Chameleon rescue - assistance needed

[josheboy]

Good evening everyone

Long story short: my girlfriend (a licensed vet tech) works at an emergency animal clinic here in Los Angeles. Some guy bought a chameleon at PetSmart (or one of the other chains) and noticed after 5 days it wasnt eating or drinking so he took it to the vet. I guess the guy didnt want to pay any bill, so it became a rescue.

Well, i've always wanted a chameleon, so my girlfriend brought it home today, after a couple days of being fostered by a vet. We're not sure what the situation with the original owner was, and we dont really know if there is something wrong with the chameleon or if there was something wrong with the owner's care. It has been drinking more and more and we finally got it to eat a cricket about an hour ago. Its pretty active and from what the foster vet told us, the color has been returning. So hopefully it will continue to improve.

Anyways, we started looking up on these forums and other web places about what type & sex this guy was, and we're aren't 100% sure. We're leaning toward it being a Senegal. So if you guys could help out, we'd really appreciate it, and it would help us provide better care for it


Here is a profile pic.

See how the spine goes into a split in the back of the head?

We were looking for the barb on the heel, in case it was a type of veiled cham. There is definitely a little bump, but if it isnt a veiled does it matter?

And here is just a pic of that adorable face!

So like I said, we could use a little help in determining type and sex of this guy/gal.

You might notice that its a little skinny, like I said this is a rescue animal (as are all of our 10+ animals in our house, lol) and we want nothing more than to nurse it back to health and to provide it with a wonderful home.

Hopefully this cham will get healthy again and these are the first of many pictures of this cham that I will share here on these boards. This seems like an amazing reference site and you all seem so passionate

Thanks

 

[Elizadolots]

I'm not qualified to make those kinds of guesses, but I wanted to say that they are remarkably resilient animals. They can come back from quite bad situations and thrive. It sounds like that's already started to happen and I'm so glad this animal has landed with you. It's a lovely creature and has a great expression!

 

[kirekameleon]

Here is a pic of a senegal, I have never seen one in person so I wont say. Our Petsmart must be boring they dont sell anything like that. I think he looks great and is a really cool cham. Definitely want to find temps, humidity, cage, size. Hopefully Senegal owners will chime in for you, but I think you may be right. Good catch man, I would want him too.

http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatr...-facts-and-the-care-of-the-senegal-chameleon/

Notice the split between the casque and the spine in the pic. I was looking at pictures of them and some seem to have a higher arched back than other, maybe that defines male or female but I am not sure, use the search and type in senegal and look for old postings, they will help you out.

I found this: Males tend to have a wider tail base and the colour patterns are usually more dramatic on females. They (in the proverbial sense) say that males are usually smaller too, but I wouldn't go solely on that premise.

(one guy thought he had a female until it tried mounting his finger)

Definitely one of the more difficult species to sex, and to keep


kire

 

[laurie]

Welcome to the forum. Hopefully we can help you get that guy healthy and keep it that way. Yes is a Senegal chameleon. It doesn't look all that bad for coming for a chain pet store. I hate to say this but ever an experienced keeper often has trouble keeping a senegal alive. maybe some of the people with lots of knowledge will chime in. I had senegals but it was several years ago. I send you a pm with some info that I hope helps.

 

[Trace]

It's not a Senegal Chameleon but, in fact, a Flapneck Chameleon. Senegals do not have occipital lobes - those little flaps at the back of the head. There are different sub-species of Flapneck Chameleons (Chamaeleo dilepis) and not all of them have tarsal spurs although I would be inclined to say yours is a male. Could you get a better, clearer pic of his back feet?

That is a wild caught specimen and should be treated as so. Lot's of water and plenty privacy intially. I have not noticed the Flaps to be fussy eaters so most bugs are accepted.

 

[laurie]

It's not a Senegal Chameleon but, in fact, a Flapneck Chameleon. Senegals do not have occipital lobes - those little flaps at the back of the head. There are different sub-species of Flapneck Chameleons (Chamaeleo dilepis) and not all of them have tarsal spurs although I would be inclined to say yours is a male. Could you get a better, clearer pic of his back feet?

That is a wild caught specimen and should be treated as so. Lot's of water and plenty privacy intially. I have not noticed the Flaps to be fussy eaters so most bugs are accepted.

Man I hate that, i looked for five minutes comparing pictures and finally decided it was a senegal. For the rest of you Trust what TRACE says. Sadly I will put money on her knowing a lot more on this than I do.

 

[josheboy]

Hey Trace, I think you're right about it being a flap neck. I just looked up a ton of pictures and they do have that distinctive headflap. Thanks!

As for the sex, the heel spur on this one is more like a tiny tiny little bump, and only on the back feet. I looked for the bump/bulge at the base of the tail but didnt see one. Of course, if its skinny from being malnourished by the previous owner, I would imagine that it might be hard to see something like that until its healthy again.

It still wont eat though. I tried another cricket today and it just looked at it. The only reason why we were able to get it to eat last night is because we had to open its mouth (gently of course, my gf has 17 years vet tech experience and has "the touch") and put one in there. It ate it right away, so not sure whats going on with it.

Another theory is that it might have a tongue problem. It gets its mouth close to the water drops and wont grab any food.

My gf has some special blended syringe food that we'll maybe try tonight if it still isnt eating.

We have it housed in a mesh enclosure, we have a pump hand mister, theres branches to climb in there, and a 5.0 uvb light as well. its summer here in LA so avg room temp is in the 80s, 90s on super hot days, and night gets down to mid 60s. we've got a cricket enclosure and we're gut loading them, and we have some of the suppliment powder as well.

Anyways, I really appreciate everyone's feedback. I'm glad I found this site

 

[Trace]

For the most part I kept my Flapneck Chameleons liked a Veiled – same temps and watering but with a little higher humidity. Here is one of the better Veiled caresheets around if you haven’t read it: http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/ I have not found a decent one for the dilepis so if you have further questions please don’t be shy. I’m waffling about the sex of yours; as I mentioned not all the species/sub-species have the telltale tarsal spur but I have found the males do have a hemipenal bulge that is not present on yours. That might just be because s/he is skinny and malnourished.

I’m not surprised that s/he isn’t eating. S/he was once happily living in a tree in Africa not too long ago. When I’m dealing with wild caught specimens like yours I tend to focus more on watering than feeding and deworming initially. Give her/him a good long shower once a day for a few days and this will certainly help to acclimate. House flies and green bugs usually get most picky eaters to take food if you have access to those. Dusting with Spirulina makes any normal brown bug a tasty shade of green too. S/he definitely has not had a pleasant time during the importation process and entry into the pet trade so giving her a little privacy will be a big help.

Good luck!

 

[kinyonga]

Try not to handle her too much or bother her too much...so flaps are quite "shy".

 

[chameleoman]

wut vet do u work at i live in LA???

 

[melric]

My first guess was flapneck. That's all I got. Hope it gets better soon.

 

[josheboy]

Sad news. It didn't make it

Temp/light/mist was right. But he/she just wouldbt eat. We had to practically force feed it, but it still wouldnt eat.

And it seemed to be making progress too

Thanks for all the advice everyone. We tried

 

[Trace]

Aw dang! I was hoping she would have made it. Sadly it's not an uncommon story with the wild caught specimens.

I hope this experience doesn't sour you from owning a chameleon again in the future. A nice captive bred animal is far less challenging than this one.

Cheers,
T

 

[josheboy]

Like I said in my first post, I've always wanted one. So I'm definitely interested in another one.

Now I have some time do some research to see which type I would like to get and make sure all my ducks are in a row before I bring it home instead of stressing to get everything perfect right away like with this guy. I was stressed, I imagine the cham was stressed even more

Thanks again for your assistance, Trace