Need Help!

I just rescued a blind chameleon. its about 4 or five years old and just went blind a few weeks ago. it belonged to a friend of a friend and they were going to kill it if I didnt take it. I have never caredfor a chameleon before, so I am expecting a bit of a challenge.
He has a rather small cage, buti assume thats fine for a blind one. the bottom has about 2-3 inches of some type of soil, and there are numerous live plants in there.
He just kind of sits around most of the day, unless I hold him. then he climbs like crazy, often finding his awy to my shoulder, and just kind of sitting there.
I dont have any supplies for him really so I need to know what i should get. i was told to get a mister.

Any help would be appreciated!

Read this, hopefully it should help.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

This might help too. It's more straight forward. But the writer does forget to mention about having a UVB bulb.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/camothe/585-basic-care-veiled-chameleon.html

thanks, very helpful

Here is a good link on general care of chameleons
https://www.chameleonforums.com/general-care-true-chameleons-5943/

Also if he is not able to see I personally would remove the soil the chance of him accidently eating some of the substrate while trying to feed is a pretty likely situation. As for the enclosure feel free to post a picture everyone here will be more than willing to help you get him set up just right. Along with buying a spray bottle I would instal a drip system to give him a steady water source that he can go to the same spot to drink.

How is he feeding, are you hand feeding him or does he have enough sight to be able to still feed?

Any specific questions feel free to ask!

can you post some pics of him and what he has been housed in?

I got him like this last night. he has not eaten for me. i put a dish of dried crickets and mealworms in there. I tried feeding him by hand, but he simply wont open his mouth.
the cage looks terrible, and i dont know how to clean it out.

Your best bet is going to be to build or buy a screen cage that one is too small for him even if he is blind. You will want to remove the dirt and the chance of him eating dried crickets is not likely at all, they only usually eat things that have movement. He has to be eating some way if he is still alive and doesn't look all that bad can you get us a close up of his eyes? that plant in there is pothos which is one of the most popular chameleon plants he needs a bigger cage with some vines and plants just make it heavily planted look at the enclosures forum on here you will get plenty of ideas... What lighting did they give you with him?

all i got with him is that small fish tank of an enclosure. i will have to look into lighting. the owner wanted to keep all of the original stuff, so that was all I could get

you can just use a regular house light for heat. but your going to need a tube style uvb light for him. He also needs a screen enclosure probably no taller than 3 feet as he is blind and could fall and injure him self. quick question how does he eat?

i have not seen him eat, and the owner said they had to force feed him by simply shoving food in his mouth. i really don't have a lot of money to go out and buy supplies, but i wanted to help save this animal anyways.

When you say I should get a screen enclosure, is the whole thing screen? including the bottom? got any pics i can see about a simple set up for a screen enclosure?

the whole thing doesnt have to be screen, and no the bottom doesnt have to be either. The top should be screen and the 2 sides, that would be fine.

I'm sure that by reading through the care sheets you're gonna realise that chameleons are a quite demanding pet. They require a reasonable amount of money for a good setup, good food and supplementation. A lot of research is required also.

Make sure you're able to look after him properly. It'd be unfair to expect yourself to nurse him to full health without having proper funds.

If you decide to go for it I wish you all the best . You've come to the best place for advice!

That is what your friends were keeping him in? If so, shame on them. Poor thing. What a horrible life he has had. Can you post some pics ofhim and his eyes? Why do you say he is blind?

I commend you on the rescue, however like said earlier they require some attention. Add to that fact that yours is blind... even more attention.

A chameleon does not normally like to eat dead insects that may been why they were force feeding.

Good luck and I doubt anyone would hold it against you if you had second thoughts.

I would just order a cage from diy cages if you price the materials and time involved in it im lucky to have guy here in kansas city that builds them

here is a link to something I posted a few weeks back. These are what screen cages look like. You will have to get one smaller because if he is indeed blind and cannot see where to grip he will fall and you do not want something too tall then. https://www.chameleonforums.com/new-cham-room-83281/

I cant get a clear picture of his eyes. my camera just gets fuzzy when i do.
he doesnt seem to open them. i was told he was a perfectly healthy cham. until only a few weeks ago.
based on his movements i am convinced he is blind. he often stumbles and moves his arms in wide circles to find where he wants to move.

the owner had a bigger cage and full set up for him, but didn't want to give it to me so i could care for him.

man that owner was a plug. he doesn't take care of his cham and makes other people care for it themselves and is too cheap to give the other owner any of the equipment or any info. I'm no expert or any thing but you can pm me if you have any quetions. But it wont take long to find the right info, and welcome CF

PS I agree with everyone else so do what they say JK,

Don't forget to check the classifieds here... example there is a kit for sale that may work for your blind cham for 75.00.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/full-chameleon-reptile-set-up-75-00-a-82408/

Its kind of small but if it is blind it wouldn't need the height cause it could fall and harm itself more. So you would want something shorter and maybe even wider so it could move around some. /shrug

thats actually really helpful. thank you. I will have to look around my area.