Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm a new Cham hobbyist.I've recently purchased a healthy 2 month old Panther Chameleon. I've housed it in a well ventilated n heated spacious cage with lots of branches. It has been drinking and climbing around the enclosure actively during the day. The only problem that it's not eating any of the bite sized crickets or mealworms i've left in the feeding cup and a few free roaming ones. It has been alomst a week now since i've seen him eat or pooped. Please advise me before it's too late. U can alternatively reach me at stymie23@yahoo.com

Chameleons can take a few days to settle in to a new cage....but I would have expected that after a week it would be eating. Are you sure it hasn't eaten any of the free-roaming crickets?

What are the temperatures in the cage (hottest, coolest)? Chameleons need the appropriate temperatures to be able to digest their food. (I never use mealworms for young chameleons because I worry about them being very chitinous and possibly causing a blockage.)

Do you have a substrate in the cage? Some substrates can cause impaction if ingested.

If you describe the details of the husbandry, I can try to tell you what is okay and what needs changing.

Here are some sites that have good information about chameleons...
http://adcham.com/html/taxonomy/species/fpardalis.html
http://adcham.com/
http://www.chameleonnews.com/
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/skintests.htm#discussion

I thank u for your speedy response Kinyonga. I'm in a tropical country where the temperature ranges from 25-35 degrees celcius. I'm not entirely sure that my cham has not been eating the free roaming crix, except by spotting the excretion he makes. Since my last message, I've spotted only a tiny yellowish puddle of poop. Is that normal? He is housed in a 31cmx42cmx72cm 3 sided wire meshed cage with a acrylic door, n is placed by the open window. No subtrates are used. To keep humidity up, I mist his enclosure 3-4 times a day. I also leave the Zoo Med 40W basking Spot Lamp on from 10am-5 pm. He seems fairly healthy with his eyes constantly searching and stays put where the Spot Lamp is. However, the visible lack of appetite is worrying me bad. Also there is the concern that because he doesn't eat much, or at all for that mater, i'm not sure how to administer the calcium n vitamins so necessary for a young's diet. Please advise.

You're welcome for the response.

Are the crickets you are feeding the chameleon from the wild or do you buy them from a store? How big are they? If they are too big they would be hard for the chameleon to eat and also it would need less than normal. They should be a size that would fit comfortably into its mouth. Also...if you are using wild crickets and they are the black ones (I don't know what the wild ones are like in your country), they are harder to digest and might lead to an impaction.

You said..."Since my last message, I've spotted only a tiny yellowish puddle of poop"...that doesn't sound good. Healthy looking defecation should contain a brown feces that looks like a small sausage and a white part that is the urates. Depending on how much water it drinks, there can be a clear liquid too (kind of like half-cooled jelly). Sometimes the white part can have a yellow/orange tint to it.

You said the cage is placed by the open window....does the chameleon get sunlight shining on it at all?

You said..."I also leave the Zoo Med 40W basking Spot Lamp on from 10am-5 pm"...I've never used that bulb....but that doesn't mean that its not a good one. I just can't give an opinion of it. All my cages have Repti-sun 5.0 UVB tube lights, a normal florescent bulb and a normal incandescent bulb for a basking light to bring the temperatures up to what they should be. (I live in Canada...so I have to do different things than you would to keep the cages warm, etc.

You said.."He seems fairly healthy with his eyes constantly searching and stays put where the Spot Lamp is"...do you have air conditioning? Its good to hear that he is keeping his eyes open and moving them around...but his lack of appetite is bothering me too.....but I'm waiting to hear what size of crickets you are feeding him.

You said..."there is the concern that because he doesn't eat much, or at all for that mater, i'm not sure how to administer the calcium n vitamins so necessary for a young's diet. Please advise"...I understand.

I have to leave this post for now, but I will come back later today (if possible) and try to give you more information.

The crix I buy are American crickets from Chameleon Products, ironically, my cham doesn't seem to be too huge on them. I've tried to get smaller ones 0.5-1 cm, but those they sell here are pretty standard, about 0.5-1.5 cm, the largest being those huge ones with wings n chirp all night long. So wat I've done is to sieve out the smaller ones n put them in the enclosure. I do not on the air-con for fear of affecting my cham. My cage is beside the window, it is birhg there but no direct sunlight shines in. I understand wat u mean by the sausage like poop, they're prolly the digested crix. However, I'm wondering if the yellowish puddle be the meal worms i leave inside as well. Anyway, it's Day 8, he still climbs around like a monkey, minus the appetite.I understand how tough it must be for someone on the other end to even think of the possible reasons for an animal's ailment. I thank u once again Kinyonga. If u do think of anything, do update me.

I'm not good at converting cm to inches....but I think the length of the smaller crickets is fine. (We use cm here in Canada but we didn't convert to metric until I had already been used to inches.)

Do you gutload the crickets? What they eat can make a difference to the taste of them IMHO so it wouldn't surprise me a change in their diet could help his appetite.

You said..."I do not on the air-con for fear of affecting my cham"..I don't have airconditioning in the whole house (just the bedrooms) because of the reptiles...but I have heard of many people who do and it seems to be okay.

You said...My cage is beside the window, it is birhg there but no direct sunlight shines in"...I think he needs some direct sun or UVB from a light even though young panther's skin transmits more UVB than older ones' skins do.

The following site says this about UVB for Juvenile Panther Chameleons..."Skin from several baby panthers were tested and UVB transmission was found to be around 50%, and a sample from a sub-adult male transmitted 42%. These readings are significantly higher than for the adults tested. A number of reasons for this difference are suggested below:

1. Fig. 15: baby panther chameleons hide in bushes
Body size / overall skin thickness.
A panther’s skin is thinner when a baby than as an adult.
However when comparing skin thickness and UV transmission across species, both Oustalet’s and Parson's skin are thicker than panthers and yet both allow more UV through. Therefore it seems likely this extra transmission is for reasons other than, or at least not limited to, body size.

2. Requirements for Growth.
Baby chameleons are fast growing and the demands of laying enough calcium down for strong bones means their D3 requirements and therefore their UVB requirements are higher than those of adults.

3. Basking Preferences. At times of higher D3 requirements (e.g. gravid female) adults increase the time they spend basking, and the resulting additional UVB exposure facilitates higher vitamin D3 photobiosynthesis. Unfortunately basking in the wild carries a cost, namely, exposure to predators. (It’s also worth mentioning that basking reptiles tend to bask longer and have slightly higher body temperatures in captivity than in the wild, possibly because the threat of predation is removed.)
The dangers of predation for a baby chameleon would be higher than for an adult. In fact it would seem so much more dangerous that baby chameleons inhabit a different area from the adults. The wild Jackson’s chameleons from the back garden of Mary Lovin in Hawaii 52 illustrate this point well. Adult Jackson’s tend to inhabit the middle to top of the trees and bushes. The babies spend their time closer to the ground in more sheltered low-level bushes.
The babies by habit and habitat are not exposed to the same levels of direct sunlight as the adults. It seems possible that the higher UVB transmission in the babies’ skin would compensate for the more sheltered environment, where there is less UVB light, and also for the babies’ higher demand for vitamin D3.
In captivity, we should consider the extra UVB requirements that a baby may have compared to the adult. However, sufficient UV shelter (generally provided by live plants) and a UV gradient must be provided to allow for proper self-regulation of exposure."
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/skintests.htm

You said..."I understand wat u mean by the sausage like poop, they're prolly the digested crix. However, I'm wondering if the yellowish puddle be the meal worms i leave inside as well"..there should be something that looks like poop even if he is only eating mealworms as long as he is digesting them. If they weren't well-digested you should see bits of the insects in there but it might not appear "whole" (like a sausage) though. Yellowness to the urate part can mean imbalance in the vitamins he's getting or it can have to do with dehydration...but its usually more hard and solid if its from that. Again...just from my experience.

You said..."I understand how tough it must be for someone on the other end to even think of the possible reasons for an animal's ailment"...I'm not a vet and whatever I tell you comes from my own experience or reading or talking to others...so some things I have a good idea of how to solve and others I don't. The fact that we live in different climates makes it more difficult because different care is needed in different countries. My chameleons will need less water here in a cooler climate than yours will, so its hard to determine if yours are well enough hydrated, for example. Not seeing a photo of the animal, in some cases (like if it might have MBD) makes a difference too.

Its bothering me that your chameleon is that young and doesn't have a good appetite...and rather than see you just give him vitamins and calcium orally (like you asked about in a previous post), I think the reason for his lack of appetite needs to be figured out. I think it should go to a vet to find out what's going on. Chameleons often hide the fact that something is wrong until its too late.

Pharmacies sell a liquid calcium for humans (Calcium Sandoz} that you could use to give him calcium, but care needs to be taken not to overdo it. I only use it in cases of MBD to get the calcium levels back up. Your chameleon still needs enough UVB to be able to produce the D3 he needs to be able to use the calcium....and I still think you need to find out why he's not eating.

Keep in touch please.

Hey Kinyonga, I've got great news, my little cham's behaviour seems to have reached normalcy. He's been eating the crix I gut loaded. His poop seems to have become more solidified as well, as compared to the past 2 weeks. It's been 14 days since he's joined my family, and right now as I type, it's almost 12 pm in the afternoon, and he's having a tan under the basking light with his body slanted to one side like a leave, prolly to heat up his sides. However, despite the good news, I wonder if it's normal for him to keep his eyes closed whenever he's under the lights. Also, are Chams known to not respond with alertness when they're disturbed at night? Cuz mine juz sleeps right thru anything, even when I fiddle around with his enclosure. U've been a great help Kinyonga, I'm glad I've stumbled upon this excellent website.