New chameleon

[kinyonga]

@elizaann2 said…”I listened to a post on the chameleon academy podcast where someone talked about grinding up chicken eggs for calcium.”…only use egg shells from eggs that have been cooked to avoid the possibility of salmonella.

“Maybe making sure you feed your bugs veggies that are high in vitamin A could also be helpful.”..if you’re using veggies for vitamin A it will be beta carotene or prOformed vitamin A and it’s thought that chameleons can’t convert it to the useable prEformed source. However, it might be that some insects convert it so there would be some in their digestive system…but I’m not sure. This needs more research IMHO.

Other calcium sources are cuttlebone that is used for birds. It can be pounded into a fine powder and used.

Fruit flavoured TUMS can be crushed and used as well in a pinch.

 

[Beman]

I honestly don’t know. It doesn’t show any of what is in it (other than vitamin A & D3) or how much of each is in it. I don’t want to give you any advice that might harm your chameleon. @kinyonga @Beman what do you think of this multivitamin supplement?

I do not know the link takes me to a log in. I would need them to take a screen shot of the supplement image so I can try to see what it is.

 

[MissSkittles]

I do not know the link takes me to a log in. I would need them to take a screen shot of the supplement image so I can try to see what it is.

Do these help?

 

[Beman]

Do these help?
View attachment 353044View attachment 353045

UGGG so I would not use this just because it is A and D3... Too high of a risk of over supplementing and overdosing the chameleon throwing them into failure.

 

[Jihad]

@elizaann2 said…”I listened to a post on the chameleon academy podcast where someone talked about grinding up chicken eggs for calcium.”…only use egg shells from eggs that have been cooked to avoid the possibility of salmonella.

“Maybe making sure you feed your bugs veggies that are high in vitamin A could also be helpful.”..if you’re using veggies for vitamin A it will be beta carotene or prOformed vitamin A and it’s thought that chameleons can’t convert it to the useable prEformed source. However, it might be that some insects convert it so there would be some in their digestive system…but I’m not sure. This needs more research IMHO.

Other calcium sources are cuttlebone that is used for birds. It can be pounded into a fine powder and used.

Fruit flavoured TUMS can be crushed and used as well in a pinch.

YES! That cuttlebone is what i was trying to tell @MissSkittles about i refered to it as dried squid which is what we call it here in saudi arabia i was concerned it might be harmful to him so i didn't use it i can get it really easily thanks for the information he's about to sleep now i'll use it tommorow

 

[Jihad]

I'm noticing some changes in his behavior today he's eating a lot and not drinking as much and he looks fat and gaping i think those are signs of shedding however the disturbing thing is that i noticed his nose is close by some sort of white thing i took a picture of it before removing it pretty easily and also his nose is a little bulgy (hard to even notice) these are the updates on him today

 

[Beman]

So I can tell just by looking at all the pics of him that he has something additional going on. The urate being all orange indicates dehydration. But the fecal being all runny is not a good thing. I am betting illness and parasites is playing into his overall condition. You need to have a way to have water dripping non stop during the day on a plant he can access so he can consistently drink as needed.

 

[MissSkittles]

I'm noticing some changes in his behavior today he's eating a lot and not drinking as much and he looks fat and gaping i think those are signs of shedding however the disturbing thing is that i noticed his nose is close by some sort of white thing i took a picture of it before removing it pretty easily and also his nose is a little bulgy (hard to even notice) these are the updates on him today

I believe the white that you are seeing on his nose is a harmless thing we call ‘snalt’. It’s just how a chameleon eliminates excess mineral salts.

 

[kinyonga]

Cuttlebone..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlebone#:~:text=Cuttlebone is composed primarily of,connected by numerous upright pillars.

Just make sure you grind it up to a fine powder.

 

[Jihad]

Cuttlebone..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlebone#:~:text=Cuttlebone is composed primarily of,connected by numerous upright pillars.

Just make sure you grind it up to a fine powder.

What schedule do you recommend for it or do i use it daily?

 

[elizaann2]

What schedule do you recommend for it or do i use it daily?

Calcium should be daily supplemented with each feeding.

 

[MzLaurie]

Hi jihad. Well according to Alexa collard greens are readily available in your country. Collard greens are different than cabbage which he might not go for. Veiled are one of the few species of chameleons that eat plants. From personal experience, some love to get their salads, some won’t touch it. One member on here said his veiled would pitch a fit if he didn’t get his daily cilantro. I had one that would go into my herb garden and pick all the little leaves off my oregano plants but wouldn’t touch any other herbs. Collard greens are more like green leaf lettuce in stalks not heads like romaine lettuce. Make sure you wash it all good first and try handing him a piece to see if he will take it from you. I rehab one chameleon that couldn’t target and he loved his collard greens cause it was a meal he didn’t have to hunt for. Be advised that the feces will get very dark if he is eating salads. That is normal. Also many lettuces have water in them so it might help with hydration. Also you can put a lettuce only bowl in his setup and put whatever you maybe eating on that day to see if he has a preference as some are very picky. If he doesn’t go for it at all don’t push it for more than a few weeks as some never eat plants like I said. You are in the trial and error stage of learning about your boy. Now I had a tortoise a long time ago who got the runs really bad and I had no money for a vet so a local reptile lover who had a small shop told me to bring him in and said it was parasites from coconut husk substrate and treated him for me with a white substance that he said was used to treat horses! I have no idea what it was but it fixed him right up and I quit using all substrates after that. So if there are no vets there maybe you can find a place that sells reptiles or birds that can get you what you need for the parasite problem. Also chams like grasshoppers which you might be able to find there. He is still not full grown so keep in mind the size of them has to be smaller and you can hold one out in front of him with tongs and he might eat it. Mealworms alone aren’t going to get him healthy and strong. But if crickets and dubias aren’t available you got to figure out what is. Best of luck jihad.

 

[MzLaurie]

Hi jihad. Well according to Alexa collard greens are readily available in your country. Collard greens are different than cabbage which he might not go for. Veiled are one of the few species of chameleons that eat plants. From personal experience, some love to get their salads, some won’t touch it. One member on here said his veiled would pitch a fit if he didn’t get his daily cilantro. I had one that would go into my herb garden and pick all the little leaves off my oregano plants but wouldn’t touch any other herbs. Collard greens are more like green leaf lettuce in stalks not heads like romaine lettuce. Make sure you wash it all good first and try handing him a piece to see if he will take it from you. I rehab one chameleon that couldn’t target and he loved his collard greens cause it was a meal he didn’t have to hunt for. Be advised that the feces will get very dark if he is eating salads. That is normal. Also many lettuces have water in them so it might help with hydration. Also you can put a lettuce only bowl in his setup and put whatever you maybe eating on that day to see if he has a preference as some are very picky. If he doesn’t go for it at all don’t push it for more than a few weeks as some never eat plants like I said. You are in the trial and error stage of learning about your boy. Now I had a tortoise a long time ago who got the runs really bad and I had no money for a vet so a local reptile lover who had a small shop told me to bring him in and said it was parasites from coconut husk substrate and treated him for me with a white substance that he said was used to treat horses! I have no idea what it was but it fixed him right up and I quit using all substrates after that. So if there are no vets there maybe you can find a place that sells reptiles or birds that can get you what you need for the parasite problem. Also chams like grasshoppers which you might be able to find there. He is still not full grown so keep in mind the size of them has to be smaller and you can hold one out in front of him with tongs and he might eat it. Mealworms alone aren’t going to get him healthy and strong. But if crickets and dubias aren’t available you got to figure out what is. Best of luck jihad.

Btw I wanted to mention that you need to make sure there is shade always available for him to get to. I took in a sweet little girl panther that was left in the hot Texas sun to die and she got badly sunburned. The worst was the top part of her eyelids. I was able to rehab her but it is no longer black but does have a lot of scar tissue
That makes it hard for her to open the eye at times. Just beware that they can get sunburned!

 

[Jihad]

@MissSkittles @MzLaurie @elizaann2 @Sonny13 @kinyonga @Beman @Gloriawood thank you all for your help his tongue problem seems to be dealt with he can now get food from further away with his tongue he seems to be sleeping during the day but i won't take that as a concern because i recenetly finished working on his enclosure and he's only been in it for about 2 days because i watched the video of the youtube channel neptune the chameleon and she says "it's normal when they are recenetly put into a new enclosure give it about a week and they should stop that behavior" i've been feeding him the worms with cuttlebone dust and also i'm also replacing his normal water with a water you might have heard about before called zamzam for a bit it comes from a well in makkah and other than it's religious value to me it's very high in calcium and magnesium and other minerals so i thought it would be a much better option than normal drinking water for the time being
I'm still waiting for his next poo to check it out

 

[MissSkittles]

Keep watching Neptune the Chameleon! She is excellent!
Sleeping during the day is not a good sign. It’s a sign that he is sick or not feeling well at all. However, that he is able now to use his tongue better is a very good sign. I haven’t heard of ZamZam, but it sounds like it may help him. Getting him hydrated is very important. It may take some time to bring him back to full health, but it sounds like you are doing your very best and putting a lot of love and care into it. Do make sure that he is getting some unfiltered sunlight every day, but also has some shade he can move to if he wants.
Have you figured out how to get a multivitamin for him yet? Do you have bee pollen and spirulina available and affordable? Both are excellent sources of natural vitamins and minerals. I don’t know how often those would or should be used and I don’t want to give you information that would hurt your chameleon. I would start by dusting the insect feeders in both for one feeding. After that I would say to make sure to give the insects both products for them to eat at least a few hours before giving them to your chameleon. @Beman what do you think of this? How often do you think bee pollen and spirulina should be directly dusted on feeders?

 

[Beman]

Keep watching Neptune the Chameleon! She is excellent!
Sleeping during the day is not a good sign. It’s a sign that he is sick or not feeling well at all. However, that he is able now to use his tongue better is a very good sign. I haven’t heard of ZamZam, but it sounds like it may help him. Getting him hydrated is very important. It may take some time to bring him back to full health, but it sounds like you are doing your very best and putting a lot of love and care into it. Do make sure that he is getting some unfiltered sunlight every day, but also has some shade he can move to if he wants.
Have you figured out how to get a multivitamin for him yet? Do you have bee pollen and spirulina available and affordable? Both are excellent sources of natural vitamins and minerals. I don’t know how often those would or should be used and I don’t want to give you information that would hurt your chameleon. I would start by dusting the insect feeders in both for one feeding. After that I would say to make sure to give the insects both products for them to eat at least a few hours before giving them to your chameleon. @Beman what do you think of this? How often do you think bee pollen and spirulina should be directly dusted on feeders?

So both can be overdone in my opinion especially when it comes to giving them directly to the cham. I would not use them more than once or twice a month to ensure they do not produce signs of edema.

 

[Jihad]

Keep watching Neptune the Chameleon! She is excellent!
Sleeping during the day is not a good sign. It’s a sign that he is sick or not feeling well at all. However, that he is able now to use his tongue better is a very good sign. I haven’t heard of ZamZam, but it sounds like it may help him. Getting him hydrated is very important. It may take some time to bring him back to full health, but it sounds like you are doing your very best and putting a lot of love and care into it. Do make sure that he is getting some unfiltered sunlight every day, but also has some shade he can move to if he wants.
Have you figured out how to get a multivitamin for him yet? Do you have bee pollen and spirulina available and affordable? Both are excellent sources of natural vitamins and minerals. I don’t know how often those would or should be used and I don’t want to give you information that would hurt your chameleon. I would start by dusting the insect feeders in both for one feeding. After that I would say to make sure to give the insects both products for them to eat at least a few hours before giving them to your chameleon. @Beman what do you think of this? How often do you think bee pollen and spirulina should be directly dusted on feeders?

I think i can get them from the pharmacy and from what i searched they seem to be affordable too i'll go and check today thanks

 

[Jihad]

Hello there
I ordered a 100 black soldier fly larvae and blue Bottle fly larvae but josh's frogs sadly canceled my order is there another store that delivers to saudi arabia with around the same price that is shown in the picture?

 

[MissSkittles]

I’m looking and not having a whole lot of luck finding live feeder insects for you. I found this, which is expensive I think, but you could breed your own dubia roach feeders. Then I found this in an old forum post from way back.

Cockroaches should be easy to find/trap. The problem will be finding cockroaches that haven't been sprayed since it is pretty normal to spray houses every month or so.

There might be grasshoppers/locusts around.

I would think a pet shop would have something like meal worms.

You could catch flies. To catch flies (jokingly called the National Bird of Saudi Arabia), you could just hang some meat and wait with a net. A mister will reflect the light enough that the flies will be temporarily blinded making it fairly easy to catch them.

You could go to places where there is water/swampy areas. Treated sewage water in Saudi Arabia--and I would expect Bahrain to be similar--is just pumped out. The Riyadh "River" is just the outflow of grey water from Riyadh's sewage treatment facilities but was a huge long river, miles long, with lots of life to it and is an important migratory stopover (on their way to winter grounds in Africa) or destination for birds migrating to and from Asia.


Locusts, when available, could be bought in the souqs of Saudi Arabia, but i think they would be far to large for a veiled unless you removed legs and things.

I bet a lot of the beans in the stores have bean beetles in them.

If you are able to find some grasshoppers, crickets or dubia roaches, I would suggest learning how and trying to breed them yourself. I don’t know anything about locusts, but I guess those could be bred too.
You could try catching moths at night. Hang a white or light colored sheet up and have a light shining on it to attract them and then start catching. For flies, (I can’t believe I’m about to give this as advice), you could put out a very small piece of meat for a day or so and let the flies do their thing. Before you know it you’ll have maggots . Move them to some sort of closed container, feed them vegetable scraps (try not to vomit) and wait for them to become flies. In the wild, your chameleon would be eating these flies. I’m not sure about the risks of parasites with catching your own bugs. The main concern would be not knowing if any have come in contact with any pesticides. Because of that, if you do catch any insects, wait at least a day or so before feeding them off to your chameleon…give them time to die if they did contact poison.
I wish I could help you more.

 

[Jihad]

I’m looking and not having a whole lot of luck finding live feeder insects for you. I found this, which is expensive I think, but you could breed your own dubia roach feeders. Then I found this in an old forum post from way back.

Cockroaches should be easy to find/trap. The problem will be finding cockroaches that haven't been sprayed since it is pretty normal to spray houses every month or so.

There might be grasshoppers/locusts around.

I would think a pet shop would have something like meal worms.

You could catch flies. To catch flies (jokingly called the National Bird of Saudi Arabia), you could just hang some meat and wait with a net. A mister will reflect the light enough that the flies will be temporarily blinded making it fairly easy to catch them.

You could go to places where there is water/swampy areas. Treated sewage water in Saudi Arabia--and I would expect Bahrain to be similar--is just pumped out. The Riyadh "River" is just the outflow of grey water from Riyadh's sewage treatment facilities but was a huge long river, miles long, with lots of life to it and is an important migratory stopover (on their way to winter grounds in Africa) or destination for birds migrating to and from Asia.


Locusts, when available, could be bought in the souqs of Saudi Arabia, but i think they would be far to large for a veiled unless you removed legs and things.

I bet a lot of the beans in the stores have bean beetles in them.

If you are able to find some grasshoppers, crickets or dubia roaches, I would suggest learning how and trying to breed them yourself. I don’t know anything about locusts, but I guess those could be bred too.
You could try catching moths at night. Hang a white or light colored sheet up and have a light shining on it to attract them and then start catching. For flies, (I can’t believe I’m about to give this as advice), you could put out a very small piece of meat for a day or so and let the flies do their thing. Before you know it you’ll have maggots . Move them to some sort of closed container, feed them vegetable scraps (try not to vomit) and wait for them to become flies. In the wild, your chameleon would be eating these flies. I’m not sure about the risks of parasites with catching your own bugs. The main concern would be not knowing if any have come in contact with any pesticides. Because of that, if you do catch any insects, wait at least a day or so before feeding them off to your chameleon…give them time to die if they did contact poison.
I wish I could help you more.

Thanks a lot i've fed him flies for the first 2 days when he came but i soon learned that they could give him parasites and get him sick which makes sense because they're mostly walking and feeding on trash and animal poo that's why i stopped feeding him flies i did buy mealworms they're pretty easy to find here and i did breed them once before but they're not recommend however i found a local place where i can buy live locusts which are (in the picture that you sent me a while back) a good choice as a main feeder i contacted the place and waiting for a response