Weight loss?

[Andee]

Ok I know there is probably nothing I can do about this, but Ryker, my panther <3 my only chameleon right now and the reptile love of my life is making me worried. So I have turned once again to the forum to alleviate my worries and perhaps give me some advice?

Ryker has been losing and gaining weight. Right now he's underweight and it worries me. I would like him to be around 220 grams-240 grams, right now he weighs about 140 grams. It worries me, I feed him every other day right now, about 5 large roach nymphs and 3 soft-bodied feeders like wax worms and silk worms combined.

I'm wondering if I should somehow start feeding him everyday? But if I do how much should I feed him? He won't eat 5 roaches everyday, and my other feeders need to be bought right now and I am running extremely low on cash at the moment. I have about three feeders I can feed regularly, I can get some crickets at least once a week.

My feeders consist of dubia roaches, giant green banana roaches, and wax worms. I can't get silkworms right now, I can probably get some black soldier flies and larvae to add some variety but otherwise I am stuck....

I don't want him to get bored, but I also am tight on cash this month and am unsure of what to do right now. Anyone have any ideas on how to get some weight on my boy?

I KNOW for a fact he doesn't have parasites or coccidia, he has been tested for both because I over worry. Thanks for reading.

 

[carol5208]

So you are saying he has weighed between 220-240 and has lost weight to get down to 140 or are you saying that is what you would like him to weigh??

 

[jannb]

Has he had a recent fecal? Chameleons get parasites allot from the feeders they eat and parasite can keep them from gaining weight especially cociddia. If he has not had a recent fecal then I recommend getting one.

 

[Andee]

He has had a fecal within the last week, but I was gone last month and he was being looked after by a friend. When I got back he looked thin, but not as thin as he is now. I know for a fact he loses weight faster than he gains weight.

He used to weigh around 200 grams, he looked better then, but he's always been a bit lighter than I think that he should be. But right now I know he is way to thin. He has no fat stores at all, and he's a bit sunken in at the hips. .____. I just am not sure how to go about fattening him up.

 

[Lathis]

Get bloodwork done. If his fecals are clean and he's still losing weight, that's the next thing to check. It can be a bit pricey - I think I paid somewhere around $250 for the test alone.

My Jax slowly lost weight over the course of several months, down to 50g from 65g. He had a few parasites show up in his fecal check, so we treated that. Then he caught an infection in his throat. Then another issue with parasites. Losing weight the whole time. He eventually stopped eating, then drinking. When we finally did bloodwork, the test results indicated that he was in full liver failure. I would have suspected it was medicine-related from all the antiparasitics and antibiotics, but the vet thought the kidney function and other levels seemed to be normal, but a bit anemic. It had probably been going on for quite a long time without me knowing and may have been the underlying cause for all his other issues I feel a lot of guilt about not doing bloodwork sooner, although honestly, I don't know that it would have saved him.

 

[Andee]

When I get paid next thursday I will immediately spend it on a blood test, if he starts to decline anymore I will talk to my vet about a payment plan. He hasn't lost anymore since he's landed at 140 grams which was around 2 weeks ago. So I am hoping he will turn around again and start gaining more weight >.< fingers crossed. I will keep an eye on him and weigh him every few feedings.

 

[Lathis]

I hope you're able to figure it out. Keep us posted if you go to the vet soon.

 

[Andee]

Thanks guys >.< I just hope it's nothing serious or if it is we can actually treat it. He's such an awesome baby and my heart would break if anything happened to him when he's only two years old T^T

 

[Andee]

So I tried feeding him two days in a row, and he's bored of dubias, so I go out to my Giant Green Banana roach enclosure, to see that my colony crashed. All my adults are dead, which is pretty predictable since they don't have a long life span as adults, but my babies are still going strong. *sighs* My colony is still in it's infancy with the Giant Greens and it's been complicated keeping them going without having ants attack them.

But the problem is now that I have to find a new feeder to keep him satisfied until dubias are back on the menu. Which means switching over to crickets more often than expected >.< which really, really suck because I refuse to keep them even in a bin in the house. I HATE crickets. Not to the point where I have issues feeding them or touching them. I just don't want to keep them AT ALL.

So I buy mine from stores and gutload for a day and then toss them in. Just wanted to complain to someone XD.