Sleeps during the day. Not eating

[Zingaling]

Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Jackson, I think it's a male, less than a month about 2.5 weeks in my care
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Everyday for natural sunlight
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? Crickets. He's currently not eating. Apples carrots any fruit that we have
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Repti calcium no d3 no phosphorus almost every feeding. No multi vitamins. Calcium with d3 every 2 weeks.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Mist entire enclosure and dripper on branches and leaves, yes I see him drink
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Seems he hasn't pooped in a while but had white urates in the past. No tests were done
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. N/a

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? He's currently in a glass tank about 5 gal. I have a 18-18-36 screen but it's too big for him.
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?currently none. Gonna get one very soon.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? At night lowest I've seen is 73. Highs during the day is 85. I have a thermometer in my room.
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? Currently I do not know the humidy. I live in Hawaii.
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? No live plants. In search of one
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? On my table next to window 3ft off floor
Location - Where are you geographically located? Hawaii

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Either one eye is closed or sleeping during day. Not moving around much. Not eating. This started to happen after other after he ate a big cricket, bigger than what he normally eats, or after I dusted my feeders 2 days ago. I noticed the next day after I dusted his feeders his throat area looked puffy. I also seen him try to poop but no poop came out, only a mucus like substance that turn white when dried. And today I see this discoloration around his vent area. What can this be? I'm very worried about him. But he still drinks. Just not eating. Please help. Here's a pic of the discoloration:

http://s1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg600/zingaling1/?action=view&current=1341805027.jpg

 

[Slug]

I am pretty new at this myself, but since I am up, I will try to help where I can.

1. Get some lighting going, 12 hours on/12 hours off is a good schedule. You will need a basking bulb and a UVB bulb. I have been told that UVB 5.0 is what you need, stay away from the UVB 10.0. (If I am wrong, a senior member will correct me and slap the back of my hand). I had some eating issues early on as well, and it turned out that I had the wrong basking bulb and it was not getting warm enough to digest the food it had eaten, therefore it was not eating anything else. Get/change your lighting and it could help immensely.
1a. Set the lights up on a timer, you can get a couple for really cheap at Walmart if you are in the US. I use one I got there for under 4 dollars, Once it is setup and running, you can have several controlling everything from lighting to misting (which I am getting ready to get setup myself).

2. The glass tank is a problem. I know you said you have a bigger screen cage, but depending on how big your cham is, you may be able to put it in there with the proper setup and it could turn things around (again, I am willing to be corrected on this one. I have a young Senegal in an 18x18x36 screen cage and it seems to be doing pretty well.)

3. Get a thermometer and hygrometer IN THE TANK! The ambient temp in the room will not be the same as inside of the tank. It is best to have 2 or more actually. 1 by the basking area, and 1 towards the bottom of the enclosure to get a better grasp on the temperature range in the enclosure. (Flukers makes a decent digital combo thermo/hygrometer

Here is a link to it on amazon. Well worth the 16 bucks.
http://www.amazon.com/Flukers-34134...ds=flukers+digital+thermometer+humidity+gauge

Also, since you are in Hawaii and Jackson's are native to Hawaii...is it Wild Caught or did you get it from a pet store? My guess is wild caught since you didn't know the history of it (you put N/A)

If it is Wild Caught, I would suggest getting a fecal sample and have it examined by a vet for parasites.

Hopefully some of this helps. I am sure others will chime in, but this is hopefully a good starting point.

 

[Zingaling]

To be honest I really have no idea where they are from. I got them at a local petstore and a friend of mine who works there got them for me for free. They told me a lady gave them to them. They looked dehydrated when I first got them but they drank and ate right away. And I will get some lights going maybe tomorrow. But the petstore only has the tube bulb and not the lamp that goes with it. Where can I get one? Can I just use aquarium hood for it? That's for the information. Tho I'm still worried about that discoloration. Could it be fungus related?

 

[laurie]

Hi, let's talk about your baby. That is a neonate who is very young. You need either pinhead crickets or fruit fly's.
Since we are talking Jackson let's cut the calcium down to once a week. It is way easy to over supplement a Jackson, even more so a baby.
If the baby is in a glass tank you have to monitor temps that tiny angel can overheat is very little time. He needs to be sprayed at least 3 times a day and 4 would be even better.
When you say you are taking him out for some sun,do you have him in direct sun? That can get pretty hot, pretty fast. Again you will need to mist him a lot while he is out. How do you get him in and out of his tank? It is much better to use a stick like in your picture, than to pick him up. Picking him up will cause a lot of stress the little guy does't need.
You can put some fruit outside and then catch fly's for him.

 

[SpartyTessy]

To add on being outside

Since you are in Hawaii the best thing you can do is let the guy het natural sunlight outside. Of course make sure he has part shade and part sun. No lights can beat natural sunlight. Just put a cover on top half way to provide shade. Also make sure he is getting plenty of water. I know you said you are seeing him drink but it may not be enough. Montane species need lots of water so he should be getting misted 4-5 times a day for at least 5 minutes each. Make sure the cage is soaked. Best to get an auto mist system. And do not forget a dripper running all day. When I first got my male he was very dehydrated so I got a spray bottle and would lightly spray in his mouth and he would gladly drink. He also would close hid eyes during the day. Then after about 3 days he was good to go and very active. Just my thoughts.

Make sure his basking area temp is not more than 82. Then it should drop lower in the cage. Being outside here in Hawaii sometimes it can get hotter than that so just make sure you keep an eye on the temp

 

[Slug]

I would get it to a vet asap if you are concerned about fungus. Since a lady dropped them off, she probably caught it since you were not charged for it. My advice is get it checked out by a vet, get as clean of a bill of health as you can and get your cage set up quickly.

As far as lamps go, get a dome lamp and a basking bulb. I use one along with a Zoo-Med Naturalistic Terrarium Hood 18" size. It has 2 spots for bulbs, you can put a compact fluorescent UVB bulb in one and a basking bulb in the other.

You can kind of see my setup here:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/mem...modified-reptifogger-still-work-progress.html

It has changed a bit since then, but I will update the pics soon enough, check back soon and I will include some better shots.

Also, listen to Laurie! She helped me a ton when I first got my cham and it turned things around.

Thanks guys, I was starting to get worried that more advanced owners weren't going to see this until later. I am just doing what I can, feel free to correct me (I have zero experience with jackson's outside of holding one once and my girlfriend's nephew is named Jackson, and he is a handful himself).

 

[Zingaling]

Thanks for all these usefull information. And I do not grab them to take them out for sunlight. I do pick him up by the stick he sits on. Also I make sure he's not entirely in direct sunlight I give him a shaded area to run to when he wants to cool down. And yes I do mist him outside. The thing about misting is none of my baby's like it. They always shut there eyes and try to hide from getting wet. Should I keep misting when they do that? I notice they turn dark in color when I mist. Also I was thinking about getting a florescent UVB tube for them. And he never had this patch when I got him. Just recently it showed up. Could it possibly heal on its own when all the requirements are met or should I take him to a vet ASAP? Does it look serious to anyone who had a similar problem? Sorry for being such a noob. But this is my first time with a baby.

 

[Zingaling]

Omg I don't think he's gonna make it. His whole body looks discolored now and it looks like he either threw up or pooped out a undigested cricket then followed by wet mucus like urate. I did not see if he pooped out the cricket or not but I did see him poop the urate. Could this be some kind of deficiency?

 

[Trillian]

Stick with it, and keep misting, they close their eyes and may go dark, they aren't fond of misting, but they need it. Also give them a dripper so they can drink on their own terms, can be as simple as a plastic cup with a pinhole in the bottom, just keep making the hole a little bigger until it's dripping at a rate of about 1 drop a second.

As for the UVB tube, yes you can use an aquarium hood, I had the same issue with my pet store! Just make sure it's not a hood with a plastic cover between the tube and your chameleon, the UV can't get through plastic or glass, which is another reason screen enclosures are much easier to deal with than glass enclosures.

How is he now? Hopefully he's just cleared whatever blockage there is. It's probably best not to offer him anything bigger than the space between his eyes, that's a good gauge for the size he's able to manage. What other insects are you offering him?

 

[carol5208]

I would not sun him in the glass tank even though you are going to shade one side. Use the screen cage for that and provide shade. The glass will hold too much heat. You said you have had him for a month...have you not provided any uvb light for him artificial but just outside? how many hours a day??

 

[Zingaling]

He passed this morning. So depressed I couldn't see him grow up.

 

[Slug]

Sorry to hear that. The bright side is that you did the right thing in asking for help.

 

[Trillian]

So sorry Zing, you found the forum, which means this shouldn't happen again. Please don't let this put you off chameleon care.