Female panther has weak grip

[Chachi]

Tom, when she was on floor of her cage, was she digging? They will try to dig even on a towel. Their instincts are to dig, so they do. I have only had 1 cham that has laid eggs but she did it 3 times. The 4th time I changed her laying bin and she would not lay them.But, the 2 things that i know is that
1. She will look like a sack of marbles, not just be rounder. 2. She will stop eating. If she continues to eat, she isnt ready. My Cita was gravid w bumps. She started to dig around Thanksgiving and she was still eating and trying to decide what she was going to do mid January! Their matabolisim is slow slow. They are making eggs out of calcium and they pull it from everywhere.

 

[Thomaskoch]

I always let her access a bin with some dirt in it, to monitor if she starts digging. If she starts digging, I have a egg-laying cage that she will be moved to. It is essentially a large palstic bin with soil at the bottom, and very little visibility so she is undisturbed. However, she has not starting digging and is still eating like a pig But her front legs/arms are still so weak that she can practically not use them for anything. Her hind legs and tail are quite strong.

Here are 3 pics that I took this morning. She is on her basking spot, I move here there, and she is capable of holding on herself. But not capable of climbing up there on her own, since her front legs are useless...

 

[brownie64]

From those pics I can't see any MBD. I would take her to a vet don't know for sure what is wrong, but I would guess it's something to do with a calcium deficiency. I know when dogs are pregnant, and loose to much calcium they get preeclampsia which causes them to loose all control of their legs, and without a calcium injection they can die. Not trying to compare apples to oranges here just saying it's something that needs a vet attention IMO. Hope everything works out for you

 

[Thomaskoch]

Yes, she was at the vet and was diagnosed calcium defeciency. What do you mean, should she go to the vet again?

 

[brownie64]

No if the vet has taken care of the situation I would say she should be okay. My bad should have checked the whole thread I didn't realize she had already been seen. Here is hoping for a fast recovery.

P.S. This crap happens a lot at my age, especially this late at night time to put the PC away, and go to bed.

 

[Thomaskoch]

Hehe, thanks anyway
She is slightly recovering, but its going very slow with her front legs.

 

[Andee]

It tends to go slow with chameleons, just keep plodding away. Hopefully she will be 100% or close to when it comes time to lay.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Hehe, thanks anyway
She is slightly recovering, but its going very slow with her front legs.

I notice from your pictures that she has pretty mangled feet. She won't be able to grip without toes and claws especially for branches as large and smooth as all yours appear to be. For her to grip anything with no claws, she needs smaller branches--more the size of a pencil--so she can wrap her whole palm around them.

She might be in a lot of pain from her mangled toes.

You mentioned that the vet diagnosed her with a calcium deficiency. What are you doing to treat it? Any calcium deficiency needs to be treated aggressively, especially with a female.

 

[Nursemaia]

Warning: I would not feed flies or spider ever again. Flies can carry pest aside without dying and many spiders even if harmless to us like daddy long legs can be poisonous to charms.

I agree I wouldn't feed wild caught flies or spiders but daddy long legs are not spiders, only 1 body segment, and it's a myth that they are poisonous to humans

 

[Thomaskoch]

jajeanpierre, Well noticed. She is missing some nails/toes, which is odd since she is not WC. Not sure how it has happened, but there are no signs that she is in pain. She also has very long nails, so it appears that she has not been that active for quite a while.

As I wrote, she gets calcium and D3 orally, now once daily.

I am beginning to suspect that she is not pregnant afterall. No "marbles" to see, and sometimes she is not big at all.

 

[Thomaskoch]

Jajeanpierre, I followed your advice and gave her a lot of smaller sticks - makes a huge difference. As seen in the pics, I went berserk with sticks, but it was so well worth it! She is climbing around a lot easier, and this night she was not sleeping on the floor for the first time since I got her! Big thanks for the advice! My luck to have such experienced keepers helping out here on the forum.

 

[jajeanpierre]

jajeanpierre, Well noticed. She is missing some nails/toes, which is odd since she is not WC. Not sure how it has happened, but there are no signs that she is in pain. She also has very long nails, so it appears that she has not been that active for quite a while.

As I wrote, she gets calcium and D3 orally, now once daily.

I am beginning to suspect that she is not pregnant afterall. No "marbles" to see, and sometimes she is not big at all.

I am so glad it was such a simple fix.

They damage their nails on the screens. I have a few wild caughts imported with horribly mangled nails and toes but that is not the norm. Usually a wild caught is imported with wonderfully long perfect nails. In the wild their nails are quite long. They need good nails to climb.

Most chameleons and especially baby chameleons climb the screen often hanging off the ceiling under the lights. As little tiny babies, the screen is easy for them to grab with their whole hand and a good part of their tail. As they grow, they are not able to wrap their hands through the screen and get a good grip, using just their claws yet still are climbing the screen. The bigger they get, the more often they lose their grip, ripping out or wearing down their nails on the screen, which makes it harder for them to hold on so they fall and rip more nails out.... It's a vicious cycle until most chameleon in screen cages have not toes nails at all. Try to set up your cage so they don't climb the screen to get where they want to go. A bigger enclosure also helps reduce the screen climbing since they aren't so restless trying to escape a too small enclosure.

Hopefully the panther experts can weigh in about whether or not her colors indicate she is gravid but she looks pretty round to me.

 

[carol5208]

Have the vet xray for eggs and then for sure you will know what you are or not dealing with. Why the vitamin D drops??

 

[Thomaskoch]

From what I have read, I am assuming that the D3 is for her to easier absorb the calcium that she is getting. Some days she is quite slim, and later that same day she can be completely bloated. So I don't think that she has eggs actually, can't see any marbles either. If I present her to the male, there is zero response whatsoever! Neither from the male or the female. My guess is that their instincts have gotten screwed up by being kept together, and now it takes a while before they are back to normal. (I am not very scientific, I have just seen this before...)