Vitamin A deficiency

I'm going to keep adding to this post for the next while...so keep checking it out if you want to see it all...

Insects...vitamin A....
"Crickets, superworms, and mealworms contained β-carotene although using standard conversion factors only crickets and superworms would likely contain sufficient vitamin A activity for most species of insectivores. Waxworms did not contain any detectable β-carotene but did contain zeaxanthin which they likely converted from dietary β-carotene"....
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26366856

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00890538/document
https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/znc.1981.36.issue-9-10/znc-1981-9-1011/znc-1981-9-1011.pdf

Chameleons...conversion...
"Measurable concentrations of retinol at all stages of eggdevelopment in the chameleons suggests effective conversion from carotenoid pre-cursors, with concentrations similar to those measured in other lizard eggs"...
https://www.academia.edu/20045438/C...ment_in_panther_chameleons_Furcifer_pardalis_

Preformed vitamin A...
http://www.uvma.org/chameleon/vitaminA.htm

Vitamin A and a lot more...
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/po...ourselves-and-growing-in-chameleon-knowledge/
" Although we cannot dispute that supplementing with the immediately useable vitamin A has demonstrated benefits, we also cannot yet put a finger on why some chameleons are raised and live a long healthy life without ever being given a vitamin A supplement. Are some chameleons living on the edge of vitamin deficiency all their life? Are chameleons converting carotenoids derived from the plant matter fed their feeder insects?"
 
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@Courtney_H ...you said..."Recently my Cham has been having a “crusty”, discharge eye. I have been keeping what I can out giving him some extra misting, but it keeps returning. I took him to my local vet that sees reptiles and she suggested, what I was suspicious of, that he had a vitamin A deficiency. I have been gut loading his feeders with carrots and collard greens to try to compensate. I also have been making sure to dust all feeders with Earth Pro-A" as was already said...all of this is beta carotene and may not be able to be converted. Since you have given your chameleon no orEformed vitamin A ...It shouldn't hurt to give it a small amount as @Kaizen suggested.

You said..."This being said, it’s been about 3 weeks and still his eye gets crusty.I replaced his uv bulb about the same time his symptoms began"...waiting for your answers about the light and the window.

You said..."Should I take him back to the vet for eye drops possibly?"...if it persists I would take him back to the vet.
 
I supplement with Repashy Vitamin A Plus on 5 bugs once every 3 weeks. So far so good. Please note that I do not use all in one calcium products like Repashy Calcium Plus which does contain Vitamin A as well. For my multivitamin I use Rep-Cal Herptavite which contains caretnoids instead of Vitamin A Retinol
 
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