Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took my mellers to the vet today and he came back clean. His skin, mouth and feceses were clean. No parasites. I have moved him into a free range enclosure now with a lot more room. He seems to be doing great. I have had fim for 3 weeks now and so far so good. Now my next challenge is to find a female for him. But thanks to every one who answered my questions about vets. I only ended up paying $40 for a fecal and and examination, so I was pretty happy with the visit.

Heya,

Very good news about your Melleri. You seldom get to hear that a melleri is clean.
Don't tke this the wrong way, but I would be tempted to hold on to him for a bit longer before purchasing a mate for her or him. 3 weeks is a nice start but many problems that occur with Melleri's can kick in at a later date. By Bringing in another (most likely wc animal) you are running the risk of infecting him/her also. Like I said finding one clean Melleri is lucky, finding two?? And I also would not put the burden of stress on him/her just yet.
Trust me, when you have two melleri's in an open setup that don't like eachother, the room couldn't be big enough.

Just my 2 cents.

Best regards,

René Imming.

I wasnt going to introduce them to each other for at least a month. I was going to quaranteen the female for a month and get her vet checked. Then I was going to slowly introduce them. I wasnt planning on bringing a female home and throwing her in there the same day. I read on how to introduce pairs on the melleri discovry site. The Male was sold to me as captive bred and he came back clean form the vet, so I don't know what the truth is. He could just be a clean wild caught animal, but again there is no real way on telling. He is eating drinking and wandering around his new enclosure for now, but what kind of problems should I look for in the coming up weeks? If he is clean he's clean, right? If he doesn't have parasites now, why would he have problems in the future? he has uv and regular lights (60 w) is in a 80 degree room with a nightly fluctuation of 5-10 degrees and doesn't have do deal with the stress of a cage.
Maybe in a month or two I will start introducing a female to him. Do you know if it is possible to house a trio (1.2) in a large free range enclosure? Any more info would be greatly appriciated.

One negative fecal analysis does not mean 100% parasite free for life. The fecal sample submitted simply might not have had any eggs (false negative), or the animal may have recently enough been treated with the first/second dose of a *course* of dewormer (meaning it killed the eggs of the parasite while the adults or immature forms are still in the animal); or the parasite eggs may still be in the environment for reinfestation; or the parasite may be in a different stage of life cycle where eggs simply do not show up in a fecal float yet (seasonal, with or without having previously been dewormed). With any possibly WC animal--esp Mellers--you would be advised to check fecal analyses frequently, for life of the animal. I do with all my WCs, and only slightly less frequently with the CBs, once LTC WCs have entered the colony. Parasites are very pesky and persistent critters at surviving in their host and its environment. It is far easier to treat early stages of parasite infestation in a healthy cham rather than dealing with a deteriorating animal that is loaded with life-sucking parasites.

Hope this helps, and certainly not meant to be discouraging, though! You are really taking a great start to your chameleon's well-being by such proactive measures in observing his health. Best of luck to you, a Mellers is truly a beautiful species!

~Kerry

I agree. It is always best to check a cham for parasites periodically throughout its life. Parasites are in just about everything including the feeder insects it eats. All chams have some at most times, but they don't always become a problem until the cham has other health problems...then they can overwhelm it when the cham's immune system is "busy". Bring a fecal sample to the vet occasionally so you can keep track of what is present over time. It is very rare for a cham to be really clean.