Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I came home and found my chameleon rolling around on the ground with his mouth open and he was like dilusional. He couldn't cordinate his feet or his eyes or tail.

He felt alittle warm so i but him under so cool water (just is body not his head) and he sortof came back he was looking around and the swelling in his eyes went away. and when he sat still looked find but if i gently blew on him he would rock hard back and forth and then fall over.

Same thing would happine if i gave him some water with an eye dropper. he also couldn't reach out is arms i could posision him on a branch and he would grabb i but then just sit there a look around or he would rock and fall off.

Setup : 38 gallon reptarium,couple branches, a big potho plant that he never climbed in, a drip system,and 60 watt light bulb and a 0.5 UVB light.
I noticed for the past week he seem tired or somthing becuase he would sit with only his tail under the basking light and his colors would be dark. we would eat and i think he would drink....I saw him a few times but most the times i put water in the drip system and then had to leave again....the system was filled twice aday.

he got about 3 adult crickets a day and a few pillbugs or mealworms if he would eat them.

I had him for about 8 months and now he is gone.

my theory is that the drip system didn't give enough water when he noticed it dripping so each day the lack of enough water grew until the death.

any thoughts i want to get another jax. and thats my only theory.

I live in INdiana so the humidity is always above 50%

I am so sorry for yor loss! I don't have a jackson so I don't know what happened but I know its hard to lose an animal.
Sonia

I found out by asking a breeder and vet the my cham was possioned. I gave him slugs and that started his sit still thing and slowly killed him!!!

I am so sorry that this happened to you, and him! There was a recent discussion on this forum about collected insects to feed the chams. Some people choose to do it, but being a horticulturist and knowing that pesticides don't stay put, so even if you don't use them they are easily transported by insects (and people go to great chemical measures to rid their garden of slugs!). I know this is of little consolation now, but something to consider for any sort of insect in the future.

lele

I found out by asking a breeder and vet the my cham was possioned. I gave him slugs and that started his sit still thing and slowly killed him!!!

nm

The current issue of Wings: Invertebrate Conservation from the Xerces Society is all about slugs. I will see if there is any mention of this.

However, my guess is that it is not the slug but parasites in the slug that then attacked the cham. If they are parasites that the cham has never been exposed to the response time may be quicker than with others. Just my thought and will let you know if I find out more.

If anyone is interested in Slugs here is the article:

Living in a World of Tastes and Smells

If the slugs happened to get into any slug bait they will carry that toxin with them. They also are immune to many chemical pesticides commonly used in a garden. That's why there are special slug baits. Since slugs feed on the detritus and dying leaves in a garden it's easy for them to pick up these insecticides. That's the down side.

The up side is that if you keep your slugs for several days on good clean foods, such as rich greens, they will clean themselves out and be non-toxic. I've fed very many slugs to my Jackson's over the years with this method without a single loss. Slugs are a favorite food of Jax's

BigT

Big T,
Interesting about your feeding them often. What about the parasite issue? (obviously you haven't had a problem there either , but is that not a concern for you? I certainly lean toward not feeding my T or my chams wild caught food, but I guess I haven't fully made up my mind yet when I read info from experienced breeders like yourself. Still learning

lele
....
>>The up side is that if you keep your slugs for several days on good clean foods, such as rich greens, they will clean themselves out and be non-toxic. I've fed very many slugs to my Jackson's over the years with this method without a single loss. Slugs are a favorite food of Jax's
>>
>>BigT

After gettign an abcess lanced, and having about two weeks of baytril, and some antiseptic cream in the wound, he started doing the same thing, exactly the same thing as you described. At first, I thought it was an OD on the baytril, but the concentrations were different...wierd.