Apple Butter

[leetsauce09]

First time posting here, so I'll give a bit of information before I actually ask my real question:
I have a female veiled, about 5 months old. She was about 3 months when I purchased her (from a pet store, unfortunately). I researched a bit about them, and have owned countless reptiles in the past, so I figured I'd be okay. Talked the the person working in reptiles, he suggested some products to me, and I looked over them. She was housed in an 18X18X24 glass zoo med terrarium for the first two months I owned her, but I recently built her a much larger all-screen cage that has vines and live plants like I've seen from many cham owners on this site.
Now for my problem: I was using the repti-sun 5.0 uvb "coiled" bulb. Little did I know about its sketchy history. I first started noticing her eye problems about a week ago, and looked on the forums to see that the light was most likely the cause. I replaced it about three days ago, and while her eyes are getting better, she can still barely open them. I've been force-feeding/watering her for the past few days because she can't see to hunt. I've been giving her gut-loaded mealworms and watered-down kale as well as getting a bit of water into her with an eyedropper. She is also getting calcium.
I was wondering if it was okay to feed chams apple butter in small amounts? I looked on the forums here and didn't see any mention of it at all. I figured since she's not eating as much as she would be if she were hunting her food herself, she could use the extra vitamins and fat, but wasn't sure if it was safe.
The soonest vet appointment available was Friday, so she's going for a check-up as well as to see if there's anything truly wrong with her eyes other than the light source. Just figured I'd see what other cham owners had to say, though.

Sorry bout the wall of text...just worried about my girl =(

 

[sandrachameleon]

Sorry to hear this. Removing the light was a good step - cant hurt and might very well be the source of the problem. Other things that seem to cause eye issues include lack of certain vitamins. But it sounds like you probably understand gutloading, so thats perhaps less likely than the lighting. Infections and similar are also possible causes. Hopefully the vet will help determine the problem and how to resolve.

You might use something other than mealworms to feed her in the short term (mealworms being not the really best choice of foods).

what is apple butter?

 

[leetsauce09]

Thanks for the response.
I thought about the vitamins as well, but I follow pretty much the same schedule as most people here-calcium each feeding, d3 bi-monthly, and reptivite once monthly. She definitely has a strong grip and good looking structure, because I was worried about MBD as well, though I don't think that affects the eyes at all.
I wish I could use something other than mealworms at the moment, but the only pet store within an hour of me is sold out of the size of crickets she needs, and she DOES not like super worms at all. That's all they have there other than mealies. I've also tried ordering hornworms, crickets, phoenix worms, and silkies off of different websites, but none of them recognize my address for some reason, so none of those are possible at the moment. Any other suggestions would be fantastic and much appreciated.

And apple butter is kind of like applesauce, but has certain spices in it apparently. The stuff I had was homemade so it didn't have the ingredients listed, but the spices probably aren't a good idea so I'll scratch that.

This situation is horrible for her, but I appreciate any comments/suggestions anyone has.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Pedialyte or soft pear, along with the mealworms (and crickets when those are available again) might be helpful.

Weird about your address being unrecognized. Where do you live? maybe there is someone in your area who could help out with other feeders. Maybe you could have some shipped to a friend elsewhere in your town? not that this is important right now.

Best of luck to you!

 

[leetsauce09]

Alright, I'll give that a shot. Thanks.
I live in the middle of nowhere in PA. Rarely does a website recognize my address to have something shipped.

Thanks a ton for the suggestion, I really appreciate it, and I'm sure Emmy will too

 

[kinyonga]

You could give her a little baby food such as squash or yams or carrot for a while, but it would be good if you could get her to eat some insects. Have you tried giving her an insect by putting it between her teeth when her mouth is opening when she's drinking?

 

[serenitystarlite]

I live in the middle of nowhere in PA.

I live in PA too, whereabouts are you? I'm in Pittsburgh

 

[OOOst16]

i purchased my male vield chameleon (whos now in perfect health)from a petstore....i purchased him because of there bad conditions...they had him in a glass cage with no ventilation ....a waterbowl and NOTHING TO CLIMP ON! my god it was bad...he was litlery made to walk on the ground....christ i was pissed so i bought him and fixed his DEHYDRATION ISSSUES! im just saying this because i was recently at a big national chain pet store....that is a mart...*cough*...and they had one in a glass cage with waterbowl...and SMALL chunky substrate...it was a baby femal about 1 month bearly....eyes sunken in ....and burn marks....my god i was so sad...i couldnt afford to buy her though ...i talked to the manager...about what to fix... and about bitched him out i walked out in furry ...but atleast she did have a NON coil uvb and she did get misted....but still rediculas. i hope you eye problems get beter...i made the same mistake about the coils....(the pet store workers said to get it...that shows how unnolligible petstores are on chams) i had the coil for about 3 weeks...then replaced it after i read it on this forum...my male has had no eye issues and is nice and cozy with a good tube

 

[laurie]

Alright, I'll give that a shot. Thanks.
I live in the middle of nowhere in PA. Rarely does a website recognize my address to have something shipped.

Thanks a ton for the suggestion, I really appreciate it, and I'm sure Emmy will too

Try calling instead of oedering on the web. LLL reptile, or Mulberry Farms, both sponsors of this website, will ship feeders to you.

 

[leetsauce09]

I live in PA too, whereabouts are you? I'm in Pittsburgh

I'm about a 45-60 minute drive outside of State College. Farm country

And @ OOOst16: The pet store I purchased her from doesn't sound quite that bad, but after doing more research after I purchased her, they are definitely sub-par. It's really discouraging that they can sell chameleons at all, considering how much care chameleons need. I am glad that I was able to buy her though, because even though she is my first chameleon, I do feel that I am at least giving her a better life than she would have in a 5 gallon glass aquarium that pulls out like a drawer maybe twice a day for feeding and misting.

Like someone before said in another thread: No amount of reading can ever prepare you for your first chameleon. So true that is. It's a learning process, at least for me.

 

[leetsauce09]

Try calling instead of oedering on the web. LLL reptile, or Mulberry Farms, both sponsors of this website, will ship feeders to you.

I checked out Mulberry Farms' website, and they are able to ship to my place. Definitely going to be ordering from them once I recover from the horrendous trashing my wallet took this week.