Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has his eating resumed? I just wanted an update since I knew you were growing concerned. Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon

Hehe, thats why i love this forum, everyone is in everyone elses corner.

well, good and bad. I saw him eat a single cricket yesterday, but not his normal amount of feasting. He still isnt eating alot. He is just as active as he always is. He is just as friendly as always, he crawled up my arm and sat on mh shoulder for a bit today. i actually had a hard time getting him back in his cage. He doesnt look like he is loosing any weight, but he is definatly not eating still. Still pooping everywhere, but not eating as much

I put some strawberries in there for him to eat as lele suggested. I also increased my watering by adding more dripp more often. The other say someone on the forum, i forget whom, asked me if there were any environmental changes... well... ill list them.

increase in heat outside means he is in an air conditioned room for the first time in his life.

increase in light. His lights go on and off at 13 hours, but the ambient light in the house is increaing

new diet. I have changed the gutt load for the crickets recently.

change is water quality. The place i was getting reverse osmosis water stopped carrying it, so he had to deal with a couple of weeks of tap water.

all these things happened at the same time and they alll happened about the same time as he stopped eating.

Any suggestions........?

Thanks fopr the concern,
Jeff

I am probably the least watchful of ANYONE who owns a chameleon. I range feed and watch for urates and fecal material and if they are present I am satisfied. I have always figured that reptiles will have variances in their food intake and that environment, time of year and age will play a part in it. You HAVE made a few changes which may negatively impact him temporarily. I would hazard a guess that temeperature and water changes would be the most significant. I use a water filter on my tap water and try very hard to keep my home at less than a 5 degree temperature diference from winter to summer. This helps to keep my herps and their enclosures from varying as much. I do find, however, that I have to change out the wattage on my incandescent bulbs in several of my enclosures to compensate for warmer weather-even with air conditioning. As long as his excrements continue and his behavior continues normally, I don't think I would do anything except keep a close eye on him. (And YOU keeping a close eye on him is like ME keeping an EAGLE EYE on him.) Keep us posted. DM
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon

You said..."increase in heat outside means he is in an air conditioned room for the first time in his life"...he's not in a place where he gets air blowing on him or is near the vent in any way, is he? Has his cage temperature remained warm enough? Digestion rates slow with temperature decreases.

You said..."change is water quality. The place i was getting reverse osmosis water stopped carrying it, so he had to deal with a couple of weeks of tap water"...I always use tap water that has been left out overnight to water my chameleons with. The only time tap water could be a problem is if your town puts certain additives in it. I thought about using reverse osmosis water, but it has no minerals in it so I decided against it. There's quite a bit of calcium in tap water.

Hope you get it solved!

I dont think its the water either causing this. I have to buy clear water for my Carniverous plants anyway, so i was using it for charlie too just in case there was something bad. The temperatures are not that different, the difference is in the humidity, which drops with the ac on. I dont have him near a vent.

I was really really worried before, im a little less now. I figure as long as he is still pooing on a regular basis and there is nothing wrong with it than he must be eating something.

Diane, what kind of setup do you have? I was thinking about doing this for Charlie and getting a female to put in his old cage or maybe putting a female in a free range thing.

Thanks everyone,
Jeff

You said..."I dont think its the water either causing this. I have to buy clear water for my Carniverous plants anyway, so i was using it for charlie too just in case there was something bad"...I hope you didn't think I thought the water was doing it...I was just commenting on my reasons for not using RO water. Sorry if I mislead you.

You said..."The temperatures are not that different, the difference is in the humidity, which drops with the ac on. I dont have him near a vent"...if you water him well, it should help make up for the decreased humidity.

You said..."I figure as long as he is still pooing on a regular basis and there is nothing wrong with it than he must be eating something"....so true!.

The thing is, it might be the water. We have nasty water around here. Eh, probobly not. If anything it is most likely a combination of all the stuff i listed.

I have tried to increase humidity. I dont use a mister, but i do use a dripper, and i mist a few times a day. I try not to do it to much because charlie HATES it. even when i heat the water he does not like mist anywhere near him, even if it doesnt touch him. I tried to heat the water, but it still stresses him out bad.

If he stops pooping ill really start to worry. I think he might be filling up on the umbrella plant and ignoring the bugs. Or maybe.... i dont know....

Thanks,
Jeff

My set-up is probably similar to everyone else's. Really not much variance since they are so "needy" and once everyone finds something that works they all use it. LOL The only thing that I carried over from my water dragon habitat is using an ultrasonic humidifier for extra moisture. I pipe the ultrasonic mist into both chameleon enclosures from 1 Walgreen's humidifier for an hour several times daily. My timers are set so that the humdifier kicks on when the automated mister has finished it's last blast. (1 minute of misting, 1 minute off-4 times in succession) every 3 hours. Then humidifier comes on for 1 hour and then the set-up dries for 2 hours and the cycle repeats. This covers the 12 hours that I have incandescent lighting on. At night everything goes off. Just to be sure the little beasties are getting adequate hydration, I also use a dripper containing 16 oz. of water each a.m. This drips onto my plants. Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon

I think i might wait until i am ready for a female. Charlie is extreamly mobile. About mid-day he goes from basking mode into explore mode, which means he explores every part of his cage again and again. I try not to go into his cage at this point, because the first thing he does is crawl up my shoulder and explore my hair or go running around the room. Afetr about a half hour of this i can return him to his cage. If i try to before the half hour is up he refuses to get off my hand. A free range setup for charles would see him getting into things i wouldnt want him into. If i find him a mate that is a little less energetic i will try the free range. I just dont think i am brave enough to try it with charlie... i would like to be.... but im not )

Jeff

Hey guys, i just thought of something.

Talking to diane about free ranging made me think of something... is maybe the cage getting too small for him, esspecially if he is a "roamer?"

The cage is 30x30x18

jeff

Jeff: My chams are free-range FED. Meaning I gutload the food and then turn it loose in the cage, so I'm never sure exactly how much they eat. I do plan to set-up a free roam area in my home when my grandchildren get older. i think your cage size is excellent. Chyam is much bigger than Charlie and his cage is smaller. Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon