The Change in color

[Koilover512]

The previous owner shared these photos with me. This is my chameleon Leroy Jenkins showing off his regular colors and the colors he changes to when his hormones are raised. His normal colors are the blue and green.




What a show off lol

 

[Debbie61]

Wow, I love his colors. He is beautiful.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

That's quite a contrast! He's handsome

 

[Koilover512]

Thank you

 

[Cainschams]

Your boy does have some very nice coloration!!! How long have you had him? I ask because the front leg in the pictures seems a little "off" to me. Did this chameleon once have MBD in the previous owners care?

Filling out this form will help us figure out if there is something that could be changed or caused this.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[Koilover512]

Your boy does have some very nice coloration!!! How long have you had him? I ask because the front leg in the pictures seems a little "off" to me. Did this chameleon once have MBD in the previous owners care?

Filling out this form will help us figure out if there is something that could be changed or caused this.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

The previous owner was not taking care of him properly. He was only feeding him once a week maybe twice. Two dozen crickets at a time. He did not use supplements for his food. Was not gut loading the crickets. He was also housed in a small maybe two feet high glass terrarium. The previous owner had him for a little over a year. I have had him for about two weeks going on three. I changed his terrarium to an all screen 24x24x48. I am gut loading his food. Misting him at least twice a day and I have a small dripper that is dripping throughout the day. He is having an issue with his left eye and I am trying to fix it before I have to go to the vet. I tried giving him a warm/hot shower and he hated it. I have noticed that since I have had him he is opening his eye more. So I am hoping that what I am doing is helping. How can you tell by the picture that something is wrong with him? I am new to this so I don’t know what signs to look for.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

See how his front legs are kind of U shaped rather than straight except for what should be a sharp angle at the elbow? It's generally a sign that the bones are weak or malformed due to poor nutrition/lack of UVB light. That's what cainschams was referring to. If the bones are really weak they can actually break just from regular use. That's not something that will be fixed right away but you're definitely on the right track with him! I'm glad his eye is doing better so far!

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Your boy does have some very nice coloration!!! How long have you had him? I ask because the front leg in the pictures seems a little "off" to me. Did this chameleon once have MBD in the previous owners care?

Filling out this form will help us figure out if there is something that could be changed or caused this.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

He filled that out in his previous thread if you wanna take a look.

 

[Cainschams]

The previous owner was not taking care of him properly. He was only feeding him once a week maybe twice. Two dozen crickets at a time. He did not use supplements for his food. Was not gut loading the crickets. He was also housed in a small maybe two feet high glass terrarium. The previous owner had him for a little over a year. I have had him for about two weeks going on three. I changed his terrarium to an all screen 24x24x48. I am gut loading his food. Misting him at least twice a day and I have a small dripper that is dripping throughout the day. He is having an issue with his left eye and I am trying to fix it before I have to go to the vet. I tried giving him a warm/hot shower and he hated it. I have noticed that since I have had him he is opening his eye more. So I am hoping that what I am doing is helping. How can you tell by the picture that something is wrong with him? I am new to this so I don’t know what signs to look for.

I figured it was from the previous owner. Good thing that nice looking boy found you!! What I see is at the elbow. Do you notice how it is more curved than a straight joint?

In the pictures it does not seem to be advanced MBD but definitely the start. I am sure with receiving proper care now it wont get any worse. Just keep the well gut loaded and lightly dusted insects coming to get him some good, well deserved nutrition

Have you tried to flush the eye out with saline solution? If there is a foreign object in there this can help to get it out. Get a regular saline solution without any other additives. Point the tip at the animals eye but do not insert the tip into the eye, just close. Shoot a jet stream into the eye until it fills up like a water balloon. Let it drain and repeat another 1 or 2 times. You can try this for a few days and if it does not help I would take him to a vet to have it checked out.

Another possibility is a lack of vitamin A. This can also cause eye issues and with the previous owners lack of husbandry I would not rule it out. Chameleons can overdose on preformed vit. A (Vit. A that comes from animal sources) so you do not want to give him a lot. What I would do is get some fish oil gel tabs. Puncture a small hole with a needle in one of the pills. You do not need much just a drop or less. Let the drop start to come out of the pill and smear a small amount on a feeder. If this is the case you should start to see improvement after a few days or so. If the eye looks murky I would get to the vet now for a treatment because permanent corneal scarring can occur if the problem is not taken care of in a timely fashion.

Sorry to derail the thread. I just hate looking over a problem if I suspect it. I hope this helps a bit and the few small problems with him get corrected quickly. He is a very nice looking boy and should be back to normal in no time

 

[Cainschams]

Thanks, Ferritinmyshoes!

Have you corrected the UVB and gotten a digital thermometer to read temps? The powersun can work but its recommended to have a UVB meter to place the light at the appropriate distance. The biggest recommendation is using the 5.0 tube with a regular household bulb for basking. Other methods work but this is just the easiest especially for new keepers. You can give him all the correct supplements and well gut loaded feeders but if the basking site is not adequate he will not be able to digest the food thus making the proper feeders useless.

Sandrachameleon has quite a few blogs. Looking her up and checking them out should be very helpful especially with the gut loading part. There are some things that are good to use, some better and some not.

 

[Koilover512]

I got rid of the power sun and changed it out with a reptisun 5.0. I made sure not to get the compact one because I was told it would be bad for his eyes, and I am using a regular house bulb. I have two temp. gauges in the terrarium. The basking area is between 80-90 degrees and the lower part stays around 70-80. I am thinking of moving the lights closer to the top of the terrarium just to raise the temp a little more.