Nursing a chameleon back to health
- Thread starter scottinaz
- Start date
jojothefirst
New Member
I take what you are saying but surely the things they will eat will have small amounts of dirt or other things on them?
My chams have eaten feeders that were on top of the substrate so I assume they must have picked some of it at the same time. They are about 1year old and I have had them about 10 months and I have never had any problems with them pooping.
Have I just been lucky or as long as they are not actually eating the substrate is this not an issue?
Has anybody got any proof that eating substrate accidentally with feeders will cause problems or at least a story from there own experience?
Don’t mean to sound like I don’t believe people but it comes across as people are playing it safe rather than there being a major issue but of cause, if there is a major issue with it then I need to get it out my viv.
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
coco fibre is frequently used in europe and is considered a reasonably safe substrate. Nevertheless, I too suggest no substrate. There are other ways to deal with humidity, ones that dont have the potential of ingestion
jojackson
New Member
Jojo, while they do ingest foreign matter from time to time incidently, it would occure far less often in the wild, as Syn points out, than it will in the captive environment, where it cannot move off.
The point to keep in mind about impaction is that it's not always an immediate thing, e.g. lizards eats crap, immeadiately gets blocked up. If you closely inpected every dropping, im sure you would find, as some claim (especially with females/laying media), that their lizards often pass matter such as soil, sand particles etc.
Thing is that you cannot be sure that all ingested foreign matter is passed out.
Some, like sand particles for example, can and do remain in your lizards gut/intestinal tract for long periods, slowly building up to a fatal impaction. Necropsies have proven this
with lizards that seemed just fine for a very long time, only to crash suddenly.
Statistically, your captive is far more likely to have issues either in the short or long term, than any wild animal. Cup feeding does not garantee no ingestion.
Hence, common sense prevails.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
p.s. I could search the site for example threads, but then, so could you.
p.p.s. I have seen plenty of impactions from various substrate media among a mix of species over the years, quite a few fatal.
A lizards digestive enzyms are powerful, but this does depend on the state of health/metabolism etc, and some material is simply
indestructible. Physical size/shape of ingested material also plays a part, some being more prone to cause issues than others.
Hairballs dont break down in a cat or rabbits stomach, I imagine coconut fibre would entangle and compact over time in much the same way.
The point to keep in mind about impaction is that it's not always an immediate thing, e.g. lizards eats crap, immeadiately gets blocked up. If you closely inpected every dropping, im sure you would find, as some claim (especially with females/laying media), that their lizards often pass matter such as soil, sand particles etc.
Thing is that you cannot be sure that all ingested foreign matter is passed out.
Some, like sand particles for example, can and do remain in your lizards gut/intestinal tract for long periods, slowly building up to a fatal impaction. Necropsies have proven this
with lizards that seemed just fine for a very long time, only to crash suddenly.
Statistically, your captive is far more likely to have issues either in the short or long term, than any wild animal. Cup feeding does not garantee no ingestion.
Hence, common sense prevails.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
p.s. I could search the site for example threads, but then, so could you.
p.p.s. I have seen plenty of impactions from various substrate media among a mix of species over the years, quite a few fatal.
A lizards digestive enzyms are powerful, but this does depend on the state of health/metabolism etc, and some material is simply
indestructible. Physical size/shape of ingested material also plays a part, some being more prone to cause issues than others.
Hairballs dont break down in a cat or rabbits stomach, I imagine coconut fibre would entangle and compact over time in much the same way.
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Update
I wanted to thank everyone for all their help and pass along an update. We ended up taking the little guy to the vet today and it turns out that he had a spinal fracture from his fall. The vet said there was nothing that could be done and we had to put him down. It was a very sad day.
I wanted to thank everyone for all their help and pass along an update. We ended up taking the little guy to the vet today and it turns out that he had a spinal fracture from his fall. The vet said there was nothing that could be done and we had to put him down. It was a very sad day.
