Some Concerning Problems

Herocleasin

New Member
  • My chameleon (Archie) is a veiled, at least 7 months old.
  • I handle my chameleon once a week
  • I feed Archie 5 crickets a day, or try to at least, and I’ve fed him 4 house flies now, that’s the only food that sticks out (I also feed him crickets w/ calcium supplement more often than that). Recently I gave him his first superworms, about 6 days ago, and that is only because my local cricket supplier was out of crickets, and the crickets take a while to ship. He easily ate the superworms, and I gave him 3 a day for 3 days.
  • I use Rep-Cal calcium supplement (I use the one in the middle at every meal)
  • His feces was recently weirdly brown with a somewhat whitish hue, and it looked like it had somewhat of a cobblestone-like texture to it with a whitish-orange substrate
  • No other interesting history other than the fact that I got him from Petsmart

  • He has a glass cage, but I've been told that's not good so I'm soon switching to a screen cage
  • Not sure of the brand of the lights, I can’t check right now but I’m pretty sure his basking light is only like 10 watts.
  • The humidity of his cage is a good as possible.
  • All fake plants
  • Unfortunately my cage is under an air vent, but it seems to go right over his cage (the temperature in his cage when I’m gone during the day is about 78°F and during the night about 70°F
  • North Carolina is where I’m locating, very rural countryside neighborhood.

The current problem: A few things actually.
  1. He seems to have lost his appetite. He hasn't eaten for 2 days now, which is highly unusual from him. I've heard that it is not too uncommon for a chameleon to reject food sometimes, but Archie has never looked at food and not want it before. Something to note is that I recently got a size smaller from the crickets I usually give him by accident, but I didn't think that would be too big of a deal seeing as though I can just give him more. I usually buy the "large crickets" from my local supplier, but he didn't have any crickets at all, so when I went to order them online I bought what I thought were large crickets, but they turned out not to be so large.
  2. He seems to not be moving around very often. This is another thing pretty unusual from Archie. Usually he moves around his cage a ton, and often times when I would stick my hand in the cage, he would rush to it. Recently he's been sitting in one of two spots in his cage throughout the entire day.
  3. Shed skin not coming off. I've definitely heard of reptiles having a hard time with shedding skin, and I know there are some sort of supplements for it, but it still seems weird. It's been like a week and a half now and he still has a bit of dead skin stuck to his head.
  4. His feces looks kind of weird to me. As I described in his feces information, his feces looks brown, but with a certain whiteness to it, and a stone-like texture sort of. His substrate was whitish-orange, mostly white, and I'm pretty sure that's quite common.
  5. He has a bulge on his lower lip. I noticed this bulge about 6 days ago, when I gave him his first superworm. The bulge has now persisted for 6 days, although it looked a lot worse on the 4th day or so than it does now. This "bulge" doesn't seem to irritate him too much.
  6. His color is constantly dark. Now this is a little extra concern, meaning I'm not as concerned about this one as the rest, but still concerned none the less. Its come to me recently that Archie is always sort of a brown color. Now I know chameleons turn dark for multiple reasons, such as to absorb sunlight, but when comparing Archie to other healthy chameleons I see online, I notice how Archie never really looks as vibrant as some others do.
In my research of MBD, I've found that the probably the most evident sign of MBD would be the bumps. Archie seems to be lacking these lumps, excluding the bulge in his lips, so that makes me somewhat relieved. Although he lacks the lumps, he seems to have most of the other signs of MBD. I can't tell if maybe this is an early sign of MBD or something.

Probably the most concerning thing to me is his loss of appetite. Usually Archie is a very avid eater, so seeing him reject food for two days is a little unsettling.

I've never taken Archie to the vet before, so if that's what I'm going to have to do I'm not sure how to go about it.
 

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Have you made any of the suggestions to fix you're husbandry that has been suggested to you on your past threads? A quick search shows several threads where you are having health concerns dating back to at least Nov18, didnt bother to look any further than that.

Just based on your picture your lighting is wrong, but I also know that is a picture you've showed us before so hopefully you've upgraded just not bothered to give us a current picture?
 
Have you made any of the suggestions to fix you're husbandry that has been suggested to you on your past threads? A quick search shows several threads where you are having health concerns dating back to at least Nov18, didnt bother to look any further than that.

Just based on your picture your lighting is wrong, but I also know that is a picture you've showed us before so hopefully you've upgraded just not bothered to give us a current picture?

The picture I used was taken about 3 days ago. I mentioned in the post that I'm getting a screen cage soon, implying that his set up will change.
 
The picture I used was taken about 3 days ago. I mentioned in the post that I'm getting a screen cage soon, implying that his set up will change.
I was more so concerned about the lighting issue because that will and obviously has caused serious health issues for your cham
 
This set up is so bad, I won't even bother saying why because it sounds like you've already been told before and you just don't want to listen. Screen cage aside, the interior is still way below acceptable.

The mouth is serious, go to a vet or your cham will die. Make other changes as well, or your cham will die.
 
You have been told the changes you need to make in your previous threads. We can only tell you tell you what you need to do. He needs a vet 100% the people on this forum can’t save this chameleon we can only give our thoughts on what’s wrong and what needs to be changed. It’s only up to the keeper to follow the advice given and make the changes.
 
Why have you not gotten new lights yet?

I'm going to disagree on the need for screen. I really don't understand the screen obession. No one in the EU keep in screen. You do not need a Screen cage, Chris Anderson keeps in Glass, it's perfectly acceptable, just requires different husbrandry.

https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/po...n-in-glass-terrariums-with-dr-chris-anderson/

(First I seen a podcast about it, didn't know this existed lol, but there was an article before it, and Chris talks about this alot here.)

You need to check humidity and let that cage dry out.

It needs alot more branches, and higher basking temps. And proper lighting. And to see a vet now, those things need to change now, today, don't worry about the screen right now.

I am reading these threads, and I think this is a large part of the problem. People are telling to change everything, and he can't do that most likely and is being overwhelmed. His glass is fine, he said he is tracking the humidity.

He needs lighting, higher wattage basking, and flo UVB, drill that in, and get that done and get to a vet.

Also why do you keep calling the Cham a He? I can't tell from these pics, however I seen you were he is a she. And she is likely gravid and now egg bound....
 
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Ok so are you just ignoring the feedback given on your threads? I do not understand..... In this thread I specifically pointed out issues. https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/bulge-in-his-jowls.169992/#post-1494720
The major ones being the lighting, MBD possibility, Need for a Vet, and the improper use of your supplements. I mentioned the glass being possibly a bad choice due to the humidity level if your not actually watching it and misting correctly for a glass enclosure. Mouth looks like an infection. Not shedding can be directly linked to improper supplements and housing.


Your cham needs a Reptile Vet now. She is dying.... Get a box... put a towel in the bottom and punch a stick through about 2 inches from the bottom of the box one side to the other so it is held in place by the box. The cham goes into the box for its trip to the vet. The box is dark so this is less stressful for her and she will sleep on the drive there.
 
Why have you not gotten new lights yet?

I'm going to disagree on the need for screen. I really don't understand the screen obession. No one in the EU keep in screen. You do not need a Screen cage, Chris Anderson keeps in Glass, it's perfectly acceptable, just requires different husbrandry.

https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/po...n-in-glass-terrariums-with-dr-chris-anderson/

(First I seen a podcast about it, didn't know this existed lol, but there was an article before it, and Chris talks about this alot here.)

You need to check humidity and let that cage dry out.

It needs alot more branches, and higher basking temps. And proper lighting. And to see a vet now, those things need to change now, today, don't worry about the screen right now.

I am reading these threads, and I think this is a large part of the problem. People are telling to change everything, and he can't do that most likely and is being overwhelmed. His glass is fine, he said he is tracking the humidity.

He needs lighting, higher wattage basking, and flo UVB, drill that in, and get that done and get to a vet.

Also why do you keep calling the Cham a He? I can't tell from these pics, however I seen you were he is a she. And she is likely gravid and now egg bound....

Idk about the others, but my problem isn't against glass. I use solid side enclosures myself. I thought this was a fish tank lol. Looking back I see I was wrong. Although it looks like he has little air circulation with this set up, hard to tell by that picture though. Also looks pretty small.

I haven't looked back, but someone mentioned he had this set up since November and made no changes? That's a long time to be overwhelmed without being able to change 1 thing? Lol
 
Idk about the others, but my problem isn't against glass. I use solid side enclosures myself. I thought this was a fish tank lol. Looking back I see I was wrong. Although it looks like he has little air circulation with this set up, hard to tell by that picture though. Also looks pretty small.

I haven't looked back, but someone mentioned he had this set up since November and made no changes? That's a long time to be overwhelmed without being able to change 1 thing? Lol
November at least. I didnt bother to keep looking because that was all I needed to see.
 
Idk about the others, but my problem isn't against glass. I use solid side enclosures myself. I thought this was a fish tank lol. Looking back I see I was wrong. Although it looks like he has little air circulation with this set up, hard to tell by that picture though. Also looks pretty small.

I haven't looked back, but someone mentioned he had this set up since November and made no changes? That's a long time to be overwhelmed without being able to change 1 thing? Lol


Well ya, he definitely should have changed the lighting by now, and such. That's silly, he has waited this long.

I'm not sure the size, I assumed from the pic at first it was a skyscraper, as I thought the Cham was fairly old. Now looking again, I think it's this

http://www.lllreptile.com/products/...HKiCZH7Q9N31ZbFgC6mAo9yudh98nI6hoCRhMQAvD_BwE

Which is tiny. Beman has told him what to do, a couple of times, and he just isn't listening.

It goes back to August, and he was told that Glass the right size was fine, so my apologies. He just doesn't want to listen.

The references to the glass by the way are "Glass of Unknown Dimensions"..... OP, you ain't got a measuring tape? There is defiantly something you have of reference.
 
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