Poor thing! Many melleri are very poorly treated during their trips from exporters to the US. He could be fighting kidney failure and other problems due to abuse. Some suggestions...most chams eventually learn to compensate for a missing eye. It takes time and practice, but "he" could be shooting again in a short time. But, he's got a lot of problems right now and probably doesn't have the energy to try. I wouldn't worry too much about feeder variety right now. You can make sure the crix he will eat are nutritious by gutloading them really well. Gutload them with fresh fruit such as oranges, dark leafy greens such as kale or leaf lettuce, fortified whole grain cereal such as Total, bee pollen and some flake fish food. Don't overdo the dusting as you can cause organ damage and the reverse of MBD. For a cham older than a fast growing hatchling (melleri can take about 2 years to mature), calcium dusting once a week, vitamin dusting only about once a month. Give him new fresh UVB such as a ReptiSun 5.0. Melleri can burn themselves if they get too close to a MV or compact heat/UV lamp. I've found that melleri don't use drippers or lick foliage all that well. If you start spraying them gently from above they start licking the water as it runs down their face. Once they start swallowing you can syringe the water right on their snout and they will drink until full. Slow and gentle is the key. It will take some time for him to recover from dehydration and "refill" his water reserves, but if you give him a full drink 2 times a day and keep his setup fairly humid that will help. Give him water until he starts tipping his snout straight up and turns away from the drip. Then he's probably full. He sounds like he is a mellow one which is good. Most chams don't really "trust", but melleri vary a lot in temperment. Also, he's not able to show his true personality right now. For surface injuries, ask a vet for some Silvadene cream. It's protective, fights infection, and keeps them moist. Good stuff! Watch the Baytril. Some chams react very poorly to it and it is kidney-toxic.



For good melleri-specific information there is a great website and a forum on Yahoo. The website is The Melleri Discovery. It will help answer a lot of your questions about the species and their quirks.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]