Oh, I am so, so sorry for your loss.

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Amy

I can relate to what your going through, but with me it was baby bunnies. Sometimes when they are born the mother will kick them out of the next box or they will fall out. You save them, warm them up, put them back in the nest box. Then they don't eat, you try everything including dropper feeding, to have them asperate the milk into the lungs. Your holding this tiny bunny in your hand as it chokes, blows bubbles out of his nose, sticks it tongue out and then dies. You feel like a complete failure, you should have prevented all of this, this bunny should not have died. Hang in there it will get better!

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Colleen

Don't beat your self up over this I've lost 2 out of 10 cornsnakes that I aquired this year, some just aren't ment to make it no matter what you do. Young Chams are very hard to raise, if not given an Ideal enviorment. I see too much very young herps coming in to the pet trade from major chain stores, with out though of the animal or customer. I've even seen adult a adult Veiled that refused food from a new owner simpliy due to home sickness. The Veiled was bought from a friend, given an Ideal envorment by the new owner but refused food, the Veiled was taken back to my friend and ate right away.

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Thanks Titus. I just feel like it was up to me to provide that ideal environment and if I didnt, then thats my fault. I have no way of knowing wether he was sick when I got him, but I still feel plenty rotten about it.

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One nation under Dog
RIP Chameleo Extevez
Dog is my copilot.

I'm sorry that I hadn't caught this thread earlier to help. I went back and took a look at your earlier thread, it seams as though you provided a very good enviorment for your Veiled. The only questions I can think to ask is what UV lighting you were using and the size of your viv. Did look farily large for a baby Veiled. A screen viv is not as needed I've used glass with fans to curculate air for years. I really did like you set up though I've gotten away from live plants for all my herps. but provide branchs and Plasic plant cover. Give your self some time and invest a little more for a older veiled, Young ones just don't take to change well, most breeders won't sell a cham under 3 months of age, though some pet stores just want a buck.

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http://dght.de

Sorry for the loss of your little guy.
I did a two week volunteer stint in the reptile section of our zoo and "we"/they had 16 baby veiled Chams that looked just as tiny as yours. You'd think that the zoo would know how to care for them properly, as they've successfully kept and bred the adults. Well, the short version of my story is that after my two weeks were up, we had 2 babies left alive. (barely)
As I watched them all dropping dead, I read a lot about their care and tried to suggest changes: ie. smaller enclosures so they wouldn't have to expend so much energy climbing around trying to catch food and missing and having to climb to the other end to try again. Also, I wanted to mist their enclosure so that they could drink water droplets off of the leaves and branches, but my boss only had a water bowl on the ground. (I tried hanging a little plastic lid with water on one of the branches in the baby enclosure to have water available higher up, which seemed to work ok, but they took it out on my day off.)
Whenever he wasn't around, I misted all of the cham enclosures (sprayed the screen tops and they all livened up, climbed to the highest point and lapped up the water droplets falling from the ceiling and branches. The older ones just stood their with their eyes closed and mouth open and drank and drank and drank!
I stopped spraying for a minute to get this pic:



Chams are really cool, but difficult to keep, and especially the young ones are very fragile and sensitive. Try not to beat yourself up about it, use it as a learning experience to find out what you might have been able to do differently: we've all lost pets... it's rough, but it's also a part of keeping them.
I was REALLY mad that the zoo couldn't/wouldn't do more to keep their little one's alive... and it's a REALLY GOOD zoo (mostly!)

I am sorry you have had to go through the ordeal of losing a muched loved pet Livesquid.

I must say though that I totally agree with Lyn's comments regardign the age of your chameleon.

I keep various species of cham myself and would not ever recommend a newcomer to chams to get a Yemen under around 4 months old. Small chams are difficult to maintain because it only takes the slightest thing, as I am sure Caudilus will tell you, and they become stressed and sick very rapidly.

I have also found that drip feeding a small cham can be very difficult if you are unsure as to how to do it because too much water and not enough muscle reflex from them can lead to them taking the water into thier lungs and can cause major problems also.

It is no consolation to be told that perhaps the animal was a little too young and not well enough established in it's life routine for you to be able to do anything but hope he would pull through but that is, I feel, what happened with your Chameleo

I sincerely hope that this expereince won't put you off form maybe getting an older chameleon in the future and trying again - they are fascinating animals and although not always the most sociable, have got so much to give to an enthusiast.

R.I.P Chameleo

Sorry to hear about your loss, as the others have said chams are hard to care for.

sorry to hear he did not make it.... but as all said don't beat yourself over it. I personally reckon that baby chams are the hardest out of all herps to raise. Get yourself a nice older cb to get into keeping chams. YOur really did your best to provide a nice home for your guy.

I raise my newborn chams in small little sepearate vivs though. Learnt many tricks over the years about raising up the new borns/hatchlings... i have lost a whole litter once(last year infact)... it happens. I wanted to hurt myself for that.

Good luck for the future

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