Mouth swollen?

[ferretinmyshoes]

You are ignoring my question about gutloading.

 

[DierdreDreamwalker]

I wanted to thank you all again for your help btw!!

 

[camimom]

I wanted to thank you all again for your help btw!!

I would answer ferrets gutloading question...

 

[DierdreDreamwalker]

You are ignoring my question about gutloading.

Omg sorry! I had forgotten about it with everything that was being posted. It was a lot at once and I'm a little adhd. (lol)

My hubby deals with the crickets the most. I think now he's feeding them mostly carrots and potatoes and such, and he throws in a few apple slices every now and then when he steals them from my sugar gliders food tray in the fridge. There's also a small amount of the regular cricket food in there as well, but they don't pay that much mind with the other stuff in there.

 

[DierdreDreamwalker]

I would answer ferrets gutloading question...

Just did........

 

[camimom]

Omg sorry! I had forgotten about it with everything that was being posted. It was a lot at once and I'm a little adhd. (lol)

My hubby deals with the crickets the most. I think now he's feeding them mostly carrots and potatoes and such, and he throws in a few apple slices every now and then when he steals them from my sugar gliders food tray in the fridge. There's also a small amount of the regular cricket food in there as well, but they don't pay that much mind with the other stuff in there.

OK. not bad. but not great.
Find sandrachameleons blog on gutloading.
Persoanlly, I use..
apples
oranges
collard greens
carrots
squash
bee pollen
cranberries
some strawberries
Mustard greens- thats what i forgot to say i use also!

and other various things as they come in and out of season

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Found another key to the puzzle: your gutloading is suboptimal at best. Carrots: vit A but high oxalates, which inhibit calcium absorption. Potatoes: no value at all, too high in starches. Apple: good for hydration and that's about it. You're not offering any calcium sources you your crickets for your cham to eat. This will lead to advanced MBD quickly despite calcium dusting.

Gutloading is the process of working through the food chain to feed the prey animals the nutrition that your insectivore pet needs to replicate what they would eat in nature. Crickets are basically just water and chitin (not very nutritious or digestible) and the pet stores only feed them cardboard, or potato at most, so feeding crickets directly after you get them from the pet store or vendor is not providing much in the way of nutrition to your pet. Supplementing with a calcium and/or multivitamin powder is important, but not sufficient alone for proper nutrition in any species. Gut loading can't be done in all feeders but is very easy in crickets and super worms - two common feeder bugs.

How do you chose what to use? Gutloading ingredients should be chosen that are higher in calcium than phosphorus. High phosphorus levels in the food impedes calcium absorption. Inadequate dietary calcium leads to metabolic bone disease. Commercially available gutloads (such as Fluker Farms Cricket Food) are not balanced or sufficient for good nutrition in any species. Ideally there should be a wet and dry component to your gut load:

Good Wet Gutloading Ingredients: dandelion leaves, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, escarole lettuce, butternut squash, carrots, mango, alfalfa sprouts, oranges, blueberries, raspberries, sweet potato, strawberries, hibiscus leaves and flowers, papaya

Good Dry Gutload Ingredients: bee pollen, alfalfa powder, kelp powder, brewer’s yeast, wheat germ, raw uncooked sunflower seeds, raw uncooked pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, small amounts of whole grain cereals, spirulina algae, tortoise pellets

Foods to AVOID: Broccoli, spinach, beets, and parsley, have large amounts of oxalic acids which bind calcium absorption. Lettuces and cabbage do not have any significant nutritional value. Also, avoid things like dog food, cat food, and fish flakes which are high in animal proteins which can cause kidney damage. Feeding such things like pinky-mice, fuzzies, and feeder anoles that are extremely high in fat and protein content is harmful to your chameleon's health, bones and organs that can lead to serious illnesses like gout, edema, organ failure and fatality.


This site has nutritional info on many commonly available fruits and veggies to help guide you in choosing good gut loading ingredients: http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm
Sandrachameleon has many more blog entries on gut loading and nutrition.

The things in bold should be the staples of your gutload. You don't have to use them all at the same time. I cycle through them getting a different one every time I go to the grocery store. Those are the staples and then the others are added in lesser quantities.

 

[DierdreDreamwalker]

kk guys. Thanks. I'll go to Wal*Mart later and get everything that we need for them and start doing it better.

 

[Bacodog]

It sounds and looks to me like the beginning stages of mouth rot. I recently experienced this with my cham and took her to the vet where they did have to look inside the mouth to confirm.

Although my vet was defiantly not a reptile expert by any means, it was obvious by the way she handled my cham that it was her first specimen. That and she said "I wish your chameleon was a more healthy shade of green" right after I told them that her natural shades were brownish-red.

The baytril they gave me did work but only after the abscess was drained repeatedly. Which I did after I read from other posts on this forum that it needed to be done in order for it to work properly.

 

[camimom]

So when will you be able to get to the vet?
I really do think she has mouth rot, at least the beginning of it.
And She has the beginning stages of MBD.
Both these things require vet visits to get things to help correct/ stop the advancement of the diseases.