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Ordered my senegal female last week. She was to be part of a breeding pair. She was said to be gravid. Was shown pics and looked 100% health, and went ahead and purchased her. She was shipped usps. When i got her, she could hardly move, her eyes were extremly sunk in for obvious dehydration. I guess shipping took a HUGE toll on her. She was horrible. I did everything i could to try nursing this poor chameleon to health. Even took the day off work to be here. After 10 hours of fighting a loosing battle she passed. It was my first shipping casualty. Again i saw pics of her right before shipping and she looked great so im almost 100% sure it was the shipping that did it. just a sad story. On the lighter side, my male made it and is doing wonderfully. He is eating like a pig and is adapting to his new home just fine.

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2.0.0 Veiled Chameleons (Eros & Himeros)
1.0.0 Sandfire red/gold Beardie (No Name yet)
0.1.0 Brown Basilisk (Leroy, I know shes a girl!)
0.0.2 Chinese Water Dragons (Merl & Maggie May)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Chalmers)
1.0.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtle (Radar)

Comming
Senegal Chameleon breeding pair
Hopefuls
Female beardie named Sissy. Hoping to adopt her from mid michigan reptile rescue. Keeping my fingers crossed!

just another pic of my male

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2.0.0 Veiled Chameleons (Eros & Himeros)
1.0.0 Sandfire red/gold Beardie (No Name yet)
0.1.0 Brown Basilisk (Leroy, I know shes a girl!)
0.0.2 Chinese Water Dragons (Merl & Maggie May)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Chalmers)
1.0.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtle (Radar)

Comming
Senegal Chameleon breeding pair
Hopefuls
Female beardie named Sissy. Hoping to adopt her from mid michigan reptile rescue. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Between being gravid, parasites, and gravid shipped around all the stress could have contributed to her death.
Since they are all wild caught and seldom live past a few months not much is known on them or why they do poorly.
I don't know how far your girl wsas from dropping but you can harvest the eggs and if fertile try and incubate. I emailed you privately on where they came from since i am in a similar situation.
Good Luck..

You said shipped by usps...surely you mean overnight shipping, right, and not postal service (longer than next day)? Shipping even overnight in a small, stifling box can sometimes be stressful enough to do in any chameleon, even the most healthy. Shipping longer than overnight delivery certainly could have contributed to her female's demise, in my opinion. I recently received a DOA on an overnighted CB animal, for inexplicable reasons. Personally I still hold my breath every time I ship chameleons, even when temps and all other parameters are optimal. Chameleons are fragile beasts.

I am assuming your Senegal was WC, as CB are virtually nonexistant, and any reputable breeder skillful enough to have actually bred Senegals in captivity would hesitate in shipping a gravid female, and certainly not any route longer than overnight. The demands of being gravid sometimes overwhelm healthy CB stock---pregnancy is a highly consuming state for a little chameleon body. A WC chameleon who survives the rigors of shipping not once, but twice at least (from native country to US, then from supplier to you) has already endured much stress from just shipment alone. So yes, being gravid could definitely have contributed to your chameleon's death.

Senegals are a very timid and easily stressed chameleon. They are very much a hands-off species. WC specimens are often literally loaded with internal parasites (sometimes external, too). There may even be smoldering disease(s) lying dormant in these wild animals that are exacerbated from stress and overwhelm the chameleon's impaired and compromised immune system. That is why it is critical that all WC animals be quarantined upon arrival, even ones from the same shipment.

How do I know this? My very first chameleon was a WC Senegal. If I had only known then that Senegals were such a difficult species to keep, I would have considered other species. I truly believe the only way Carly has survived to this day was by early intervention of my very helpful veterinarian, as Carly was full of worms and required several fecal checks and various medications to finally achieve a clean bill of health. Today she is probably one of the most robust chameleons I have, but it took several months of a petrifed, scrawny-looking chameleon in quarantine before she started to blossom. It is only just recently that I feel she has finally acclimated well enough to captivity that I may try to mate her, although I rather doubt I will be lucky again in acquiring a male Senegal and getting it to full health and maturity as I was with Carly. Below is a picture of "Carly", who was incorrectly sold under the label of "Gracilis" but who has only recently been correctly identified as a Senegal!

~Kerry

(PS: For what its worth, in my time keeping Carly I have found her to be very senstive to vitamin and mineral supplementation via dusting, considerably more sensitive than almost every other species I keep. She does much better with gutload only as a means to acheive vit/min supplementation. That is just something interesting I have observed in my time with Carly).

She was wild caught, and I am more then aware of the parasite problems wild caught animals have. She was going to be taken in to my vet this Wednesday for an exam but she passed. The male is under quarantine and the female would have been as well. IM receiving a new female on wed so ill let you know how it goes. The male has adapted more then wonderfully. He will be checked on Wednesday with the new female.

Thanks for your input. Its always great to have a fellow Senegal keeper chime in. Not too many out there I see. I wanted to try something a lil more seldom seen so that's why I chose the Senegal's.
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2.0.0 Veiled Chameleons (Eros & Himeros)
1.0.0 Sandfire red/gold Beardie (No Name yet)
0.1.0 Brown Basilisk (Leroy, I know shes a girl!)
0.0.2 Chinese Water Dragons (Merl & Maggie May)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Chalmers)
1.0.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtle (Radar)

Comming
Senegal Chameleon breeding pair
Hopefuls
Female beardie named Sissy. Hoping to adopt her from mid michigan reptile rescue. Keeping my fingers crossed!

NP
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2.0.0 Veiled Chameleons (Eros & Himeros)
1.0.0 Sandfire red/gold Beardie (No Name yet)
0.1.0 Brown Basilisk (Leroy, I know shes a girl!)
0.0.2 Chinese Water Dragons (Merl & Maggie May)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Chalmers)
1.0.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtle (Radar)

Comming
Senegal Chameleon breeding pair
Hopefuls
Female beardie named Sissy. Hoping to adopt her from mid michigan reptile rescue. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Hopefully wont be like the last one!
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2.0.0 Veiled Chameleons (Eros & Himeros)
1.1.0 Senegal Chameleons (Francois & Fifi)
1.0.0 Sandfire red/gold Beardie (Whitey Ford)
0.1.0 Brown Basilisk (Leroy, I know shes a girl!)
0.0.1 Chinese Water Dragons (Maggie May)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Chalmers)
1.0.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtle (Radar)

Hopefuls
Female beardie named Sissy. Hoping to adopt her from mid michigan reptile rescue. Keeping my fingers crossed!