Cham with poor balance - plant question!

Shayna

New Member
I took in a chameleon who had severe tail rot and lost her tail. She is out of her hospital set up now and is in a large Repti Breeze enclosure. I am looking to use some live plants or at least one plant with many branches to climb on. Due to her tail loss, she has poor balance and is very wobbly on anything thin, so I am wondering what plants would be best to use for her?

Any info is appreciated! :)
 
hard to know without knowing her age. sorry to hear that about your cham, it was very nice of you to take her in.
 
She is an adult Jackson's. I'm not sure of her age as she was kind of just a drop off, so I don't know much about her. I was told she is about 3 years old but that was a guess.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum!

Poor girlie! Did she lose all of the tail or just a good section of it?

I have a panther chameleon that was in a similar boat and is missing half his tail. But I've opted for using sturdy branches as the main "structure" in his cage and add plants just for cover. He ends up using the branches extensively. But a plant that is good, in my opinion, because it tends to have sturdier branches is the umbrella plant. Especially for a little Jackson's, it should hold her weight well. But definitely look into using branches or dowel rods as support throughout the cage, she'll feel more stable on them.

Here's what my cage looks like for him:

yywx.jpg
 
How long did it take you to get that pothos plant to have so many vines? I know my mom had one that had that many vines and the plant was like 7 years old!
Hi and welcome to the forum!

Poor girlie! Did she lose all of the tail or just a good section of it?

I have a panther chameleon that was in a similar boat and is missing half his tail. But I've opted for using sturdy branches as the main "structure" in his cage and add plants just for cover. He ends up using the branches extensively. But a plant that is good, in my opinion, because it tends to have sturdier branches is the umbrella plant. Especially for a little Jackson's, it should hold her weight well. But definitely look into using branches or dowel rods as support throughout the cage, she'll feel more stable on them.

Here's what my cage looks like for him:

yywx.jpg
 
I have an umbrella plant for my female jacksons to, it has alot of leaves and branches allowing for many places to grab, but inside her large enclosure it just looks like a little plant but I always see her climbing through it :)
 
How long did it take you to get that pothos plant to have so many vines? I know my mom had one that had that many vines and the plant was like 7 years old!

Just a few months! Because the plant was hanging up high by the lights and always got misted by the Mistking nozzles, it's grown like, well, a weed! I did buy a large one to begin with, but it was like a ball, so all those long vines grew after I got it.

Edit - And by "few" I mean 3-4 months. So not very long.
 
Awesome, I need to put mine closer to the top, it looks like a bunch of leaves coming out of a little pot ha ha ha thanks :)
 
She is missing a good chunk of her tail. I'll attach a photo.
Thanks for the advice! I will shop around and see what I can find. :)
1085116_10153066493580363_146211395_o.jpg
 
She is missing a good chunk of her tail. I'll attach a photo.
Thanks for the advice! I will shop around and see what I can find. :)
View attachment 83836

At first I was going to say that does not look like a female jacksons at all.

Now I realize it looks like she has had several thermal burns along her back.

This is generally what a female jacksons looks like.

3583


Female%20Chameleon1%20102208.jpg


The chameleon looks more like a mellers if anything. Maybe it's a jacksons but honestly it does not look like it.

Lizard+Meller's+Chameleon.jpg
 
Thanks! I thought the same thing when I saw her, but I am fairly new to chameleons so I wouldn't dare guess a species.
 
Welcome to the forums. Olimpia gave you some excellent advise. I would keep her in a short cage with plenty of vines and branches for her to hold on to. I would also recommend covering the bottom of the cage with Pothos to cushion her fall. I am terrible at identifying species but I believe you have a flap neck. A vet visit with a good chameleon vet would be a good idea.
 
I was going to say my next guess was flapneck but the spine looks burnt so i cant tell :(

Anyway I hope you can research some flapneck care sheets to give it good care
 
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