Adoptee - help?

[unknown]

A girl I know, works in a petshop had a Chameleon surrendered to her. She asked if I could take him in since I have chameleon experience. She was going to keep him, but she is going through renovations in her house and it is a poor environment for him to be in.

SHe sent me photos:

I don't know anything of the chameleon's history, but I will be changing a few things, obviously. He is apparently 3-4 years old.

Do his limbs look ok?

I am not sure what his supplement schedule was ( i will ask her tonight), but should it be ok with weekly calcium w/o d3 and once a month calcium with d3?

She said he was only eating crickets and she gives him lettuce sometimes.

He's in a 100 gallon flexarium, with fake plants (I will def. get some real plants). It looks like she's using a coil flourescent bulb - I wont be using that since I still have the light setup from Bert, the bulb is only a couple of months old.

He's coming to me on Sunday. I will post a more detailed look at his enclosure and you guys can give me some tips!

Thank you for your help

 

[Julirs]

He looks fine. Get the lights out of the cage, get some live plants to up his humidity as he does look a bit on the dry side, get him on regular supplementation and good gut loaded feeders.

 

[draetish]

Not knowing anything about his history or prior care is like shooting in the dark. However, he does not look all that bad so he did have some care. If it were me, the first thing I would do is give him a shower. Place him on a plant in the tub and point the shower against the wall so you are not drowning him. Watch him to see if he starts freaking out or if he is drinking. The water should be cooler than warm to us, but not "cold". If he starts holding his head straight up, he's done. Let him chill for a couple of days to get use to his new surroundings. I would supplement with calcium no D3 every other day, vitamins once a week and D3 twice a month for now.

 

[laurie]

Follow Jili's advice but also get rid of the compact uvb bulb and get a long tube type.

 

[unknown]

I was definitely thinking a shower would do him some good

And I do have a reptisun 5.0 from my previous chameleon still, so I will be using that. It's only about 2-3 months old so I have a few more months I can get out of it.

Thanks Guys! I will post pictures of him post-shower on sunday

 

[unknown]

Well, he has arrived!

I think I'm going to name him Fluffy.

He is not totally aggressive, but is stressed out when I am near the cage. The girl said she tried to "help" his shedding, so I can see that could cause some of his fear. I had to do A LOT of cleaning; some parts of his vines were caked in poop. gross.

He got a nice shower for about 20 minutes and he drank for about 15 minutes of it!

The reptarium is in pretty rough shape, so I am going to order a cage from LLL on my next pay day. I plan on adding some live plants and I think he'll be set!

He is super cute, his legs are SO LONG.

The girl said he sheds all the time, which she heard was a sign of stress, since she's been renovating and such around him (poor guy) I hope that he will be much happier in his own private room without all the commotion of her basement.

Basically, I have hopes that he will be happy and stress-free in a couple of weeks once he learns that his new home is happy and calm and CLEAN