Vitamin A deficiency

[kinyonga]

I'm going to keep adding to this post for the next while...so keep checking it out if you want to see it all...

Insects...vitamin A....
"Crickets, superworms, and mealworms contained β-carotene although using standard conversion factors only crickets and superworms would likely contain sufficient vitamin A activity for most species of insectivores. Waxworms did not contain any detectable β-carotene but did contain zeaxanthin which they likely converted from dietary β-carotene"....
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26366856

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00890538/document
https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/znc.1981.36.issue-9-10/znc-1981-9-1011/znc-1981-9-1011.pdf

Chameleons...conversion...
"Measurable concentrations of retinol at all stages of eggdevelopment in the chameleons suggests effective conversion from carotenoid pre-cursors, with concentrations similar to those measured in other lizard eggs"...
https://www.academia.edu/20045438/C...ment_in_panther_chameleons_Furcifer_pardalis_

Preformed vitamin A...
http://www.uvma.org/chameleon/vitaminA.htm

Vitamin A and a lot more...
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/po...ourselves-and-growing-in-chameleon-knowledge/
" Although we cannot dispute that supplementing with the immediately useable vitamin A has demonstrated benefits, we also cannot yet put a finger on why some chameleons are raised and live a long healthy life without ever being given a vitamin A supplement. Are some chameleons living on the edge of vitamin deficiency all their life? Are chameleons converting carotenoids derived from the plant matter fed their feeder insects?"

 

[kinyonga]

@Courtney_H ...you said..."Recently my Cham has been having a “crusty”, discharge eye. I have been keeping what I can out giving him some extra misting, but it keeps returning. I took him to my local vet that sees reptiles and she suggested, what I was suspicious of, that he had a vitamin A deficiency. I have been gut loading his feeders with carrots and collard greens to try to compensate. I also have been making sure to dust all feeders with Earth Pro-A" as was already said...all of this is beta carotene and may not be able to be converted. Since you have given your chameleon no orEformed vitamin A ...It shouldn't hurt to give it a small amount as @Kaizen suggested.

You said..."This being said, it’s been about 3 weeks and still his eye gets crusty.I replaced his uv bulb about the same time his symptoms began"...waiting for your answers about the light and the window.

You said..."Should I take him back to the vet for eye drops possibly?"...if it persists I would take him back to the vet.

 

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

I supplement with Repashy Vitamin A Plus on 5 bugs once every 3 weeks. So far so good. Please note that I do not use all in one calcium products like Repashy Calcium Plus which does contain Vitamin A as well. For my multivitamin I use Rep-Cal Herptavite which contains caretnoids instead of Vitamin A Retinol