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I have a graceful chameleon I recently bought and It looked fine at the show but to my utter suprise it was not. I brought it home placed it in its cage its eyes are shut and is very skinny but it doesn`t look sick like the chameleons you see in the chamelon books. Is there any type of appetite or internal appetite stimulute i can buy to get it back on its feet I don`t think its anything I have done wrong but any help would be appericated. (unfourtanly I could`t get a biz card of the guy I bought it off of so if it dies i guess i`ll be sol.

Thanks Adam Bradbury

Most gracefuls are imports and you are seeing the end result of a lot of show and shipping stress, dehydration, and possibly bacterial infections or parasites. The first thing to do is get it re-hydrated. They can't eat, metabolize anything, handle parasite treatment, and will go into kidney failure if they are too dehydrated. You should provide a humid cage with lots of hiding cover. Mist multiple times a day but if the cham can no longer drink on its own you'll need to get some fluids into it. A couple of ways to do this. First try misting it directly with WELL WARMED (not cold) water mixed with Pedialyte (this will give electrolytes and some dextrose) to see if it will start licking the water off its face. Mist gently for as long as it drinks. Usually when the cham is "full" they will tip their head up straight and turn away from the water. Do this as often as you can and make sure the cage isn't dry. Dry air will just de-hydrate it again. If the cham won't drink at all, try tapping it on the snout to see if it will gape at you. If it does, use an eyedropper and try to get some Pedialyte into its mouth. Careful, when they are weak it is easy to get fluid into the lungs. If it won't open its mouth at all, the other way is to get some IV fluid under its skin. A vet can show you how.

Keep the cage private with lots of hiding foliage. Mist it often and hope your cham gets some of its energy back. Once it does you can start offering it food, check for parasites (gracefuls can be loaded), and treat the ones present.

best thing to do is start right away with things you can do now , you know how when you get p o'd you dont feel like eating,chams are the same way , they just dont get over thing as easily, i would start with the assumption it doesnt like its cage , just because it looks cool to you, does not mean it looks cool to a cham , also keep it extra humid until the problem passes, i would do every thing i could to increase humidity ,make sure it has plenty of cham freindly live plantings,cut down on the bright lights, no cham is going to die because it misses a week of light ,and shy chams, are often freaked out by too much light , and dont use cfl's too much light in too concentrated a spot, be sure its hydrated, dehydrated chams often just give up, so get it hydrated even if you have to p it off, and then squirt in its mouth with a spray bottle when it gapes(careful they can drown real easily),and if its not eating, give it less food not more, i have a gravid jacksons thats a super healthy eater, but if i put too much in her dish or use too big of feeders , she just walks too the other side of the cage and stresses, so go with a single feeder, whatever you use, go i/2 size ,if you can get any food or water in it, start reptaid , if you have to you can do the squirt trick with a syringe (no needle) and give it plenty of peace and quite, dont keep it in a tv room,or a high traffic room. and if you dont have the means to do a fecal yourself, then take a sample to the vet , you can get a 400x -usb microscope viewer on ebay for $75, gut load your feeders with prunes (temporarily)in case of impaction, if any of this stuff works you can slowly ramp things back up to normal , if it doesn't ,you need to get to a herp vet or at least micro a fecal yourself ASAP,thats about all i got, so drop me a line and let me know how it is going,