Our jackson chameleon has been in labor for the last 45 minutes and appears to have a dead basby chameleon partially stuck inside of her. Please help, what should we do?
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Female Jackson Chameleon in labor (Please Help)
benriff
Jul 11, 2003 01:33 PM
Replies (3)
Carlton
Jul 11, 2003 02:27 PM
You need a vet ASAP unless you can VERY GENTLY pull the baby free. First, if the membrane surrounding the baby has gotten dried out maybe spraying the female's vent area with warm water will help her expell it.
benriff
Jul 11, 2003 10:54 PM
Thanks for the advice. I started spraying the vent area with warm water every 20-30 minutes for 2 hours(I had hoped she could expell it) after 2 hours I very gently grasped the infant and let her slowly pull away. The baby came out, dead unfortunatly, I had hoped she would continue the birthing process but she didn't. Will she begin again? If so, when? We aquired her for breeding but hadn't intended on doing it so early. When we got her she was pregnant but she's very young maybe a little under a year. Also when we removed the baby she started eating immediatly, does that mean she's done giving birth? I would think that there would be more than one baby.
Thank you for replying Carlton, in all my lurking here you've seemed to know alot about chameleons and I trust your advice. I was also wondering if breed, sold, or were/are a chameleon researcher(in other words how did you learn so much about chameleons)?
Carlton
Jul 14, 2003 05:51 PM
Hi,
I don't know if she might have other babies. It might be worth an xray to check. Retained babies might decompose and cause peritonitis. Especially if she starts to look sick I would do this right away.
I've never commercially bred or sold chams, but have kept calyptratus, jacksoni, verrucosus, melleri, deremensis, fischeri, cristatus over the years. Most were rescues I ended up with after getting into keeping in 1992. I've learned a lot from staying active on forums, was a member of the old CIN, trying to assist interested local pet shops and vets, listening to others, and passing the stuff that worked for me on to newbies. I am also a biologist by profession so that helps in terms of trying to understand behavior and biology.
