Posted by:
heathatlas
at Wed Jun 27 10:59:30 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by heathatlas ]
Hiya, Long time member long time since posting.
I have an eight year old veiled chameleon (Karl) and recently decided to carry on his great genes. So I bought him a couple females in hopes I can get him bred before his life expires. (He is very healthy but I know chams don't live much longer than this).
Then, in a fit of interest, I also ordered a Sambava Panther. I figured since I have had a cham for 8 years I should be able to handle a Panther. I got the shipment of ~ 4 inch baby chams and placed the two veilds in an enclosure together and the Sambava in a separate enclosure. I instantly noticed the Sambava had sunken in eyes and walked like a drunk. It even fell off the vine twice while I tried to place it in the cage initially.
So the hydration began. It seemed to drink a lot of water the first day and had much more energy the second. I then started the feeding process. It ate one cricket but in a strange manner. It zapped it with its tongue and then proceeded to walk to the cricket instead of retract its tongue. It retracted its tongue as it walked!
After that, it just slept. Slept and slept and slept. The cage temp was spot on 78 degrees and I continued to mist every other hour and left 5 pinheads and a few fruit flies in the cage. My veiled gets daily natural sunlight and I gave 15 minutes to the sambava as well. Nothing, still slept.
About 5pm I noticed the Sambava had fallen to the cage bottom and wasn't moving at all. As a last resort I tried pediolite with an eye dropper. It drank some more, very weakly, but on the morning of the third day, it was dead. In my opinion, the Sambava drank plenty of water to hydrate but never tried another cricket or fruit fly after the first, sorry attempt. Although the panther had poor health symptoms on arrival, it did eat and drink and so I blew it off as shipping stress and thought it would do fine until I found it practically dead on cage bottom.
The two veilds, the cheaper guys, of course, are doing fine and eating like a champ.
In my opinion, a cham which dies two days after arrival must have had serious problems when I got it. What do you guys think, meaning, is it possible for a healthy baby to die in two days without actually trying to kill it?
I only ask this because I care a lot for these little guys and don't want to attempt another Panther (when I save another 200 bucks) if it was somehow my fault.
Sorry for the long post.
[ Hide Replies ]
 Did I get a bad egg? - heathatlas, Wed Jun 27 10:59:30 2007
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