Weird poop? Eggs? What is happening

annefirth12

Established Member
Hey everyone,

A bit of background before my conundrum:

I’ve been watching my ~1 and a half year old chameleon to prep for her laying for about six months now. She last laid in early January 2021, so it’s been a while. Her first lay went absolutely perfectly, no problems, and she seemed to like her lay bin. She never lost her receptive/gravid colors and started getting chunky again around 3 months ago. She’s been showing behaviors that I thought indicated she was getting ready to lay - roaming, restlessness, and extra grumpiness, but she never did anything.

Of course I was concerned about egg binding, but she’s still active, hungry, and acting healthy, and I’ve been keeping a really close eye for any potential signs. We thought she might be just getting chunky, so we put her on a diet of 1 Dubia or cricket + hornworm + BSFL or butter worm 2x a week plus one small snack (single hornworm, a few BSFL) on one off day. She’s still gaining weight though - are we still feeding her too much?

Well, today she was out free roaming in her tree when she decided to poop on the floor. It looked like a perfectly normal poop except for this big old jelly-like lump (photo attached). Now I’m freaking out and trying to figure out - is it a weird half decomposed egg? Parasites? It was about half an inch long.
 

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Hi there. That is a urate... The orange in it is from where that portion was held longer. So it almost has like a hard crystal feel and look to it. Totally normal though.
Are you feeding every day still? Drop the butterworms they have been known to cause allergic reactions in chameleons. Even though she has not had one yet I would not risk it.

Looks like she is showing signs of edema. Can you post some better pics for me?
 
Hi there. That is a urate... The orange in it is from where that portion was held longer. So it almost has like a hard crystal feel and look to it. Totally normal though.
Are you feeding every day still? Drop the butterworms they have been known to cause allergic reactions in chameleons. Even though she has not had one yet I would not risk it.

Looks like she is showing signs of edema. Can you post some better pics for me?
Great, that’s just larger than a normal urate I see from her. I’m aware of the allergic reaction potential but she’s been eating them since 6 months old, since before we knew about the potential allergy problem.

I was worried about that - I’ll take some more pictures.
 

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Hi there. That is a urate... The orange in it is from where that portion was held longer. So it almost has like a hard crystal feel and look to it. Totally normal though.
Are you feeding every day still? Drop the butterworms they have been known to cause allergic reactions in chameleons. Even though she has not had one yet I would not risk it.

Looks like she is showing signs of edema. Can you post some better pics for me?
Oh I forgot to add - no, she eats 2x a week.
 
Great, that’s just larger than a normal urate I see from her. I’m aware of the allergic reaction potential but she’s been eating them since 6 months old, since before we knew about the potential allergy problem.

I was worried about that - I’ll take some more pictures.
Ok I would still drop the butter worms. Even though she has been eating them without reaction they can still have one out of no where.
Oh I forgot to add - no, she eats 2x a week.
So she is showing signs of edema. This could be solely related to her getting ready to lay. Some females will develop edema prior. But also it can be related to supplements. What are your supplements and what is the rotation?
 
Ok I would still drop the butter worms. Even though she has been eating them without reaction they can still have one out of no where.

So she is showing signs of edema. This could be solely related to her getting ready to lay. Some females will develop edema prior. But also it can be related to supplements. What are your supplements and what is the rotation?
No problem they're expensive anyways haha

She has Repashy Supercal NoD with every meal plus Repashy Calcium Plus as a multivitamin about once every two weeks, leaning on the less often side. Before you ask, the gutload I use is based on the recommended one from here - collard greens or dandelion greens, bell peppers, and orange or apple. I used to use bee pollen but since I've noticed the slight possible edema I've stopped using it since I've read that it can cause issues sometimes.
 
No problem they're expensive anyways haha

She has Repashy Supercal NoD with every meal plus Repashy Calcium Plus as a multivitamin about once every two weeks, leaning on the less often side. Before you ask, the gutload I use is based on the recommended one from here - collard greens or dandelion greens, bell peppers, and orange or apple. I used to use bee pollen but since I've noticed the slight possible edema I've stopped using it since I've read that it can cause issues sometimes.
So the plain calcium is great. Now for the mutlivitamin are you using the LoD version or the regular calcium plus? If your using the regular calcium plus I would change over to the calcium plus LoD version. The fat soluble vitamins in the LoD version are much lower than what is in the calcium plus version.
 
So the plain calcium is great. Now for the mutlivitamin are you using the LoD version or the regular calcium plus? If your using the regular calcium plus I would change over to the calcium plus LoD version. The fat soluble vitamins in the LoD version are much lower than what is in the calcium plus version.
Gotcha. Would it be possible to just reduce the frequency/quantity of the multivitamin usage? It’s a brand new bottle and I’d like to be able to use it up if I can. I’m not really in a financial position right now for extraneous purchases, particularly since I’m saving to be able to take her to the vet if needed.
 
Gotcha. Would it be possible to just reduce the frequency/quantity of the multivitamin usage? It’s a brand new bottle and I’d like to be able to use it up if I can. I’m not really in a financial position right now for extraneous purchases, particularly since I’m saving to be able to take her to the vet if needed.
Are you using the T5HO lighting at the correct distance?
 
The reason I ask this is because this makes a difference overall as well.

You can stay using the one you have but I just want to explain why I am saying to change. But if you want to stick with what your using cut her back to once a month and see if the edema reduces. Basically the calcium plus version is more than double the potency of the calcium plus LoD. It is why the regular calcium plus really is not recommended. If this is edema only related to her holding eggs then you would have seen it coming up the last few weeks. If it has been consistently swollen like this since the last time she laid eggs then it is related to her supplements.
 
The reason I ask this is because this makes a difference overall as well.

You can stay using the one you have but I just want to explain why I am saying to change. But if you want to stick with what your using cut her back to once a month and see if the edema reduces. Basically the calcium plus version is more than double the potency of the calcium plus LoD. It is why the regular calcium plus really is not recommended. If this is edema only related to her holding eggs then you would have seen it coming up the last few weeks. If it has been consistently swollen like this since the last time she laid eggs then it is related to her supplements.
Gotcha. Her T5 is 6 in through screen above the basking branch where she hangs out. I have the Arcadia T5 6%.

She has always had a little bit of a pouch, but it’s definitely become more noticeable in the past few days.
 
Gotcha. Her T5 is 6 in through screen above the basking branch where she hangs out. I have the Arcadia T5 6%.

She has always had a little bit of a pouch, but it’s definitely become more noticeable in the past few days.
So with the single bulb T5H0 and a 6% bulb you actually want 8-9 inches between the bottom of the fixture and the branch to put them in the correct UVI level. At the distance you have it of 6 inches this will actually put her into over exposure levels where she rises up higher off the branch.
 
So with the single bulb T5H0 and a 6% bulb you actually want 8-9 inches between the bottom of the fixture and the branch to put them in the correct UVI level. At the distance you have it of 6 inches this will actually put her into over exposure levels where she rises up higher off the branch.
Gotcha, I moved the fixture so the closest she can get directly under it is about 9 in.
 
Gotcha, I moved the fixture so the closest she can get directly under it is about 9 in.
And you mean the branch is 9 inches correct? That is what we want to measure to not the cham. By measuring to the branch this puts the cham in the correct UVI range.
 
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