W/C Female wont eat...

[bjohnsey]

I have a young wild caught chameleon that i have only had for 2 weeks and she wont eat...

i have her in a 18"X18"X3' reptibreeze
exo-terra solar glo 125
combination of fake foliage and a rubber plant

i have been trying both the cup feeding and letting crickets roam in her cage to try to enduce feeding, but i haven't saw her eat anything yet... there is some poop so she must be eating a bit

any help would be appreciated... thanks alot in advance

 

[jannb]

I think it's kind of normal. My daughter has bought WC before and I can remember her having to force feed for a while on some of the chams.

 

[Lizardlover]

well first off what species? What is your enclosure like? How much water are you giving it? You may want to ditch the rubber plant, ficus elastica, because it is known to be toxic. Going weeks off of food is normal for a w/c but a vet visit may be in order to get rid of any parasites it may be harboring. You also need to make sure you are offering a variety of gutloaded insects, and not just crickets. Make sure that your lighting and temperature is correct as well as your humidity.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Comments.........

A couple of things........That solar glo 125 watt mercury vapor light is pretty powerful. I would not use a product like that without a UVB meter. I'm also wondering how much heat it's putting out. Can we get a picture of you cage set up and the cham? What is your highest basking temperature?

Secondly, you need to get a fecal test done on your cham. Most of my breeders are WC. Very few did not have a parasite of some sort. The stress of a new home, not eating, etc. will reduce your chams immune system and the parasites can go on overdrive.

Is the cham drinking? Acclimating WC chams need to drink a lot. Drinking is more important than eating.

Where are you located? Do you have other chams?

 

[xanthoman]

firsthing i would do would be to turn that light off, get it a lineal reptisun 5.0and put some live lush plants in. fake plants dont hold the humidity well or contribute to a natural feeling enviroment. with a wc its just assumed that you need a fecal, probably treatment, which reqiures a followup fecal to verify its succsess, if it needs to be treated, you will need to decontaminate the cage during the treatment process. jmo