Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our male veiled chameleon is about a year old and is very lethargic. He hasn't eaten anything in a few days, and his grip isn't as strong as it used to be, and he keeps falling from his plant. His mouth is also getting very pale. I noticed a weird bony bump on his right arm and I don't know what it is. I'd post a picture, but I don't know how. If you guys need a picture, could you walk me through posting?

Thanks everyone. Please reply as soon as possible.

We would need a lot more specific information before anyone can help. How long have you had him? What specific type of lighting are you using (and I mean brands)? What are you feeding, and what do you dust and gutload the feeder insects with? How often do you apply dusts? What is the cage setup like and what are the temp ranges (day to night), and the cage humidity (percent range from high to low)?

If this is something that has come on gradually, it may be a nutritional deficiency and all the info I've asked for will be important to figure out what is wrong. The lump on the leg could be a fracture caused by metabolic bone disease. The weak grip, lethargy could also be caused by this. But without knowing what you feed, dust, and what lighting you use, there's no way to tell.

Well, he's about a year old, and we feed him crickets that have been fed Layna hen food, which is calcium and vitamin fortified. He is my mom's pet, and she doesn't dust the crickets because she says that the food for the crickets is enough. He has about a 4' foot tall 2.5' wide and 2.5 foot long cage with two plants in it, which are schefflera arboricola . It says on the bulb that we use that it is a "Fluker" brand and also says 100W 120V. The lamp we use is about 10.5'' in diameter.

As for temperature, it's around 75-80 degrees F in the day time and 65-70 degrees F in the night. He's been having this problem for about a week now. It started after we had to clean his cage because there was an ant problem in it. We rinsed the whole cage with just water. At first I thought he was just stressed because we had rearranged his cage in the process, so I didn't think much of it.

Then I inspected him and found the bump on his arm. I looked at him again this morning and also noticed a bump on his back. He spends most of his time in the pots, or falls to the floor.

I did a little more research online, and it's becoming more and more likely that he might have MBD. I hope this helps, and if there's any more information that you might need please ask.

Well, that isn't a good lamp to start with. The best UV lamp most of us use is the ReptiSun 5.0 which is the most consistently good producer of the correct UV spectrum. Change the bulbs every 6 months. If all you are feeding is the crix fed that particular food, the nutrition is not complete. You need to provide a variety of insects as a single feeder such as crix are not very balanced in Ca and phosphorus. Feeders are more nutritious if they are fed a variety of fresh leafy greens, chunks of fruit (oranges), a fortified cereal such as Total, bee pollen. The point of the variety is to help fill in any nutritional gaps that may be present. Dusting too much can result in OVERdose of Ca and the symptoms can actually be similar to those of a deficiency. It is better to gutload a variety of insect feeders directly rather than depend on a dust. An adult cham should get a dusting of Ca once a week, and a dusting of a good quality herp vitamin once a month.

Deal with what is most likely MBD. You can halt its progression at least. Get your cham out in full sunlight outdoors as often as you can (but remember to provide a shady retreat too). Get a decent UVB bulb and ditch the Fluker bulb. Try some different feeders such as silkworms, waxworms, roaches, Zoophobas, in addition to the crix, and gutload them well. Hopefully your cham won't get much worse and will start behaving more normally soon.

Well I know this post isn't exactly current anymore but here is some advice if your cham is still alive.

Take it to a vet ASAP. When a lizard is as sick as yours it is beyond the point where just fixing the husbandry problems will make it better. Immediate vet care and calcium therapy are in order.

In the future you need both a better source of UV and a better source of calcium and vit D. The gut load is not enough. A higher basking temp would also be good. The bumps and bends you are seeing are the bones softening and breaking because of lack of calcium. The weak grip and falling mean that the lack of calcium has already effected his muscles and nervous system.