is calcium sand good for a chameleon at all? i know with leopard geckos it messes up their stomach acids and makes it so they cant digest their food and soon die of impaction? is it the same with chameleons?
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calcium sand?
leopardgeckoman
Oct 25, 2004 04:26 PM
Replies (5)
roocat71
Oct 25, 2004 07:29 PM
I wouldnt use any substrate, and if I were to that would be the last stuff I would use. Some people like to use substrate, but it wasnt too long ago that there was a post about a cham passing some bark that was causing some serious problems. Lots of things can go wrong with a cham - better to have substrate not on the list of them.
-roo
lele
Oct 25, 2004 09:03 PM
As roocat said no substrate is necessary. Chams typically never touch the ground so there is no need for it (most of us use paper towel, newspaper, etc. easy cleanup and biodegradable 
Keep it simple for yourself and your cham 
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA 
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)
leopardgeckoman
Oct 25, 2004 09:25 PM
well i dont have a cham, but my friends sister does and it seems to have some kind of disease where something is eating part of the cham. and my friend said she used calcium sand which i thought was bad for the cham too. any of idea of what this is and what to do? she has taken it to a vet but he hasnt done anything great for her except give her medicine and he couldnt answer any questions. But the clydes peeling place told her that the sand was ok for them. But i thought i'd ask people that personally have chams and love them and take care of em properly.
thanks for ur help. again any answers will be appriciated.
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chimbakka
Oct 25, 2004 10:12 PM
It could be that there are free roaming crix that are biting her cham. Or, it could be fungal. What do the spots look like?
A lot of places sell things for animals that aren't needed, and can even be bad for them. Most pet stores misinform customers and only want to make money.... It's too bad really.
Let us know as much as we can about the set up and problems she's having and maybe we can help figure it out. beware of a vet that gives medicine and doesn't know what the problem is. Lots of medicine can be hard on a cham and make things worse or create new problems. I know that a lot of inexperience vets will give baytril at the first sign of problems and this will create new more serious problems down the road.
Does your foot hurt? Here, have some penicylin... lol.
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~Lindsay
0.1 panther chameleon (Orion)
1.2 r. brevicaudatus chams (unnamed)
0.1 leopard gecko (Acadia)
1.0 pictus gecko (Raine)
1.1 parakeets (Bongo/Citron)
1.1 cats (Tigger/Bonzai)
1.0 dwarf hampster (Chico the monster)
someday will have 1.1 great danes (will be Osiris and Solaris)
lele
Oct 26, 2004 02:51 PM
can you get your friend to post on the forum to give us info? It sounds serious enough where she could use some suggestions - and a new vet! Where do you live? There are some good sites with vet connections. here's one:
Link
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)
