sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
that's a strange way to get panacur into your chameleon. Are you measuring the dosage based on the chameleon's weight? Usually it would be injected into a feeder, not smeared drop by drop on a feeder
Superworm addiction
- Thread starter rickd5
- Start date
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
this doesn't sound right to me.
you might consider a second opinion.
and the pet store guys advice isn't good re supers. its possible to survive on well gutloaded supers, yes, but it is certainly not advisable. I suggest you try to have at least 5 types of prey, with no single feeder making up more than 40% of the chameleons diet.
rickd5
New Member
Yes I understand that. I want to give him the variety but atm his panacur routine requires that I don't put him on a strike to fix that. I'll ignore those tips from that guy haha
I asked him about the dosage. He said a very small drop would be about .03 of a cc. So one drop out of the little dropper he gave me. Getting it in the supers is another story..Problem is I can't find a syringe small enough to inject a feeder with. Am I missing something
I asked him about the dosage. He said a very small drop would be about .03 of a cc. So one drop out of the little dropper he gave me. Getting it in the supers is another story..Problem is I can't find a syringe small enough to inject a feeder with. Am I missing something
rickd5
New Member
Well now he won't eat at all.. Even the supers. Been two days now.
Seriously making me upset. I wish Ned would eat normal again.. Having a healthy chameleon is my dream at this point. Now I can't even give him his medicine.
Can panacur cause this loss of appetite. I can't explain how helpless I feel about this situation, I want this guy to live happy and healthy.
Seriously making me upset. I wish Ned would eat normal again.. Having a healthy chameleon is my dream at this point. Now I can't even give him his medicine.
Can panacur cause this loss of appetite. I can't explain how helpless I feel about this situation, I want this guy to live happy and healthy.
kgallego
Member
I had the same problem. My dubia colony was growing out of control and all my cham's would eat was superworms.
My solution was to feed them all the supers they wanted and eventually they got bored with the supers and started preferring the dubias again.
Here's the deal: There are a million folks on here that will tell you that it's bad for your cham to feed them large amounts of superworms. They'll tell you that it will cause impaction or the high fat of worms will make them sick, or whatever. Your cham knows what it needs better than we do, so if it's chowing down on supers, then feed away. I feed a diet of about 60% supers and 40% dubia and all my chams are happy and healthy, and I have never had a problem. Occasionally I'll throw in some other food types when they are available. Variety is always best, but variety is not always available. Maybe those folks are right, maybe they're wrong, I don't know. But what I do know is that my chams chow down on supers frequently and sometimes solely, and they're perfectly healthy. Take it for what it is.
Good luck!
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
that's a lot like saying a 5 year old child who prefers ice cream to vegetables knows what's best. Or that an adult likes the taste of fatty salty foods so should go ahead and eat lots of mcDonalds burgers and fries.
let's remember that chameleons in nature have a lot less access to prey, and have to be more active to get it. its not hard to believe they'd be "wired" to get the most energy they can. That doesn't mean providing an over abundance of superworms is the healthy choice.
no one says a chameleon will die from eating too many superworms, but that doesn't mean its the right thing to allow, as a responsible pet keeper, since its usually quite possible to avoid.
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
did your vet not provide you with a syringe for measuring the doseage, and if needs be for providing the medicine directly into back of throat (not mouth)?
rickd5
New Member
Nope just a little vial container with a dripper top like eyedrops, I'd link a picture but I'm at work. He said just to do one drop daily for five days. And repeat in 2 weeks. Im on the 2nd round 3rd day. Didn't admin meds today because he didn't eat.
-my vet told me flaggelated protozoa isn't major and quite common and very treatable, I hope this is the case. I cleaned the cage and replaced the plants when I first found out, should I do another thorough cleaning. I'm not sure exactly how this parasite works like if it can live outside of the body in the cage... Clarification would be great
And I'd like to point out that I plan on, and try to feed a variety of feeders that's why I originally made this post because I was looking for solutions
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
well, that's a bit odd. But I guess you'll have to open his mouth and drop the liquid in. Normally I would not recommend this, as you could cause him to aspirate and it will certainly be stressfull. But if you are supposed to follow a medication routine daily, and assuming we accept the medication is appropriate as prescribed, skipping a day isn't a good plan. ( you may want to start a thread specific to whether or not panacur is the right treatment for flagellates, and doseage)
to get mouth open, gently hold your thumb and forefinger over his nostrils, and he will likely gape at you.
to get mouth open, gently hold your thumb and forefinger over his nostrils, and he will likely gape at you.
Last edited:
rickd5
New Member
Thanks I will be doing that then. He would not eat again this morning. My vet is Dr. Greek, a lot of members on this forum recommend him that's why I find it odd that it may not be the right medication?
kgallego
Member
Sandra - I agree with most things that you post, but this is a poorly thought out analogy. Ice Cream or McDonalds Burgers and Fries are processed foods. They are basically condensed forms of energy.
Take a cheeseburger for example. You don't find a fully assembled burger naturally. You take the most energy rich parts of all the ingredients, condense them, and put them together in one calorie rich pile, which is significantly higher in calories by volume than any other naturally occurring food. The same can be said for fries or ice cream.
Remember that superworms are a naturally occurring food. Not like a condensed bowl of sugary ice cream. Though, they are higher in fat than many other insects at 15%, they are not astronomically higher. Dubia Roaches are at 7% and crickets are at 6%. If you're trying to control fat intake, then you better be limiting the numbers of crickets or roaches you feed also. My adult panthers eat less than 1 adult superworm per day. If I feed them crickets, they'll eat 3-5 per day. I haven't weighed them out, but I'd be willing to bet American dollars against Canadian dollars that they are consuming more total fat with crickets than they are with superworms.
Again, as I stated before, my results speak for themselves. My cham's are perfectly healthy and I've kept healthy cham's for 11 years without a single negative health issue from feeding.
I'm sure your cham's are doing just fine also. Your method works. So does mine. There's more than one way to keep cham's healthy.
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
actually they're not all that natural for chameleons to eat. most things we offer aren't actually found in their natural environment. further, chameleons in nature get a very wide range of prey, they are not eating / do not have access to fatty larva most of the time. That's was the point I was trying to make.
I wasn't talking about processed vs unprossed food.
if it helps , change my "ice cream" to "cream" and "fries" to "butter" or imagine eating something like sugary grapes as half your diet.
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
wasn't suggesting it is the wrong medication. I wouldn't be an expert on that like a vet should be. I was questioning the method (never heard of smearing it on feeders as opposed to injecting into feeders or even putting direct into throat/stomach
rickd5
New Member
Yes It was a desperate attempt to get the medicine in him and it worked. But now I think he tasted the panacur on the worm and now doesn't want to eat them (Can chameleons even taste)
-I'm jumping to conclusions, but not literally... I just happened to taste the panacur myself because I was curious and it had a really acidic flavor (it tasted like poison)
- I called my vet, he assures me panacur is the right medication and it will rid of the parasite.. he said he wasn't specific about the dose because it is just a drop.. a drop is hard to dose he said it's like .03 of a ml. But yes, I do agree a rubber tipped syringe still would have helped to administer the medicine.
(And no, lawl I did this to myself, I don't go trying to eat Dubia Roaches or Crickets because I'm curious what they taste like, Dubia roaches can be microwaved and still live, scary thought)
P.S. Nice new avatar Sandra.. I just noticed mine is not showing all this time.
kgallego
Member
If you ready my earlier posts you'll see that I said variety is best and to always offer variety.
