Undigested feeders found, new Cham owner.

[TheyCallMeFred]

Hello!

We just bought a Jackson's about 2 months ago and we're still new to cham ownership and need some help. I've found a couple times over the past two weeks undigested crickets (his staple feeder) on the bottom of the cage. So I'm a little worried since he doesn't seem to have a very large appetite, eating only 2-3 crickets a day (we think), that he is not eating enough or there's something wrong. I've tried to add some giant mealworms but he doesn't seem to interested in them. Our general info is listed below. Any advice is appreciated.



Description: ~ 6 mo. old male Jackson's. Right now ~ 7" from nose to tail (excluding horns). Had him for just under 2 months.
Handling: every couple days at most, usually every 3-4 days.
Feeding: crickets. Typically 3-4 a day. Usually fed around noon.
Supplements: was doing calcium in water (mister) but just started dusting crix with Rep-cal Herptivite and calcium w/ VIT.D
Watering: Monsoon RS-400 automatic mister set to 120sec every 2 hrs from 7am to 8:30pm
Fecal description: see attached pics. Looks healthy but finding the droppings is difficult. Worried he may not be passing enough
History: bought from Petsmart (yeah I know). Seems to be in good condition overall

Enclosure: 4' x 2' x 2' reptibreeze screened enclosure
Lighting: can't recall exactly. I believe it's a zoo-med 100w UV lamp. Light turns on at 7am and shuts off around 8:30 pm (sunrise to sunset).
Temps: Basking is 88 degrees and cage floor is around 72.
Humidity: Around 64-70
Plants: All artificial
Placement: In a relatively low traffic area. Top of cage is 79" off the floor.
Location: Charlotte NC

 

[Wykd]

are the crickets small enough? are they bigger than the space between his eyes? Some cham's will attack anything that moves and others more apprehensive and try not to bite off more than they can chew.

 

[kanjiman]

i don't know if this is the case with all chams, but i know with my veiled, if the cricket somehow dies (i like to leave a couple after she finishes eating in case she gets hungry later) then she won't touch them.. wonder if that's the case here?

 

[SpartyTessy]

That basking temp it too high. You need to go with a lower wattage bulb. You want the basking temp to be between 80 to 82 max and 70's throughout the rest of the cage. Also mandatory you will need a separate UVB light. The most popular one is the zoo med reptisun 5.0. You also want the humidity at a constant 70 to 90 throughout the day. You want to make sure that you are not over supplementing. Calcium with no D3 about every to every other feeding. Calcium with D3 every 4-6 weeks and multivitamin every 4-6 weeks. You also need some kind of dripper providing constant water throughout the day.

 

[laurie]

Can I offer a bit of experience from when I kept Jacksons? You need to be super careful about supplements. I supplemented once a week with plain calcium, and once a month with vit/minerals, then once a month with calcium with d3. If you over supplement a jackson you will kill it. This is just my opinion from keeping them.

 

[TheyCallMeFred]

Thanks for the replies. I incorporated some changes to his enclosure; reduced the bulb wattage and moved the light which reduced the basking temp to 80. I should have mentioned that my light was a combo and did have UVB. I also added in a fogger which has brought up the humidity to around 80-85%. I am also switching to cup feeding as I was letting my feeders free-range. Now I can keep track of how many he eats.

Today's the first application of calcium w/D3 + multivitamin and I'll be sure to only do this periodically. Can anyone recommend other good feeders? I think he may be sick of crickets and I'd like to change it up for him. I tried putting in some super worms but so far the crickets have been more interested in them than him. I've read good things about hornworms and I also bought some mealworms too. I know people recommend roaches but my wife said no to that lol!

I'm also a bit concerned because he hasn't been as active lately and has been sleeping during the day. His droppings look good but there's only a few in the cage. Here are some pics:

He's also been doing something unusual, pointing his head up at the light, kinda looks like a wolf howling at the moon! Here's a pic of that and a general pic of him:

 

[TheyCallMeFred]

Forgot to add a pic of the undigested crickets:

Regarding this problem, it could be that these were too big but he's fairly big between the eyes and as you can see there's two here and I found them clumped together as if he yacked them up or somehow pooped them out. So I'm not sure what's going on

 

[carol5208]

does he ever hold his mouth open? Raising his head up like that could be a sign of a respiratory infection.

 

[TheyCallMeFred]

Hi, no holding his mouth open. Just sits there like you see in the pic with his head pointed up. He doesn't do this all the time but I've seen him do this a couple times recently.

 

[kinyonga]

Have you had fecal done on the feces?
Is he WC?