Shedding and hunger strike
- Thread starter Greenhorn
- Start date
In a previous post you mentioned moving your chameleon to a bigger cage....how old is the chameleon? Is it a female (veiled)?
I read your posts and you were given some good advice about lighting, basking, etc.
What is the basking temperature? What is the temperature in the rest of the cage?
You said that you take the chameleon outside during the day....what is the temperature out there?
Do you have a substrate? (I'm assuming no because of the cage type...but I have to ask anyway.) Is the chameleon pooping?
I read your posts and you were given some good advice about lighting, basking, etc.
What is the basking temperature? What is the temperature in the rest of the cage?
You said that you take the chameleon outside during the day....what is the temperature out there?
Do you have a substrate? (I'm assuming no because of the cage type...but I have to ask anyway.) Is the chameleon pooping?
I think she ate 1 superworm yesterday, there was one less in the feeding cup. She is about 8 - 10 weeks old and should be eating like a pig. Now i have introduced fruit flies, maybe that will stimulate here. On Saturday i left her outside and also got her a 10.0 light, this seems to have accelerated her shedding.
What size insects are you feeding her?
Basking temp about 89.6....that's a little higher than I keep babies at. I keep them in the low 80's F until they are 4 or 5 months old. How long is she in the cage close to where the basking light is?
What is the temperature in the rest of the cage (away from the basking area)? Coolest part of the cage? I believe you said in one of your posts that she was spending most of the time at the top of the cage near the basking light...could it be too cool in the rest of the cage?
You said.."Room temp about 68 (Winter here)"...that's okay for the night. I don't let the temperature go any lower than that for young veileds.
You said..."Outside temp about 73.4"...and there's no basking bulb on the cage then? If not, that might be a little cool for her to be there for very long. It might be part of the reason she's not eating much. Appropriate temperatures are necessary for proper digestion. Low temperatures would likely slow the movement of the food through the chameleon's system and possibly not allow it to digest well enough even if it is moving through the system.
You said..."No substrate"...glad to hear that. Too many of them cause problems...so I avoid them all for arboreal chameleons.
You said..."Still pooping, but looks smaller with white"...again, might be because the digestion is slow due to the temperatures. The white part is the urates. There should be a brown part and a white part and there can be a semi-set clearish looking part too. The brown part is usually bigger than the white part.
Sorry I didn't pay more attention to your posts earlier and offer this information.
Hopefully if you correct the temperatures and keep her warm enough during the day, her appetite will improve.
One more thing that I will mention now (even though she's too young to need it right now)...you will need to provide a place for her to lay eggs in case she needs to. I leave an egglaying container in all egglaying female chameleon's cages from the time they reach sexual maturity to avoid them becoming eggbound.
Basking temp about 89.6....that's a little higher than I keep babies at. I keep them in the low 80's F until they are 4 or 5 months old. How long is she in the cage close to where the basking light is?
What is the temperature in the rest of the cage (away from the basking area)? Coolest part of the cage? I believe you said in one of your posts that she was spending most of the time at the top of the cage near the basking light...could it be too cool in the rest of the cage?
You said.."Room temp about 68 (Winter here)"...that's okay for the night. I don't let the temperature go any lower than that for young veileds.
You said..."Outside temp about 73.4"...and there's no basking bulb on the cage then? If not, that might be a little cool for her to be there for very long. It might be part of the reason she's not eating much. Appropriate temperatures are necessary for proper digestion. Low temperatures would likely slow the movement of the food through the chameleon's system and possibly not allow it to digest well enough even if it is moving through the system.
You said..."No substrate"...glad to hear that. Too many of them cause problems...so I avoid them all for arboreal chameleons.
You said..."Still pooping, but looks smaller with white"...again, might be because the digestion is slow due to the temperatures. The white part is the urates. There should be a brown part and a white part and there can be a semi-set clearish looking part too. The brown part is usually bigger than the white part.
Sorry I didn't pay more attention to your posts earlier and offer this information.
Hopefully if you correct the temperatures and keep her warm enough during the day, her appetite will improve.
One more thing that I will mention now (even though she's too young to need it right now)...you will need to provide a place for her to lay eggs in case she needs to. I leave an egglaying container in all egglaying female chameleon's cages from the time they reach sexual maturity to avoid them becoming eggbound.
