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I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with my flapneck chameleon for well over a month now! I feel awful....but am doing anything and everything that I can to help her out.
She still won’t eat....maybe one cricket or worm every two days or so....
I have recently had worms and gut load of sorts mailed to me from canadianfeeders. Butter worms, wax worms, super worms, and meal worms. She won’t eat any of them .....she seems scared when I put one in there for her by hand. She used to eat right from my hand!
I have tried...and am still trying to feed her with a dish...putting a couple crickets and a worm or two every day before work.

I have have her water dripping in a few different spots throughout her cage for probably 5-8hours per day, as well as misting a couple times a day. I put additive in the water to take out the chlorine cause my water isn’t that nice.

I have been noticing that her left eye bulges really big when I mist her, and she will rub it on things. I think she does this with the other eye too though. I took her to the vet about it and she said that her eyes looked fine, but she is now keeping it closed a lot of the time, while the other is wide open. I am wondering if this would contribute to her loss of appetite. I want to take her to the vet but I don’t even know how much she can do anyways...(as I knew TONS more than she did about chameleons!!)

Anyways I am thinking of trying so use different drinking water or something......but if someone could help me out I am kinda starting to loose it cause I have been thinking of every possible way of helping her and just nothing seems to be helping.

I will try to get some descent pictures....she is pretty good in disguising her issues I think.

Thanks
Samantha

I know nothing about flapnecks but can comment on some basics.

The eye bulging and scraping means something is int it. Did she recently shed? Sometimes a pieces of shed can get lodged so look out for infection, but it is usally a normal action and should pass.

More importantly - how old is she?? Female chams will develop and lay eggs whether they have mated or not and you need to provide her with an appropriate laying site.

Have you considered this? Do you have a scale to weigh her? Does she look dehydrated at all

If you want (and would be helpful) go to link below to and post answers toset up questions to see if we can help. If she is gravid (pregnant) you need to set her up now. There is a great article on www.chameleonnews.com on setting up a laying site.

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
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Hi, Do you know if your Flapneck is wild caught or captive bred?
I hate delivering news like this but many wild caught Chameleons are treated brutally during the importation process. The worst thing that is done is that they are not given any water for days at a time. Many of them, after they are safely living in a new captive home suddenly die from kidney failure that they acquired 6 months to a year earlier during importation. If your Chameleon is wild caught, I would recommend that you find a vet that can give her a blood panel to check for problems. I'm sorry to deliver news like this, I hope I'm wrong but lots of times the only indication you have of serious internal problems are the external eye problems. If something like this is wrong with her, don't blame yourself because there isn't anything you did or could have done for her.

Oh yeah, she is very good at disguising her illnesses, she is after all a Chameleon, the best in the business. Please take her to a vet if you can. You might be able to find a reptile vet at this web site www.arav.com There is also more infomation about vets with what Lele gave you.

Thank you for replting so soon

She did shed about a month ago(maybe less). Hopefully nothing is in her eye from it.

She is, I figured about 10 months, so yes could be ready to lay eggs. I have had a laying site in there for her forr over a week. Maybe she doesnt like it. I will try something new for that.

When I had her at the vet,(where I drove 1/2 hour to get to cause she was supposed to specialize in chameleons)she weighed her and was only 16 grams. I am going to weigh her again to see if she has lost any weight since.

I really don't think she is dehydrated...vet didn't think so either. I do see her drink.....and I give her more than enough oppertunity to drink. Dripper and misting.

I am pretty sure she is cb, thats what they told me at the pet store anyways.

Here are some pictures I have taken about 4 days ago and also today.(hopefully they will work out when I post them)

Ok how do you post am image on this site????.....I have done it before but it won't let me!!
I have posted multiple images once before

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Well I think the easiest way to post photos is to upload them to the kingsnake photo gallery. Then the titles will show up down at the bottom of the page each time you post a message. You can just click on them there. Since she is captive bred, I'll assume I'm completely off base with my previous posts so Lele may be right (she's a pretty smart lady) that she has eggs. That would explain her loss of appetite but not the eye problem. The eye problem could be caused by shed skin. Have you ever put her in a warm shower? That could help her to get rid of anything she has in her eye and also given her a chance to rehydrate the eyes. The first few times in a shower, a lot of Chameleons freak so don't put her in the spray, put her on a plant stand halfway in and halfway out of the spray and let her choose if she wants to go in or not.

You can set up a egg laying site by filling a kitchen trash can with moist Forest Bed. Forest Bed comes in brick form and is available at lots of Pet Stores, it is ground coconut so it won't harm her. Sometimes with infertile eggs, the female will reabsorb the eggs rather then laying them, but this seems to happen less often than her laying the eggs so it might be best to give her the egg laying site.

If you can check the www.arav.com site and see if there might be a vet near you that has experience with reptiles and possibly chameleons. If you find one, give him/her a call and talk to them before taking her in. I know how frustrating an inexperienced vet can be. I took my Iguana to a vet like that and he said he wanted to test her reflexses and he piched her toe with a hemostat, she turned and bit his hand. So I think her reflexes were pretty good.

Also a lot of times green prey will bring a Chameleon out of a hunger strike. It is probably a little early yet, but lots of garden shops have preying manthis eggs in the springtime. Some of these little guys might spark her appetite. Or order some giant hornworms online and feed them to her while they are still small. Good luck. I hope you find out what is wrong with her soon. Valerie.

I have been giving her a few showers here and there.....how often should I do it. I was worried about stressing her out too much.

I also think she might have eggs....but I have put a laying site in her cage. I don't even know if she knows its there.
I have read before that people just set up a big bucket with dirt and put them in there and leave them for a while to see if they start to dig. Is this somthing I sould try??? If so how should I go about it???

Here are some pics...try try again.

Here are a few more....some close ups

I can't think of very many people in Canada that actually keep dilepis chameleons, let alone have successfully breed them. Yours is most likely WC. Don't believe what a pet store tells you as they just want to make money. If there is not a herp vet close to you, at least get a fecal sample to a regular vet to rule out any possible internal parasites.

Looking at your pictures, it looks like a pretty healthy chameleon to me, except for it's left front elbow. Also, are you completely positive it's a female? Have you double checked your husbandry parameters ie: is the basking spot correct, is the humidity correct etc.

I, personally, have not kept dilepis chameleons, but do keep similar species and if I feed them every day, they won't eat. If I feed them the same things every day they won't eat. If I torment them about eating, they won't eat. If I handle them too much, they don't eat. I have learned to feed them different things every other day or every third day. They eat. I'm also a firm believer in NOT handling certain species of chameleons (as some stress really easily), dilepis would be one of those animals.

I know I have not answered your questions, or put your mind at ease, but hopefully I've given you a few different ideas to think about.

Keep us posted.
Cheers!
Trace

Well I will for sure get a fecal sample in asap....when I can get a good one. I think there is one more vet I can try in town.

Her humidity is usually around 50-60 if not more when misting. I am going to give her a couple showers this week and hopefully that will help her eye out.

I have always offered her food every day. I will definatly start offering her food every other day or third day. I have never really thought about that. I have just been really afraid of her starving.

Thanks for the input....I will keep ya updated.

Samantha

Any vet can check a fecal for you, don't need a specialist for that. I agree, she doesn't look too bad to me. I'm not sure about being gravid as I can't see lumpy egg forms under the skin. She does not look underfed or dehydrated either. A really skinny cham will show the muscles in the tail very distinctly and the cross section of the tail will not be a smooth oval. It's normal for them to show some ribs when moving around. I think I would cut back on how often you feed to see if she gets a bit less "picky" and more interested in the foods you do offer. They may be completely unfamiliar to her. Find out what the shop fed her (if you believe them) to see if they did anything differently. She may refuse to feed out of a dish if she's never had one. Also, you can try offering flying prey. Most chams get stimulated to hunt and shoot flies and moths. Also spiders. Privacy, areas to hide, lots of water, and she may be OK.

Sometimes eye problems can be a sign of something else going on...such as respiratory infections. Does it sit with its mouth open at all? (The eye bulging is often something that they do to clean the eye or that they do if the eye is irritating them). Keeping the eye closed is not a good sign.

The left elbow (as Trace) mentioned bothers me too. (It looks slightly swollen.) I'm not a vet, so I can't give you a diagnosis of it....but swollen joints can be caused by bout or infection....so it would be good if you could see a vet that knows about chameleons. (I know you took it to a vet already and nothing was noted as being wrong if I recall.)

BTW, in one of the pictures you posted the tail looks like that of a male....but the angle isn't clear enough to be sure. (I would still leave the container of sand/dirt in the cage in case I'm wrong.)

I wish I could be of more help...but so far, I'm at a loss.