Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I´m new in the chams area, since i´ve got my first veiled a month ago. For a while he´d been OK, but he hasn´t ate in four days, and i´ve found him several times in the cage bottom. Also he looks a bit dehydrated, and thin, and i´ve seen him open his mouth and chake his head, and about three days ago, he regurgitated his food. I´ve benn feeding him with crickets, and worms, i think wax worms, tenebriums is the name here in Chile.
I hope someone can help me, PLEASE

It sounds as if there are several problems. You didn't mention what type (if any) of vitamins and mineral supplements you are giving and how often. Unless your are gutloading your insects very well the food is probably deficient. Tenebrio is the Latin name for mealworms...and they are not a good food item. The chitin (shell) is hard for your cham to digest and they are hard to gutload. Try more soft bodied insects such as houseflies, grubs, moths, roaches. What are you feeding your crix with? If the crix are not fed well the cham is not getting needed nutrients. We need a bit more information to help. What type of lighting do you have? Chams need a daily source of ultraviolet lighting if they are kept indoors. Without this they cannot metabolize vitamins in their food and will develop deficiencies. How do you provide water? If he is dehydrated you need to spend more time spraying and making sure you see him drink every day. What is the air humidity in the cage? If it is below 50% that is too dry.

In the mean time here are some good sources of cham info that may give you ideas. www.adcham.com, www.calumma.com, www.chameleonjournals.com, www.herpnutrition.com, www.geocities.com/ccicenter

Thanks a lot Carlton for your interest. My cham is a male Veiled, from about a year old, as i was told in the petstore. The vitamins i used, are a spray for the food, that you should use before the feeding. It´s name is "Carnivore Vitamin Spray", from ESU Raptile. I was feeding the crickets with carrots and apple, as i read in some pages on the internet. The water system is a waterbomb that pumps it to the top, where it drips down. The heating system is a special red bulb that gives heat. I also have the cage with a ficus. The problem is that i bought him about 20 days ago, so i´m starting to wander if he came with some illnes or stomach infection, because in the cage that he was, there were one or two other chams that looked sick, though he looked in perfect conditions, and i´ve even handled him, and he didn´t showed any sign of pillnes or problems. I´ve also followed every direction that they gave me in the petstore.
Well, i hope that there is some way that you can help me.
Thank you once again, Chelo

In my opinion they gave you very bad directions. First of all you need a wire or screen cage approx 2ft x 2ft x 4ft tall.
You need a heat or basking site heated by a (preferably white)
light. I just use a clear bulb. The basking site should be near the top (a branch you aim the light at) You now need to MEASURE the temp it gets with the light on. For a Veiled it should be around 95F. You need a good combo thermometer/humidity guage. It should have a probe to measure heat, attach it to the basking site. The other part should measure temp/humidity, put it lower in the cage. Lower should be about 75F - 80F
The humidity should be at 60% - 80% for a Veiled.
You should supplement with a good vitamin once a week ( I use Herptivite powder sprinkled on the crickets) The spray is not good enough for chams in my opinion.
You need to feed the crickets a good quality gutload or food
www.cricketfood.com has one that is good for crickets that will be fed to chameleons. I also feed the crickets varied greens and vegetables and oranges are important too for vitamin C I use Kale, Chollards, Mustard greens, Turnip greens, carrots, cabbage.
Variety is important. The chameleon also needs Calcium powder with D3 sprinkled on the food once or twice a week. I use Rep-cal
with D3
Water should be provided by spraying at least twice a day (a pump spray bottle is good) Or a dripper system where drops of water fall on the leaves. You can put a plastic tub under to catch the extra. A waterfall can hold bacteria and make them sick.
The water needs to be fresh and clean daily.
When spraying you should spray with warm water for several minutes at a time. You can sprinkle some on his mouth and face and after a few minutes you will see him swallowing. Continue spraying untill he stops. He may tip the head way back and stop the swallowing motion when he has had enough. Many of them will not drink from a waterfall and have to be sprayed or they will dehydrate and die.
Carlton will have a lot of help for you also he is very good with chameleons and will have good ideas.
Please continue reading and researching them on your own. There is a lot to learn about them. Sometimes pet stores are not the best place to learn how to care for them. You are better off here. I only interrupted because, Yo hablo espanol. No lo escribo tan bien como lo hablo pero si necesitas yo voy a tratar.
Sonia

A couple of additional tips...don't put any type of heat bulb over the cage at night. Chams need a 10-15 degree drop in temp at night (if your room doesn't get below 60 you won't need anything). Chams also have full color vision and any lights on at night will keep it awake resulting in extreme stress. Also remember that most lights marketed for "full spectrum" don't emit much of any UVB that your cham needs. Don't believe the box. There are a few brands that do what they claim...and I bet your pet shop doesn't carry them. Look for a ReptiSun 5.0 or a mercury vapor, Dragonlite, Active UVHeat, etc.

Hi Carlton and anson, unfortunately, my Cham passed the way last week. The day he died, he was trying to puke, he turned black, and a yellow spot appeared in his belly. I took him to the vet, but they paid much attention, and I couldn´t do nothing to save him. Thanks for all your help and tips , see ya