How to avoid bone disease??

[Angsty]

Hi everyone, i have been on here for a while and have gotten some great information and ideas. My veiled in doing great, almost 4months old and been with us for almost 3 months, eats like a champ (except refuses worms), poops lots and is getting better at being held! My question is there is an absolute way to avoid bone disease?? I am dusting the crickets with the calcium that the breeder told me to use, and i just looked and it is with D3, I mist the terrarium at least 3 times a day, crickets are both let loose and put into a feeder cup, he eats from both! Occasionally when we are holding him he gets all worked up and starts running, so we find it best to put him back at that time but yesterday when I put him back he reached for his vine and had it and then proceeded to fall to the bottom of his enclosure, I was worried and watched as he climbed his way back to his favourite spot, which he had no problem making his way back! While my daughter had him out I was putting more vines in there for him, unfortunately after searching everywhere for real plants I haven't been able to find any, so we bought a nice big vine with big leaves, so he might have been confused too??

Just thought I would ask, we love him and we hate to do anything to harm him
Thx

 

[Carlton]

Hi everyone, i have been on here for a while and have gotten some great information and ideas. My veiled in doing great, almost 4months old and been with us for almost 3 months, eats like a champ (except refuses worms), poops lots and is getting better at being held! My question is there is an absolute way to avoid bone disease?? I am dusting the crickets with the calcium that the breeder told me to use, and i just looked and it is with D3, I mist the terrarium at least 3 times a day, crickets are both let loose and put into a feeder cup, he eats from both! Occasionally when we are holding him he gets all worked up and starts running, so we find it best to put him back at that time but yesterday when I put him back he reached for his vine and had it and then proceeded to fall to the bottom of his enclosure, I was worried and watched as he climbed his way back to his favourite spot, which he had no problem making his way back! While my daughter had him out I was putting more vines in there for him, unfortunately after searching everywhere for real plants I haven't been able to find any, so we bought a nice big vine with big leaves, so he might have been confused too??

Just thought I would ask, we love him and we hate to do anything to harm him
Thx

What do you gutload your feeders with? The primary way to avoid MBD problems is to feed your cham the most varied and nutritious insects possible and providing the correct UV spectrum lighting. What specific lighting do you use now? Dusting should be considered a "gap filler" to add micronutrients that might be missing in the feeders. There are several sticky messages and blogs about cham nutrition you should read if you haven't already.

 

[sandrachameleon]

What do you gutload your feeders with? The primary way to avoid MBD problems is to feed your cham the most varied and nutritious insects possible and providing the correct UV spectrum lighting. What specific lighting do you use now? Dusting should be considered a "gap filler" to add micronutrients that might be missing in the feeders. There are several sticky messages and blogs about cham nutrition you should read if you haven't already.

I agree with Carlton. So Yes, you should absolutely be able to avoid bone issues simply by housing, feeding and supplementing correctly.
Here are some links to information you may find useful in this regard:

• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ryan-jarosek/119-new-arrival-bringing-home.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/syn/226-frequently-asked-questions.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/frequently-asked-questions-71620/
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs...hameleons.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/92-hydration-importance.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/olimpia/573-chameleon-physiology-supplements.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/662-temperature.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/659-green-leafy-goodness-gutloading.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/407-gutloading-isnt-just-crickets-roaches-gutload-everything.html
• http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs...are-sheet.html
• http://www.chameleonnews.com/04AugBeveridge.html
• http://www.chameleonnews.com/10JulWeldon.html
• http://www.chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
  

 

[Angsty]

I was thinking that I needed to change my uv bulb, it is a tube light, to make sure it is up to par (change light every 3 months??) As for gut loading, I always have the fluckers yellow stuff in there, vitamins/water, as well as cricket food, and a variety of veggies!

I have tried silk worms, butter worms and meal worms, and he hasn't tried any of them!! I was thinking of trying a couple horned tomato worms and see if the bright blue is more attractive!! I was also thinking of trying the cricket feeder cup thing, he has a small feeder cup now but I saw a thread were you cut out part of a jug and glue in mesh for the crickets. I would love to watch him eat more but he is just so secretive when he eats!!

 

[Lovereps]

My question is there is an absolute way to avoid bone disease?? I am dusting the crickets with the calcium that the breeder told me to use, and i just looked and it is with D3, Thx

MBD, metabolic bone disease should be a thing of the past, since there is now more knowledge about proper cham nutrition and much better lighting than existed in past years.
If you follow some basic guidelines, you can help to ensure that your favorite cham doesn't get MBD.
Knowing the symptoms of MBD can help you to avoid a full-blown case if your particular cham has much higher than expected calcium needs.
For lighting, I hope you already know to use both a basking bulb and a good UV bulb like the Reptisun 5.0.
Every 6 months, a new UV bulb should be used because the light will still light up just fine but will not be putting out the proper amount of UV to keep your cham healthy.
Proper basking and ambient temperatures are also needed to properly digest food and absorb nutrients.

Angsty, I have a question for you--looking at your avatar, does your cham help improve cable tv reception or is he more of a phone static filter?

I don't know if you have any Home Depot or Lowe's type huge hardware stores nearby, but if you do they often have decent plants.
Just be sure to wash the invisible to the naked eye but invariably present fertilizer and pesticide residues off the plants with dish soap and water, then rinse very, very thoroughly before using them in your cham's cage.
Here's a good list of cham safe plants:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/live-plant-database-2632/


Daily D3 supplementing isn't good for your cham, so the daily calcium dusting should be calcium that is free of both D3 and of phosphorus, like this one:

http://www.joshsfrogs.com/food-nutr...s/rep-cal/rep-cal-calcium-without-vit-d3.html

Some of the best info about MBD has already been posted on the forum but it's nice for people to post links for you if they have them handy. Sandrachameleon has been kind enough to point the way to a lot of good info and here are a couple more good links for you.

Gutloading is essentially feeding your feeder insects a nutritious diet so that they give the most nutrition possible to your beloved cham.

Here's a nice writeup about gutloading:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/446-basics-gutloading.html

Here is some excellent info about the causes and treatment of MBD written by veterinarian and fellow cham keeper Ferretinmyshoes:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/wha...ase-mbd-looks-like-how-happens-how-fix-95071/

and this one, also by a vet, delves far more deeply into the topic than you might care to go:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/supplementation-mbd-1-a-2451/

 

[kinyonga]

Supplementing, temperatures, gutloading, lighting amount of food can all influence bone health.

 

[Angsty]

when we picked out Leaf at the reptile expo in Toronto in September, we purchased a screened terrarium, the calcium, and the proper heat lamp that he needed, I already had a UV lamp. Tonight I purchased a new reptisun 5.0 and have already put it in.

I love that picture of him on the telephone cord, he was hanging out with my husband while he was at his desk, first time he actually seemed to enjoy hanging out with us!!!

We do have a Home Depot, but is a distance from my place, so will have to till I have time to get here, thx for the suggestion.

I always make sure that my crickets have lots of food to choose from, our first reptile we had was a dragon and had him for 5 years till he passed away, we also have 6 crested geckos now as well, a breeding pair and 4 babies, so definitely not new to crickets or reptiles!!!

thx so much for the articles and links I will take my time and go through them all!!