Shayna is my first reptile. She is a veiled chameleon, hatched around March 2011, and acquired in August.
For a month or so she was housed in an 18x18x30 mesh cage with 5 different live plants. Soon she was eating too much philodendron for my taste, and all live plants except her mini ficus tree were removed and replaced with a veritable jungle of plastic and wood.
Escalating problems with her motor coordination led to many changes in her diet and care. A UVB 5.0 bulb was replaced with a UVB 10.0; her supplementation routine went from dusting crickets with multivitamin daily, to Ca with high D3 levels, to Ca with NO D3 daily, and occasional multivit (with some D3, Ca, plus the rest of the multivitamin cast) and occasional Ca with some D3. Confusing, but we'll see if it works long term.
Her coordination issues were tentatively diagnosed as MBD. Her hind legs would swing too high, and she ended up grabbing her own forelegs to the point of being a raw wound. When she grabbed she seemed unable to figure out how to free herself, and she would fall. I rescued her, carefully pried her toes out of her arms (later she would grab her own flanks this way too) and set her back on a branch, making sure each foot was back on a branch.
Infrequently Shayna went for a few days with minimal problems, then it would return to one degree or another. As of this writing she is doing very well, and has not needed to be rescued for three days. I have seen marked improvement in her coordination, and have found her on vines she hadn't explored before as well as on a new basking branch.
More details to follow. I've been meaning to start a blog simply to follow her progress.
As of 11/23/11 she weighed 41 grams. In October she was 30g, so I have proof she's growing!
For a month or so she was housed in an 18x18x30 mesh cage with 5 different live plants. Soon she was eating too much philodendron for my taste, and all live plants except her mini ficus tree were removed and replaced with a veritable jungle of plastic and wood.
Escalating problems with her motor coordination led to many changes in her diet and care. A UVB 5.0 bulb was replaced with a UVB 10.0; her supplementation routine went from dusting crickets with multivitamin daily, to Ca with high D3 levels, to Ca with NO D3 daily, and occasional multivit (with some D3, Ca, plus the rest of the multivitamin cast) and occasional Ca with some D3. Confusing, but we'll see if it works long term.
Her coordination issues were tentatively diagnosed as MBD. Her hind legs would swing too high, and she ended up grabbing her own forelegs to the point of being a raw wound. When she grabbed she seemed unable to figure out how to free herself, and she would fall. I rescued her, carefully pried her toes out of her arms (later she would grab her own flanks this way too) and set her back on a branch, making sure each foot was back on a branch.
Infrequently Shayna went for a few days with minimal problems, then it would return to one degree or another. As of this writing she is doing very well, and has not needed to be rescued for three days. I have seen marked improvement in her coordination, and have found her on vines she hadn't explored before as well as on a new basking branch.
More details to follow. I've been meaning to start a blog simply to follow her progress.
As of 11/23/11 she weighed 41 grams. In October she was 30g, so I have proof she's growing!
