Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all I just wanted to share with you a very educational and sad story. I have had my baby male veiled for about 6 months now and he has been doing fine until a week ago. He hasn't grown very much but he ate regualrly and drank a lot too. About 1 week ago he lost his energy and didn't climb anymore, he would just sleep on the carpet on the bottom. He would also sleep 24 hours a day and when i tpook him out he would still be sleeping in my hand. It took about 5 minutes to wake him up. He woulnt walk very much anymore either so i made sure to give him the proper food and i sprayed the cage more but h just continued to sleep. So last nite I decided to take him out before bed to see how he was feelingand he just opened his eyes a tiny bit and went back to sleep in my hand. I put him back in and I woke up this morning only to fidn him dead ont he floor. He was very skinny and cold and I am unsure why he died but I want to make this clear. I LEARNED THE LESSON THAT TAKIGN CARE OF CHAMELEONS IS MUCH, MUCH HARDER THAN TAKING CARE OF GECKOS OR SALAMANDERS. THEY REQUIRE A LOT MORE ATTENTIONA ND CARE SO IF YOU DONT HAVE THE TIME THAN DONT GET STARTED. I would hate the see another baby go through the same episode that mine did.

Thansk you for reading my chameleon's sad story.

R.I.P.-Sabastien

I'm just wondering why you didn't do something a week ago when you first noticed his dramatic change in behavior. Perhaps it was something that could have been treated had it been treated a week ago.
>>Hi all I just wanted to share with you a very educational and sad story. I have had my baby male veiled for about 6 months now and he has been doing fine until a week ago. He hasn't grown very much but he ate regualrly and drank a lot too. About 1 week ago he lost his energy and didn't climb anymore, he would just sleep on the carpet on the bottom. He would also sleep 24 hours a day and when i tpook him out he would still be sleeping in my hand. It took about 5 minutes to wake him up. He woulnt walk very much anymore either so i made sure to give him the proper food and i sprayed the cage more but h just continued to sleep. So last nite I decided to take him out before bed to see how he was feelingand he just opened his eyes a tiny bit and went back to sleep in my hand. I put him back in and I woke up this morning only to fidn him dead ont he floor. He was very skinny and cold and I am unsure why he died but I want to make this clear. I LEARNED THE LESSON THAT TAKIGN CARE OF CHAMELEONS IS MUCH, MUCH HARDER THAN TAKING CARE OF GECKOS OR SALAMANDERS. THEY REQUIRE A LOT MORE ATTENTIONA ND CARE SO IF YOU DONT HAVE THE TIME THAN DONT GET STARTED. I would hate the see another baby go through the same episode that mine did.
>>
>>Thansk you for reading my chameleon's sad story.
>>
>>R.I.P.-Sabastien
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

>>I'm just wondering why you didn't do something a week ago when you first noticed his dramatic change in behavior. Perhaps it was something that could have been treated had it been treated a week ago.
Just wanted to add that, I'm sorry for your loss, and if nothing else, it illustrates the importance of vet visits.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

I am very sorry ot hear about this and I do have to agree with Victor regarding getting help sooner. But I also applaud you for owning up to any errors on your part - many folks would just say I was doing everything right, I don't know why he died!

Anyway, I am sorry and hope that others read this and take heed. We have quite a variety of people on this forum - in age, experience, financial limitations, etc.- and ALL must understand what they are committing to when purchasing a chameleon.

Thanks your for sharing and your candor in doing so...

lele

>>Hi all I just wanted to share with you a very educational and sad story. I have had my baby male veiled for about 6 months now and he has been doing fine until a week ago. He hasn't grown very much but he ate regualrly and drank a lot too. About 1 week ago he lost his energy and didn't climb anymore, he would just sleep on the carpet on the bottom. He would also sleep 24 hours a day and when i tpook him out he would still be sleeping in my hand. It took about 5 minutes to wake him up. He woulnt walk very much anymore either so i made sure to give him the proper food and i sprayed the cage more but h just continued to sleep. So last nite I decided to take him out before bed to see how he was feelingand he just opened his eyes a tiny bit and went back to sleep in my hand. I put him back in and I woke up this morning only to fidn him dead ont he floor. He was very skinny and cold and I am unsure why he died but I want to make this clear. I LEARNED THE LESSON THAT TAKIGN CARE OF CHAMELEONS IS MUCH, MUCH HARDER THAN TAKING CARE OF GECKOS OR SALAMANDERS. THEY REQUIRE A LOT MORE ATTENTIONA ND CARE SO IF YOU DONT HAVE THE TIME THAN DONT GET STARTED. I would hate the see another baby go through the same episode that mine did.
>>
>>Thansk you for reading my chameleon's sad story.
>>
>>R.I.P.-Sabastien

I am very sorry for your loss. I am glad that you shared it with all of us, we can all learn from it. I too had no idea how much work chams were untill after I got Orion. She was sick when I got her, and I spent a lot of tim and $ unexpectedly. They are different than other pets. I would compare them more to a child than another animal, just in that they have such picky food and shelter needs, and are so suseptible to getting sick.
Thankyou for your story! It really is true when you hear people say how hard it is to look after chams. Veilds are the hardiest of them, and even THEY are a ton of work.
~Lindsay

I think that most people who participate in raising chameleon experience loss at some point. Unfortunatly, it is part of the learning curve.

This forum is a wonderful tool to help less experienced cham-keepers get better at caring for chameleons. Its a heartbreaking experience that one should do anything to avoid. There are people, everyday, that enter into this world not knowing the dedication, money and time that it takes to do things correctly.

There shouldn't be one person who leaves the pet store thinking they purchased a PET. I put a lot of the responsibility on the sellers to sell the correct information with the pet. You can only do so much, but there is a ton of people sentencing young chameleons to die because of their ignorance.

Joe