Wild Chameleon Convalescence

Recently, upon returning home, I found this poor chameleon on our doorstep. It was seemingly exhausted and dragged its rear right leg when attempting to move. It looked as though it had gone a couple rounds with a mongoose or perhaps a cat (we have no pets).



I have little to no knowledge of the care of chameleons (other than what I have read about on the net), but would like to be able to return this creature to the wild with a good chance of survival.



You will notice the wounds along the back, on the hip joint of the right rear leg and the severe damage to the tail. I presume the creature is female as the horns are small - though as already mentioned I am no expert. Turns out I really am no expert, she is a male! Corrections made below to avoid confusion.



Steps taken so far:
Environment: Hawaii (Kona) so 80F during the day, 65F at night, cage placed so that a portion gets sun during the day, and the rest is shaded. Outside all the time.He basks daily.
Cage: converted homemade cylindrical open mesh sieve 30" high, 18" diameter with local foliage top to bottom. Separate tank feeding enclosure.
Feeding: Local roaches, flying insects, supplemented with crickets. He will take the roaches as first preference followed by the crickets. He eats once every other day and takes 4 insects per feeding. Each feeding is about 30 minutes long and then he is transferred back to the cage.
Watering: I spray the foliage in the cage while he is eating in the feeding enclosure. He drinks upon returning to the cage.



Handling: None. He is transferred to the feeding enclosure from the cage on a stick, and back again in the same manner.

It is now 5 days later and the chameleon has complete use of all limbs other than her tail. The blackened part of the tail has extended along its length.

My questions are:
1. What else should I be doing (or should have done already)?
2. What is the prognosis for the tail?
3. What are the signs that the creature is ready to be released to the wild?
4. Are there any other details that I need to provide to answer the above?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help that you can provide.

fmblog said:

Recently, upon returning home, I found this poor chameleon on our doorstep. It was seemingly exhausted and dragged its rear right leg when attempting to move. It looked as though it had gone a couple rounds with a mongoose or perhaps a cat (we have no pets).

I have little to no knowledge of the care of chameleons (other than what I have read about on the net), but would like to be able to return this creature to the wild with a good chance of survival.

You will notice the wounds along the back, on the hip joint of the right rear leg and the severe damage to the tail. I presume the creature is female as the horns are small - though as already mentioned I am no expert.

Steps taken so far:
Environment: Hawaii (Kona) so 80F during the day, 65F at night, cage placed so that a portion gets sun during the day, and the rest is shaded. Outside all the time. She basks daily.
Cage: converted homemade cylindrical open mesh sieve 30" high, 18" diameter with local foliage top to bottom. Separate tank feeding enclosure.
Feeding: Local roaches, flying insects, supplemented with crickets. She will take the roaches as first preference followed by the crickets. She eats once every other day and takes 4 insects per feeding. Each feeding is about 30 minutes long and then she is transferred back to the cage.
Watering: I spray the foliage in the cage while she is eating in the feeding enclosure. She drinks upon returning to the cage.

Handling: None. She is transferred to the feeding enclosure from the cage on a stick, and back again in the same manner.

It is now 5 days later and the chameleon has complete use of all limbs other than her tail. The blackened part of the tail has extended along its length.

My questions are:
1. What else should I be doing (or should have done already)?
2. What is the prognosis for the tail?
3. What are the signs that the creature is ready to be released to the wild?
4. Are there any other details that I need to provide to answer the above?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help that you can provide.

Click to expand...

sorry\ for\ slashes\ broken\ computer.

first\ off\ welcome\ to\ the\ forums.\ wish\ it\ was\ on\ a\ better\ note.
idk\ what\ species\ you\ have\ but\ that\ tail\ looks\ like\ its\ permatly\ da6maged\ and\ that\ cha6m\ may\ not\ live.\ after\ someone\ identifies\ the\ species\ look\ up\ care.\ make\ sure\ you\ learn\ cham\ basics\ -lights\,water\,vitiams\,-

That is a male Jackson chameleon as it looks to me.

Wow poor chameleon, that might be a Jackson's chameleon....but I am no expert. Its probably a young chameleon because the horns are small. How big is it?

Best thing to do would be take it to a vet or else care for it as your own, until its fully healed. But those marks look pretty bad. Tail and leg are quite important to keep those buggers out of trouble + being able to eat to survive. Tail may not heal, I am not an expert. Good Luck!

It is also very young about 3 months of age. It might not be a bad idea for a new pet for you as it is so young.

I agree. Male Jackson. A young little guinea females wont have horns at all.

Have you tried looking for a good reptile vet.?

Welcome to the forums. I'm sorry its on a rather sad note. Well try our best to help you, and there's a lot more experienced members who can help you even more.

In the chameleon health group there's a how to ask for help thread, fill that out and we can help you and the little man even more

Thanks for the quick response here are some more details in answer:
1) I assume that it is a Jackson, given that I am not aware of any other wild species in this location (West Hawaii).
2) The chameleon is 3" long (tip of nose to where the tail starts).
3) It is not my intent that the chameleon be kept as a pet - unless the consensus is that it could not survive in the wild.

fmblog said:

My questions are:
1. What else should I be doing (or should have done already)?
Just make sure he gets plenty of water.
2. What is the prognosis for the tail?
Cant say really. If the wounds are kept clean, and infection controled, he could regain full use of it(depending on the severity of the damage).
3. What are the signs that the creature is ready to be released to the wild?
Its ready now. If you want to give it the best odds for survival, I would wait until the open wounds heal.
4. Are there any other details that I need to provide to answer the above?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help that you can provide.

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Welcome to CF!
Is great to have you here.
The chameleon is a Jacksonii Xanthopholus.
It is male.
4-5ish months old.

The lack of usability of the tail could be indefinite.
If enough of it is physically still there, and infection is controlled, it will heal in time.

Thank you for caring for him!
The pictures are great!

I am going to say that is a male Jackson. You can tell because the little guy has a bump in the 3rd picture at the base of the tail. Hope this helps!

Wild Chameleon Convalescence - Health

Chameleon Info:
Species - Jackson
Sex - Male
Age - 3-5 months (as estimated by forum members)
How long has it been in your care - 5 days
How often do you handle your chameleon? - Never directly, transferred from cage to feeding enclosure with a branch every other day.
What are you feeding your cham? local soft body roaches, flying insects and store bought crickets if needed.
What amount? until he eats no more, which is 4 every other day.
What is the schedule? Every other day
How are you gut-loading your feeders? wild roaches and flying insects (we spray no insecticides on the property), crickets are store bought (Petco)
Supplements - none
What kind of watering technique do you use? - Foliage dowsing
How often and how long to you mist? Every other day, wetting as a rain shower would.
Do you see your chameleon drinking? Yes.
Fecal Description - Single Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings.
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? no
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Wild animal found on doorstep, injured, five days ago.


Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen
What are the dimensions? 30" tall, 18"diameter
Lighting - natural
Temperature - 80F daytime with a portion of the cage in direct sunlight, and the rest shaded.
Lowest overnight temp? 65F
How do you measure these temps? the weather channel
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? 80%
How are you creating and maintaining these levels? natural
What do you use to measure humidity? the weather channel
Plants - Are you using live plants? yes
If so, what kind. From the garden: Ti and Be-still
Placement - Where is your cage located? outdoors
Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? no
At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 5'
Location - Where are you geographically located? Hawaii

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
The creature was badly injured when found. The wounds are still quite visible, though initially the chameleon could not use its right rear leg it now does so with apparent ease.
Are there any actions I can take to ensure that they do not become infected?
What is the likely prognosis for the tail?
Can the creature survive in the wild with no/limited use of the tail?

It would likely be a good idea if the chameleon was treated with an antibiotic to ensure that it hasn't picked up any bacteria...but with its small size that might be hard. It could appear to recover but if there is bacteria it could kill the chameleon in the end.

As for the tail...it looks like the end of it is going necrotic and would eventually fall off. It should be fine without the end part of its tail though.

You will have to make a choice between getting it some antibiotics or just helping it until it appears to have recovered and release it again I suppose. It was very good of you to take it in and give it a chance either way! Hope it goes okay for the little Jackson's!

Welcome to the chameleon forum. You wanting to put that Jackson back in the wild is wonderful. You have a wonderful expert on the island with you. Her name is Mary Lovein (yes that is spelled correctly ) She lives on the slopes of Mount Hualalai, above Kailua-Kona. You can give her a call at her studio, she will know how to tell you to get it back in the wild, or if it needs a safe place, maybe she would let it live with the large colony of free jacksons that she see's in her garden every day. After it heals well, i personally think putting it back in the wild is the right thing to do. That baby is small so it may be a while before it heals and can go back to the wild, perhaps a month or 2. But i am far form having knowledge in that area. Your pictures are top quality, thanks for sharing. We will be here to help you get things set for the little guy.

My chameleon's tail looked like that, the gangreen spread up his tail and we had to amputate or it would have spread to his whole body. Unfortunately he is wild and to release back into the wild you can't amputate, BUT you can try silver silvadine cream to try and stop the fungus. This help My boy a lot after his surgery and the gangreen kept spreading. Then teh dead portion should fall off in time. If you want to try it I might be able to ship the rest of mine to you.

Follow-up:

So there I was removing branches from a tree threatening to over hang our roof when look who fell out!

Original shot from two years ago


Current image


The damage to the tail has recovered completely except for the seemingly fused portion.
On closer inspection, though the tail damage looks to be identical it is a little over two years later and this chameleon is about 7" long (nose to tip of tail) and its horns are much less pronounced - are they in fact one and the same?

If so, it would seem that chameleons are very territorial - this tree is only 15' from the lanai where it recuperated!

Holy xantholophus! What a great surprise!

Thanks so much for the follow up. I think the cham likes you. It can always be a wild cham that you see and feed once in a while. I know people in Hawaii who do that. I would enjoy seeing chams living in the wild. It was great when you nursed it to health, now we know you put a healthy cham back into the wild. Well done.

Like Laurie said, thanks for the follow up Nice to see such an encouraging story. Glad the cham is ok.

The tail looks about right, but in the original picture it's a boy w horns and I do not see any horns in the new picture.

pigglett79 said:

The tail looks about right, but in the original picture it's a boy w horns and I do not see any horns in the new picture.

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Yeah, tails don't grow back. Would make for a great "tale", but these are two different animals.

pigglett79 said:

The tail looks about right, but in the original picture it's a boy w horns and I do not see any horns in the new picture.

Click to expand...

It got a sex change along with cosmetic surgery because it was conflicted about its sexual orientation. Those vets in Hawaii are crazy good.