Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know a place that has panthers and jacksons. They didn' thave a clue how to take care of them and are just now (after a long while) starting to do things. I wouldn't be surprised if the animals has MBD, they just really don't know chameleons. Anyway, this girl is kept with a male (both are about 4" long not including tail) in a half wire mesh half glass cage. She rubbed her horn off a while ago and today I saw half her toes on a front foot don't have toenails, she can't climb the wire mesh. Shes super skinny also. Today, as she was walking the ground I saw her reaching with one front leg for something clearly not within reach and she fell on her stomach. I even saw her licking moist bark, attempting to drink I assume. Anyway, I was wondering if this cham is beyond help by the sound of things? If not I would push to let me nurse it back to health. She'd get plenty of sunlight, only problem would be keeping the humidity up as it's quite dry in San Diego with the temperature this high (88-100 degrees). Thoughts?

The big problem with rescue is giving the shop the excuse to replace the one you take. Sounds to me like she is saveable, but unless you can convince the shop to stop selling chams until they get a clue you may be prolonging the suffering of other chams they decide to sell later. If this one dies it is more of a loss to them. If everyone refuses to buy her they are less likely to get more. I know it's cruel to watch her die believe me. I've rescued sicker chams than this, but ONLY with an agreement from the shop to clean up their act, and I tell them I will only take the cham temporarily for free (but I plan to pay any vet bills etc.). If they are partially willing to do something they can separate her from the male at least. If they don't listen to you you should report them to your local animal control, Better Business Bureau, and newspaper (animal cruelty gets attention). TELL them you will do this either in person or by letter. Be polite but firm and professional. Include care sheets so the agencies can check that what you say is legit. Boycott the store and do it very publicly with fliers or word of mouth.

I agree with carl
And i would like to add that i had the same problem here with a certain store that we all probably dealt with!
I went to the manager and politely handed her a care sheet on veiled chameleons and explained to her that the chameleons she had were in jeopardy due to their conditions
They seemed to do alot better after that

I will inform them of their errors and help out as much as possible. But for as long as this has been going on, I don't see how they could really make any progress without natural sunlight. It's hard to tell egotistical management they are wrong.