Posted by:
kinyonga
at Fri Mar 23 01:49:16 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by kinyonga ]
You said..."I got a red heat light (60 watt) for him, because we we'd been going through a really bad cold spell and I was worried"...it was definitely a good idea to get it a heat source...but I don't think a chameleon recognizes a heat lamp as a light and it would look for a light source to warm up under. It should get turned off at night. As long as the room temperature isn't cold at night there is no need for a heat source.
You said..."My understanding is that for the entire time he's had the chameleon, the UVB light has been on, and since he got the heatlight, that's been on the entire time too. 24/7"...chameleons need darkness at night....so the UVB light only needs to be on for 12 to 14 hours a day depending on the season....and as I explained, the heat light doesn't need to be on at night either. Chameleons can likely see the red light too BTW.
You said..."after about an hour of him like that I went to mist and he just about fell off the branch, and then he seemed to be stuck on his side, feebly waving his legs around" and "He couldn't seem to hold up his head or have any sort of coordination" and "I don't think he's been getting dusted food much"...in the pictures you attached, the chameleon doesn't seem to be raising its body off your hand...can it? Does it? Or does it normally rest on the branches and your hand? The fact that it has trouble not falling and didn't right itself when it fell over and waved its legs around, since it lacked a basking area and may have lacked supplements and appears to have bone issues in its arms near the elbows, I'm wondering if it has MBD. I'm not a vet so I can only tell you what I think. However...whatever is going on with this chameleon, I think it should go to a vet ASAP.
If it does have MBD the vet can give her injections of calcium and when the blood levels are high enough, a shot of calcitonin to draw the calcium back into the bones.
BTW, do the insects get gutloaded?
His head looks...funky to me, although it could be just that I don't have any experience with veiled chameleons....I don't think that the pads on the head are anything to worry about.
She doesn't look dehydrated.
Its still a good idea (as was already mentioned) to have a place for her to lay eggs should she have any. Failure to do so could lead to eggbinding and eventually death.
You said..."Temps: 100 directly beneath the heatlamp, 84 2" away from the heatlamp, 72 is the ambient temperature in the room. Ambient humidity in here is 50%"...this sounds okay.
I imagine that you know most of the following since you have water dragons...but I'll mention it just in case...
Its important to have a proper basking temperature because the chameleon needs to be warm enough to digest its food...thus absorb nutrients from its diet.
Most insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous so dusting the insects with a phosphorous-free calcium powder helps to make up for this.
Preformed vitamin A and vitamin D3 from supplements can build up in the chameleon's system if overdosed. Also, too much preformed vitamin A will prevent the D3 from doing its job and can lead to MBD. Beta carotene sources of vitamin A won't cause an overdose but there is controversy over whether a chameleon can convert beta carotene to vitamin A or not.
I hope your friend will do what is necessary to help his chameleon before its too late.
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RE: What's going on?! - kinyonga, Fri Mar 23 01:49:16 2007