Any clued up chameleon keepers here?

fuzzhc · 08-29-13, 11:46 AM

In need of some immediate advice if theres Any keepers of female chameleons. Already posted on the chameleon forums but I generally dont get much if any feed back

Starbuck · 08-29-13, 02:35 PM

I had a female veiled live to 3 years old, she had 3 clutches and on the third she became eggbound and died.

smy_749 · 08-29-13, 03:26 PM

I've never kept any chameleons but I did see the movie Rango, how can I help you?

fuzzhc · 08-29-13, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starbuck

I had a female veiled live to 3 years old, she had 3 clutches and on the third she became eggbound and died.

Sad to hear this

This is what im worried about. I was told she was a month old when I got her 2months ago but have just found out she looks atleast 8months. Because of this I was still feeding her like a horse which at an older age can produce extra large clutches.

Recently she turned gravid looking colours amd became restless. I put in a laying bin but she has not even looked at it. Today she has went her normal colours again but is frantically trying to get out of the cage and refusing all kinds of food the past 3 days, thus getting no calcium. She has started to become a bit shakey when moving but im not sure if this is down to moving about frantically or early signs of mbd. Today she appeared in blackish markings all over her body ehich dont look like burns or pattern. Im thinking bruising from falling or skin infection but cant be sure.

Basically is it worth a vet trip if she is possibly gravid? Could this be lead to her not laying at all?

Ive got a male veiled which ive had for 2.5 years now who got mdb becuase I wasnt clued up with reptiles at the time, he started off shakey which is worrying me. I still have him today and the shakeyness hasnt went away and has double elbows but is healthy besides those after effects from back then.

Haha smy! Quality film!

Starbuck · 08-29-13, 04:42 PM

what is your laying bin? i used play sand mixed with coco husk mixed with perlite and that seemed to work pretty well. I also started a burrow for my female.

I would call a vet and try to get an appointment ASAP, but in the mean time give her lots of privacy and hydration. the black marks could be signs of stress if she is gravid. On my female for both her second and 3rd clutches i could see faint outlines of eggs on her lower abdomen, and she moved very cumbersome and was round-bellied.

signs of trouble include sunken eyes, spending a good deal of time sleeping/eyes closed, hanging from the sides/vertical perches for extended periods of time, etc. These would be considered very poor signs

she could just be building up to the laying event, its hard to know from a third party.

fuzzhc · 08-29-13, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starbuck

what is your laying bin? i used play sand mixed with coco husk mixed with perlite and that seemed to work pretty well. I also started a burrow for my female.

I would call a vet and try to get an appointment ASAP, but in the mean time give her lots of privacy and hydration. the black marks could be signs of stress if she is gravid. On my female for both her second and 3rd clutches i could see faint outlines of eggs on her lower abdomen, and she moved very cumbersome and was round-bellied.

signs of trouble include sunken eyes, spending a good deal of time sleeping/eyes closed, hanging from the sides/vertical perches for extended periods of time, etc. These would be considered very poor signs

she could just be building up to the laying event, its hard to know from a third party.

Its a 10" deep box filled with sand, shes not even tried to dig a hole. I also have a deeper bucket just incase. Ill try start a little hole in the morning then and close the cupboard doors over to give her privacy.

Ill call a vet first thing aswell. Are xrays generally quite sear for reps? Ive never had one before. Just worried that it could cause some unneeded stress. The marks arent part of her gravid colouring definitely, to me it looks more like possible bruisng if she has became weak and fell. Ive looked and felt for eggs but could only feel ribs so far.

Ill look out for these signs aswell then thanks but as for now its just the shaking amd scratching at the sides of the cage.

Hopefully it is just a build up and me panicking!

This is one of the reasons I specifically stated I wanted a male lol but now that I have her I wouldnt want to lose her

Starbuck · 08-29-13, 05:33 PM

x rays on a chameleon actually arent that complicated; if you can get them to hold still on a perch you can just shoot from there; and it shouldnt be terribly difficult to tell if shes got eggs. make sure you take her to a reptilian vet, ask specifically if he has treated chameleons before.
on the one end of the spectrum she could be totally fine and i have just scared the daylights out of you. On the other you may be looking at supportive care of IC/IO fluids, some pain meds...??? not sure what else.

many of the reptile vets i've talked to dont have very much good to say about sick chameleons, they are very fragile animals and dont do well in hospital settings. best of luck, im hoping for the best for you!

fuzzhc · 08-30-13, 04:26 AM

Thanks alot! Theres only 3 reptile vets any where near where I live in Glasgow unfortunately and none of them can see me until late next week. Im at a total loss here. I changed her laying bin to a bucket this morning so hopefully that might make a difference but the more I think about it she may actually be egg bound.

Chameleons are far too fragile pets, I thought I had enough experience owning one for a few years. Obviously not especially when I comes to females. Thanks again

fuzzhc · 08-30-13, 04:28 AM

Thanks alot! Theres only 3 reptile vets any where near where I live in Glasgow unfortunately and none of them can see me until late next week. Im at a total loss here. I changed her laying bin to a bucket this morning so hopefully that might make a difference but the more I think about it she may actually be egg bound.

Chameleons are far too fragile pets, I thought I had enough experience owning one for a few years. Obviously not especially when I comes to females. Thanks again

Starbuck · 08-30-13, 05:05 AM

yeah

i got a pair as my first reptiles (the family had a pair of leopard geckos); and i wish could have counselled myself against it :/ the males can make great pets, but the longest lived female ive seen was only 5. My male lived to 7 1/2.

Some of he vets i've talked to aren't convinced that they live all that much longer in the wild anyways; there is even a species (cant remember which one now :P) that lives for one season, ONLY. at any given time of the year, you just have a huge cohort of same aged animals, which grow up and breed and die together

Best of luck, keep her supported, and hopefully its not the worst case scenario :/ she may just be getting restless in prep for oviposition; if she is otherwise not looking terrible then id think you shouldnt worry too much, just wait for the vet.

fuzzhc · 08-30-13, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starbuck

yeah

i got a pair as my first reptiles (the family had a pair of leopard geckos); and i wish could have counselled myself against it :/ the males can make great pets, but the longest lived female ive seen was only 5. My male lived to 7 1/2.

Some of he vets i've talked to aren't convinced that they live all that much longer in the wild anyways; there is even a species (cant remember which one now :P) that lives for one season, ONLY. at any given time of the year, you just have a huge cohort of same aged animals, which grow up and breed and die together

Best of luck, keep her supported, and hopefully its not the worst case scenario :/ she may just be getting restless in prep for oviposition; if she is otherwise not looking terrible then id think you shouldnt worry too much, just wait for the vet.

Yeah what species of chams was it you had?

7 1/2 is a good age though I'd be darn proud of that if my male lived to be that age! Females are really fragile creatures, yeah even the stress of egg production can significantly shorten their life spans

im definitely going to lower and monitor the temps and food intake from now on to stop any worries of over producing.

Ive seen a documentary on those before, I cant remember which species they were either though lol possibly some form of pygmy or dwarf?

Thanks man, im just back from a check up at my friends vet. It doesnt specialise in reps but the woman I know has a really good knowledge of reps. She had a check over and cant feel any eggs at all. Its looking like it was a false alarm but ive been told just to keep a close eye on her for the time being. Her slight tremors are down to not eating the past while but ive been given a few syringes that I could use to drop some baby food or fruit juice in to her mouth. Ive also bought an extra uv tube, so heres hoping!!

Starbuck · 08-30-13, 03:04 PM

ive had 2 veiled chameleons (male and female), and one male panther cham. The female became egg bound, as i mentioned. The male started to lose prehension abilities and couldnt catch his food, and developed some sort of hematoma on his leg; but my small animal vet couldnt do anything for him. The panther chameleon was my parents as i was at college (they got him for 'me' for christmas my sophomore year (?!?!?!?)), i dont remember what the final cause of death was but i imagine it was something systemic such as gout or the like :/

thats reassuring to me that they cant palpate any eggs; hopefully it was jsut a false alarm. keeping my fingers crossed for ya

fuzzhc · 09-12-13, 09:08 AM

Update- Looks like it was a false alarm lol. Still desperate to get out but im thinking she just wants to free range instead of being in that small enclosure. Still not eating like she was but shes hydrated and still looking good, also showing her normal pink and orange colours again

simpleyork · 09-12-13, 09:55 PM

my female veiled was just about as free range as she could get, though on hanging pots anyway she stayed on them one hundred percent of the time unless she was getting ready to lay at which time we would find her all over the house; that would be the hint to us and she would then be placed in a 10 gallon bucket with playsand, a small pothos vine, a heat lamp and as much privacy as she could ever ask for.

fuzzhc · 09-13-13, 03:34 AM

I used to free range my male veiled for about a month but hes a fussy eater who only eats live roaming locusts so that proved a bit of a problem lol. Im planning on letting my female fr but not till shes fully grown because ive let her do it a few times and she tends to wander aswell. I shall possibly steal your idea for the laying bin when it comes to it because right now there's a bucket in her enclosure but it takes up around a quarter of the space.