Enclosure

[Sang]

hey, i want to make sure you know, that little veiled has a case of MBD.. his front arm has definate bowing/signs of MBD along with his casque, it is slightly mishaped. i am corncerned on his Overall health prior to you obtaining this animal.


also ,did i not see a UVB style lighting somewere on your enclosure?, if you have not designed this into your enclosure, you really need to.

 

[elefntkpr]

hey, i want to make sure you know, that little veiled has a case of MBD.. his front arm has definate bowing/signs of MBD along with his casque, it is slightly mishaped. i am corncerned on his Overall health prior to you obtaining this animal.


also ,did i not see a UVB style lighting somewere on your enclosure?, if you have not designed this into your enclosure, you really need to.

Just got through reading up on MBD...this pleases me not at all but I'm very glad I posted a picture and you caught this. We're feeding him calcium enriched crickets (gut loaded) but we're getting supplement tomorrow now.

I do have a UVB incandescent bulb but I keep reading where the flourescent variety was recommended over the one I have so I was planning on getting one tomorrow as well.

As for his handling before we got him god only knows. My wife grooms dogs at petsmart and he came in a unexpected shipment and they had no room for him on display. He was in some small plastic container you'd expect to find bait in. Rather than see him spend a night in there then be shipped away my wife spent our supper money for the next few weeks to buy him. Pet stores are reknowned for obtaining their stock from less than honorable people so again I can only imagine.

Thanks again for the heads up, he'll be getting some serious attention for this.

 

[Sang]

OK, i am glad you are able to catch this, as the MBD appears to be far along on him, i really reccomend a vet visit, but if that is not ideal to you right now, please do it sooner then later.


as for not putting him on dispaly in the store, the store new better then to sell an ill animal.

hopefully you can do him some good. liquid calcium drops might help as well, many other forum members can help you far better then me, as my experience with MBD cases are limited.


so once again, wouldn't hurt to see a veterinarian asap.

 

[elefntkpr]

oh no, he is definetely seeing the vet. i just wanted to get him started asap on the suppliments until i could get him there.

 

[elefntkpr]

Chameleon is doing better, although until she was I had no idea she was that bad...shame.
Calcium glubionate which is hell to administer, Rep Cal Calcium/VitD3 and Herptivite dustings and a flourescent 5.0 UVB light (twist light removed as soon as I stumbled on that thread today too) and a better source of heat were all recommendations of the vet. She seems to be reacting well. I moved the enclosure in the house and monitored the humidity and temps for a day. Got everything adjusted and she's now moved in. I was ready to take her out after 12 hours because she parked in a corner and didn't move. But then she surprised me and took off exploring. She found her basking spot, the water source and some favorite hiding spots. She also satisfied my concerns about feeding. She's having no problem finding the food we're putting in there for her.
Thanks so much for all the help and advice everyone has given and our chameleon thanks you too.

 

[gmotdot]

... she's now moved in.

There is no way you allowed 30 days for that enclosure cure and the smell to clear... That's just asking for more issues...

Also, you should remove whatever substrate you have in there...

 

[elefntkpr]

There is no way you allowed 30 days for that enclosure cure and the smell to clear... That's just asking for more issues...

Actually there is but I've never made it clear when I started the cage so no one could have known. We got the chameleon the last week of August and I started the cage that weekend. The stain and polyurethane was sprayed on all the wood before I assembled the cage the first of September. After my post on the 19th I used left over 1x2's to extend the ceiling to 40". I wanted to go to 48" like most had done but I only had enough left over to manage 40". The morter backdrop has only had 3 weeks to dry but I felt that was plenty since it's so thin.

Also, you should remove whatever substrate you have in there...

I have read the arguments for and against floor coverings but I added sphagnum moss to experiment with humidity retention. It's already gone whereas I'm probably just going to drop in a plant.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Pure]

Spragnum is about the only "substrate" you can use. it does not cause impaction if the cham accedently eats it. My only concern would be it limiting your ability to ceep the cage clean. But several members here use it and have no issues. I know plenty others use it as a topper on the soil of their plants.

On the stain, wille there is some smell left after a week it's minute and not enough that I would worry about.

I personally think people over react a tad on the whole VOC thing. The risk is really for people who have long term exposure to it on large scales. What little exposure your cham gets from a cage isn't something I would worry too much about.

 

[jheitz]

Hey!! The enclosure looks great!!! Glad to hear your little one is doing better. I hear what your saying about plants, I killed my schefllera!!!!! Gotta go plant shopping...again!!!! Best of luck with your little one, and I hope she makes a full recovery.

Jason

 

[elefntkpr]

Spragnum is about the only "substrate" you can use. it does not cause impaction if the cham accedently eats it. My only concern would be it limiting your ability to ceep the cage clean. But several members here use it and have no issues. I know plenty others use it as a topper on the soil of their plants.

On the stain, wille there is some smell left after a week it's minute and not enough that I would worry about.

I personally think people over react a tad on the whole VOC thing. The risk is really for people who have long term exposure to it on large scales. What little exposure your cham gets from a cage isn't something I would worry too much about.

Well, I have a father in law who is a retired chemist for Albemarle and he worked exclusively with urethane componds for years. I had expressed concern about this when I first started and he gave me his perspective. Apparently it depends alot on what type of urethane and how you applied it. Anything brushed on takes quite a while to cure. Spray on urethane and most of the solvents are lost before it hits the wood. It it's a two part liquid and hardener then there are no solvents and as soon as it's dry to use it's safe to use. Obviously he said waiting longer would be fine if it made me feel better. He did say that waiting the prescribed time between coats was important or the first coat may not cure properly if the second was applied too soon so there is some reason for caution.

As for the moss, I was just curious. I tried to take cleaning into consideration with whatever I built into the cage. The faux rock backing killed the easy clean theory but I'll just have to get a steamer and spend some energy cleaning it. The floor is smooth and easy to wipe out. The idea of having to rinse moss three or four times each time it's cleaned before changing it sounds a bit silly so I'm still planning to delete it.

I worked at a zoo for 7 years as an elephant keeper so I understand the tendency to go overboard on some things. There is a fine line between keeping the enclosure clean and safe and trying to create an atmosphere for surgery. Animals in our zoo got sick despite every effort to sanitize every day, however our vet made it clear that the frequency of these illnesses were far less than in the wild. However, failure to clean adequately would introduce illness that they might never have in the wild so as to what's appropriate? Ask 50 people and get 50 opinions.

I don't know everything though and I didn't work with reptiles so I keep my ears open anyways.