Venous blood gases, plasma biochemistry, and hematology of wild-caught common chameleons (Chamaeleo chamaeleon)...
- Thread starter kinyonga
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DocZ
Chameleon Enthusiast
I don’t know anything about the normal blood pH of chameleons, but if reptiles normal pH is near 7.4-7.7 as suggested in this article, the values they have are very low.
These animals obviously were subjected to an enormous amount of stress being captured, restrained, and having blood drawn, but if this degree of metabolic derangement can occur from that, we might need to be more careful about the amount of handling these animals are subjected too. Hyperventilation during stress should decrease PCO2 due to an increase in minute ventilation and increase blood pH, so they are experiencing severe metabolic acidosis possibly as a result of the experience.
Written after backing slowly away from Calcifer’s enclosure ?
These animals obviously were subjected to an enormous amount of stress being captured, restrained, and having blood drawn, but if this degree of metabolic derangement can occur from that, we might need to be more careful about the amount of handling these animals are subjected too. Hyperventilation during stress should decrease PCO2 due to an increase in minute ventilation and increase blood pH, so they are experiencing severe metabolic acidosis possibly as a result of the experience.
Written after backing slowly away from Calcifer’s enclosure ?
Here's another interesting article concerning stressors....
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138007
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138007
PLASMA BIOCHEMISTRY AND HEMATOLOGY REFERENCE VALUES OF CAPTIVE PANTHER CHAMELEONS (FURCIFER PARDALIS) WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON SEASONALITY AND GENDER DIFFERENCES...
https://europepmc.org/article/med/27691946
https://europepmc.org/article/med/27691946
DocZ
Chameleon Enthusiast
I’m sure this is part of what happens with the alligators. 7.4 is about where humans live for pH and 6.9 is not compatible with life in humans. In fact if not corrected, its fatal.
Calcifer and I are not great friends yet. He did for the first time sit and watch me while I had my hands in his cage (from a safe distance in a well covered corner of his home) rather than running or pacing the roof of his enclosure, and he immediately took food from me when I noticed I was being watched. He might be starting to associate me as a food supplier which is a good start
Hopefully Calcifer will allow you into his life eventually! I have had a couple of chameleons that never did allow me into their cage and even chased after my hand outside the cage...an a prehensile tailed anole, that after 12+ years of hand feeding still looked at the food and my thumb to decide which to bite!