Have 2 chams, but still so many questions!

[agdrac8]

Hello all,

I just found this wonderful forum and I'm SO happy to finally have a solid resource to help me take care of my little buddies. I have two chams, both panthers. One (Clamps) is a Blue bar ambilobe and the other is a Nosy Mitsio (Koa). Clamps is about 10 months or so and Koa is about 7 months. I searched the forums to answers for my questions but I could never find any specific enough answers (so I apologize if my answers are somewhere in the forum and I couldn't find them).

I just bought an essential oil diffuser and I was wondering if I need to be cautious around my chams. They are in my living room as I don't have a separate room for them. I wasn't planning on putting the humidifier near them but if it's across the room will it bother them? I have seen so many mixed reviews about reptiles and essential oils. Some say certain oils are beneficial some say they are all bad for them. I know they can have lots of respitory issues but we do have an air purifier by their enclosures.

Also, I live in an apartment so I can't make a compost bin since they can be smelly. But we usually always have a feeder keeper with super worms in it (as well as fresh produce, oats and cricket calcium food). When I clean out the keepers could I just dump the remains of that (since it's mostly veggie remains and worm poop) on my plants kind of like worm castings? Has anyone had any experience with this helping their plants? Trying to find a use for everything I normally just throw away.

And one last question, our older panther Clamps has been taking quite a while to shed this time. We got him when he was around 6 months in October and he had just shed. He shed for the first time with us around mid November. Now it's the end of January and he just started shedding yesterday. But today he's still shedding quite a bit and it seems to be taking him a lot slower than the first time we saw. I know as they get older the intervals between increase but I just want to make sure he's good. Is there any kind of supplementation we should give him to help him shed quicker? We vary between calcium and multivitamin. I've heard of the shed aid but we've never used it.

Thank you so much for your help!! It's so much fun learning everything about these lil buddies.

 

[Syreptyon]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

Could you be a little more specific about your supplement routine? What exactly do you dust with (calcium w/ or w/out D3, etc?) and how frequently? And what are you feeding them overall? I'd love to see some pics if you have them, too! I feel like I never get to see nosy mitsios around here

As chameleons get older, not only do they shed less frequently, but the process itself changes as well. Young chams tend to explode with shed and be done with it quickly, whereas as they get older the process can take longer or not happen all at the same time

 

[agdrac8]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

Could you be a little more specific about your supplement routine? What exactly do you dust with (calcium w/ or w/out D3, etc?) and how frequently? And what are you feeding them overall? I'd love to see some pics if you have them, too! I feel like I never get to see nosy mitsios around here

As chameleons get older, not only do they shed less frequently, but the process itself changes as well. Young chams tend to explode with shed and be done with it quickly, whereas as they get older the process can take longer or not happen all at the same time

Of course! Thank you!

We feed both of them crickets, superworms and horn worms and occasionally dubia roaches and meal worms. Every day we dust their food with Calcium with D3 (if it's during the colder season and they won't get much natural sunlight), and without if they go in the sun more. Then once a week we dust their food with Sticky Farms Multivitamin or spray with a Beta Caratene mutlivitamin supplement. Plus we gutload our feeders very well.

Great to know about their shedding. Our Nosy Mitsio shed a few weeks after we got him and it was definitely an explosion! It only took him about 2 hours to complete the entire shed. Whereas the ambilobe started yesterday and he's really only done with his head and some parts of his legs. But I guess he is closer to a year so it does make sense. I attached some pictures of them as well, they are absolutely beautiful and so cute! (This is our Nosy Mitsio, Koa)

(Here's our blue bar ambilobe, Clamps)

 

[Andee]

I use only specific essential oils near my chams. Stuff like a drop or two of white thyme can be useful for supportive care during URI's until you can get them to your vet. I live in an area where there are no exotic emergency vets nearby. But my normal vet keeps really awesome hours so often I just have to wait at most 24 hours. There are also 3 exotic vets for me to choose from in a 45 minute radius. Depending on what kind of essential oils you are using and how often you are using the diffuser you should be fine especially with the air purifier. I do what you asked about the cleaning of your insect keeper. I use it on all plants because I grow almost all my plants for my animals in some form or another. So organic as possible is wonderful for me and the fertilization from the left overs from the insects definitely helps. Sometimes if it's a lot though the first few times after watering it can stink a bit... it smells weird don't know how to describe it XD

 

[Syreptyon]

Such beautiful fellas! Yeah, My nosy be just went through his 3rd shed with me this past weekend. The previous two sheds were completed within the same day they started, but this time he shed all his body on saturday and then finished off his tail on sunday.

Regarding your supplements, I actually think you are using the D3 calcium too much. Calcium w/ D3 should only be given twice a month and it can actually cause harm to oversupplement with D3. Instead, I recommend getting a calcium powder w/out D3 and this is what you should be dusting with at every feeding. Then you should give the multivitamin and the D3 once every other week

 

[Andee]

Such beautiful fellas! Yeah, My nosy be just went through his 3rd shed with me this past weekend. The previous two sheds were completed within the same day they started, but this time he shed all his body on saturday and then finished off his tail on sunday.

Regarding your supplements, I actually think you are using the D3 calcium too much. Calcium w/ D3 should only be given twice a month and it can actually cause harm to oversupplement with D3. Instead, I recommend getting a calcium powder w/out D3 and this is what you should be dusting with at every feeding. Then you should give the multivitamin and the D3 once every other week

It depends on if they get any UVB during the colder months. If they don't then they are using D3 the right amount.

 

[Syreptyon]

It depends on if they get any UVB during the colder months. If they don't then they are using D3 the right amount.

Do you mean if they are located outside all the time? Inside, they should always have access to UVB light from the bulb

 

[Andee]

Do you mean if they are located outside all the time? Inside, they should always have access to UVB light from the bulb

No they don't have to have constant access to UVB if they get an average of 4 hours a week outside of natural UVB. Usually during the colder months I just increase D3 with my guys and they only get around 2-4 hours every other week of actual sun and maybe 2 hours of cloudy outdoor time once a week.

 

[Syreptyon]

Oh gotcha, I misunderstood what you were saying!

 

[Andee]

It's ok ^^ I've been doing this a while, and been doing rescues and rehabs, plus I live in Cali. So most of my chams get around 30 minutes-2 hours a day minimum during 7 months of the year in my area. But I have learned I don't like going below 4 hours a week. Though if you start with healthy chams and you have a week of shitty weather you can do less. I don't rely on UVB hardly at all because I live where I do and a lot of my rescues do either worse with UVB or benefit so much from the sun it doesn't matter since they can get so much where I live. If it's a MBD cham and are in the middle of hard core rehab, I will have UVB on them all 12 hours of the day and they will get a minimum of 2 hours a day of sun. But once they are showing stability I often can wean them off the UVB completely and keep them at 2 hours of sun with no back sliding at all. But some of mine have been artificial UV ray dependent their entire lives. I fluxuate a lot depending on the individual chams needs.

 

[agdrac8]

I use only specific essential oils near my chams. Stuff like a drop or two of white thyme can be useful for supportive care during URI's until you can get them to your vet. I live in an area where there are no exotic emergency vets nearby. But my normal vet keeps really awesome hours so often I just have to wait at most 24 hours. There are also 3 exotic vets for me to choose from in a 45 minute radius. Depending on what kind of essential oils you are using and how often you are using the diffuser you should be fine especially with the air purifier. I do what you asked about the cleaning of your insect keeper. I use it on all plants because I grow almost all my plants for my animals in some form or another. So organic as possible is wonderful for me and the fertilization from the left overs from the insects definitely helps. Sometimes if it's a lot though the first few times after watering it can stink a bit... it smells weird don't know how to describe it XD

Great to know thank you!! By any chance do you know if there's any oils that are specifically toxic? I just read an article about cats possibly becoming ill due to eucalyptus oil. My diffuser set came with 16 basic oils (I haven't tried any yet to make sure it's safe). But I've also heard citrus and pine can be toxic for chams but nothing seemed to have any evidence backing it up. It seems like so much of reptile care is opinion based on what works for people but there's SO many differing opinions it's hard to know. That's great though you have such a good vet!

 

[agdrac8]

It's ok ^^ I've been doing this a while, and been doing rescues and rehabs, plus I live in Cali. So most of my chams get around 30 minutes-2 hours a day minimum during 7 months of the year in my area. But I have learned I don't like going below 4 hours a week. Though if you start with healthy chams and you have a week of shitty weather you can do less. I don't rely on UVB hardly at all because I live where I do and a lot of my rescues do either worse with UVB or benefit so much from the sun it doesn't matter since they can get so much where I live. If it's a MBD cham and are in the middle of hard core rehab, I will have UVB on them all 12 hours of the day and they will get a minimum of 2 hours a day of sun. But once they are showing stability I often can wean them off the UVB completely and keep them at 2 hours of sun with no back sliding at all. But some of mine have been artificial UV ray dependent their entire lives. I fluxuate a lot depending on the individual chams needs.

This is awesome! We try to do the same because we really prefer free range and natural uv but it's definitely been too cold/cloudy for them lately so we're excited it's starting to warm up!

 

[Andee]

Great to know thank you!! By any chance do you know if there's any oils that are specifically toxic? I just read an article about cats possibly becoming ill due to eucalyptus oil. My diffuser set came with 16 basic oils (I haven't tried any yet to make sure it's safe). But I've also heard citrus and pine can be toxic for chams but nothing seemed to have any evidence backing it up. It seems like so much of reptile care is opinion based on what works for people but there's SO many differing opinions it's hard to know. That's great though you have such a good vet!

I would avoid pine which most pine EOs don't come in sets. And avoid eucalyptus. Tea tree oil should be ok in small amounts. Citrus will be fine as a scent. If you have cinnamon scent as well or pepper one be careful, don't use a lot at once and no more than a couple hours.

 

[agdrac8]

I would avoid pine which most pine EOs don't come in sets. And avoid eucalyptus. Tea tree oil should be ok in small amounts. Citrus will be fine as a scent. If you have cinnamon scent as well or pepper one be careful, don't use a lot at once and no more than a couple hours.

Why these specific ones? Do you know if there's any studies that have been done on the effects of SO on reptiles? I'm so curious/cautious..is it just because they are more intense smells? I know their respiratory systems are more delicate than ours. Thanks though, this is super helpful!

 

[Andee]

Tea tree and eucalyptus is volatile and dangerous to even us in large amounts and is known to cause kidney disease and liver failure in mammals. Cinnamon and pepper are just harsh scents and can be super strong, which can cause stress levels in chams to rise. It causes coughing in myself if used too much. Citrus is ok because it is cold pressed most often and they are considered an edible oil when mixed with foods. And pine is just not good because the fumes that happen with the sap and EOs are the essence of the sap.

 

[agdrac8]

Tea tree and eucalyptus is volatile and dangerous to even us in large amounts and is known to cause kidney disease and liver failure in mammals. Cinnamon and pepper are just harsh scents and can be super strong, which can cause stress levels in chams to rise. It causes coughing in myself if used too much. Citrus is ok because it is cold pressed most often and they are considered an edible oil when mixed with foods. And pine is just not good because the fumes that happen with the sap and EOs are the essence of the sap.

Awesome!! Thank you so so much! Love figuring out the reason why to things

 

[Andee]

Never stop asking questions, only when you do, does life get boring ^^