentrations of d3 and can cause great harm to your chameleon. The diet you have provided has been very poor also and maybe a contributing factor to his health issues. He looks like a beautiful Panther and I hope you can turn things around. You have been given good advice here.

 

[DevaneySM]

Very glad to see you're actively seeking help. If you make these changes there's a much much greater chance of survival for the little guy!

 

[DevaneySM]

Thank you for all of the great information! We took him to the vet today and unfortunately he was suffering from an internal bleeding tumor in his stomach and had to be put down. The vet said that this is what caused him to lose interest in food and water and become dehydrated.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thank you for all of the great information! We took him to the vet today and unfortunately he was suffering from an internal bleeding tumor in his stomach and had to be put down. The vet said that this is what caused him to lose interest in food and water and become dehydrated.

I'm so sorry.

 

[KLowery88]

So sad to hear this... At least you were able to spare him some pain and a continuing decline.

 

[ashmichaelson]

He doesn't look so good, but he's an awfully beautiful color! I've found that a chameleon doesn't have to have live plants in the cage to thrive; my Pascal is doing just fine with tons of fake foliage and vines. I just have to mist her cage 3-4 times a day instead of just twice. I recommend the Exo-Terra jungle vines to put horizontally in the cage, they come in a few different sizes and are super easy to secure to a screen cage. I secure mine with bread ties on the outside. You can get them at Petco.
Also, for my crickets I just keep them in a cricket keeper (also found at Petco) and I gutload them with Flucker's High Calcium Cricket Gutload, Cricket Crack, and sliced oranges. Then I dust the ones used for feeding with a calcium powder with NO D3 (that's really important), and then every Monday I alternate dustings with Herptivite and calcium WITH D3. So each should be used for dusting every other week. Hope this helps, get us some follow-up pictures of your boy!

 

[ashmichaelson]

Whoops I guess I posted a little too late. So sorry for your loss

 

[JGuinan007]

 

[savage13]

Thank you for all of the great information! We took him to the vet today and unfortunately he was suffering from an internal bleeding tumor in his stomach and had to be put down. The vet said that this is what caused him to lose interest in food and water and become dehydrated.

Sorry for your lost...If you don't mind me asking what insects were you feeding him?