Honestly there should be no reason for your other chameleons to come into contact with this chameleon and even with that said I dont think there is much risk. What are the possible reasons why this chameleon now has a RI? If these reasons can also be related to the care parameters given to the other chameleons. They may also fall ill due to the issue causing this.
Not many of us do this with established animals but you should clean your hands illness or not after handling each animal.
No, they don't come into contact with each other. I was just wondering about me spreading the infection as I move from enclosure to enclosure in my daily routine. There is no "sharing" of feeding cups or anything, and I have starting tending to him last, so hopefully will be OK.
As for the reason for the URI, the only thing I can think of is I don't think he has been able to get to his basking spot lately. The spot is there, warm and accessible to a "normal" chameleon, but this guy came from an environment where he literally had only one branch to climb on and only a couple of small, low growing plants at the bottom of the cage. In addition, I am pretty sure there is a mild MBD (he has a crooked casque and underbite). Anyhow, he has always been very clumsy when climbing and really only stays on the top two branches in his enclosure. Over the last few weeks, one of the plants in his enclosure has grown a lot and was sort of in the way of him getting from where he was to his basking spot. He'd only have to climb over it, so I thought he would be fine. A few days ago, I started to wonder if it was actually possible he wouldn't cross this branch since I hadn't seen him under his basking spot, so I cut the branch. He is now back under his spot. I feel really bad, but it just never occured to me he would be so relutant to cross one branch! I think perhaps he was cold for too long, resulting in the URI.
That actually brings me to another question re: cross contamination. I had been thinking of switching this guy out of the enclosure he is in since he doesn't use 80% of it. My other guy is younger, and very active but in a smaller enclosure at the moment. I was going to switch them so my young guy can have a nice big enclosure to explore and the old guy one that is perhaps more suitable to his lack of mobility. He has also fallen once and the smaller enclosure is not quite as tall, so if he fell again, it wouldn't be as far. BUT, now I'm concerned about moving my young guy into the enclosure the older one is in. How do I ensure the enclosure is germ free? I assume get rid of all the live plants and put in new branches etc. Is there anything else? Good dose of bleach?
