Mawtyplant
Chameleon Enthusiast
at what age your chameleon have come to your house? how old is he now?
nice to ear he look better since the poop
Starting to get concerned
- Thread starter Phoenixcham
- Start date
at what age your chameleon have come to your house? how old is he now?
nice to ear he look better since the poop
Phoenixcham
New Member
at what age your chameleon have come to your house? how old is he now?
We got him when he was 6/7 months old and he is now 1 year and 7 months old
I don't think he looks dehydrated at all. His head pads are good and his eyes are not sunken in.
I do feel that your gutloading/feeding of the insects needs improvement though. I use a wide assortment of greens and veggies such as dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, escarole, card it's, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, squash, etc and a bit of fruit such as berries, melon, pear, apple.
Supp!ements should be...
Phosphorous-free calcium powder at almost every feeding, phosphorous-free calcium/D3 powder twice a month lightly and a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A twice a month lightly. You may need to give him a vitamin prEformed A once in a while too.
I'm still a bit concerned about the cut...please post a couple more photos if the foot from the top or side.
I do feel that your gutloading/feeding of the insects needs improvement though. I use a wide assortment of greens and veggies such as dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, escarole, card it's, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, squash, etc and a bit of fruit such as berries, melon, pear, apple.
Supp!ements should be...
Phosphorous-free calcium powder at almost every feeding, phosphorous-free calcium/D3 powder twice a month lightly and a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A twice a month lightly. You may need to give him a vitamin prEformed A once in a while too.
I'm still a bit concerned about the cut...please post a couple more photos if the foot from the top or side.
Phoenixcham
New Member
Yeah as he doesn't eat a lot he is not receiving the right nutrients. I just want him to eat like a normal chameleon haha. I will try to get more pictures of the cut tomorrow but it seems to be trying to heal and he is still using that front foot so i think that's a good sign
Mawtyplant
Chameleon Enthusiast
have you done any fecal check? just in case?
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
I think it would be a great idea to get some bloodwork done and check for parasites. Since he has no poo as of late, bloodwork would be only thing to check. You will also find if he has any sort of vitamin deficiency that way. I've know I have flaked with a breeder and he says a portion of the time constipation is caused by some sort of parasite. It can also be caused by impaction. A whole month is really concerning for no poo. I really think you should find a reptile specialist near you and set up an appointment. If nothing else gets one good ointment for his cut and have a checkup.
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
Also, I noticed he has very short nails like my guy. That's a Vit D3 problem. I received my guy like this. I've had him for 6 months now. I just found out about a month ago what was causing the short brittle nails. His body isn't processing D3. Diets thing I did was get him an outdoor setup and switch my vitamin/calcium supplement. His nails are already growing. I too have an issue with getting him to eat. I believe is form the vitamin imbalance. He was starting to get lazy and not gripping as well. All these things started changing as soon as I changed up a few things. I hope to continue to improvement within the next month. Best of luck.
Kelly_girl199...Never heard of vitamin D3 not being able to be metabolized and causing short nails....I'd love to read any information you read to learn that. Can you post it please?
Lack of D3 affects calcium levels...but I've never known any chameleon not to be able to produce d3.
Lack of D3 affects calcium levels...but I've never known any chameleon not to be able to produce d3.
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
May I ask how much experience you have had with chameleons?
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
Did I say my chameleon couldn't produce D3?
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
I found out through a very experienced breeder.
His nails are growing now. He only has two short ones now. The sun is doing him good
Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
@kelly_girl199 I think you might have though kinyonga was being snappish or something from the way she worded her comment. I can guarantee she wasnt. She really does love obsessively learning and reading articles about chameleons, so she just was generally interested in reading what you read if you read it somewhere
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
Well she has been with me in the past, so it was only for me to presume so. It's just frustrating everytime I get on here people get bashed and are extremely rude.
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
I found out through a well experienced chameleon breeder. Whom he has had serious training from other breeders and vets. Calcium can play a hug role in nails. But he also wants the first person who suggested a vitamin D problem when I asked a beginning vet. At the time when I asked she had little to no experience with reptiles so I didn't take her seriously. When I asked if my Beardie was a boy or a girl she had to look it up on her phone. She told me it sounded like a problem with D3 as well. But it wasn't until I came in contact with a local breeder that I received the full explanation. Remember when I told you a bout Buddy doing a lot of branch hugging? Being sluggish? Well the breeder told me the 6 percent aracaris bulbs were not nearly strong enough for my size cage. The nail issue is due to the body not processing D3(he wasn't getting enough of it). It can also be form the body not getting enough calcium. So if the Body isn't getting enough D3 it can't properly absorb calcium. Which is why I switched to Repashy calcium plus LoD. And then got the Tudor set up, as well as make sure he gets a few hours of sun everyday AND switched to an Arcadia 12% bulb. He is much more active, eating better, nails are growing and turning white. The guy that had him previously didn't use a linear bulb in his cage and he had little to no foliage, he was having shed issues, and he was only feeding him once or twice a week. So I suspect he wasn't getting quite enough calcium either. Not sure how often he had been changing our vitamins and calcium. He did feed him a nice varied diet.
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
I apologize if you really were not being snappy.
Meant to say process not produce....sorry...typo.
I've been keeping breeding raising chameleons since the 80's as well as numerous geckoes, water dragons, beardies, cone heads, turtles/tortoises, etc, etc. I've done a lot with vets and the zoo and written articles and was a consultant on a veiled chameleon reproductive study. Even with that, I still have much more to learn. I'm always reading articles and studies etc to learn more.
I'm terse sometimes but I think I'm rarely snappy. When you answer a lot of posts like I do it usually means you have to be concise in order to get it done.
I've been keeping breeding raising chameleons since the 80's as well as numerous geckoes, water dragons, beardies, cone heads, turtles/tortoises, etc, etc. I've done a lot with vets and the zoo and written articles and was a consultant on a veiled chameleon reproductive study. Even with that, I still have much more to learn. I'm always reading articles and studies etc to learn more.
I'm terse sometimes but I think I'm rarely snappy. When you answer a lot of posts like I do it usually means you have to be concise in order to get it done.
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
I like when people are helpful, not course or know it all, if you catch my drift. It bugs me like no other. At least you are credible and not someone inexperienced. I am constantly researching and learning. I am fairly new to reptiles. However, I have had two cases of bad luck with the chameleons I've had. The one I am working with now has given me a run for my money. He is doing better but he drives me insane sometimes.
I know that if there isn't enough exposure to UVB or else enough D3 from supplements the chameleon can't use the calcium so nails, bi
Ones, muscles won't be good. Also, if there isn't enough calcium it doesn't matter that there is enough D3 because there's not enough calcium to use for the nails. As long as the chameleon gets the right balance of UVB/D3 to calcium the bones and muscles and nails should be OK.
kelly_girl199
Avid Member
Previously to my Panther, I was sold a runt. I kept him alive for 6 months. He wouldn't eat or hardly drink. Eventually he just got sick. Vet overdosed him....I was too stupid to know any better then. He died about 2 days after the first dose. He was growing up and turned black within hours. Really heartbreaking. He had so so many issues. Then Bud is doing pretty well. I bought him as a one year old. So he has bred. He gives me a run for my money though. He wnats out almost everytime I come in the room now. I use to just put a stick from his cage to the free range. So I started taking the stick out and holding it. Within a week he started darting for that stick even if it wasn't anywhere near the free range. He would try to grab anything that wasn't my hand. Since I have had the outdoor cage, past week and a half he comes straight out to my hand. And I also recently switch to a double misting head and it has done hims world of good. I've seen him drink a lot more water on his own. Now my biggest issue...he is addicted to super worms. As soon as I introduced supers and hornworms regularly he quit eating Dubia altogether and will rarely touch a cricket. So I have a hard time getting him to eat well gutloaded things. I've had a wide range of insects. Right now I am working on a giant canyon isopod and green banana roach colony. I have tons of babies on both. Bananas I'm hoping to see them start turning green within the next month. Started out with 20 adults and I'm sure I have triple that in babies. Attempting my first go at hornworms. I've had hawkmoths once but the male had gimpy wings and wouldn't breed. So now I have about 8 cocoons. Hopefully I get a better turn out. I have silkworms incubating. Also my first go a breeding the moths and obtaining eggs. Hoping the eggs hatch within the next week. Oh and now I am not giving Buddy supers hardly. I give him 1-2 per week. I'm still having a hard time with him eating the Dubia or crix. He will eat fresh sheds here and there. And he will only eat white silkworms. He won't hardly touch the zebras. But my Beardie will eat literally anything you set in front of her.
