Syringe feeding and stressed chameleon! Please help

Ok do you have a branch you can run closer to it like above the bottom section of the feeder so he can easily access it? how many crickets did you toss in?

does this look okay? There are 11 crickets and 5 superworms. I fixed the uvb by the way. It’s 9 inches exactly now.
 

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@Beman In the short term... is it okay to secure it with tape? I somehow just broke all of my zip ties..... and I don’t think I have string
Nope no tape or sticky anything in a cham enclosure. That is a nightmare waiting to happen. Just leave it as is for now and get more zip ties.
 
@Beman okay instead of that I made a few changes. I’ll attach pictures. I think it will work nicely - I basically moved the feeder to the other side, moved the heat lamp and his basking branch but kept the same height difference to get the temp he needs. He has 9inches between UVB also. The feeder is lower than the branch so that he can easily look down and eat. How is this looking at least for right now?
 

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@Beman okay instead of that I made a few changes. I’ll attach pictures. I think it will work nicely - I basically moved the feeder to the other side, moved the heat lamp and his basking branch but kept the same height difference to get the temp he needs. He has 9inches between UVB also. The feeder is lower than the branch so that he can easily look down and eat. How is this looking at least for right now?
Hopefully that will work better. It is hard because when they are small you want to make sure they can easily get to things.
 
@Beman That makes sense. Okay, I think I’m honestly just going to close the door to this room for a while until I need to mist again. I will update probably tonight or tomorrow if he has eaten anything. Thanks so much for the help. This was a journey!!
 
@Beman update... he didn’t even come out today. Just stayed in the plant. Maybe I stressed him out too much being in his enclosure for so long :( guess we’ll try for tomorrow
 
@Beman update... he didn’t even come out today. Just stayed in the plant. Maybe I stressed him out too much being in his enclosure for so long :( guess we’ll try for tomorrow
Tomorrow load the feeder run with like 2 dozen crickets and leave him be.

See if you can add them before his lights come on.
 
Tomorrow load the feeder run with like 2 dozen crickets and leave him be.

See if you can add them before his lights come on.

okay will do. I saw his stool and urate at the bottom of the enclosure and I didn’t take them out because I don’t want to keep bothering him. When I do the crickets I’ll take them out and take a picture to see if everything looks normal. From what I saw he seems hydrated. Poor guy is so stressed :(
 
okay will do. I saw his stool and urate at the bottom of the enclosure and I didn’t take them out because I don’t want to keep bothering him. When I do the crickets I’ll take them out and take a picture to see if everything looks normal. From what I saw he seems hydrated. Poor guy is so stressed :(
I would imagine after the vet... this is why I want to try to help you to get him eating on his own. Force feeding a cham is not easy and is very very stressful on them. So let’s see where he is at tomorrow. Did you order the other feeder run I recommended? If not I would get that. Takes up way less space and works.
 
@Beman yea.. I took out money just in case. I’ll probably wait the entire day tomorrow and maybe some of the next day to see if he’s eating. A part of me just thinks he’s extremely stressed from moving and adjusting to a new environment. On the other hand, I really don’t know much about signs of sickness and how normal it is for a juvenile chameleon to hide out in a plant/not eat for a few days. In my mind it seems like intense stress, but I know they hide their sickness well. I know they gave him IV fluids and force fed him at the emergency vet yesterday so that could have horribly stressed him. I guess we will see... I’m nervous to go to a vet where they might just tell me to fix my husbandry and then I’ve stressed him out for no reason again. On the other hand, I just applied to vet school so I should probably trust the veterinarian 😂 anyways, we will see tomorrow. I’ll update with some stool pics in the morning. Thanks again
 
@Beman yea.. I took out money just in case. I’ll probably wait the entire day tomorrow and maybe some of the next day to see if he’s eating. A part of me just thinks he’s extremely stressed from moving and adjusting to a new environment. On the other hand, I really don’t know much about signs of sickness and how normal it is for a juvenile chameleon to hide out in a plant/not eat for a few days. In my mind it seems like intense stress, but I know they hide their sickness well. I know they gave him IV fluids and force fed him at the emergency vet yesterday so that could have horribly stressed him. I guess we will see... I’m nervous to go to a vet where they might just tell me to fix my husbandry and then I’ve stressed him out for no reason again. On the other hand, I just applied to vet school so I should probably trust the veterinarian 😂 anyways, we will see tomorrow. I’ll update with some stool pics in the morning. Thanks again
Ok so what I will tell you to hopefully settle your stress about it.... Your baby is not acting out of the ordinary. You have had to keep changing things in the environment. Feeders were different then what he was used to. And your stressing and worried. All totally normal. Many will not eat and hide if stressed. Cage set up is the priority making sure the layout is right. They are not used to eating from a feeder run and they are not used to seeing new feeders.

So if it were me I would push the pause button on what the Vet told you to do. I know they are the Vet and I rarely tell someone not to follow what the vet has recommended but in this case I believe it will hurt not help baby. If they gave iv fluids and force fed he has been through it. It does not sound like the Vet was knowledgeable about chams. This happens very often.

Looking at the picture of baby before you went to the vet... There were no signs visibly that would cause me to be concerned about dehydration or even the lack of eating much. Looked healthy and a bit scared but that is it.

So right now you have to give him time to bounce back from the stress of the Vet. This may take him a few days... Try to leave him be. Check on him from afar.
Count feeders to see if there are some missing. Even if he is only eating a few each day this is ok right now.
 
If they gave iv fluids and force fed he has been through it. It does not sound like the Vet was knowledgeable about chams. This happens very often.

This might be a dumb question... but are chams not supposed to get IV fluids? If not, how come?
 
@Beman This is him right now... he looks like reddish gray. But at least he came out while I was out shopping. I couldn’t get a better picture because I was trying really hard to be quick, but he saw me and went back down. I needed to mist anyways because he is at least drinking. I feel so bad that he is so stressed. He also hasn’t eaten :(. Should I move him into my closet where I can leave the light on and shut the door for the absolute least amout of activity? He won’t even need to see us and he would be high up. The closet is like 5 steps away from where he is so it wouldn’t be a traumatizing move I think. Or should I just schedule the vet visit?
 

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