Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - 9 month old female Carpet Chameleon. Ive had her since she's been 4 1/2 months old.
Handling - Once a week at most. Don't really do it, unless im trying to inspect something, when I suspect something being wrong.
Feeding - Usually feed 3 large crickets. I gutload them with the orange fluker cubes, and dust them with calcium without D3 almost everyday besides when I dust them with calc with d3 or multivitamins once every 2 week
Watering - Misting. I have live plants in my tank so they hold the water for a while and she drinks off it. I had a dripper too until I realized she drinks all of her water that stays on the leaves from misting. I see her drink regularly and she almost always has white urate.
Fecal Description - Looks normal, or how it always has. Ive noticed though that sometimes the brown part of the poop is a bit lighter (i.e. looks like a light glaze on the feces) than usual sometimes. It still looks fairly normal nonetheless
History - Had been a happy and healthy cham (thank goodness!).
Cage Info:
Cage Type - 18x18x24 Exo Terra. Had her in 12x12x18 up until 3 weeks ago.
Lighting - Repti-Glow 5.0 UVB and a 75W basking bulb. I use a 50W night heat lamp as well that runs 24/7. (my house is cold so i need the extra heat).
Temperature - Ambient temps are usually 78-81 degrees. The basking spot around high 80's. Night temps are usually in the low 70's.
Humidity - My hygrometer reads: around 75% after misting and it slowly creeps to 35% right before misting. I read that non-digital hygrometers are not reliable, however.
Plants - Scheffleras, Palms, Pothos and a small prayer plant in the bottom corner. I also have a small patch of baby tears in the front that I did not fit into my dart frog tank.
Placement - The place I am currently living does not really have a true 'non-traffic area' however it is usually calm.
Location - DC
Current Problem -
Over 3 weeks ago I moved my carpet cham from a 12X12X18 exo terra that i had been keeping her in, and she seemed very happy and healthy in, to a 18X18X24 tank. She liked to move around a lot so the 12x12x18 seemed a bit small. Upon moving her over, she did not seem happy (as expected). She was stressed and would not eat for a few days after moving her (which I suppose is not unusual after moving her to a new tank). She looked a lot skinner then, which makes clear sense, but while she still did not seem happy and active in the tank she began eating. I noticed many things in the tank that could have made her uncomfortable. Firstly I noticed the tank seemed cold for her (the temperatures were cooler at first in the new tank than in the old one, which were temperatures that had been suggested to me by many people). She did not respond well to the temperature change, so I added an extra heat source to get the temperatures back to what they were in the old tank. While this made her look better, she still did not move much and I felt a lot of the had to do, since she did not like the climbing space and vines the way I had them set up. After changing around some of the vines to better suit her, she has for the last week finally lost her stressed coloration, moves around a lot, is eating properly and hunting after her food and just seems much more alert and alive. However, she is still not quite there, which is understandable due to all the changes I've had to make since moving her in. She is easily stressed right now, which Im sure is normal. Nonetheless, even though she is eating all of her food, as she had before in the smaller tank, I feel something is just not right with her. Her behavoir is almost completely back to normal now, but she still seems very skinny to me, even though she is eating and drinking. Her feces look completely normal so there are no obvious parasites, yet is it possible that she has something? I posted photos below. Or is it just possible that it might take a while for her to gain her weight back? (She didnt eat for about 4 days and then starting maybe just eating 1-2 crickets for about a week and has only been eating normally again for about 1 1/2). Any help?
Side Note: I have her in a completely bio active tank so i have micro-organisms in the soil that break down all the organic waste in the tank. In my previous experiences with these types of tanks, it usually takes a about 6 weeks or sometimes a bit longer for the tank to 'settle' i.e. for all the micro-organism to germinate enough to populate the tank sufficiently and properly as well the plants to root well. When this happens the soil is completely clean and the roots of the plants take care of drainage for me. What I noticed though, that a couple of weeks after beginning the tank, there is an 'odd smell' in the tank, which i suspect to be some sort of molding, however its not in any way visible and looking through the soil I could never find anything that even loosely resembled mold. I can only smell it and it disappears when the tank 'settles' (based on my experience), so perhaps it is the smell of feces? Since the tank isnt settled yet, maybe it possible that it is just the feces since it takes the springtails a couple of days to fully break them down right now. My current tank is in this phase now. While my cham had no issue with this phase in her previous tank by any means, but is it possible that maybe this could be at fault?
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks
Your Chameleon - 9 month old female Carpet Chameleon. Ive had her since she's been 4 1/2 months old.
Handling - Once a week at most. Don't really do it, unless im trying to inspect something, when I suspect something being wrong.
Feeding - Usually feed 3 large crickets. I gutload them with the orange fluker cubes, and dust them with calcium without D3 almost everyday besides when I dust them with calc with d3 or multivitamins once every 2 week
Watering - Misting. I have live plants in my tank so they hold the water for a while and she drinks off it. I had a dripper too until I realized she drinks all of her water that stays on the leaves from misting. I see her drink regularly and she almost always has white urate.
Fecal Description - Looks normal, or how it always has. Ive noticed though that sometimes the brown part of the poop is a bit lighter (i.e. looks like a light glaze on the feces) than usual sometimes. It still looks fairly normal nonetheless
History - Had been a happy and healthy cham (thank goodness!).
Cage Info:
Cage Type - 18x18x24 Exo Terra. Had her in 12x12x18 up until 3 weeks ago.
Lighting - Repti-Glow 5.0 UVB and a 75W basking bulb. I use a 50W night heat lamp as well that runs 24/7. (my house is cold so i need the extra heat).
Temperature - Ambient temps are usually 78-81 degrees. The basking spot around high 80's. Night temps are usually in the low 70's.
Humidity - My hygrometer reads: around 75% after misting and it slowly creeps to 35% right before misting. I read that non-digital hygrometers are not reliable, however.
Plants - Scheffleras, Palms, Pothos and a small prayer plant in the bottom corner. I also have a small patch of baby tears in the front that I did not fit into my dart frog tank.
Placement - The place I am currently living does not really have a true 'non-traffic area' however it is usually calm.
Location - DC
Current Problem -
Over 3 weeks ago I moved my carpet cham from a 12X12X18 exo terra that i had been keeping her in, and she seemed very happy and healthy in, to a 18X18X24 tank. She liked to move around a lot so the 12x12x18 seemed a bit small. Upon moving her over, she did not seem happy (as expected). She was stressed and would not eat for a few days after moving her (which I suppose is not unusual after moving her to a new tank). She looked a lot skinner then, which makes clear sense, but while she still did not seem happy and active in the tank she began eating. I noticed many things in the tank that could have made her uncomfortable. Firstly I noticed the tank seemed cold for her (the temperatures were cooler at first in the new tank than in the old one, which were temperatures that had been suggested to me by many people). She did not respond well to the temperature change, so I added an extra heat source to get the temperatures back to what they were in the old tank. While this made her look better, she still did not move much and I felt a lot of the had to do, since she did not like the climbing space and vines the way I had them set up. After changing around some of the vines to better suit her, she has for the last week finally lost her stressed coloration, moves around a lot, is eating properly and hunting after her food and just seems much more alert and alive. However, she is still not quite there, which is understandable due to all the changes I've had to make since moving her in. She is easily stressed right now, which Im sure is normal. Nonetheless, even though she is eating all of her food, as she had before in the smaller tank, I feel something is just not right with her. Her behavoir is almost completely back to normal now, but she still seems very skinny to me, even though she is eating and drinking. Her feces look completely normal so there are no obvious parasites, yet is it possible that she has something? I posted photos below. Or is it just possible that it might take a while for her to gain her weight back? (She didnt eat for about 4 days and then starting maybe just eating 1-2 crickets for about a week and has only been eating normally again for about 1 1/2). Any help?
Side Note: I have her in a completely bio active tank so i have micro-organisms in the soil that break down all the organic waste in the tank. In my previous experiences with these types of tanks, it usually takes a about 6 weeks or sometimes a bit longer for the tank to 'settle' i.e. for all the micro-organism to germinate enough to populate the tank sufficiently and properly as well the plants to root well. When this happens the soil is completely clean and the roots of the plants take care of drainage for me. What I noticed though, that a couple of weeks after beginning the tank, there is an 'odd smell' in the tank, which i suspect to be some sort of molding, however its not in any way visible and looking through the soil I could never find anything that even loosely resembled mold. I can only smell it and it disappears when the tank 'settles' (based on my experience), so perhaps it is the smell of feces? Since the tank isnt settled yet, maybe it possible that it is just the feces since it takes the springtails a couple of days to fully break them down right now. My current tank is in this phase now. While my cham had no issue with this phase in her previous tank by any means, but is it possible that maybe this could be at fault?
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks
