Weird unexpected Death

[jadeaudio]

My Senegal died today and it bothers me because he was my 1st cham that got me into this hobby and he seemed totally fine until I got home from work tonight he looked black and then about 2 hours later he turned pale and was dead. I just posted his picture in a thread on the 14th of this month which was only a few days ago and he looked great. He was a very picky eater and would never eat crickets and ate a superworm every 2 days only if he was starving. He would eat flies instantly, but besides that he wouldn't eat much. People on the forums told me he could go weeks without eating and to try not to feed him and he would eat crickets again. I had to order flies for him so he hasn't eaten in 3 to 4 days and of course the flies came in today. I fed him a wild caught fly about 3 days ago and that is the only thing I can think of that would have killed him. He even had fresh fecal matter this morning. Ambient temps are 70 and his basking area is around 85. He had a Reptisun 5.0 and mistkinged 3-4 times for 3 to 4 minute intervals. I have other chams also, so I know I wasn't doing anything wrong. Just weird to me how quick it happened. No symptoms. Just went.

Anybody know anyone online that sells Senegals? My kids loved him and I bought him at a reptile show and never seen them for sale online or at any pet store around here.

Here is a link to the thread I had a few days ago with his picture.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-picky-ass-senegel-30404/

 

[Syn]

I got home from work tonight he looked black and then about 2 hours later he turned pale and was dead. https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-picky-ass-senegel-30404/

Have you seen him fall at all lately? Any odd behavior? When you noticed he was black, did he stop moving his arms/legs/tail?

 

[jadeaudio]

I have never seen him fall ever. Yesterday he was climbing on the screen which was unusual as he never did that before. He was barely moving once he turned black. I put him back in his basking spot because he was fully wet from the mist king, so I put him under the basking area to see if that would help and he moved some and hung with his tale. And he died that way hanging from the tip of his tale turning pale. He died with his eyes open and his tongue partially sticking out. And not until tonight did I notice anything out of the ordinary.

 

[laurie]

I am really sorry to hear you lost your beloved pet, there is just no easy way for that to happen.

You might check kingsnake.com to see if anyone has a senegal for sale. i don't see them often. I sold my last one about a year ago and the kid is going to college now so I may be getting him back. If I do I will let you know, but don't count on me getting him.

 

[serenitystarlite]

I'm sorry to hear about your Senegal

 

[Lovereps]

Sorry for your loss

It's always upsetting to lose a pet.

 

[Carlton]

How long did you have him? Senegals aren't all that well treated during importation and sale so he may have had some health problems before you even saw him. And, chams are experts at hiding their problems until they are overwhelmed and too weak to hide any longer. A parasite load could have reached too high a level for him to tolerate, maybe he had an internal infection, maybe there was a nutritional imbalance getting worse over time (picky eaters are hard to supplement correctly), but without a necropsy you'll never know.

 

[AJA]

Not to be a wisecrack, but are you sure you had a male and not an egg bound female?

Sorry for your loss as well.

 

[jadeaudio]

I'm pretty sure it was a male. I read that the males are smaller than the females for the Senegals. Also he was never fat. Always was pretty skinny. And from what I also read this species does not lay eggs unless they are actually fertile. I may be wrong, but that is what I read. He probably did have some disease. Just weird how there wasn't any signs except that he stopped eating crickets. Also possible that superworms could have been too big for him. That is all he would eat besides flies in the last month.