Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a meller chameleon (Eddie) of unknown age, he is an adult though.I have had him for about 4 months and he is my first chameleon. Over the past three weeks his appetite has gone from eating some where between 12 to 18 crickets a day to none. He has also lost two toe nails, they turn black and then fall off. He is fixing to lose another, I noticed it today. He is still green with pale green stripes except now he has areas of gray on his head. I can't tell if it is from shedding or not because he is shedding in patchs. His activity level has also decreased slightly. He is not moving around his cage as much. He is also not as quick to leave his cage as he used to be. He not nose rubbing. Oh and he is still very responcive to his enviornment. If anyone can help me I would GREATLY appriciate it.

hey
how many different feeder insects do you give to your cham??if you are just giving him crickets,he'll eat normally for awhile until he gets bored with the crickets and doesn't respond to them..also,how long has he not been moving around too much??chams will tend to be really active for a period of time,then it will seem like they settle down and just perch for awhile..what kind of cage do you have??what kind of branches do you have??does he climb the screen??alot of chams loose their toe nails when climbing on the screen too much..what do you mean by hes not as quick to leave his cage as he used to be??chams that try to get out of their cage is normally a sign of something being wrong with their cage setup..to me,it doesn't sound like there is a major problem besides the toe nails falling off(his grip will weaken if he doesn't have all his toe nails) and might be why he isn't moving around as much..just keep watching him and if he continues to not eat,take him to the vet..my chams favorite feeder insect is phoenix worms,if you only have crickets i suggest getting some of those and silkworms..the more feeder insects,the better..sorry this post is really long,hope its helps though
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Jonny Blaze
1.0 Nosy Be Panther
s136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/jonnyblaze_04/?sc=3

Eddie is in a screened cage roughly 3 feet tall, 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep that sits on a desk in front of a window with some oak limbs (that I soaked in a dilute bleach solution and then soaked in a to kill any bugs that were living in them)that reach nearly to the ceiling. He used to the moment that you opened the door he would head up to the tallest point of his limbs where he would hang out nearly all day.
All of this started 3 weeks ago, except the nails. His cage used to be lower and away from the window and he was not very happy there so he would climb on the screen and rub his nose quite a bit.
I have fed almost only crickets although today I bought him some other stuff to see if that would make him happy. One thing that I just thought of, I bought some calcium powder to put on the crickets he was not pleased with that at all. He did not touch any of the crickets that I put that powder on after the first one and it was after that that his appetite hit rock bottom.
Thank you so much for responding I am really worried about him. I have gotten pretty attached to him and I want to do whatever i can to ensure his good health.

hey
is he able to see outside??since you have his cage close to the window,i bet he wishes he was outside..i'd suggest maybe putting a towel on the side where the window is for most of the time,unless you open the window and give him some real sun light..how often do you use the supplements??do you just use calcium??because i use miner-all type 0,herpavite,and rep-cal..i use each of them 2 times a week and none on sunday..alot of people use supplements differently,and use it less often,but i would suggest you go to www.chameleonsonly.com and read about some basic caresheets to see whats best for mellers,they might not have meller caresheets,but they do own mellers..i really suggest you buy him more kinds of feeder insects..i buy mine from mulberryfarms.com,they run a really good business and always have the feeders in tip top shape..you should definitly buy some phoenix worms,because if you haven't being using calcium supplements,he could develop metabolic bone disease eventually which would make him barely be able to move around..phoenix worms are probably the highest in calcium then any other feeder insect(they are also used for picky eatters and sick chameleons since they wiggle around soo much)..also,order some butterworms,or silkworms,or hornworms,or superworms,or roaches...you really need to be able to give him a variety of different insects to keep him happy and in good health..hope this helps,and make sure to check out those websites..i can definitly understand how attached you must already be to him,i've owned mine for about 6 months and i love him just as much as when i first got him and some!!!just keep a eye on him
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Jonny Blaze
1.0 Nosy Be Panther
s136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/jonnyblaze_04/?sc=3

I suggest you get in touch with these people...
http://www.lucasfrancisstudio.com/animal_art/my_chameleons/my_chameleons.html

There is a melleri-specific forum on Yahoo! you should check in with. But, a few things right off the bat:

Melleri often go through a "honeymoon period" when they eat everything and are very active. But, once the stress and privation of their capture, shipping, and poor care catch up with them they tend to go downhill fast. You are seeing the delayed effects of all this stress, and he's (no way to know the sex for certain) losing the ability to hide his problems that have been there all along. The cage is much too small (he's damaged his feet and snout trying to get out). If his TOES are turning black he has infections resulting from the torn claws that may need oral antibiotics to treat. If only the claw or the broken off surface is damaged you can prevent a spreading infection with Polysporin or a "triple antibiotic" ointment. There may not be enough plant cover so he is stressed by being visible all the time. I would not put a melleri in anything smaller than a 6'x6'x6' enclosure, and I would just fill it with large plants. He's probably dehydrated too, and you are seeing the patchy shed. Dehydrated chams don't have much appetite either. If you are coating the crix with a heavy layer of calcium it probably tastes terrible. I've had chams who would not eat crix with visible calcium dust on them. One little trick is to put the crix in a bag or box that has a layer of dust in the bottom. Don't shake them, but press gently down on the crix's back to get dust stuck to their underside. If this is a mostly grown adult cham, you don't need to dust with calcium every day. Once a week is fine as long as you are gutloading your crix well. Commercial gutloads are mostly useless. There are one or two on the market or you can make your own. There is a recipe on the ADCHAM website. One on the market that is well balanced is the gutload from Rock Solid Herpetology (they use the formulas developed by Susan Donoghue of WalkAbout Farms...they are excellent). Melleri prefer large prey, and the soft bodied insects like silkworms, tomato hornworms (cultured, not picked off a tomato plant!), roaches are good choices. Dehydrated melleri can take weeks to regain their electrolyte and fluid balance. Daily showers, lots of long, gentle hand sprayings (not a couple of minutes, but 15-20 minutes at a time), raising the air humidity of the cage with misters or ultrasonic humidifiers all help. Check out The Melleri Discovery website and I think you'll see what else you should do. Good luck!

Sorry, the name of the company that sells good dusts and gutloads is Rock Solid Herpetoculture. Their products as well as the cricket food sold by Cricketfood.com are ones I have used.