Back leg grabbing

ERKleRose said:
Definitely fogger only at night, increase in how long each misting session goes for (like 5 minutes or longer if needed), don’t increase the amount of misting sessions you do, and add tons more live plants to help raise and stabilize the humidity
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Thanks for the advice, ill tweak the sessions so they are longer and use the fogger only at night.
 
kinyonga said:
Any chameleons I've seen/heard/read about with gout hang their legs off the branches....they don't grasp their own legs with their feet. Can anyone show me an article etc that talks about chameleons grabbing their own legs that had gout?
With calcium imbalances, the muscles and bones weaken in such a way that the chameleon can't control where the leg is going and they end up grasping their own legs.
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Just relaying info on what the vet said, this is all very new to me. He is going back next friday to re-do blood work to check on the uric acid levels again to check for fluctuations. They still are not 100% sure on what is causing it. The only thing blood work showed that wasn't normal was uric acid levels, calcium and phosphorus were good. Still waiting on fecal sample results
 
Dgood said:
Update:
I ended up taking mr little in to c.s.u. today because I found him on the bottom of his cage, must have fell from the top which is about 4-5ft drop. Obviously I was concerned and took him to make sure no fall damage. They said he's damn healthy. Calcium/phosphorus levels were good and x rays showed no signs of any damage from the fall, and no mbd as well. All organs were functioning properly, the only thing that was not right was his uric acid levels, they were slightly elevated. They said this was the oldest captive chameleon c.s.u has seen 😃. Makes me damn proud of the little guy. As for the leg grabbing, sounds like at this point they thought it was the beginning stages of gout due to elevated uric acid levels. He is in a smaller temporary cage for now so there is no risk of falling. He will go back next Friday to do blood work again and check on uric acid levels again. Gotta love when your heart drops when you see your beloved buddy laying on the ground and not moving. Uggghhhh
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Congratulations- on some great husbandry! This is the goal for us all... to provide the best possible captive care!
 
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Dgood said:
Just relaying info on what the vet said, this is all very new to me. He is going back next friday to re-do blood work to check on the uric acid levels again to check for fluctuations. They still are not 100% sure on what is causing it. The only thing blood work showed that wasn't normal was uric acid levels, calcium and phosphorus were good. Still waiting on fecal sample results
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Please let us know what the vet prescribed for gout?
 
I have two older chameleons and they slow down, they do better when it’s warmer but not over 85 so I put them in smaller enclosures as they move around less and it’s important they can Bask when they need to. Also Do not overfeed plump it’s not a sign of healthy it’s easy to do because it’s fun to feed them, but he will do much better at a normal weight in a smaller enclosure as their grip is not as strong when they age and may fall.
 
Dgood said:
I certainly will, I'm very curious my self. C.s.u is just about the best in the world, if anyone will have answers I would think it would be them.
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cherries for the feeders do make such a difference, black cherry juice concentrate I rub a drop on the feeders for the calcium powder to stick!!! also.... dry, or frozen cherries as well fed to the feeders as well other vitamin C fruits like broccoli and citrus. and mist plants close to him one more time a day. this will make a difference!!!!
 
cham girl said:
cherries for the feeders do make such a difference, black cherry juice concentrate I rub a drop on the feeders for the calcium powder to stick!!! also.... dry, or frozen cherries as well fed to the feeders as well other vitamin C fruits like broccoli and citrus. and mist plants close to him one more time a day. this will make a difference!!!!
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I do put blackberries in the gut load, never thought of a little juice on the crickets. His misting session are changed to 4-5 minute sessions. This has helped alot, humidity has been great. I'll do some research for myself on the cherry juice since that is new to me.
 
cham girl said:
I have two older chameleons and they slow down, they do better when it’s warmer but not over 85 so I put them in smaller enclosures as they move around less and it’s important they can Bask when they need to. Also Do not overfeed plump it’s not a sign of healthy it’s easy to do because it’s fun to feed them, but he will do much better at a normal weight in a smaller enclosure as their grip is not as strong when they age and may fall.
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How old are your chams? And what are thier feeding schedules? What kind of enclosure are they in?
 
Dgood said:
I do put blackberries in the gut load, never thought of a little juice on the crickets. His misting session are changed to 4-5 minute sessions. This has helped alot, humidity has been great. I'll do some research for myself on the cherry juice since that is new to me.
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Great ! And 7 years is impressive you have done well😌
Dgood said:
How old are your chams? And what are thier feeding schedules? What kind of enclosure are they in?
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I have mine indoors right now as we are getting colder temperatures if it is above 60° they go outside in their 5ft x 5ft enclosures I grow mulberry trees for my silk worms and it makes great hiding places for all my chams. And also hibiscus which they eat. I rotate different flowering fruit trees in pots as it attracts a lot of insects and is a great way to provide variety that I can’t buy in the store The only chameleons in cages are my six and seven-year-old males that have to be separated from my four girls who free range in my 8 ft x 6ft bay windows I posted some pictures I will post again
 
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Dgood said:
How old are your chams? And what are thier feeding schedules? What kind of enclosure are they in?
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I raise silkworms Black soldier Fly four different types of roaches As well as I feed egg from my own chickens and beef liver organic grown Once a month. mine are MBD chameleons so they eat out of my hand whether it’s a live bug or not since I hand fed them when they were First brought here on the way to recovery. I feed a lot of the supplements to my feeders as it’s harder to get a old guy to eat a bug coated in dust but I still dust with Bee pollen and calcium often but I dip it in cherry juice so it sticks The older guy came to me and couldn’t walk his gout was so bad and it has helped tremendously so I feed it to all of them as a preventative.
 
cham girl said:
I raise silkworms Black soldier Fly four different types of roaches As well as I feed egg from my own chickens and beef liver organic grown Once a month. mine are MBD chameleons so they eat out of my hand whether it’s a live bug or not since I hand fed them when they were First brought here on the way to recovery. I feed a lot of the supplements to my feeders as it’s harder to get a old guy to eat a bug coated in dust but I still dust with Bee pollen and calcium often but I dip it in cherry juice so it sticks The older guy came to me and couldn’t walk his gout was so bad and it has helped tremendously so I feed it to all of them as a preventative.
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Wow that's great! Where do you get your bee pollen from, I have heard too that it's good to dust with that as well as calcium. Do you ever sell any of your feeders? I know there are lots of places out there that do just curious. How small of an enclosure is your old man in? Also for the cherry juice, do you just buy organic cherrys and smoosh out a little juice on the feeders?
 
Also thank you for saying that, I wished they lived longer. I have 2 male Panthers, mr little is the one in subject and mr big is his uncle. His hatch date was may 13th of 2013 so he is almost 8! He is still in his big enclosure, never has a problem getting around and I swear he probably crawls a half mile through his cage during the day. I'll post a pic of him sometime tonight
 
For those still interested about mr littles diagnosis, he went back to c.s.u. today as planned. He hasn't shown much signs of improved strength, but did blood work again and uric acid levels were normal which rules out gout. Everything was normal, calcium and phosphorus were good. No signs of renal failure, no signs of mbd. Fecal sample was normal, no paracites.They didn't find anything other then a possible case of periodontal disease. No mouth rot, that was visible. C.s.u does not have a diagnosis at this point still. He will be on antibiotics once every 9 days for the next month or 2 that is administered by a needle. They do not believe it is due to old age given all vital organs are functioning properly. Arrgghhhh these little guys are tricky. Please keep mr little in your prayers, he is doing alright right now, we can just only hope at this point the antibiotics do thier job.
 
Glad it isn't gout...but I didn't think it was anyhow. It's very hard to treat gout in chameleons.

thanks for the update.
 
Dgood said:
Wow that's great! Where do you get your bee pollen from, I have heard too that it's good to dust with that as well as calcium. Do you ever sell any of your feeders? I know there are lots of places out there that do just curious. How small of an enclosure is your old man in? Also for the cherry juice, do you just buy organic cherrys and smoosh out a little juice on the feeders?
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I buy cherry juice concentrate at Publix it’s organic and I also am addicted to the frozen organic cherries at the grocery store that I eat too, I put a small table in the bottom of the cage with a few plants in pots on top of that that he hides behind he prefers to hide and sleep standing or laying on the shelf in there then to hang on branches all night and it cuts the cage in half so instead of being a 4 foot tall it’s only 2 feet they like to be much warmer when they’re older but I still have him cool down at night and I do you still take him out side whenever it rains because he’s not very aggressive about finding the water droplets he’s lazy but it’s great because whenever you move them and they gape their mouth you pop a roach or a piece of egg or food in there so he basically gets fed every time I move him he’s so spoiled😌
 
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