Hello Chaemeleon Members,
I would like to share our chameleon’s story and I hope it will help the future chameleon keepers. I have to say, we learned it the hard way! I hope people will understand and won’t judge us too much
. I and my husband were always amazed at chameleon’s beauty, abilities to change colors and we were hoping in keeping it one day. My husband made a surpise. He bought 2 month old Veiled Chameleon from PetsMart. We named our boy chameleon Pedro. The person from PetSmart gave all info on how to take care of chameleon and helped with all terrarium set up purchase. The person seemed very knowledgeable at that time, so my husband thought that he got all info he needed. You would think that people who work with the reptiles and handle them every day would know everything about them and what’s best for them. Neither my husband nor I thought to do any further researched on chameleon care. So Pedro was munching on crickets (no calcium dusting, gut loaded with apples, carrots and orange cubes) and lettuce and was growing happy and healthy or that’s what we thought until one day. Pedro stopped eating and started to behave strangely, hanging upside down on the brunches. So we decided to take him to reptile doctor. We didn’t have much time to research for the best one since it seemed like emergency. I read reviews about the doctor and they all were good. Doctor didn’t take any blood test or stool sample but gave injection from parasites, calcium injection, and vitamin injection and diagnosed Pedro with MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease). The only thing that I’m thankful the doctor today is the calcium injection prescription but that’s about it. He couldn’t even tell if it’s a boy or girl. And you all would be surprised because he is a popular reptile doctor in the area. Doctor gave only 25% of survival for Pedro. The worst news ever, we were so upset. We didn’t know what to do or how to help or why it happened. So I started to do the research on how to improve MBD and learned so much. I got even more upset because I realized all the mistakes we have done over the time and that we knew so little about Veild Chameleons. But we could only blame ourselves. Apparently our Pedro turned out to be a Pedra. Yes, a girl. Which made things even more complicated with MBD. After research I realized that she could be bearing eggs because she was 6 month old at that time and started to show her receptive blue color dots. On our second visit to the doctor I insisted on ultrasound. Turned out I was right and the egg formation was sucking out all the calcium from her body. But Pedra turned out to be a fighter and didn’t give up so easy nor did we! We were doing everything we could calcium injections, introduced hornworms, silkworms, butterworms, moths, fly and roaches to her diet. We switched from glass terrarium (that was so bad for her) to 24”x24”x48” mesh one with pothos plant instead of fake leaves. I started to take her outside for sun baths (that we never done before). I let her sit on Hibiscus plant and munch on leaves and flowers that she loves. I can’t believe that we let our chameleon to live in such a misery before. Today, Pedra is 8 months old and very happy, friendly chameleon. Smiles all the time!
Now we are trying to do and give what’s best for Pedra. And that led us to breeding insects that isn’t so easily found or reached in the pet stores like Hornworms, Silkworms, Blue Bottle Flies, Green Banana Roaches, Orange Isopods. And since we only have one Chameleon we have way too many of the insects left. If anyone is interested in purchasing any please let us know by email [email protected]
Our suggestion to new chameleon keepers to prevent mistakes that we did, buy chameleons only from breeders, the people who have experience and can give you the true and best info about chameleon care. Do as much researched as possible before you bring your new pet home.
I hope someone will find this story helpful. If anyone has any other helpful ideas or advises we will highly appreciate it.
Thank you everyone!
I would like to share our chameleon’s story and I hope it will help the future chameleon keepers. I have to say, we learned it the hard way! I hope people will understand and won’t judge us too much
. I and my husband were always amazed at chameleon’s beauty, abilities to change colors and we were hoping in keeping it one day. My husband made a surpise. He bought 2 month old Veiled Chameleon from PetsMart. We named our boy chameleon Pedro. The person from PetSmart gave all info on how to take care of chameleon and helped with all terrarium set up purchase. The person seemed very knowledgeable at that time, so my husband thought that he got all info he needed. You would think that people who work with the reptiles and handle them every day would know everything about them and what’s best for them. Neither my husband nor I thought to do any further researched on chameleon care. So Pedro was munching on crickets (no calcium dusting, gut loaded with apples, carrots and orange cubes) and lettuce and was growing happy and healthy or that’s what we thought until one day. Pedro stopped eating and started to behave strangely, hanging upside down on the brunches. So we decided to take him to reptile doctor. We didn’t have much time to research for the best one since it seemed like emergency. I read reviews about the doctor and they all were good. Doctor didn’t take any blood test or stool sample but gave injection from parasites, calcium injection, and vitamin injection and diagnosed Pedro with MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease). The only thing that I’m thankful the doctor today is the calcium injection prescription but that’s about it. He couldn’t even tell if it’s a boy or girl. And you all would be surprised because he is a popular reptile doctor in the area. Doctor gave only 25% of survival for Pedro. The worst news ever, we were so upset. We didn’t know what to do or how to help or why it happened. So I started to do the research on how to improve MBD and learned so much. I got even more upset because I realized all the mistakes we have done over the time and that we knew so little about Veild Chameleons. But we could only blame ourselves. Apparently our Pedro turned out to be a Pedra. Yes, a girl. Which made things even more complicated with MBD. After research I realized that she could be bearing eggs because she was 6 month old at that time and started to show her receptive blue color dots. On our second visit to the doctor I insisted on ultrasound. Turned out I was right and the egg formation was sucking out all the calcium from her body. But Pedra turned out to be a fighter and didn’t give up so easy nor did we! We were doing everything we could calcium injections, introduced hornworms, silkworms, butterworms, moths, fly and roaches to her diet. We switched from glass terrarium (that was so bad for her) to 24”x24”x48” mesh one with pothos plant instead of fake leaves. I started to take her outside for sun baths (that we never done before). I let her sit on Hibiscus plant and munch on leaves and flowers that she loves. I can’t believe that we let our chameleon to live in such a misery before. Today, Pedra is 8 months old and very happy, friendly chameleon. Smiles all the time! Now we are trying to do and give what’s best for Pedra. And that led us to breeding insects that isn’t so easily found or reached in the pet stores like Hornworms, Silkworms, Blue Bottle Flies, Green Banana Roaches, Orange Isopods. And since we only have one Chameleon we have way too many of the insects left. If anyone is interested in purchasing any please let us know by email [email protected]
Our suggestion to new chameleon keepers to prevent mistakes that we did, buy chameleons only from breeders, the people who have experience and can give you the true and best info about chameleon care. Do as much researched as possible before you bring your new pet home.
I hope someone will find this story helpful. If anyone has any other helpful ideas or advises we will highly appreciate it.
Thank you everyone!
