Normal shaky leaf?

My responses will be in red. I’m going to link articles and care pictures at the bottom. I’m only commenting on your general husbandry since there are more experienced female veiled keepers on here. You will need a properly set up lay bin soon that will become a permanent part of her enclosure.

Your Chameleon - female veiled chameleon. I would guess around 4 months. Previous owner said she was about 4 inches long when they got her and they had her about 3 months. I just got her last night
Handling - Only twice since I got her last night- once to move to larger box for transport and once to put into enclosure.
Feeding -I was going to feed her a mix of discoids, crickets, and phoenix worms. I gut load them with sweet potatoes, carrots, and apples. She just ate a couple of crickets that I just purchased from the store. Your gutload needs more variety, and be careful on how much apple you feed. Are your feeders an appropriate size?
Supplements - Zoomed repticalicum everyday and reptivite with d3 on first and 15th of month. I gave her discoids with calcium this morning that she did not eat, but the crickets were dusted with reptivite. For supplementing, you use only one type for each feeding, like one feeding will have all of the feeders dusted in the same supplement right before feeding off. It’s not recommended to mix them. Your calcium has no D3, right?
Watering - Automatic mister. Usually I do 4 times a day for 2 minutes each time, but I increased to every 2 hours for 1 minute since she might be dehydrated. For veileds, if the terrarium humidity allows, you should only mist in the morning and late afternoon/night for day mistings. You can always add a dripper over some leaves for a 24/7 hydration opportunity. A minimum 2-5 minutes per misting is ideal.
Fecal Description- Have not seen droppings or urates yet. Make sure to bring a fresh fecal if possible to test for parasites when you go to the vet
History - Previous owner had about 3 months. She lived in a 40 gallon glass breeder tank with little to no foliage. They did not give her supplements and was fed crickets. She went for some time without a proper UVB, but I do not know how long.

Cage Info:

Cage Type - homemade wood 2 x 2 x 4. Screen on all sides except for back which is closed off with a board.
Lighting - 75 watt basking on dimmer. UVB is currently 10.0 T5 HO 22 inch. I ordered an Arcadia 12% that should be here sometime next week. Lights come on at 7:30 am and off at 7:30 pm. How far away is your UVB bulb from her highest/basking branch. Zoo Med 5.0 or Arcadia 6% is recommended for UVB bulbs because you don’t have to raise the fixture as much or waste as much terrarium space on lowering your basking branch to making sure the UVI level is correct
Temperature - Basking is 80-85. Lower is 70-75. Basking and lowest is measured with probe that is zip tied to branch. Basking probe is on vine directly under basking spot about 6-8 inches lower then fixture. Nighttime it is usually between 61 and 65. Basking temps for female veileds should be around 80*F so her egg clutches stay small.
Humidity - 20% - 30% daytime. 70-90% nighttime. I have a fogger that comes on at 8 pm and off at 7 am. Her daytime humidity should be 30-50%. Do you clean your fogger?
Plants - 4 pothos, schefflera, and bromeliad. rest are fake vines, but do not have moss. Veileds are notorious for eating plants, real or fake. She needs real plants only, no fake plants, leaves, or fake vines with leaves (fake vines with no leaves are fine). Your cage could also use more branches and vines.
Placement - cage is in my home office and no one goes in there. She is on wall opposite of window and not under a vent.
Location - Central Florida

Current Problem - Tongue seemed to not be shooting out fully last night, but I just observed it fully shooting out while she was eating a cricket. Only concern I have now is her shaky walk (refer to videos). She has an appointment tomorrow with an experienced chameleon vet. I will mention concern of MBD, parasite and possible vitamin deficiency. Make sure the vet also does bloodwork, x-rays, fecal test, etc. with her general check-up.

The Chameleon Academy is a great resource and worth reading through everything


https://chameleonacademy.com/veiled-chameleon-care/
http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2012/04/how-to-set-up-proper-chameleon.html
https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/
https://chameleonacademy.com/choosing-and-arranging-branches/
https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-medical-metabolic-bone-disease/
1610153232906.jpeg
1610153242965.jpeg
 
I do only have real plants. My fake vines do not have leaves.I do usually only use 1 type of supplement a day. But I was told to do reptivite to help with the vitamin deficiency, plus she did not eat the calcium ones from this morning.. As I said on the previous response, my mister only runs for 2 minutes at the most.Yes I clean the fogger. The feeders are no bigger than the space between the eyes.yes, calcium do not have d3. Refer to picture on previous page. 6-8 inches between vine and bulb. As I said on my previous responses as well, I am going to have the vet do that stuff tomorrow. If I can get a sample for fecal, I will, but right now, I have not seen any.
 
Last edited:
I do only have real plants. My fake vines do not have leaves.I do usually only use 1 type of supplement a day. But I was told to do reptivite to help with the vitamin deficiency, plus she did not eat the calcium ones from this morning.. As I said on the previous response, my mister only runs for 2 minutes at the most.Yes I clean the fogger. The feeders are no bigger than the space between the eyes.yes, calcium do not have d3. Refer to picture on previous page. 6-8 inches between vine and bulb. As I said on my previous responses as well, I am going to have the vet do that stuff tomorrow. If I can get a sample for fecal, I will, but right now, I have not seen any.
Everything sounds great except for the UVB. 10.0/12% is way too high for that short of a distance. @Beman can get you a precise measurement of what you need
 
Hi. Your husbandry looks good and I can’t add much to what others have already said. Right now the priority is to get her up to optimal health, which the vet visit will greatly help to identify her needs. Normally for our ladies we limit how much we feed them to help reduce laying, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing to do or not until she’s healthy. Maybe @kinyonga can better address that. I will add, bless you for rescuing her from what sounds like a horrible life for a cham.
 
Hi. Your husbandry looks good and I can’t add much to what others have already said. Right now the priority is to get her up to optimal health, which the vet visit will greatly help to identify her needs. Normally for our ladies we limit how much we feed them to help reduce laying, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing to do or not until she’s healthy. Maybe @kinyonga can better address that. I will add, bless you for rescuing her from what sounds like a horrible life for a cham.

Thank you, I felt like I couldn’t pass her up when I first saw her listed. She has been named Fiona like from Shrek. Crappy situation that is then rescued and then she immediately try to bite me yesterday, so she definitely has a spunky/feisty side to her. The picture below is the only other one I have of her previous enclosure, so you can imagine what a crummy start she had.
 

Attachments

  • 52133C4E-04FA-4AB7-8F68-9A74FEF4B99F.jpeg
    52133C4E-04FA-4AB7-8F68-9A74FEF4B99F.jpeg
    102.4 KB · Views: 78
She already loves her schefflera plant. From what my husband told me, she spent most of the day in there.
 

Attachments

  • 3215027E-3CC2-46CF-BE14-90711EE2C576.jpeg
    3215027E-3CC2-46CF-BE14-90711EE2C576.jpeg
    121.8 KB · Views: 80
  • 233A2AEE-447B-40F8-9267-6AE5D5C56D45.jpeg
    233A2AEE-447B-40F8-9267-6AE5D5C56D45.jpeg
    129.7 KB · Views: 78
@MissSkittles said "Normally for our ladies we limit how much we feed them to help reduce laying, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing to do or not until she’s healthy. Maybe @kinyonga can better address that"...I wouldn't put her on the diet right now...I would try not to really overfeed her though. Check back in a month or so and show us what she looks like then. Just my best guess...I'm only going by my experience.

She's lucky she's with you now.
 
@MissSkittles said "Normally for our ladies we limit how much we feed them to help reduce laying, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing to do or not until she’s healthy. Maybe @kinyonga can better address that"...I wouldn't put her on the diet right now...I would try not to really overfeed her though. Check back in a month or so and show us what she looks like then. Just my best guess...I'm only going by my experience.

She's lucky she's with you now.

Thank you! I have an appointment with a exotic vet tomorrow that is great with chameleons to get her all fixed up. Whatever it takes 😊
 
I do not see any droppings or urates, but I will check again once I have her out of the enclosure before we go later. If I do get a fecal sample, does it matter what it is put in?
 
You could put it in a baggie or whatever else you have.

Ok, thank you. Is it a concern if she ends up not having any urates or droppings? I wasn’t sure how long is normal for them to go. Also, is the distance ok for the uvb? I am going to get an Arcadia 6% soon.
 
Back
Top Bottom