We've had our veiled chameleon for 2+ years now - thriving, growing and doing just great. We noticed his appetite decreased and today his eyes look sunken in and he won't eat at all. His grip is ok, color good but he's so complacent that he even allows us to touch him (which is definately NOT normal). Reading different sites, he sounds dehydrated but we are trying to figure out A) what to do ASAP and B) what perhaps caused this change?

(we did move him to a differnt location recently as we are remodeling, perhaps too much traffic)....but would that cause him to stop eating, drinking?

Any advice is VERY appreciated, he hasn't eaten for a week but the behavior is even more suspicious.

Thanks!

Chameleons are stressed out very easy, if you moved him where there is mre traffic AND THEN he stopped eating I would think to move him to a quiet place, if things do not pick up soon I would definately call a vet, the sunken eyes are very worrisome, I know chameleons have a hard time recovering from dehydration without it causing kidney problems.

I agree I would return him to a more quiet area or at least curtain off his area for more privacy. The fact that this started after the move is a pretty good indicator that it is connected.
As a second thought, in your remodeling, did you use anything that may have had any sort of toxic or irritating fumes?

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Thanks to you all, I wish I had found this forum earlier. Google passed away the next day. We feel horrible as we probably killed him with the stress of moving. We were so paranoid about stress, lighting, diet, humidity for 2+ years and got complacent since he was thriving for so long. He must have stopped drinking since we moved him and we didn't notice he was dehydrated until it was too late. The sunken eyes started only 32-24 hrs before he died, does that sound normal? Our local reptile shop agreed with your opinions, but also said it could have been bone disease (although why would he thrive for 2 yrs on the same diet and lighting)?

We are very sad and we feel very guilty. He was an amazing creature and we won't be replacing him anytime soon - we should stick to dogs and cats :-( who sleep on our beds and "communicate" when they don't feel ok

this is an awesome forum, invaluable!

I'm sorry to hear this!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I am so sorry to hear that! On another note I noticed you said that he had the same lighting for two years? If that is the case the uvb lights need to be replaced every 6 to 12 months as they, depending on the light.

Once again I am so sorry!

Hello,

I am also sorry for your loss.

I want to make a few comments based off of this post though. perhaps they will help other people who are experiencing the same situation you just experienced.

Any time there is a dramatic change (even subtle changes sometimes), you will likely be stressing out the reptile. In this case, the dehydration issue could have been addressed in various ways. The first being the enclosure itself. A drip system would have helped to keep the humidity up. "Showers" would also help to keep the cham hydrated. Of course, daily water intake is always the most optimal solution.

UV lighting decays over time. Each light decays at a different rate and each type of UV lighting lets off different levels of UV. Flourescent tubes neede replacing every 6 months to keep pushing adequate UV. If you go longer than 6 months, even though they say a year, you are dropping below the "useable" UV level.

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I hate When I hear things like this. I have a veiled.

But don't give up on keeping these types of animals. Live and learn.

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Git'er Done!