Rescued Veiled - Travel Advice (Semi-Urgent)

[TragicComic87]

My wife and I rescued a 2 year old veiled on Thursday (4/17/14) from a home where there were WAY too many pets. She hadn't been fed or given water and sun for many days - possibly more than a week.

We are new to chameleons, so we did our research and consulted many professionals with experience and she is doing much better already. She ate a wax worm the first night (although she was very weak) and she is moving around gingerly, but often.

Our issue is that we don't have proper automatic moisture set up yet and we have plans to travel for the next three days for the holiday weekend. Our concern is that the car ride (2-3 hours one way) will be extremely stressful on her considering her current recovery process.

So, is there a way to make sure she's okay while we're gone for three days or should we take her with us and risk traumatizing her further?

We are leaning toward bringing her simply so that we can monitor her warmth and moisture as well as her food supply.

Any suggestions would be very helpful. Unfortunately I just found this forum and we're leaving in a few hours.

Feel free to directly message me.

Thanks for any help!

Rick...

 

[SaintJimmy]

Could you please attach a picture of her?

If she is severely out of shape, it may be a good idea to take her, but if she just has a slight case of mbd or such, you might want to just leave her at home and have someone a) feed her b) give her water by syringe or misting.

 

[TragicComic87]

Yeah, that's the issue - we don't have anyone locally who could do that, otherwise that would be our first choice.

Here's a photo of her. She stays on the darker green/brown side most of the day and at night she's a bright, healthy-looking green.

This photo was from last night when she was changing color a bit.

 

[laurie]

Hello, welcome, and thanks for caring!! I would take her along. Leaving her for 3 days in her shape is a very, very bad idea. If you need help on how to take her and make it fairly easy for both of you, just shoot me a pm.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Yeah if you don't have anyone who could closely watch her (she doesn't look like she's that bad, just skinny, needs attention) then definitely bring her.

I would send Laurie a PM

 

[TragicComic87]

Glad to hear that you think she's not too bad. I read the "signs to look for" on this forum and she seems to be okay as far as that list goes. Just malnourished. We'll fix her right up with that. LOL

I did PM Laurie, thanks.

Anyone know - when in this shape - how much we should expect her to eat? We have only seen her eat one wax worm on Thursday night. The other worms and a few tiny crickets are still in with her. She could have eaten one without us knowing, but it'd be good to get a gage on how much she "should" be expected to eat under the circumstances.

Thanks!

Rick...

 

[SaintJimmy]

• Based on "her" colors and patterns, I would say "she" is actually a he! BUT the base of her tail is very skinny, indicating that she is... actually a she. And I do not see any tarsal spurs on her back feet, so that also tells me that you indeed have a female.
• The chameleon has no signs of illness that I can see other than malnourishment (just skinny chameleon)
• The chameleon is not eating very much because it isn't used to its new home. No cause for alarm.
• The chameleon will probably be very hungry once it gets adjusted
• She looks VERY small and skinny for a 2 year old chameleon. If you allowed me to guess, I would say she is around 5-6 months old!

 

[TragicComic87]

• Based on "her" colors and patterns, I would say "she" is actually a he! BUT the base of her tail is very skinny, indicating that she is... actually a she. And I do not see any tarsal spurs on her back feet, so that also tells me that you indeed have a female.
• The chameleon has no signs of illness that I can see other than malnourishment (just skinny chameleon)
• The chameleon is not eating very much because it isn't used to its new home. No cause for alarm.
• The chameleon will probably be very hungry once it gets adjusted
• She looks VERY small and skinny for a 2 year old chameleon. If you allowed me to guess, I would say she is around 5-6 months old!

Yes, it's a she - we took her to a lady who breeds chameleons and she confirmed it. Funny, she also thought that she was 6 months old, but the people we rescued her from told us they'd had her for 2 years. Clearly she wasn't well taken care of, so we're very glad that we have her now and can fatten her up!

 

[TragicComic87]

Follow up: She did very well on the road trip and is looking better every day. Thanks for all of the great advice and info!

 

[laurie]

Glad to hear the trip went well. Keep up the good work and Happy Easter.