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Q:
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Veiled Chameleon Loses Appetite...A Concern?
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My Veiled Chameleon was doing just fine, but in the last two weeks, its appetite has seemed to drop off. It typically would eat 6-7 crickets a sitting, or 5-6 superworms, but recently, it has completely rejected any crickets offered, and is only eating 2-3 superworms at a time. It hasn't stopped eating, but I had noticed the patterned, and wondered if I should be concerned. I have changed heat, lighting, or humidity patterns, and has not observed any signs of sickness or unusual behavior (sunken or closed eyes, gaping, etc.). The only thing that I wondered about having an affect on it was that it recently went through a shed. I didn't know if that ever affected their appetite. Should I be worried, or is this something that may pass?
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Points:
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100
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Administrative:
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Author Comment
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5/16/2012 9:13:50 PM
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AdamWalker04
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Also, I have been dusting with calcium/herpativite a few times a week, which is my normal routine.
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Assisted Answer
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5/16/2012 10:57:09 PM
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MdngtRain
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check to see if he didn't injur his tongue... This happened to my veiled after he was bitten by a superworm. He slwed and eventually stopped eating. Then his tongue became quite useless. I had to resort to hand-feeding soft-bodies worms... Also, I wouldn't do the Ca (straight, no D3) more then 2 times a week, and the herpavite on a different night once a week. If I remember correctly (it's been a few years since I've had chams), they can get whacked out on their vitamin regimen pretty easily. Also, check your lights, how old are they? Flourescent UVB needs to be changed every 3-4 months. MVB can go 6 months to a year... Has the heat gone up with the increased ambient heat of the warmer months? Even if you don't change the parameters, mother nature changes things up as the summer approaches, making it more hot & humid. I don't recall shed making any difference. The only ther thing I can think of is that he is tired of the same old thing... can you get your hands on some other types of feeders to change things up? I used to cycle silkworms (a fav of many of my chams), crix, roaches, hornworms, cultured flies, and the occasional carefully selected wild-caught moth. Also, what are your settings? What's the hot spot, the ambient temp? the ambient humidity? what's his cage like? what's the photo-period? do you offer full-spectrum lighting?
Good luck. Hope he is just tired of his current offerings.
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Author Comment
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5/17/2012 8:38:06 AM
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AdamWalker04
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I just recently replaced my UVB bulb. And also, I hadn't taken into account the seasonal change causing a significant change in my change. Humidity typically stays around 65%. I had wondered if he possibly grown tired of the same old routine, so if this continues, I may go get some silk worms. I don't remember the exact dimensions of his cage. I want to say 2'x3'x4'. His cage is completely free flow, and the lights (and basking spot) are on the top, to allow a nice temperature gradient from the top to bottom of the cage. The photo-period is about 14-16 hours of daylight. I really appreciate all of the recommendations. I will take all of this into consideration. I will probably try changing the "menu" up first if this continues.
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Member Comment
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5/17/2012 9:28:06 AM
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aaron
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Moving to answers... and please follow up, this is an interesting one.
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Author Comment
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5/17/2012 11:47:14 AM
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AdamWalker04
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I meant to say I haven't changed heat, light, or humidity patterns.
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Assisted Answer
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5/17/2012 1:28:45 PM
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Jamejamec
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Is your Veiled a girl or boy? If its a girl it may have slowed down on eating because she is gravid and will lay eggs soon, so you will have to set up an egg laying box for her. How old is it? Once they reach a certain age they stop eating as much as they did as babies. Since the weather is warmer you will really have to watch the temp in the cage, on hotter days its a good idea to turn the heat light (UVA) off. Also make sure to mist the veiled more frequently then normal or it will become deyhdrated, you don't want to wait for its eyes to become sunken in then thats a sign its badly deydrated. Loss of appitite may also mean its stressed out. If you don't already have it in a screen cage, that could also be a reason. The diet you are feeding it sounds fine as long as you make sure to gutload your crickets and mealworms before feeding them to your cham. If you start to give it silk worms all the time it might completely stop eating crickets and super worms, use silk worms only as a treat once every few weeks. I would recommend placing a small leaf of romane lettuce,collard greens, or mustard greens on a branch in the cage for it to eat; at first it may ignore it since you haven't been feeding it greens since birth but eventually it will come around to nibbling on it. Veileds are omnivores by nature thats why you have to put only non toxic plants in their enclosure.
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Author Comment
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5/18/2012 8:40:56 AM
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AdamWalker04
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Its a male, and I was using baby food for a few weeks, and it never really touched it, so I quit using it. I may try reintroducing it. I don't think its an adult yet, so I dont know if it would slow its eating. Its only around 8 months old. Thanks for the input, I was already thinking about the baby food, so I may try that.
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Assisted Answer
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5/18/2012 5:21:03 PM
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MdngtRain
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Adam, I'm confused... baby food? The only time I ever heard of using baby food with chams was with a severely malnourished cham that wouldn't eat on it's own, and then it was used with syrynge feeding... JameJameC was talking about placing leaves of greens around the cage. I used non-toxic plants to suplement their diets, Hibiscus plants, that they would munch on occasionally.
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Assisted Answer
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5/18/2012 6:11:16 PM
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Jamejamec
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MdngtRain is correct, I did not mean to put baby food in the cage, thats usually only used to feed certain geckos with. If he has developed his pattern and is showing his colors more frequently then that means he is closer to adulthood, how mature he is all depends on how fast he is growing. Males can start breeding starting at 8 months to a year if not earlier sometimes.
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Author Comment
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5/19/2012 3:04:15 PM
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AdamWalker04
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I actually have placed greens around his cage before, but he typically wouldn't touch that either. He wasn't too fond of the baby food either, but took to it better than the greens (which seems strange, because the baby food I used was just extremely diced greens). I had never heard of it either, but the breeder that I got him from told me about it. I fed it organic also to make sure it wasn't too processed. However, he seems to be regaining his appetite, and all I did was modify his feeding patterns. I typically place all of the food in his food bowl (so, 5 to 6 superworms). I changed it to where I do two feedings of 3 superworms, and he seems to be eating all of it each time now. I occasionally let his food free-roam in his cage so he can "hunt", but dont like to do it often because I worry about crickets or superworms injuring him, especially at night (I try to get all uneaten food out at night, but have missed some before.
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Assisted Answer
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5/20/2012 12:18:34 PM
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Karma Chameleon
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baby food..um if he hasn't eating in 2 days..pry his mouth open and put ca+ dipped crickets..it is not unusual to have to hand feed your chameleon at some point in its life..keep track of how many crickets it is eating..you may have to feed 2 to 3 x a day..depending on how much he wants to eat at a time..if he is not using his tongue..try buying sum vitamin A capsles and puting a drop on 1 cricket for 3 days..then stop..too much vit A will kill the liver..make sure that animal is hydrated..
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Assisted Answer
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5/20/2012 12:20:58 PM
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Karma Chameleon
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also make sure you are gut loading crickets at least six hours before you feed..and 3 mealworms a day is not enough..6 in a setting at first.....PLEASE stop the baby food..please..
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Accepted Answer
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5/20/2012 12:35:51 PM
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Karma Chameleon
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Different Ways to Feed and Administer Ca+ to a Chameleon
Introduction
There are several different ways to feed and your chameleon. Chameleons are insectivores and enjoy a wide variety of insects. You should be able to purchase these insects from your local pet store. Chameleons can become bored with the same type of insect on a daily bases. It is important to provide a variety of different insects each feeding. It is vital that these insects are properly gut loaded with food that provide your chameleon with the nutrition that it needs. Offering an adult chameleon food 3 to 4 times a week keeps them interested in eating. Sometimes if food is offered too much, the chameleon will become bored and not eat.
Types of Insects
Hissing/other various tropical cockroaches
Hornworms
Wingless fruit flies/house flies
Meal worms
Superworms
Preying mantises
Silk worms
Slugs
Stick insects
Waxworms (No nutritional value)
-waxworms can be used as a treat for your chameleon
Gut loading insects
Gut loading simply means feeding your insects nutritious foods, so that the nutrition gets passed on to your chameleon. The widest possible variety of fruits and vegetables are the best gut load for your chameleon. There is a gut load that is already made and can be purchased at your local pet store. These products are convenient but expensive. You can also feed them such things as broccoli (great source of calcium), banana peels, tropical fish flakes, leafy greens (romaine, mustard greens, kale, collard greens), squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, oranges, apples, baby rice cereal, wheat germ, prepackaged reptile foods, dry cat food, etc.. Crickets should be feed at least 5-6 hrs before chameleons feedings.
Feeding
One way to feed your chameleon is by using a plastic cup. You can hold the cup up to the chameleon and let it eat out of the cup or you can secure the cup somewhere the lizard will be able to eat out of it. When securing the cup to the habitat. You may want to put a little bit of a vegetable or fruit in the bottom of the cup for the feeder insects to thrive on, if there a long time. Place the number of gut loaded insects you feel that your chameleon will eat. When using crickets you may not want to put a lot in the cup at one time. They will jump out. After place insects in the cup, you will want to dust them with calcium D3. This will help the chameleon achieve proper calcium for bone growth. Then offer to the chameleon or attach to the habitat. This way allows you to keep track of the number of gut loaded insects and track the amount of calcium your chameleon is getting.
Another way of feeding your chameleon is to free range the crickets. This means to let the crickets roam free in your reptile habitat and allow the chameleon to hunt more. When feeding this way remember to gut load and dust your insects with calcium before putting them in the habitat. This is a good way to give your chameleon a chance to increase activity, sharpen alertness response, and provides natural hunting opportunities. The down side of free ranging your crickets is it’s a lot harder to track how many crickets are being eaten at one time and how much calcium the chameleon actually consumed with the cricket.
The last way to feed your chameleon, is to simply hold the insect between your fingers and allow your chameleon to take it. I personally like this method. I dip each individual gut loaded cricket in my calcium powder before offering it to my chameleon. I usually only dip my gut loaded crickets due to the fact they seem to hold the calcium powder the best. I give my gut loaded worms with out powder. I prefer this method because it is easy to keep track of how many insects your chameleon eats a day. Also, by using my fingers it seems less calcium falls off of them. Allowing me to have a better idea of about how much calcium my chameleon is taking in.
Guidelines
-Superworms can be gut loaded in the same container as crickets. Waxworms must be kept in a separate container when gut loading because other insects WILL eat them. Also remember to return your wax worms to the refrigerator so they don’t turn into moths.
-A good thing to remember is to rotate what kinds of veggies and fruits you are feeding your insects. This will help your chameleon to a better variety of nutrition.
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Member Comment
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5/24/2013 12:42:10 PM
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Member Comment
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6/7/2013 10:53:33 AM
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Cenobite
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This question has had no activity for 14 days and will be closed by an administrator unless the original poster takes action. Recommended Action: Points awarded An administrator will select responses and assign points at their discretion. Original poster, please close this question out and assign points. If you have any further information in the resolution of your problem, please post it here so that others may learn from it.
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