Last weekend a lady came into the store I work at with her chameleon and it looked like it had burns on its casque and spines. they were really dark, like dark grey or black, and kind of swollen. But she said the temp was only about 85 to 88F in the basking spot. so how could it have got a burn?
can they get sunburns from basking too long like we do? can they get a burn from sitting too close to the lamp even if the temp is not above 90F? Was she lieing about the temp?

I told her to take him to a vet to make sure that was what it really was, and to make sure it doent get infected or anything.

I hate when people take their animals to us and expect us to play veterinarian at the store... ugh

Could be infection and/or cricket bites. If the temp is never above 90 then I find it hard to believe that it would be due to lighting burns.

It sounds more like skin infection.

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Cheers!

TRI0N

It was a veiled chameleon by the way, forgot to add that in above.

-Lindsey

If the heat light is sitting right on her enclosure, his spine area can come into contact with it and burn. Good reason to raise the light up

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1.1 Amilobe

the cricket bites can cause it to turn black though? like a burn?

Fresh bites look brown when they happen and turn black during the healing or if infected.

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Cheers!

TRI0N

Some lamps (like the Sun Glo Halogen Neodymium Lamp) seem to have a focal distance for heat.
When we first got Skeeta, we were told it was a good choice for basking (by the same people who sold her to us as a Werneri, not the Jackson that she really is, by the way)
I noticed a burn mark on the screen, and held the light to my hand. About 6 inches from the bulb it felt like the sun through a magnifying glass! (closer and further was no problem)
Needless to say, I chucked it immediately, and have been using Non-halogen bulbs since. Now I do distance tests with every basking bulb we use. Better safe than making Skeeta sorry!

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1.1 MeruJackson 1.1 R.Brevicaudatus 1.1 R.Temporalis

Howdy,

Often keepers are not measuring the temperature at the location where the chameleon is being exposed to the highest heat levels. If you see her again, suggest that she use a digital thermometer with a remote sensor that can be placed precisely where the highest exposure is possible. Measure in other places to check the enclosure's temp gradient. Then as a sanity check, keepers need to put their hand where they suspect the highest temp to be located and see what it feels like after a minute or more of exposure. It's always a good idea to use an infrared digital thermometer to actually check what the skin temp of your chameleon is before/during/after basking. An example is on a nice 75-80F outside sunny air temp, my chameleons' skin temps are about 100F and they are still basking. They will move in and out of that sun/heat to regulate. I've seen plenty of chameleons that have been burned from too hot a basking temp. They have ranged from small burns to the entire set of dorsal spines burned-down to the backbone.

Recent problems with the R-Zilla Desert 50 remind us that UVB burns are not out of the question either. I photographed a dead panther with UVB blisters for the report to the manufacturer that got those products pulled from the marketplace .

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See Ya,

Dave Weldon
Panther & Veileds

Book Collection:
"Reptile Medicine and Surgery" 2nd ed. By Mader
"Chameleons - Their Care and Breeding" By Linda J. Davison
"Chameleons - Nature's Hidden Jewels" 2nd Ed. By Petr Necas
"The Panther Chameleon: Color Variation, Natural History, Conservation and Captive Management" By Gary W. Ferguson...
"Thoughts for Food" 3rd Ed. Edited by Ardi Abate
"Understanding Reptile Parasites" By Roger J. Klingenberg D.V.M.

if your wanting to fix the cham up and heal its burn use polyspourn or cortizone cream and he/she should heal up nicley its wat i used for my female veild and no scaring at all and shes never had a problem with burns since

When I first got my older male veiled he had something similar on his casque. He aslo had a sore on his chin. I was told that it was from him rubbing both these items on the screen top of the 20 GALLON AQUARIUM that he came in.

I quickly got him into a larger enclosure and applied polysporin. His casque ended up having a small hole between where the bone part met the flesh part and eventually fell off. He has been fine without it for the last 10-11 months except for the fact that he's not eating crickets right now.

It may have been from a burn or something else but I just assumed it was from what this person told me. If you look at the pics in my GALLERY he is the green cham. In the first pic you can see the part that turned grey and in the second pic it's gone!

GOOD LUCK!!

Dyesub Dave.

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3.3.30 Eggs Veiled Chams, 1.0.0 Banded Gecko, 1.2.0 Crested Geckos, 0.0.2 Micro Geckos,
1.1.0 Honduran Milk Snakes,0.1.0 Snow Corn Snake, 7 - Fish Tanks and 1 AWESOME boy!!