Ok, I know, stupid name for a post. I didn't know what to put. Well here is my news... Orion hasn't layed yet BUT yesterday marked four weeks, so I think she was just digging for the heck of it before. She is back to basking and being lazy. I was getting REALLY worried though, because she was still not eating much and only had about one superworm every few days. She was getting really thing in the spine, tail, neck, and legs. She is also getting ready for a shed, so her skin has the pre-shed chalky splotchy look. I was freaking out. I don't know WHY I didn't think of this before, but I decided to give her bug juice. I put some med sized crix in a little cup (like you can get take out sauce in at a restaurant - we have a ton of them lying around) and chopped them up with a plastic spoon (yes, gross, but I had no fun last time cleaning my blender lol). Then I put in half a spoon of sweet potato baby food, half a spoon of pedialite, and a few drops of liquid calcium.
Now, HERE is the trick! I didn't want to stress her out by force feeding her, so I took HOT water and sprayed her till she started to drink. Then I held an eye dropper over her head, and dropped the liquid onto her lips, and she drank it down! She ate three eyedroppers full!!! I'M SO HAPPY!!! I'm going to do this every day, plus give her a superworm a day. At least this way she hopefully won't get plugged up eating just superworms, and it'll keep her hydrated.
Well, that's my story! A small victory in my world! 
~Lindsay
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Happy happy happy
Replies (2)
Lindsay-
Can you see the shape of eggs protruding from her body? I am a little concerned about force feeding a gravid female. You don't want her to produce more eggs then she can handle, and you don't want her to die from not eating. females will cut back on food intake drastically in the last few weeks before laying eggs. So I guess what I am getting at is just be careful and do not over do it. Hope this helps!
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John W. Lucas
Feeding Baby Chameleons
Caging Baby Chameleons
F. pardalis
Ambilobe Locale
Nosy Be Locale
Sambava Locale
Rhampholeon uluguruensis
Eggs Incubating-
F. pardalis - Ambilobe Locale
Photo © Chameleon Paradise 2003
Thanks for your response...
I made the liquid pretty watered down. It's mostly pedialite. I'll add a little bit of water to it too today. She had stopped eating for about eight days, and was digging and stuff. But, then she went back to basking, and she came at me one day when I opened her cage with a STARVED look on her face. I offered her some superworms and she ate two or three. She has been looking a little weak that last few days, and her tail is getting really scrawny. Her belly is fat but I can't see/feel any eggs yet. You're right... I can't overfeed her, or underfeed her. It's a tricky balance. If she makes too many eggs there are problems, and if she is too weak to lay them there are more problems. Also, I was thinking that maybe they are just not ready yet b/c she hasn't eaten a lot. How many crix/silkies/etc a day would a gravid female normally eat? She looked a lot better yesterday after eating some of the juice. The day before she was just basking with her head resting on a branch. She looked depressed kind of... I might just cut it back to one eyedropperful. that, and I can give her a mealie first to see if she is even interested in eating that day.
She is driving me nuts! lol. She did drink the juice down pretty readily though. She sat there with her nose up and gulped it down for about 15 min (one drop at a time... my arm almost fell off! lol).
