best food for building up deteriorated muscle?

my rescue has VERY LITTLE muscle in his arms/legs and tail, what's the best thing to feed him to build up the muscle he lost from not being able to move or climb in a 2 gal tank at the petstore (beginning treatment for MBD as well)

i`m not an expert, but here in Mexico from cotober to january i feed daily 2 o 3 super worms to my chameleon plus the crickets, they are super high on fat, i hope this helps

I did a rescue from a local pet store as well were he had very little room to move. What I suggest and what worked for me was keep him/her in a small 12 in x 12 in x 12 in screen cage with a few sticks and small plants so he will move and build muscle back (once the muscles are strong transfer the cham to a larger cage). I also used a liberal amount of herptivite and reptivite to rebuild the muscle he had lost. I suggest wax worms, hornworms, and maybe a few mealies. Dont feed to many mealies because they are hard for the chameleon to digest

How well is he able to climb and how is his grip? If he has MBD, it looks very minimal, it looks more like his casque was bent from hitting walls in a small cage. Do you know if he has MBD?

I think silkworms are very high in nutrients and are overall one of the best. So you could give him plenty of those while he is recovering. I would also make sure he has a varied diet of crickets/roaches, hornworms, butterworms, and a small number of superworms/waxworms as a treat. Below is a nutrition chart for some feeders:

http://www.homesalive.ca/learning-centre/reptile/reptile-feeder-insect-nutritional-breakdown.html

Also make sure you use the regular supplementation schedule of calcium every feeding, calcium with D3 twice a month, and multivitamin twice a month.

I'm sure his is much happier and healthier already from being with you

ChameleonKing1911 said:

I did a rescue from a local pet store as well were he had very little room to move. What I suggest and what worked for me was keep him/her in a small 12 in x 12 in x 12 in screen cage with a few sticks and small plants so he will move and build muscle back (once the muscles are strong transfer the cham to a larger cage). I also used a liberal amount of herptivite and reptivite to rebuild the muscle he had lost. I suggest wax worms, hornworms, and maybe a few mealies. Dont feed to many mealies because they are hard for the chameleon to digest

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i have him in a smaller set up with lots of things to climb, he ate on wednesday night and saturday afternoon, each time was a large cricket dusted in a 1:1 mix of rep-cal herptivite and phosphorus free calcium with d3… I've offered him wax worms but i guess he wasn't hungry.. i just ordered some horn worms

i feel so bad for the poor little guy, he tries to climb then falls or slides down on his belly and looks so defeated

I'm not a vet but the look of him makes me think there's something besides muscle loss and any chance of MBD going on with him. I would take him to. A vet.

sharp229 said:

How well is he able to climb and how is his grip? If he has MBD, it looks very minimal, it looks more like his casque was bent from hitting walls in a small cage. Do you know if he has MBD?

I think silkworms are very high in nutrients and are overall one of the best. So you could give him plenty of those while he is recovering. I would also make sure he has a varied diet of crickets/roaches, hornworms, butterworms, and a small number of superworms/waxworms as a treat. Below is a nutrition chart for some feeders:

http://www.homesalive.ca/learning-centre/reptile/reptile-feeder-insect-nutritional-breakdown.html

Also make sure you use the regular supplementation schedule of calcium every feeding, calcium with D3 twice a month, and multivitamin twice a month.

I'm sure his is much happier and healthier already from being with you

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i don't know for sure if he has mbd, but his casque looks like free willy's dorsal fin and the top of it is soft, as is the last half of his tail…

his grip is pretty weak, he slips if theres more than a 45 degree angle of incline..


and he does seem happier, check out the before and after…

There are no apparent signs of MBD but he does not look well. He should not be shutting his eyes when it's not night.

kinyonga said:

There are no apparent signs of MBD but he does not look well. He should not be shutting his eyes when it's not night.

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the last pic he's shutting his eyes because he was in the shower and the rest of the pics were at night

kinyonga said:

I'm not a vet but the look of him makes me think there's something besides muscle loss and any chance of MBD going on with him. I would take him to. A vet.

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Kinyonga has much more experience than me so I would follow her advice. My guess would be that your chameleon is from PetSmart since I know they use those type of cages. Unfortunately it is quite common for chameleons from chain pet stores to have infections or parasites. I've dealt with this myself.

Do you have a good chameleon vet? If you want to ensure best chance of health and survival, I would take him in and bring a fresh stool sample to check for parasites. But it is important you have a really good vet that specializes in chameleons since bad advice can be harmful.

sharp229 said:

Kinyonga has much more experience than me so I would follow her advice. My guess would be that your chameleon is from PetSmart since I know they use those type of cages. Unfortunately it is quite common for chameleons from chain pet stores to have infections or parasites. I've dealt with this myself.

Do you have a good chameleon vet? If you want to ensure best chance of health and survival, I would take him in and bring a fresh stool sample to check for parasites. But it is important you have a really good vet that specializes in chameleons since bad advice can be harmful.

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the closest "GOOD" cham vet is 2 hours away… it was petco lol… all of his BMs have looked healthy, white-ish urates followed by firm brown feces… i think i saw a thread on here about how to do a fecal float

I know there are some people that do their own fecals, so if you have the right equipment and knowledge you could probably do it.

My veiled was in a large cage after I got him, but he would always like to squeeze into very tight spaces and his casque ended up getting bent to the side. Not near as severe as yours though. I've eliminated all the tight spots and it seems to now be straightening out. I know they store fat in the casque so it is possible that is related to why it is soft, but it could be something else also.

Does he have a good UVB light now? In the original picture he looks really bad. Hopefully he does not have any bacterial or fungal infections in his skin. Those would definitely require antibiotics or other prescription medication.

I guess Petco and Petsmart must vary by location, because Petco here in Washington seems to always keep chameleons in a large communal cage, whereas Petsmart has them in tiny cube tanks. I am not sure which one is worse...

What about calci worms? They are high in calcium and might help fatten him up