Krittur
New Member
Hi everyone. Yes, I'm new but I came here with a Very Important Purpose.
I am a member of the local herp community in Maine and I have been known to accept animals that have been mistreated and abused by previous owners for recovery and rehabilitation. I usually do this with snakes, though I get the occasional lizard, amphibian, or mammal.
About 4-5 months ago I received a female 4 inch snout to vent veiled chameleon with symptoms of metabolic bone disease, was underweight, dehydrated and had a single, blind, 'deflated' eye, seemingly from an injury.
In the time that I've had her, I've done many hours of research (talking like, a minimum of 5 hours a day, every day, and research continues) and she's no longer dehydrated, her MBD hasn't increased, she in 6 inches snout to vent has had 2 healthy sheds, she's active and a healthy weight. I'm not worried about her, but am curious about a bump along her tail. It seems to be something that developed from the MBD, is there any chances of that going away in time?
The second chameleon is also a female veiled, 4.5 inches snout to vent, which I received about a month ago. She shows signs of extreme dehydration (sunken eyes, one of which seemed permanently blind, but was just a stuck shed, which I resolved, orange urates, lethargic), extremely malnourished to the point that she has difficulty moving (her legs are like toothpicks, with no muscle at all), and her color seems off. She is always very, very pale, almost a chalky color. Her patterns can and do change, but even her darks seem washed out.
In the time that I've had her, her sunken eye has recovered, and her uriates and stool are both normal, so the dehydration has resolved (though she had not defecated until 5 days after I got her).
She will only eat crickets (which I dust with calcium supplement, and are gut loaded with oatmeal, carrots, and kale, sometimes apples), and will not take any dubias when offered (which are gut loaded with the same, and is the preferred prey of my other veiled). She has only recently (within the past week) started accepting superworms. Which I'm glad for because she is in dire need of the fat content.
She's in an 18x18x24 exo-terra enclosure with glass sides and a screen top. Humidity is always in the 65-75% range, and temperature is 70-90 f. (the base ambient temp in my apartment is 75, but she is near a window). She has an exo-terra solar glo all-in-one bulb which is set on a timer to turn on at dawn and dusk times (I change the times every month to reflect the hours of daylight available during that time of year, as I know a seasonal daylight cycle is important for some species, and it's easier just to keep all my timers synced) which I purchased new when she came to me. I'm using soaked, wadded paper towels changed daily for substrate and fake plants, as she's still in quarantine. I handle her once a week for 15 minutes, and she gets misted with 32 oz of water from a spray bottle twice a day, has a dripper, and is showered for 20 minutes bi-weekly (which is the same handling and hydration regimen I use for my other veiled.)
I know for a fact that she does not have any protozoa or parasites as I have a friend who is a professor at the local university that teaches aquaculture and is a marine parasitologist, and so has access to labs to test for protozoa, pathogens, and parasites, and he tested her uriates and stool for me (as he does for all my animals).
I'm concerned because her color has not improved and she is not gaining any weight at all. I'm reaching out to other chameleon keepers (there are none in my local herp society, because Maine legislation is not kind to exotic keepers) to ask if there are any 'word-of-mouth' strategies I can try.
Apologies for the long post, and thanks for your time.
I am a member of the local herp community in Maine and I have been known to accept animals that have been mistreated and abused by previous owners for recovery and rehabilitation. I usually do this with snakes, though I get the occasional lizard, amphibian, or mammal.
About 4-5 months ago I received a female 4 inch snout to vent veiled chameleon with symptoms of metabolic bone disease, was underweight, dehydrated and had a single, blind, 'deflated' eye, seemingly from an injury.
In the time that I've had her, I've done many hours of research (talking like, a minimum of 5 hours a day, every day, and research continues) and she's no longer dehydrated, her MBD hasn't increased, she in 6 inches snout to vent has had 2 healthy sheds, she's active and a healthy weight. I'm not worried about her, but am curious about a bump along her tail. It seems to be something that developed from the MBD, is there any chances of that going away in time?
The second chameleon is also a female veiled, 4.5 inches snout to vent, which I received about a month ago. She shows signs of extreme dehydration (sunken eyes, one of which seemed permanently blind, but was just a stuck shed, which I resolved, orange urates, lethargic), extremely malnourished to the point that she has difficulty moving (her legs are like toothpicks, with no muscle at all), and her color seems off. She is always very, very pale, almost a chalky color. Her patterns can and do change, but even her darks seem washed out.
In the time that I've had her, her sunken eye has recovered, and her uriates and stool are both normal, so the dehydration has resolved (though she had not defecated until 5 days after I got her).
She will only eat crickets (which I dust with calcium supplement, and are gut loaded with oatmeal, carrots, and kale, sometimes apples), and will not take any dubias when offered (which are gut loaded with the same, and is the preferred prey of my other veiled). She has only recently (within the past week) started accepting superworms. Which I'm glad for because she is in dire need of the fat content.
She's in an 18x18x24 exo-terra enclosure with glass sides and a screen top. Humidity is always in the 65-75% range, and temperature is 70-90 f. (the base ambient temp in my apartment is 75, but she is near a window). She has an exo-terra solar glo all-in-one bulb which is set on a timer to turn on at dawn and dusk times (I change the times every month to reflect the hours of daylight available during that time of year, as I know a seasonal daylight cycle is important for some species, and it's easier just to keep all my timers synced) which I purchased new when she came to me. I'm using soaked, wadded paper towels changed daily for substrate and fake plants, as she's still in quarantine. I handle her once a week for 15 minutes, and she gets misted with 32 oz of water from a spray bottle twice a day, has a dripper, and is showered for 20 minutes bi-weekly (which is the same handling and hydration regimen I use for my other veiled.)
I know for a fact that she does not have any protozoa or parasites as I have a friend who is a professor at the local university that teaches aquaculture and is a marine parasitologist, and so has access to labs to test for protozoa, pathogens, and parasites, and he tested her uriates and stool for me (as he does for all my animals).
I'm concerned because her color has not improved and she is not gaining any weight at all. I'm reaching out to other chameleon keepers (there are none in my local herp society, because Maine legislation is not kind to exotic keepers) to ask if there are any 'word-of-mouth' strategies I can try.
Apologies for the long post, and thanks for your time.
