HolyToledo
New Member
I have had my male veiled chameleon, Mister Twister, since he was two weeks old and he is 9 months old now. We live 7 miles inland from the central coast of Oregon state (on the west coast of the United States). He comes out to socialize every few days to a few times a day--its pretty much up to him how often and for how long but if it has been a few days, I try to coax him to come on to my hand by lightly touching his feet until he comes out (I don’t want him to get to where he stresses out with any kink of contact like some of the chams I know of). Mister eats mealworms, wax worms, crickets, fruit flies and the occasional housefly. The mealworms and crickets are bedded in high-grade rat food powder and are fed fruits and veggies on the “accepted “ food list. He eats a few small crickets or about a dozen medium mealworms daily. Wax worms are given as extra treats on occasion. And the special dalapia? roach when I can get them. His food is supplemented daily with the calcium (have missed the occasional day here and there to be honest), gets Ca+D3 and Reptivite every two weeks alternately. Fecal matter and urates look good usually but last two days, his urate has darkened some and today he has refused to drink even half of his usual from the tube.
Mister lives in an Exo-Terra 36x24x36 two door glass vivarium that sits on top of the dresser. Exo-Terra hood has Repti-Glo 10.0 and two Night-Glo bulbs. Daytime (from 8ish am to when he goes to his bed around 10ish pm) all the lights in the hood are on and he has a heat lamp on in the front left corner of his tank. At night, one of the Night-Glos and the Repti-Glo are off but the heat lamp and one Night-Glo stays on.. The temperature measured on four thermometers runs during the day: 85C just under the heat lamp, 80C under the daytime Night-Glo, 75C right under the Night-Glo that is always on, and 70C right under the UVB. Bottom temp is right around 60C to 65C. Night time temp where he usually sleeps is 65C. On chilly nights he might go to his other nest that is 70C at night (right between and under the Night-Glo and heat lamps). The water dripper system has two ports(aquarium air-line valve) and water drips down a live bamboo plant 24/7. The other valve goes to a tube and he is offered water a number of times a day with the hose. He is also misted daily--the number of times each day depends on his urates and stage in shedding since misting is not a drinking source for him and he only very rarely drinks off the fake foliage now that he is older. Overall, the humidity runs right around 75-85% measured with two hygrometers (one at the top and one at the bottom.
Am using a coco-dirt/sand and turtle rocks mix for substrate. And I take it out and bake it dry every month or two. The bamboo is the only live plant in a planter of marbles/water. All his other plants are Exo-Terra and so are his vines.
Three months ago, Mister was acting weak in the hips so I rescheduled his 6 mos checkup for a bit early and everything checked out fine and the x-rays showed good bones, etc. Doc said maybe he strained himself trying to breed with our girl so they got separate cages with the above described setup that same day. After the separation, he took his time adjusting to being alone in the cage but finally got back to his usual self. When she passed away one and a half months ago, he went through another “down” period for about a week and then almost back to normal (he isn‘t coming out as much as he used to and isn’t quite as reluctant to go back to his cage, and he doesn‘t try to go to hers anymore either). Once in a while for a day or so, his left hind leg seems a bit weak again but he has always bounced right back. Night before last he was a bit limpy and cranky so I left him alone. A bit more limpy yesterday am but last night even more than usual, and avoided coming out. This morning, still cranky and didn’t drink as much as usual and he doesn’t want to move around any more than necessary (did go down to poop in his usual spot) and has been back and forth across his favorite vine but that’s all and when he does move around, and when I convinced him to come out, he is a bit shaky and a little wimpy acting.
My questions are, with everything being great 3 months ago, am I somehow seeing the early stages of MBD or something else altogether? The only thing that changed is we went from a Repti-Glo 5.0 to a 10.0 when it was time to change the bulb cuz the store was out of the 5.0 bulbs. He looks good and is partway through a shed that is taking longer than usual so I have been misting a bit more than usual and it is time for the dirt bake so, is it possible that he has a cold or even something else?
Mister lives in an Exo-Terra 36x24x36 two door glass vivarium that sits on top of the dresser. Exo-Terra hood has Repti-Glo 10.0 and two Night-Glo bulbs. Daytime (from 8ish am to when he goes to his bed around 10ish pm) all the lights in the hood are on and he has a heat lamp on in the front left corner of his tank. At night, one of the Night-Glos and the Repti-Glo are off but the heat lamp and one Night-Glo stays on.. The temperature measured on four thermometers runs during the day: 85C just under the heat lamp, 80C under the daytime Night-Glo, 75C right under the Night-Glo that is always on, and 70C right under the UVB. Bottom temp is right around 60C to 65C. Night time temp where he usually sleeps is 65C. On chilly nights he might go to his other nest that is 70C at night (right between and under the Night-Glo and heat lamps). The water dripper system has two ports(aquarium air-line valve) and water drips down a live bamboo plant 24/7. The other valve goes to a tube and he is offered water a number of times a day with the hose. He is also misted daily--the number of times each day depends on his urates and stage in shedding since misting is not a drinking source for him and he only very rarely drinks off the fake foliage now that he is older. Overall, the humidity runs right around 75-85% measured with two hygrometers (one at the top and one at the bottom.
Am using a coco-dirt/sand and turtle rocks mix for substrate. And I take it out and bake it dry every month or two. The bamboo is the only live plant in a planter of marbles/water. All his other plants are Exo-Terra and so are his vines.
Three months ago, Mister was acting weak in the hips so I rescheduled his 6 mos checkup for a bit early and everything checked out fine and the x-rays showed good bones, etc. Doc said maybe he strained himself trying to breed with our girl so they got separate cages with the above described setup that same day. After the separation, he took his time adjusting to being alone in the cage but finally got back to his usual self. When she passed away one and a half months ago, he went through another “down” period for about a week and then almost back to normal (he isn‘t coming out as much as he used to and isn’t quite as reluctant to go back to his cage, and he doesn‘t try to go to hers anymore either). Once in a while for a day or so, his left hind leg seems a bit weak again but he has always bounced right back. Night before last he was a bit limpy and cranky so I left him alone. A bit more limpy yesterday am but last night even more than usual, and avoided coming out. This morning, still cranky and didn’t drink as much as usual and he doesn’t want to move around any more than necessary (did go down to poop in his usual spot) and has been back and forth across his favorite vine but that’s all and when he does move around, and when I convinced him to come out, he is a bit shaky and a little wimpy acting.
My questions are, with everything being great 3 months ago, am I somehow seeing the early stages of MBD or something else altogether? The only thing that changed is we went from a Repti-Glo 5.0 to a 10.0 when it was time to change the bulb cuz the store was out of the 5.0 bulbs. He looks good and is partway through a shed that is taking longer than usual so I have been misting a bit more than usual and it is time for the dirt bake so, is it possible that he has a cold or even something else?
