cham is digging grave?

[Lunatic913]

i recently took my cham to the vet because his mbd is starting to come back again so hes back to his daily doses of liquid calcium. he has enough strength to climb and all that but not enough to shoot out his tounge so lately i've been giving him veal baby food..but anyways. these past two days i've found him in the base of the pot digging and somewhat sleeping in a hole when i come home from work. his tempts are correct and sleeps normal on his tree at night. i'm just curious if your guy's chams dig and sleep in the dirt.

 

[chameloman72]

Never had that happen to mine before!!

 

[Brad]

Are you sure you don't have a female? From your description it sounds likes a female that is too weak or stressed to lay her eggs. Male or female, sleeping in the dirt is always a bad thing. What other symptoms or test results led to a rediagnosis of mbd?

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Sure does sound like a female.. can you post a picture?

 

[lele]

I agree...does this vet know chameleons? Has he actually seen her (him)? How old, what species and how long have you had her? If this is a female (and it surely sounds that way) she needs to have a proper nesting site and vet help if she cannot lay. Here's an article on creating a nesting site.
Nesting Site

I cannot see any reason why a male would do this - think it's a girl

 

[Lunatic913]

hes a male, veiled and is about a year and a half old.

 

[kinyonga]

If your chameleon had MBD before and its coming back, then I would suggest you look at your husbandry to see what might be causing it.

Also...the MBD can be corrected quicker by having the vet give injections of calcium over several weeks which should build up the blood calcium followed by a shot of calcitonin which draws the calcium back into the bones rapidly.

 

[Lunatic913]

im giving him liquid calcium every other day...hes doin alot better but now i find him sleepin in the dirt sometimes. he goes to bed at his regular time..which is 10pm. so its not like his sleep cycle is messed up and is stressed...he is a perfect lime green

 

[Cherron]

What signs of MBD does he have? Color isn't always the best indicator of a problem.

MBD is caused almost solely by husbandry mistakes. You may want to post your feeding, lighting, supplementing schedule. It can't hurt and you may learn something new to help with your cham's health!

 

[Lunatic913]

well when he was four months old..thats when he got his mbd...he had a fracture in every limb. he could barely climb. i had him on meds and the slowly recovered..about a year later ..which is now..i noticed him not using his tounge to catch prey. so i took him to the vet and his signs were coming back and to give him more calcium and change his diet...i was jsut feeding him crickets. im starting to put silworms, green goliath worms and crickets o and waxworms as well...i calcium dust his crickets twice a week and i gutload them with dog food. i heard this was a good way of gutloading....i've noticed him improving on his eating habits.

 

[Cherron]

Dog food isn't a good gutload for a chameleon. I posted in the other thread where you asked the same question about it. Go over the vegetable nutrition chart in that thread and the link to the dog food thread. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! Using only dog food as a gutload is probably what is helping to cause the MBD in your chameleon.

 

[Lunatic913]

i'll start using fresh veggies.. thnks

 

[rcagosto]

I agree, dog food is made for a dogs composition. Chameleons and dogs are two different things lol. Gutloading with vegetables and fruit is a way better gutload.

 

[Lunatic913]

i have a hard time keeping crickets alive..i try to buy in bulk but then they die or freeze at night? how do u guys keep your crickets alive...do any of you guys have pics of cricket setups? thnks

 

[jleahl]

Search on the feeding forum and you will find many descriptions on how folks keep their crickets. Buying in bulk is OK if you have a large container to keep them in; if not, don't buy more than 100-250. They need a source of water, warmth, and maintenance food available all the time, and they need some sort of shelter, like egg crate or cardboard tubes. The veggies and fruits can be fed only to the crix you intend to feed the next day, or you can keep them in with your crix all the time. Some crickets will die; they didn't evolve to live in huge herds like we keep them. But with proper care, most of them should be fine (until they meet their fate...muaaaahaaahaaa!).

 

[Lunatic913]

thnks..i'll have to do some research on cricket keeping habits

 

[Brad]

i have a hard time keeping crickets alive..i try to buy in bulk but then they die or freeze at night? how do u guys keep your crickets alive...do any of you guys have pics of cricket setups? thnks

Tyler has some nice photos in this thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/problems-raising-crickets-3296/. I'm sure there are others hidden in the forums.

You may want to read up on cricket husbandry as well. I think there are a couple links to cricket info in the link directory.

Link Directory: Crickets