Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My veiled chameleon is around 7 months of age. almost died when little from not dusting his crickets. hand fed him back to life and now hes about a foot long. I dust his food with rep-cal calcium with vit.D3. Can i dust his food with d3 and let him out in natural sunlight? or will he over dose?
Second question i got is i also have a panther chameleon (nosey be), he is around 2 months of age. showing good colors already, feeds from my hand and looks real healthy. on his first shed i noticed he never got a clean shed on his tail. And now it seems like his body is growing and his tail [about 3/4 the way down it] is not growing. I also noticed his tail is never curled up like my veileds tail. Not sure if thats normal or if i just got a "special" lil panther from the pet show. or if he mighta busted it up some how. Can send picks of them if you need pics.

I'm no expert but from what I understand the rays from natural sunlight help to absorb the calcium. Without uv calcium cannot get absorbed into the system. As for the tail, if it hasn't shedded properly, try putting him in the shower on a tree and bounce the water off the wall. Use luke-warm water to create a little humidity. This might help the dead skin to loosen and come off. If it comes off enough to hold a piece, try gently pulling off the dead skin (only if it gives, do not force it off.) Hope this helps.

My understanding of reptiles and unshed skin is it is a bad thing. Unshed skin is from a smaller size. It cuts of circulation and is the equivilant of wrapping a rubber band around your finger tighter and tighter, your finger will die and you will need to amputate. Well, for the animal the area will turn black because it is dead. You must get that skin off. When I was at the reptile show there was a product to help lubricate and moisten unshed skin, try and get that stuff to see if it could help. If its a few sheds worth of skin it might be tough, make sure you really get the area moisturized but don't flood the animal and try to keep the humidity from spiking from very low to very high levels, I know in some snakes that can lead to respitory infections (that are also contagous to humans and other animals).

I was recommended Jojoba oil for the same problem. It is a natural oil that wont harm your chameleon. You can pick it up in any health food store or get it fairly cheap online im sure. Just rub some on his tail for a few days and see if anything improves. But try something quickly, as was stated in the above post, the circulation can be cut off and he could lose the tail.
Make sure to mist him and or his tail often (or more often) as well, as that might help the process.

Good luck!
Erin

I was probably the one to recommend jojoba I use the stuff for all sorts of things from polishing furniture, as a moisturizer on my face in the summer months to removing old shed from my cham! it's great stuff to have on hand. I dip a q-tip in it and saturate the shed several times a day. If he lets you, you can try to roll it off once it is good and moist. This is better than vaseline and other petroleum products which can actually be very drying (counter-intuitive? yes, but true)

It is actually a wax but is liquid at room temp. Has no smell, absorbs easily and is 100% safe. Btw, it is pronounced ho-ho-ba

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta