are captive bred chameleons born with worms

[jvillereptile]

i work at a pet shop in a indoor flea market and a new pet shop just moved into the market. i started talking to the owner and he says he has 60 pairs of senegals chameleon. when i told him i raise chameleon and told him that i have breed and hatched veiled he asked me if i dewormed my chameleon. he insist that all captive breed chameleons are born with worms and that is the #1 cause of death in newborn chameleons. is this true or false. i just want to clear thing up

 

[Will Hayward]

The #1 Cause of death would be improper care, not any parasites.

Secondly, not all parasites are hamrful. Bearded dragons have parasites even when CB, though the quantity is incredibly low compared to that of WC (Though Bearded dragons are NOT WC ever). It would do more harm to treat them.

Not many parasites are transfered through eggs, because egg development is so slow, any parasite that would have been created within the egg would have destroyed anything forming inside before it hatches- or even starts to develop.

 

[kinyonga]

Treating parasite eggs can sometimes cause the chameleon's death. When they are killed off, they become "garbage" to the chameleon's system so if the load is heavy the dead bodies overload the system and cause a toxic shock.

 

[jvillereptile]

that is what i thought and he keep telling me they need to be deworm. now with baby jackson is it possible for them to have any parasites if the female is wild caught.

 

[MWheelock]

Deworming

The pet shop owner may be partially right...

Transmission of most worms are Fecal/Oral. There needs to be ingestion of "infected" fecal material for transmission.

Since eggs come out of the Cloacal opening, which contains fecal remenants, the outer shell may be littered with fecal material. When the cham comes out of the shell, there maybe a little bit of this material that is ingested.

So, if mom is infected with worms, there "may" be transmission to the young. However, unless your breeders are carriers (which is unlikely if they have been tested and treated in the past) it is unlikely for this to happen. (Perhaps the pet shop guy is not appropriately testing and deworming "his" breeders.)

Like Will said, 1) it is dangerous to treat very young chams and 2)there are some worms that are commensal and help break down food material in the gut (could be normal flora.)

Well, that's my two cents...

Matthew

 

[MWheelock]

I wasn't paying attention. This is a Jackson. Same theory still applies without the egg thing.

Matthew