Need Urgent help with Chameleon

He is in his screen cage with the light UVB 5.0 about a foot above his head. We have a heat lamp above that on the top of the cage. My wife asked for the calcium but they told her to coat the worms and force feed him so he absorbs the calcium. I will get a liquid calcium and probably a liquid vitamin from the pharmacy in the morning.

Good deal, is he on a branch then? Go ahead and keep his lights off when its his bed time. Make sure not to use the red light.
 
please keep us updated and I hope he will make a turn around. We are rooting for him!!! Good luck to you guys!
 
he is on the bottom of the cage and i have the UVB light hanging from a branch at this time inside the cage. He is not moving and I want to get as much light on him as possible. Tonight i will turn off the heat light but thought about keeping the UVB light on so that he gets the rays from it to help him. he has his eyes shut now and like i have mentions is very lathargic.
 
he is on the bottom of the cage and i have the UVB light hanging from a branch at this time inside the cage. He is not moving and I want to get as much light on him as possible. Tonight i will turn off the heat light but thought about keeping the UVB light on so that he gets the rays from it to help him. he has his eyes shut now and like i have mentions is very lathargic.

No, turn them all off. That is fine hanging them like that for now. Just monitor him when they are turned on. Definitely no light at night. Good luck, and keep us posted.
 
You don't want the insect to just sit in his mouth if the insect is still alive....it might bite him.
I would squash the head of the insect before giving to him that way.
 
Bo, is still alive. I have been giving him water with a syringe and i am going to get him some calcium water in just a bit. He is still not moving but is under the UVB light and looks good but still very lathargic.Not sure what else to do at this point.
 
I just got back from the store and have now given him some of the multi vitamin and calcium liquid in a syringe. I was thinking of cutting up a worm or giving him some baby food peas or something that he can eat?
 
Does the multivitamin have prEformed vitamin A in it? D3?
Be careful giving it the supplements...you don't want to over do them or create an even worse imbalance or shoot it down its throat so that it aspirates it. I would only do the vitamin twice a month.
Babyfood squash or yams would be a better choice IMHO.
 
Does the multivitamin have prEformed vitamin A in it? D3?
Be careful giving it the supplements...you don't want to over do them or create an even worse imbalance or shoot it down its throat so that it aspirates it. I would only do the vitamin twice a month.
Babyfood squash or yams would be a better choice IMHO.

Listen to the Kinyonga! /\/\/\/\/\/\

What type of vitamins, and liquid calcium did you get?
 
I bought some Fluckers liquid Vitamins it has V-A that i am suposed to use 2x a month and I will mix in it with some calcium powder or calcium liquid.
I also bought some Liquid calcium but they did not have any with D3 still looking for that but I will have to go to some different places and I thoguht I should buy something now and get started on it. He is till alive and just sitting on the bottom of the cage.
 
I bought some Fluckers liquid Vitamins it has V-A that i am suposed to use 2x a month and I will mix in it with some calcium powder or calcium liquid.
I also bought some Liquid calcium but they did not have any with D3 still looking for that but I will have to go to some different places and I thoguht I should buy something now and get started on it. He is till alive and just sitting on the bottom of the cage.

The liquid cal shouldnt have D3.
The "supplements" we refer to are powders, which you will dust LIGHLTY(cant stress the lightly enough) on the feeders.
The liquid cal is to boost his cal intake, and help reverse his possible MBD.
To force feed him bugs, you should mash them up(yes its gross) and put little bits at a time in his mouth.
The powders you need are(just to make sure)
Calcium with D3
Calcium without D3
Herptivite or Multivitamin
Thanks for the update. I really hope hes able to pull through.;)
 
You want to be very careful of the D3 and prEformed vitamin A. They can build up in the system...but they are also antagonistic to each other...so they need to be in balance. Please read my big long post in this thread again.

Its always advised not to mix the vitamins with the calcium because some things won't be absorbed properly then.

I wouldn't get liquid calcium with D3 because you want to be able to limit the D3 but make sure that there is enough calcium.
 
tak2lmt, I just wanted to emphasis something that has been said before: they can be very resilient. We have seen animals in far worse shape brought back to live healthy lives.

I also wanted to address the issue of your son. I understand that this is his animal and you are stepping in (being a good Dad) to help put things right. It's been suggested that your son should not handle the animal. I think that's too restrictive. I would say your son should not handle the animal if you or your wife is not in the room with him at the time (not just in the house).

Really, they don't want to be handled much anyway, but if you want to have your son get him out and let him crawl about the hands and arms for a bit a couple times a week, that's okay. Just make sure there's adult supervision. You need to be watching for signs that the animal finds this distressing (dramatic color change, going very dark, showing vibrant patterns, hissing) and if that's happening, the handling should stop.

While resilient, they are also fragile and stress is one of the most dangerous things for them.

Also, make sure your son knows the drill on washing up after handling the chameleon. Any skin that's been touched at all by the chameleon should be washed with an anti-bacterial soap. I could make a case for changing shirts (maybe have a "handling the chameleon" long sleeved shirt that gets pulled on before the chameleon comes out of the cage?).
 
Just like yesterday Bo is still alive but not moving. We are still feeding him water and food with a syringe. We are giving him water about 4 times a day and now crunching up a worm and cricket that have calcium powder on then and feeding him that a couple of times a day. We are aslo giving him some pea baby food once a day. How much water and food should we be giving him. At this point I am just happy to be giving him something and hoping he gets his strenght back so he can eat on his own. He is not pooping or peeing but we just started feeding him yesterday and it might take while for the food to go through him? Thought?
 
I would give him as much water as he wants. I would say give him as much mashed up cricket as he will take too. I would lightly dust them before crushing them. Im glad hes still in it!
 
Just like yesterday Bo is still alive but not moving. We are still feeding him water and food with a syringe. We are giving him water about 4 times a day and now crunching up a worm and cricket that have calcium powder on then and feeding him that a couple of times a day. We are aslo giving him some pea baby food once a day. How much water and food should we be giving him. At this point I am just happy to be giving him something and hoping he gets his strenght back so he can eat on his own. He is not pooping or peeing but we just started feeding him yesterday and it might take while for the food to go through him? Thought?
I didnt hear your mention anything about a water dripping system in the cage ? This you can mqke yourself , since your chameleon wont drink from a water bowl you need to set up a water bottle with a whole at the bottom and possibly mixed with a couple drops of liquid calcium water conditioner on top of your cage in the same spot dripping over leaves so when hes thirsty he'll always know where to go.. Also if your cham is dehydrated and wont eat and no energy id HIGHLY recommend you'd get'Repta aid by flukerss , this gives reptile a boost and is also for there dehydration you can also mix in a LITTLE bit of powder calcium without d3 to mix in with and it includes a syringe (no needle) to feed it to him with .. Ive attached a picture of all the supplements you'll need .. The T Rex bone aid is what im using for my chams MBD , yours dosnt appear to have it ? Strange enouph so you dont need that , just worry about the other products ! They are important and follow solid snakes squedule .. An easy way to dust them is put the amount in a bag and out your calcium a Little in the bag and shake it roght before feeding time .. Make sure u have a squedule always feed about 3 hours after lights on so they have time to digest .. Dont follow mixing instructions on the calciums n supplembts because there not spiciafically for chams & before you add anything your not 100% sure of ask them on the forums , there correct and it saves you a trip to the petstore/petco for wrong information :) if it wasnt for all the help on here id have no idea what i was doing
 

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As I've said before...phos., calcium, D3 and vitamin A all need to be in balance.
Chameleons need more calcium than phosphorus normally. Chameleons with MBD need even more calcium until the bones are healthy again....
Peas...calcium to phosphorus ratio is not good.
Squash...higher calcium levels than phosphorus.
Liquid calcium is absorbed more readily than powders are.

Also...
I wouldn't put anything in the water since it might end up in the eyes if you spray or drip it on the chameleon. Be very careful with the water when he's in such a lethargic condition....you want to be sure that the water won't end up in the lungs.

Here's a recipe for bug juice that you can use also...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060614193627/http://adcham.com/html/husbandry/bug-juice.html
 
We are using a water drop and opening his mouth to feed and give him water. we are taking our time doing it and making sure he is swallowing it. I am working on getting him the calcium D3 and vitamins but some of the shops in town are horrible and dont have quality stuff I guess. Thanks for your help.
 
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