my cham has MBD!!

[Georgia]

I'm not sure about the fees in the area you live in. Here in New Brunswick,Canada office visits are $56.00. This is for a full physical exam and all discussions...meds and further diagnostics are extra of course. (a full 10 ml bottle of Calcium Gluconate inj. is only 12.00 here) Doses range according to the weight of the animal... so of course only have a Doctor do the honors it is easy to damage the skin of chameleons and cause future shedding issues at the injection site...

 

[peetreetheveiledcham]

I try to take him outside everyother day if I can but I never leave him unattended, what's really bugging me is that I took every good care of him but he still got mbd, It just feels like I let him down, but this weekend im getting him to a vet so he gets better, do u guys know of any ways to get his appitite to come back because I have been hand feeding him and I want him to start eating on his own. He has ate a feed gaint mealworms on his own but not any crickets he doesn't seem interested in them

 

[peetreetheveiledcham]

Just throwing this out there all his feeder insects are gut loaded, his crickets are gut loaded with fluckers high calcium diet cricket food and I also feed the crickets carrots and other greens, I also use a calium based water gel or what ever its called. His mealworms eat the same but I put potatoes lettuce carrots and I use gutload cricket food for their substraight. He gets calcium everyother time I feed him crickets (he eats anywhere from 5 to 15 adult crickets a day, D3 is given to him 3 times a months with a few mealworms or crickets (he gets 3 mealworms or crickets with D3 3 times a month) , and I take him outside atleast 4 times a week for about an hour each time he goes outside. His uvb is 4 inches from where he basks and its an 18inch bulb, should I get a bulb that covers the whole top of the cage(which is a 30L x 18W x 30H). Temp under heat bulb is 88, I use a ceramic heat bulb, humidity is 70% and he has a 40watt day bulb for extra light. Anything I should do different??? Im adding live plants to help with humidity levels and freshen his air.

 

[fluxlizard]

That IMO is way too little vit d for safety. Add to that, mealworms don't have calcium stick so well to their exoskeleton compared to other feeders.

I would feed him a full meal supplemented *at least* 2x per month. And calcium daily. Actually if he were mine he'd have gotten d3 at least 1 feeding per week and calcium nearly every feeding when indoors.

IMO you have taken the fear of oversupplementation to the other extreme and undersupplemented.

It isn't exactly your fault- sounds like you were trying to do your best but interpreted some information and applied it incorrectly with the best of intentions.

Just to let you know- I've been keeping chameleons 20 years and until the past few years, I used d3 every feeding when the lizards were indoors. I never once saw a problem that could be attributed to oversupplementation of d3. And I used the strong stuff- repcal with d3. That doesn't mean that what I was doing was the greatest idea in the world, but does show that you don't need to be so afraid of oversupplementation that you take it to the other extreme and undersupplement.

After following problems on the forums here the past few years, I see stuff again and again that probably is related to undersupplementation - eye, tongue, muscle, skeletal, prolapse, egg binding problems can all be related to undersupplementation. If too much is not a good idea, it doesn't necessarily follow that too little is the way to go.

This lizard is a good case in point.

The other thing is in Alabama you should be able to keep him in an outdoor terrarium most of the year and avoid this problem of how much to give altogether. There is no reason whatsoever that if properly set up with shade availabe your chameleon could not be outdoors all this week if your temps are above 50 at night (and they probably are in your area). Mine are out 24/7 from the time nights go above 50 in the spring until they drop again in the fall. It is the best way to deal with (in addition to vet treatment) and prevent MBD. It also probably helps as a buffer against possible oversupplementation of d3 during the winter indoors...

I'm sorry if I come across as harsh. I'm just a little frustrated as I know you had the best of intentions and tried to follow ideas you may have read here on the forums about supplementation...

 

[peetreetheveiledcham]

So it wouldn't hurt to give him alil more D3? Nd I've been working on an outdoor setup, I have the frame done and it memeasures 6ft long 6ftit wide and 12ft high that should be plenty of room for him. But I need a tree for the enclosure any suggestions?

 

[peetreetheveiledcham]

Are dwarf umbrella trees safe for veiled chameleons?

 

[DavidBuchan]

I think all umbrellas are fine, more d3 as fluxlizard suggested, here's a safe plant list - http://www.flchams.com/safe_plant_list.asp
I think your gutloading should be a lot better. Potatoes and lettuce aren't really useful except for the water. high calcium foods like butternut squash and dandelion leaves are much better - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/446-basics-gutloading.html