Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My girl just swallowed a big mouthful of sand and she is moving around really slow. She can hardly hang on to her branches. Will the sand do anything bad to her? Help!

She is also not eating. Even mealworms which are her fav.

How did she manage to swallow a big mouthful of sand?

Some sands will pass right through them but some of them can cause impaction. I have no way of telling you which is which.

Are you sure that's all that happened? It sounds kind of strange that this would make her react this way.

I don't feed any of my chameleons mealworms...I worry about them being too hard to digest and causing impaction. Don't know if they do or don't...just don't want to risk it.

Hope she will be okay.

I was setting her in her nesting box because she was on the bottom of her cage looking around. But when I set her in she went a little limp and kind of fell onto the sand with her mouth open and bit onto it taking a lot of sand. Now see is in her cage and she looks ok but for some reason she is hanging upside down, which is odd for her.

It also looks like she dose not know what to do with herself because she is not really grabing branches when she reaches for them with her hind legs.

Something seems really wrong!

I would get her to the vets ASAP....it doesn't sound good....but I don't think its from the sand since you said she went kind of limp before she ended up in the sand.

You haven't given quite enough info...how old is she? What signs did you have that she was gravid besides just "on the bottom of her cage looking around"?
From what you describe, there was something already wrong before you put her in the laying box.
She could be very deydrated, she could be suffering from MBD...both would cause behavior you are describing.
More info relative to your setup, hydration schedule, diet & supplements, lighting, cage, etc. might be helpful.

Ouch...doesn't sound good. Have you seen a vet? If not, I would definately say that it is time. Unfortunately with chams (and most animals) they tend to "mask" their problems before symptoms manifest. This is an inherited safety factor...ie, only the strongest survive. Usually by the time these symptoms do surface...something is really wrong.

I don't want to dampen your hopes....so if a vet can find a cause, perhaps things will turn around. Remember also, it takes a long time to surface, and a long time to get better.

Please keep us posted. Good luck---alot of us have been in this same situation.

Kris
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2.1 Black Labs Tucker, Raider and Lacey
1.0 Lepoard Gecko Kumar (Another lost pet RIP and party on with Harold!)
2.0 Horses Smoothie and Rocky
1.0 Husbands (he puts up with me)
1.2 Kids-Trevor (congrats c/o 2006), Logan and Rylie
1.1 Ferrets Tank and Ellie (The fun fuzzies)
1.1 Veiled Chams Squiggy and Pudge (may she RIP)
0.1 Snowflake Cornsnake Lucky

I just found her on the bottom of her cage on her side and I thought she was dead but when I looked at her eye she opened it and look at me. She lokks like she wants to bite me but dose not have enough energy to.

Sorry about the info.

She is a year old and has not been breed yet and has not displayed her gravid colors. I just thought I would set her in the box to see if that is what she was looking for.

I have trained her to drink out of a little cup of water but I still mist her a couple times a day. I do see her drinking out of the cup.

I give her 6 crickets everyother day and usually a waxmorm on the off days or some apple. I feed the crickets store bought cricket food with calcium. I don't really dust them that much anymore maybe once a week.

And her recent eating and drinking habits? Have you found a vet?
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2.1 Black Labs Tucker, Raider and Lacey
1.0 Lepoard Gecko Kumar (Another lost pet RIP and party on with Harold!)
2.0 Horses Smoothie and Rocky
1.0 Husbands (he puts up with me)
1.2 Kids-Trevor (congrats c/o 2006), Logan and Rylie
1.1 Ferrets Tank and Ellie (The fun fuzzies)
1.1 Veiled Chams Squiggy and Pudge (may she RIP)
0.1 Snowflake Cornsnake Lucky

My girl passed on yesterday before I could find a vet. All the places that would see chameleons where eather short a vet or where totally full.

Thanks for trying to help. I really appreciate it.

I'm so sorry to hear that you lost her. Its hard to see them die especially when you don't know why.