Help - 1st time owner
- Thread starter leafr
- Start date
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
I think spell check did its thing. Do you mean she did or didn’t make it?
She didn’t make it
, the PetShop thinks it was related to the natural Branches and Plants, that they may have had traces of pesticide or something, even if we washed them with vinager, as adviced by them. The last days she stopped drinking and eating, we administrated water with a dropper/pippet and even some fly larvae directly in her mouth, but yesterday we went out and finded her death when we returned.
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
I’m so sorry.She didn’t make it
Thx a lot for all your help, this forum is fantastic. If we give it a chance in the future, we’ve been adviced to start with fake plants and vines from a store. We may probably do as we already have all the equipment and will to have a chameleon, so I’m thinking to dismantle, clean the enclosure and just add the vines and fake plants from a petstore and… once we are sure the chameleon is ok, we could start adding natural plants one by one and see how the chameleon reacts to them. Any advice on this new trial? Should we also change the location of the enclosure? It’s a little frustrating as I’m not certain of what went wrong.I’m so sorry.
By the what, to update the Vet list you kindly shared, the vet located at El Paso doesn’t longer work there and they don’t treat chameleons, couldn’t find any clinic that would.
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
If you do try again, I’d suggest making sure that you have a male and learning all that you can from either here, Chameleon Academy or Neptune the chameleon. Also, start with a chameleon from a reputable breeder and not a pet store. There are several quality panther breeders who are all forum sponsors. One of them, Fram’s Chams occasionally breeds veileds. https://www.chameleonforums.com/sponsors/?tag=chameleons A good breeder won’t send their babies off to their new homes until they are at least 3 months old and thriving. Baby chams are fragile. Set yourself up for success as much as possible.
I’m not sure why the store is telling you that fake plants are best, as they pretty much aren’t desired at all. Using plants that are deemed ‘safe’ and cleaning them properly is better. Here is the plant list and info, it I didn’t already provide it. https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/ I prepare all of my plants by removing as much of the soil as possible down to bare root. I wash in soapy water of Dawn dish soap - usually I do this outside and just plunge it upside down (keeping roots out of soapy water) several times and gently swish or agitate the leaves around with my hand. Then I promptly rinse rinse rinse with the hose, removing whatever soil remnants at the roots. After getting all of my plants washed and rinsed, I again rinse rinse rinse. I want to make certain that I remove all soap, possible insects and whatever pesticides or fertilizers that were added. Then I repot in fresh organic soil. This does shock the plants a bit, but they usually recover just fine within a few days. Most of the plants that we use are pretty hardy. Later on when I need to fertilize my plants, I go as natural as I can and use the frass (poos) from my feeders that I’ve collected and set aside. The only live plant that I seem to have a problem with is hibiscus. No matter how thoroughly I clean it, they always have insect pests hiding in them somewhere. I keep trying though as my female veiled loves eating the leaves.
Most definitely clean and sanitize everything that you can and toss those things that you can’t. Just in case your poor sweetie had some sort of parasite or communicable issue, err on the side of caution. Steam cleaning is pretty effective for enclosures. Get everything set up and running well in advance of getting a chameleon. Make sure you’re meeting of all of the desired husbandry parameters and have it all as perfect as you can before adding a chameleon. As you are setting up and getting ready, do feel free to share and get opinions from us. And definitely do share when you have gotten your chameleon. While we enjoy helping those in need, we love love love when people share their successes and celebrate their new friend with them.
