PoshPenny
New Member
Your Chameleon - 4 month old veiled. In my care 1 month. She was a rescue and was living in a fish bowl when she was offered to me by a friends daughter since I own reptiles. I knew little about chameleons, but couldn't leave her behind. $400 later and a lot of determination to make this little one live, I am still trying to get everything I need. Finding a good vet seems impossible. Cage, lights, vines, plants, feeders, dusters...this forum has helped so much.
Handling - Frita is very cheeky now, when I got her she was so broken. I clean her poop up as soon as I see it. I keep toilet paper by her cage I open the bottom if I can and get it up, if I cant, I have to open the top and get it out of the back, she will crawl onto my arms now, she is always a bright lime green, except when she sees my husband, she hates him, he is big and hairy and looks like a monster im sure. I am short and feed her wax worms sometimes so Im sure this is why she prefers me. I handle her usually when she crawls onto my hand when im cleaning. When I got her it was not like this. She was underweight. Scared. Sleeping during the day. Staying at the bottom of her cage, her ribs were showing. I never touched her, only fed her and sat with her, and waited. After 3 weeks she started coming around, one day while I was cleaning her cage she started following my hands all over the cage, like a little child. Then she just jumped on my hand. I froze. I waited for some show colors, but there was none, she sat there for about 2 mins, then got down. She will do this often. If Im doing something she wants to know what it is. She is right there investigating. Sometimes I cant even get stuff done she is in my way, it makes me laugh. I love her so much.
Feeding -10-15 3/8 crickets gut loaded with cricket quencher, potatoes, oranges, spinach, veggies. 1-2 wax worms a month just like my geckos. Small mealworms dipped in babyfood and calcium. Aster.
Supplements - I cant think of the name but its the stuff you guys use, the herptive vitamin and calcium with d3 and calcium without, she gets calcium everyday, d3 2x a week and the vitamin 1x a week.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Hand Mist. How often and how long to you mist? 6x, sometimes more, 8min or more. Do you see your chameleon drinking? Yes
Fecal Description - Normal according to what I looked up. Urate is white.
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Not yet.
Cage Info: 18x18x36 Reptibreeze. I chose the bigger cage as to not stress her out by moving her to another cage in just a few months time.
Cage Type - Mesh. Bird branch pirches wrapped with fake vines, aster plant, fake vines running all over for her to climb about. Large drift wood in bottom for crickets to roam about, she likes to hang from her tail from the vines and pick them off one by one. She is skilled hunter. Straight ninja.
Lighting - Mega-ray mercury vapor basking/uvb light sb100. Kept atop cage, first basking spot is 88, the one below that is 80. 12 hours on. I did my research on both types of uvb lights. Lowest overnight temp? 70. How do you measure these temps? Digital.
Humidity - I hand mist her everyday about 6x a day for 8min with warm water treated with reptisafe. I allow complete dryness between mistings. I also use a dripper that drips onto a leaf into a bowl at bottom of enclosure. I measure the humidity with a analog gauge, it stays between 40 and 65%
Placement - In the sitting room we dont use, on the book case that is built into our wall. Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? Not really. We walk through occasionally. But no one talks to her, touches her cage.At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 6ft 2In.
Location - Atlanta, Ga (North Ga Mountains to be exact)
I just realized I have been over feeding her, when I got her she was so under weight I gave her extra to get some weight on her, well, its over a month now, she had her first shed, and I realized she has almost more than doubled in size, she is really growing, but so has her appetite, I have kind of turned her into a little piggie. Yesterday I started looking at her eyes they looked slightly different, I got worried she might be slightly dehydrated so I offered her organic babyfood. She loved it, she ate it quickly. But she also had just had a huge meal. She let out a sigh. Like a '' oh my goooodddd I ate tooo much'' That was the end of it, she went and basked, pooped this morning, poop looked good, urate looked good, it still freaked me the eff out, I did not feed her anything today, just water, she ate from her freshly misted aster plant. But could the baby food gone down wrong? Did she eat so much it effected her breathing? Her crickets are small, pin heads to 1/4 to 3/4. Today her belly looked just a little lumpy when she was perching. But she looked thin when she stretched out.
Today she has been moody too, she is angry I didnt feed her, at one point she was crawling on the cage door, her behavior is whacky today; my mother came over, she seems to know when anyone new is in the house. When I went to mist her she flashed her colors at me, but also puffed up and gaped, this is normal I know, but later, I saw her suck in her lungs again when she saw me, this time no colors, like she was taking a deep breath. But sucking in hard. No wheezing though, no discharge, crackling, popping, cat noises, mucus. But she did it 4x, the sucking in thing. Could it possibly be the start of a URI. Tomorrow I am determined to find a good chameleon dr. I talked to one vet and he said '' we can start her on baytril just to be safe'' I dont want to just give her baytril either, this is why Im afraid to take her to a vet that doesnt know about chams and us kill her kidneys. Will they be able to run a test that can confirm a uri?
I have read so many threads on here since she came into my life, this forum is what saved her life begin with, the one vet I did call several times never called me back, he has great reviews, at that time she was too sick to travel, I feel confident now I can take her to get checked out, and it not kill her. Should I risk stressing her out with a trip, or am I being overly cautious?
Also could she possibly lay eggs this young since Iv been over feeding her? Do I need to put a bin in there? Im afraid she'll eat the sand mixture. Iv put her back down to 6-8 crickets. Any advise would be appreciated.
*Update* I just went in there to watch her breathing while she was sleeping and she did it while she was sleeping, she inhaled really really deep, her lung area, depressed almost all the way in, then she appeared to be breathing like she normally does, peaceful looking.
Handling - Frita is very cheeky now, when I got her she was so broken. I clean her poop up as soon as I see it. I keep toilet paper by her cage I open the bottom if I can and get it up, if I cant, I have to open the top and get it out of the back, she will crawl onto my arms now, she is always a bright lime green, except when she sees my husband, she hates him, he is big and hairy and looks like a monster im sure. I am short and feed her wax worms sometimes so Im sure this is why she prefers me. I handle her usually when she crawls onto my hand when im cleaning. When I got her it was not like this. She was underweight. Scared. Sleeping during the day. Staying at the bottom of her cage, her ribs were showing. I never touched her, only fed her and sat with her, and waited. After 3 weeks she started coming around, one day while I was cleaning her cage she started following my hands all over the cage, like a little child. Then she just jumped on my hand. I froze. I waited for some show colors, but there was none, she sat there for about 2 mins, then got down. She will do this often. If Im doing something she wants to know what it is. She is right there investigating. Sometimes I cant even get stuff done she is in my way, it makes me laugh. I love her so much.
Feeding -10-15 3/8 crickets gut loaded with cricket quencher, potatoes, oranges, spinach, veggies. 1-2 wax worms a month just like my geckos. Small mealworms dipped in babyfood and calcium. Aster.
Supplements - I cant think of the name but its the stuff you guys use, the herptive vitamin and calcium with d3 and calcium without, she gets calcium everyday, d3 2x a week and the vitamin 1x a week.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Hand Mist. How often and how long to you mist? 6x, sometimes more, 8min or more. Do you see your chameleon drinking? Yes
Fecal Description - Normal according to what I looked up. Urate is white.
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Not yet.
Cage Info: 18x18x36 Reptibreeze. I chose the bigger cage as to not stress her out by moving her to another cage in just a few months time.
Cage Type - Mesh. Bird branch pirches wrapped with fake vines, aster plant, fake vines running all over for her to climb about. Large drift wood in bottom for crickets to roam about, she likes to hang from her tail from the vines and pick them off one by one. She is skilled hunter. Straight ninja.
Lighting - Mega-ray mercury vapor basking/uvb light sb100. Kept atop cage, first basking spot is 88, the one below that is 80. 12 hours on. I did my research on both types of uvb lights. Lowest overnight temp? 70. How do you measure these temps? Digital.
Humidity - I hand mist her everyday about 6x a day for 8min with warm water treated with reptisafe. I allow complete dryness between mistings. I also use a dripper that drips onto a leaf into a bowl at bottom of enclosure. I measure the humidity with a analog gauge, it stays between 40 and 65%
Placement - In the sitting room we dont use, on the book case that is built into our wall. Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? Not really. We walk through occasionally. But no one talks to her, touches her cage.At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 6ft 2In.
Location - Atlanta, Ga (North Ga Mountains to be exact)
I just realized I have been over feeding her, when I got her she was so under weight I gave her extra to get some weight on her, well, its over a month now, she had her first shed, and I realized she has almost more than doubled in size, she is really growing, but so has her appetite, I have kind of turned her into a little piggie. Yesterday I started looking at her eyes they looked slightly different, I got worried she might be slightly dehydrated so I offered her organic babyfood. She loved it, she ate it quickly. But she also had just had a huge meal. She let out a sigh. Like a '' oh my goooodddd I ate tooo much'' That was the end of it, she went and basked, pooped this morning, poop looked good, urate looked good, it still freaked me the eff out, I did not feed her anything today, just water, she ate from her freshly misted aster plant. But could the baby food gone down wrong? Did she eat so much it effected her breathing? Her crickets are small, pin heads to 1/4 to 3/4. Today her belly looked just a little lumpy when she was perching. But she looked thin when she stretched out.
Today she has been moody too, she is angry I didnt feed her, at one point she was crawling on the cage door, her behavior is whacky today; my mother came over, she seems to know when anyone new is in the house. When I went to mist her she flashed her colors at me, but also puffed up and gaped, this is normal I know, but later, I saw her suck in her lungs again when she saw me, this time no colors, like she was taking a deep breath. But sucking in hard. No wheezing though, no discharge, crackling, popping, cat noises, mucus. But she did it 4x, the sucking in thing. Could it possibly be the start of a URI. Tomorrow I am determined to find a good chameleon dr. I talked to one vet and he said '' we can start her on baytril just to be safe'' I dont want to just give her baytril either, this is why Im afraid to take her to a vet that doesnt know about chams and us kill her kidneys. Will they be able to run a test that can confirm a uri?
I have read so many threads on here since she came into my life, this forum is what saved her life begin with, the one vet I did call several times never called me back, he has great reviews, at that time she was too sick to travel, I feel confident now I can take her to get checked out, and it not kill her. Should I risk stressing her out with a trip, or am I being overly cautious?
Also could she possibly lay eggs this young since Iv been over feeding her? Do I need to put a bin in there? Im afraid she'll eat the sand mixture. Iv put her back down to 6-8 crickets. Any advise would be appreciated.
*Update* I just went in there to watch her breathing while she was sleeping and she did it while she was sleeping, she inhaled really really deep, her lung area, depressed almost all the way in, then she appeared to be breathing like she normally does, peaceful looking.
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