first of all let me say that none of this advice is meant to replace veterinary care which he certainly needs.(please email me)much of this was covered in my last post, but now that i have a little better idea of what we are dealing with, i will try to be more specific. sometimes these problems can take years to develop (so much for the responce he has had it that way for years and has been just fine) and they can take years to reverse (if thats even possible, more often than not its unsuccssesful), if he is still eating you may have caught it in time. but be prepared to spend a couple of years (probably the remainder of his life) trying to reverse the damage that has been done. the spiral fluorescents, are reffered to as cfls (compact fluorescents) and are generally accepted in the cham community as being not suitable for chams (regardless of brand including reptisun cfls) they are just too bright, too concetrated, and more often than not, lead to blindness and death in chameleons, (not to mention all of the other problems that leads to, like problems metabolizing vitamins). there is a proven track history of this. you still have not said what the 100 w basking light is , if it is a mercury vapor powersun, all of the same problems as above (not to mention at least double the effect when combined with a cfl) so for starters, i would recomend ditching both the 100w basking and the cfl , in fact i would let him go for a week or so with no light, maybe a 75w incandescent house bulb (give his eyes a chance to relax), until you are able to replace things with a more appropriate light setup . my recomendation would be to get a 75w incandescent zoo med uva basking bulb, and a lineal (straight tube) 24" genuine reptisun (not reptasun) 5.0 uvb. and fluorecent fixture (once again email for specific recomendations) next, just feeding collard or mustard greens is not a balanced gutload, a proper gutload consists of at least 20 different ingredients in balanced proportions, until you learn what is required, you might be better off buying a premade gutload(email). you cannot just feed an endless string of petstore crickets and meal worms without causing problems, chameleons need a balanced diet of many varied types of properly gutloaded feeders, all fed in balanced proportions according to their nutritional value to ensure proper calcium to phosphourous and vitamin to fat ratios. many of which need too be raised yourself in order to insure their wholesomeness, mealworms are high in chiton (hard outer layer)and not nutritionally suitable as a staple feeder, they should only be fed on a limited basis. based on your lack of awareness of these issues i would assume that your supplementation (dusting) routine is not properly balanced as well, and probably causing all kinds of vitamin issues, excesses or imbalances of vitamins of is deadly. the subject is far too complicated to go into in any depth in this post and depends on several variables, but just as a starting point ; use calcium only (no d3)4x a week, use calcium with d3 once a week max (i suspect he has been over supplemented so better go with every other week for a while).use herptivite or equivalent once a month max. too much vitamins(primarily d3 and preformed vitamin A) cause problems in the way vitamins are absorbed and metabolized, leading to vitamin deficiencies regardless of how much given , better to under supplement than over. any yellow in the urates, is a sign of dehydration, a one gallon dripper should be dripping 24hrs a day or at least during daylight hrs , it should drip about every 5-10 seconds, often if it is slower than that, they do not recognize it as moving water. i would also up your misings to several times a day , his shedding problems are due in part to his dehydration as well as his nutritional imbalances. an auto mister is strongly recomended for rehab of dehydration. his misting water should also be heated (not just warm water from the tap), this can be as simple as leaving his misting bottle or water resivoir on a small under tank heater. all of this boils down to the same thing, chams do not make good casual pets, successfully keeping a cham long term, requires a fairly broad knowledge of many different issues, and the dedication required to learn them , failure to do so, will almost certainly lead to the eventual demise of your animal. if you wish to save your cham , you need to acknowledge that fact and begin cham educating yourself accordingly, if the task seems to daunting, then perhaps you are better turning your cham over to an experienced and more knowledgeable cham keeper for rehabilitation.(not implying me , i have kept and bred veileds but currently keep only jacksons) if you are determined to improve your cham keeping skills, there are many improvements i could suggest, but the post is already massive as is. there are certain things that kingsnake rules discourage posting, but if you want to email me i will do my best to put you on the right track. in any case still probably a good idea to get him into a vet asap for a complete fecal exam and blood workup
