Does my chameleon look okay
- Thread starter velazquezleslie
- Start date
velazquezleslie
New Member
Is there a way i can cure the mbd without taking him to a vet and how do i stop it from getting worse
Kristen99
Avid Member
No he will most likely die a sad and miserable death if you do not get him medical attention soon.
Please fill out the help form there may be flaws in your husbandry that need to be corrected.
There are lots of people here willing to help and support you through this.
Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.
Chameleon Info:
Cage Info:
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
--------------
Please Note:
Please fill out the help form there may be flaws in your husbandry that need to be corrected.
There are lots of people here willing to help and support you through this.
Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
- Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
- Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
- Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
- Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
- Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
- History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
- Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
- Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
- Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
- Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
- Location - Where are you geographically located?
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
--------------
Please Note:
- The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
- Photos can be very helpful.
velazquezleslie
New Member
- A male veiled chameleon has been in my care for about 7-8 months
- Maybe 1-2 a week?
- I only feed my chameleon crickets 2 a day 2 in the morning cause i go to school and one more ay 8-9:00 pm
- I have only dusted my crickets like 5 times I used zoo med repti calcium
- I spray leaves 2 times a day or more if i can
- Never been tested for parasites its poop is brown and white
- No history?
- Cage: zoo med 16x16x30 screen
- Zoo med lights heat and uvb i turn off uvb at night
- I have a thermometer in the cage temp at day is usually 85 and night 75 around there
- No live plants but i do use live branches from a fruit tree i cut off
- My cage is hanging from my roof kinda near air vent
- I live in Miami Florida
Attachments
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
Oh my your chameleon has MBD! When was the last time you changed out uvb bulb? You should also be using 5.0 or 10.0 linear bulb for uvb. So you dusted your crickets "like 5 times" since you owned him? Also your poor chameleon can not even get underneath his basking and uvb light . You shoukd have a branch running horizontally beneath about 6-7 inches.
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
Please READ this carefully and take the necessary steps to help your chameleon. Take him out in the sun if your climate allows. https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...-like-how-it-happens-and-how-to-fix-it.95071/
Lennoncham
Chameleon Enthusiast
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- 3 crickets a day is not nearly enough. A Cham his age should be eating about 10 crickets every other day. You should be gutloading the crickets before feeding to him. - you should be lightly dusting you crickets at most feedings with a phosphorus free calcium powder w/o d3. A phosphorus free calcium powered w / d3 every two weeks. And a multi vitamin every two weeks. (I'm not supprised he had mbd)
- You should switch the lights to a tube uvb light and a white household bulb for basking. There should be no lights on at night.
- You need way more vines/ sticks and plants in there so he can have places to roam and hide. Live plants also help maintain humidity.
- Did you properly clean the branches before you put them in his cage?
Here's a link to the health section.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/health/
You need to take him to the vet so he can get treated asap.
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
Also please look at some enclosure threads on how to set up your cage properly. No lights at night either! You need way more foliage and vines and branches. There is not enough and that is why your chameleon is clinging to the sides of the cage. Here is one of my cages to give e you an idea what it should look like
Attachments
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
And by raising your light up like that(they should be directly on screen) you are depriving your chameleon even more of the uvb he should be getting. He basically has gotten no uvb and so little calcium you have caused him to develop MBD. Pkease take him to a vet asap.
Syreptyon
Chameleon Enthusiast
There are a lot of changes you need to make (ASAP) if he is going to make it. Even if you do make these changes, though, he 100% definitely needs to see a vet. You simply cannot cure his condition on your own.
First of all, you are not feeding him nearly enough. He is very, very small for his age which indicates to me that he is malnourished. You should probably still be feeding him 8-12 crickets every day. Definitely do not feed him any crickets late at night like you currently are. They should not eat that soon before bed as they will not have time to digest. You should only feed early in the day.
Your supplement schedule needs a complete overhaul. The recommend schedule is as follows: dust all feeders with a phosphorous-free calcium powder without D3 every day, dust with a phosphorous-free calcium powder with D3 twice a month, and with a multivitamin twice a month as well. The lack of calcium you have been providing has almost certainly contributed to the severity of his MBD. Those legs are very worrisome looking to me.
You spray leaves twice a day "if you can"? What if you can't? How then do you provide water? When you do mist, how long do you do it for? It should be for at least 2-3 minutes every time. You also failed to comment on your humidity. What is the humidity throughout his cage before and after misting? How do you measure this? Your leaving it out makes me worry that you may not bee keeping track.
Replace the compact UVB light you are using with a linear bulb like a Reptisun or Arcadia.
You say you turn off the UVB at night, but what about the heat lamp?? You absolutely must turn the heat bulb off at night, too, or your chameleon will not be able to rest properly.
Finally, your enclosure needs a large amount of additional foliage (preferably real, live plants which also help with humidity). Your chameleon has very few places to hide as it is and this will contribute to stress which contributes to poor health. Equally importantly, you need to add many horizontal branches/vines/walkways for him at all different elevations in his enclosure, These are how he gets around and he currently has very limited surface area to comfortably walk around on. In addition, some of these walkways need to be underneath his basking light in order for him to actually benefit from the heat it produces.
First of all, you are not feeding him nearly enough. He is very, very small for his age which indicates to me that he is malnourished. You should probably still be feeding him 8-12 crickets every day. Definitely do not feed him any crickets late at night like you currently are. They should not eat that soon before bed as they will not have time to digest. You should only feed early in the day.
Your supplement schedule needs a complete overhaul. The recommend schedule is as follows: dust all feeders with a phosphorous-free calcium powder without D3 every day, dust with a phosphorous-free calcium powder with D3 twice a month, and with a multivitamin twice a month as well. The lack of calcium you have been providing has almost certainly contributed to the severity of his MBD. Those legs are very worrisome looking to me.
You spray leaves twice a day "if you can"? What if you can't? How then do you provide water? When you do mist, how long do you do it for? It should be for at least 2-3 minutes every time. You also failed to comment on your humidity. What is the humidity throughout his cage before and after misting? How do you measure this? Your leaving it out makes me worry that you may not bee keeping track.
Replace the compact UVB light you are using with a linear bulb like a Reptisun or Arcadia.
You say you turn off the UVB at night, but what about the heat lamp?? You absolutely must turn the heat bulb off at night, too, or your chameleon will not be able to rest properly.
Finally, your enclosure needs a large amount of additional foliage (preferably real, live plants which also help with humidity). Your chameleon has very few places to hide as it is and this will contribute to stress which contributes to poor health. Equally importantly, you need to add many horizontal branches/vines/walkways for him at all different elevations in his enclosure, These are how he gets around and he currently has very limited surface area to comfortably walk around on. In addition, some of these walkways need to be underneath his basking light in order for him to actually benefit from the heat it produces.
Graves923
Chameleon Enthusiast
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/water/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/enclosures/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/lighting/
Read through these articles. You need to make some drastic changes to your care if this guy is going to survive. Education is the best tool to have when caring for these creatures.
First, nutrition:
Chameleons need to be fed as much as they can eat in about 5 minutes. At that age, he should be eating close to 15 crickets per day. Feed during the first half of the day since they need time to bask in order to digest properly.
Second, Supplements:
He NEEDS atleast 3 typles of supplements.
- Phosphorous free plain Calcium powder should be used lightly during every feeding.
- Calcium with Vitamin D3 which should be used lightly at most twice per month.
- Multivitamin powder which is used lightly twice per month.
These are extremely important for you chameleons overall health, especially his bone health.
Third, Lighting:
Proper heat and UVB lighting is required. A basking bulb that outputs the proper temperature is needed so the chameleon can warm up, boost digestion and metabolism.
UVB is needed to allow the chameleon to create and use Vitamin D3. Chameleons produce their own D3 out in the wild under the bright, strong sun. In captivity, they dont always have access to the suns unfiltered light so we use UVB bulbs to simulate the UVB radiation from the sun. Unfortunately, these bulbs are not strong enough which is why we supplement D3 into their diet.
Unfortunately, MBD cannot be cured but it can be stopped from progressing further.
I recommend seeing a vet with chameleon experience and making these changes that I, along with the members above, have suggested. Read the articles I posted. Take your time so you understand each section and dont be afraid to ask questions. We are here to help you and your chameleon out
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/water/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/enclosures/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/lighting/
Read through these articles. You need to make some drastic changes to your care if this guy is going to survive. Education is the best tool to have when caring for these creatures.
First, nutrition:
Chameleons need to be fed as much as they can eat in about 5 minutes. At that age, he should be eating close to 15 crickets per day. Feed during the first half of the day since they need time to bask in order to digest properly.
Second, Supplements:
He NEEDS atleast 3 typles of supplements.
- Phosphorous free plain Calcium powder should be used lightly during every feeding.
- Calcium with Vitamin D3 which should be used lightly at most twice per month.
- Multivitamin powder which is used lightly twice per month.
These are extremely important for you chameleons overall health, especially his bone health.
Third, Lighting:
Proper heat and UVB lighting is required. A basking bulb that outputs the proper temperature is needed so the chameleon can warm up, boost digestion and metabolism.
UVB is needed to allow the chameleon to create and use Vitamin D3. Chameleons produce their own D3 out in the wild under the bright, strong sun. In captivity, they dont always have access to the suns unfiltered light so we use UVB bulbs to simulate the UVB radiation from the sun. Unfortunately, these bulbs are not strong enough which is why we supplement D3 into their diet.
Unfortunately, MBD cannot be cured but it can be stopped from progressing further.
I recommend seeing a vet with chameleon experience and making these changes that I, along with the members above, have suggested. Read the articles I posted. Take your time so you understand each section and dont be afraid to ask questions. We are here to help you and your chameleon out
kayleighbrodin
New Member
I love your cage!
