Sick Panther

OPLenny

New Member
Chameleon Info:
• Your Chameleon – Male, Panther Cham, 1.5yrs old, been in my care since 3mths old
• Handling – Handle 1-2times a week – very social animal
• Feeding – Dusting crickets and feeding 4-5 medium brown dusted crickets every 2-3 days
• Supplements – Calcium dusting (British brand)
• Watering – Mist every other day, he feeds from the mister and comes to the nozzle to drink directly from it every 2-3 days?
• Fecal Description – Brown with white/cream ends
• History – Always had one eye that he tends to keep closed a lot. To date has been active, feeding, drinking and ‘normal’.

Cage Info:
• Cage Type – Exoterra glass viv 60x45x60
• Lighting – Exoterra lighting box with one UVB strip and one UVA strip plus 2 halogen bulbs as heat – controlled with temperature/thermostat, ambient temp is 70
• Temperature – temp range between 60 at night to 70-80 during the day
• Humidity – Currently don’t have a measure on humidity. Mist every other day with watered real plants in the viv
• Plants – Live plants – 2x figs, 1xfern
• Placement – Viv on sideboard in open planned living room. Been in the same position since we got him
• Location – Near London England, in the country side on a farm

Current Problem – In the past two weeks he has become increasingly quiet. He keeps both eyes closed and has taken to sitting at the bottom of the viv – looking like he is asleep. I held him yesterday and he opened both eyes and was walking around on my hands/arms/head as normal and looked his happy self. As soon as he returned to the viv he hung around on the vines for a while but then made his way back to the bottom of the viv, curled his tail up and went to sleep against the stalk of the one of the plants. He has stayed there all day today. I have heavily misted the viv tonight and he has been drinking the droplets of water that are falling near him. I did this for 5 minutes. He briefly opened his eyes but had them closed for the majority of the time.

There have been no changes to his environment – he is due to shed but has never been this withdrawn when he has been due before. He is not a very stressed animal and normally presents vivid greens, whites and yellows. He has developed some blacks and darker tones to his skin since this episode began.

After reading through the forums I figure he may be a little dehydrated. He last ate 3 days ago. Due to him being withdrawn I haven’t fed him today as I figured the crickets would just annoy him and would walk around the tank.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated. We don’t have a reptile vet near us so really need to self diagnose. Thanks
 
Generally, eyes closed are not a good sign, and the first advice you'll be given is to get to a vet - which I realize may not be an option. Perhaps some of the other UK people know of vets somewhat in your vicinity.
I don't know whether dehydration is your problem or not, but more hydration certainly wouldn't hurt him - most people I know mist daily. With mine (and I've heard this about others) it's often not until the five minute mark that it really seems to register with them that they're being watered. You certainly don't want him in standing water, but giving him increased humidity (running a humidifier; putting him on a plant and bringing him into a bathroom steamy from a shower, taking him out for a thorough (10-15 minute) misting somewhere where his cage won't be left sopping) isn't going to hurt and might help.
Good luck with him, and welcome!
 
Thanks for your advice. I have googled reptile vets near me but most tend to be 20miles away and I am scared the travel would stress him out. I will increase the misting and see if I can shower him. I will put some food in the viv tomorrow and see if he is interested. Each morning I check on him before work and have to poke him to make sure he is still alive. He gets the hump and huffs out his chin - I know this is annoying him but I need to make sure he is still alive.

I know that closed eyes are a bad sign and suggest he is ill but what from? Any ideas would be good. Thanks
 
Thanks for your advice. I have googled reptile vets near me but most tend to be 20miles away and I am scared the travel would stress him out. I will increase the misting and see if I can shower him. I will put some food in the viv tomorrow and see if he is interested. Each morning I check on him before work and have to poke him to make sure he is still alive. He gets the hump and huffs out his chin - I know this is annoying him but I need to make sure he is still alive.

I know that closed eyes are a bad sign and suggest he is ill but what from? Any ideas would be good. Thanks

How old are your lights? What brands are the UV tubes? They do need to be exchanged as the UV radiation they produce drops over time (depending on brand, as often as every 6 months). Some brands are worthless so tell us what you are using. Offering water every other day seems too little compared to "standard procedure". Even a cham in a very humid situation usually drinks daily.

Review your feeder gutloading and dusting schedule. Vitamins? How often? Commercial feeder gutloads aren't usually great so using more fresh leafy greens, fruit, bee pollen, and fortified cereal grains can raise their nutritional value. Might help.

As for taking him to a vet, it can be done pretty easily. Put the cham in a closed box with a stable perch to grip and a moist paper towel in the bottom. Most chams just sleep the trip away.
 
The UV bulbs are also exoterra and are about 1yr old. Figured they would be good until they blew? I was worried that he might be getting too much or too little UVB? Gonna give him a shower tomorrow. I will post back again tomorrow as it is 22.29 in England and I am off to bed. Thanks for advice so far.
 
My Jackson is doing all these same symptoms, also when the eyes are open they look as if he is groggy. Let me know what works or what i should do.
 
I think you're supposed to change the uvb bulbs every 6 or 7 months. After a while they don't work that well.
 
You need to go out and buy a new bulb. ASAP! that one isn't putting out any radiation anymore. and u should mist him daily, two to three times a day. but for sure schedule an appointment with a vet.
 
What if i have a new Chameleon a new everything and he is doing all the same symptoms?

Not eating, has eyes close most of the time. Stays in the same spot.
 
Well with a new chameleon it needs time to adjust to its new surroundings before it starts eating again. I don't know about the eyes closed with new chameleons though it shouldn't have its eyes closed frequently in the day.
 
hey, my cham has been acting very similar over the last 2 weeks. i was able to get him into a vet while he was still looking healthy. the vet got me to tweak my guys suppliments a little. over the course of about 3 days his eyes seemed to stay open a lot more. once he broke out of his daytime sleeping, than started to get dehydrated, showing no interest in water. my vet insturucted e to give him water via syringe untill his strength builds up a bit more. so i would say that the advice of checking over the suppliments youve been giving is great advice. over further review of the multivits ive been using, i found that the supps had no vit a, only beta carotine(spelling?) which is not conveted to vit a by a chams digestive system. if the dehydration gets bad, id give him warter with a syringe since you have no acess to a vet. to be honest tho, id perfer to let a senior member take over from here if you are forced with no other option than this drastic measure. i will say that behind the tounge, in his mouth are his lung & you have to be very careful to avoid getting any water in there. this is just the procedure my vet ordered me to partake in but since youve got no access to a vet, definately check over the vits youve been using & gutload accordingly. if you need a suppliment schedule, theres a great one one the chromachameleons site.

good luck
 
... definately try to give him a lot more oppertunity to get a drink before you even consider the syringe method tho...
 
Many chams will lick water off the tip of a syringe voluntarily if you start dripping warm water down onto their face. First, spray the cage and foliage, not the cham directly. Often the cham will start reflexively licking its lips and swallowing. Then you can gently spray so the droplets fall onto the cham from above (but some chams absolutely hate being sprayed...YMMV). Once it starts drinking they will often take water right off a syringe this way. It isn't always a "force feeding" deal.

For the OP: I didn't see any mention of a herp vitamin powder in your supplement schedule. Chams do need this in addition to light daily calcium dusting once every couple of weeks depending on age. This and the old light could be the issue.

UV tube lights will continue to provide light long after their UV production is gone. Get new ones!
 
As soon as i get off of work i will check him out and try and see hows he doing. I believe everyone's input will help out, thanks everyone. I knew this site would help me out. As far as the take i got, i seen it on a few sites to be good for the Chameleons. Its the Exo Terra tank with the open front option and the screen top. when i purchased it he was in the same tank.
 
So i just got home and Rex is back in action. I still havent seen him eat yet but he's moving around in the tank. Eyes are open and he's looking all around. Thanks everyone for your helpful tips!
 
Lenny here's a few things that worked for me. I sprayed the cage constantly threw out the day making sure it was well moist. I also took him out for a while and placed water on his mouth with a droplet. Also i was making sure the lighting was being changed properly from daylight to night light.
 
Using a timer to control the lights will make your life much easier. Set it for 12 hrs on / 12 hrs off. If no one is home throughout the day, I would recommend getting a Habba Mist or Mist King so that the enclosure will get misted as needed throughout the day, in addition to you manually misting in the morning and evening.

Like the others have said, change your UV bulb about every 6 months. Start giving him some supplements with his food. Phosphorus FREE Calcium WITHOUT D3 4-5 days/week. Phosphorus FREE Calcium WITH D3 1-2 times per MONTH. Retivite or Herptivite multivitamin once a month.

Make sure you're gut-loading your feeders with good foods as well. See Sandra's blog for details. Blog
 
You said..."Dusting crickets and feeding 4-5 medium brown dusted crickets every 2-3 days"...I would expect a male would be eating more than this...more like 10 to 15 crickets every 2 to 3 days.

You said..."Calcium dusting (British brand)"...does it have any phosphorus, D3 or vitamin A/beta carotene in it?

You said..."Always had one eye that he tends to keep closed a lot"...this should have been a signal to you that something is "wrong".

You said..."70-80 during the day"...the basking temperature should be in the mid 80's IMHO.

You said..."In the past two weeks he has become increasingly quiet. He keeps both eyes closed and has taken to sitting at the bottom of the viv – looking like he is asleep"...this is not good.

You said you have a fern in the cage...is it non-toxic?

You said..."He has developed some blacks and darker tones to his skin since this episode began"...are you sure its a male? Can you post a picture please?
 
Back
Top Bottom