Female Panther keeps opening her mouth

lojack13

New Member
Okay, so I noticed today that my 7 mo old Female Nosy Be Panther keeps opening up her mouth and just leaving it open. At first I dismissed it as thermoregulation because she was under the heat lamp, but I noticed that she has been doing it throughout the enclosure today. She seems fine. She is active and ate great this morning. Her last poo looked awesome. I'm worried it might be a URI but I got up really close to her open mouth and can not hear any wheezing or popping. She is not putting her head straight up at all, and there appears to be no mucus build up in her mouth nor around her nostrils. Anyone have any thoughts on this. This is probably a completely worthless bit of info, but I just started gut loading my crickets with Spaghetti squash, that is the only thing that has changed since yesterday.
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Nosy Be Panther Chameleon, Female, 7 months old, been in my care for 4 months.
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Maybe once a week.
Feeding - Feeding her in the morning with 10-12 3/4" crickets, currently gutloading with Spaghetti squash and Dino Fuel
Supplements - Dusting crickets with Repti Cal brand products. Cal -D3 every day, Doing Multivite and D3 twice a month rotating on Thursdays.
Watering - I use a dripper system plus I mist about 4 times a day for a few minutes. I do see her drink.
Fecal Description - Fecal looks is brown with white urate.
History - She has had zero health issues so far.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Cage is DYI screen enclosure 18X18X36T
Lighting - Using a 75watt Bask bulb and 5.0 Reptisun linear bulb for UVB. Lights are on 12 hour timer 7am - 7pm
Temperature - Bask temp is 85-88 and floor is 75. Lowest overnight temp is 72. Measured with Digital Thermometer.
Humidity - Ambient humidity is ranging from 40-60 Spiking at 85 during mistings. Use a digital hygrometer.
Plants - One large, live aboricola is in her enclosure.
Placement - Enclosure is located in far corner of my living room which is the lowest traffic spot of that room. She is near a window which I almost always keep covered by a curtain.
Location - I am located in Central Ohio, USA
 
This probably unrelated to your problem but you should only supplement Vitamin D3 twice a month, D3 every day is too much. you should do calcium every day, and calcium + D3 twice a month. The only thing I can think of related to your problem is its too hot in there. 75F at the bottom is still hot, find a way to lower the temperatures and I bet she will stop gaping.
 
my cham although different species if it gets to hot here he will open his mouth until it cools down a bit its just something to look in to im not a expert keeper this is just what i have noticed with mine.
 
my cham although different species if it gets to hot here he will open his mouth until it cools down a bit its just something to look in to im not a expert keeper this is just what i have noticed with mine.

Yeah I noticed mine will do that when she is under the bask lamp from time to time, but I noticed today she has been opening her mouth and leaving it that way for 5-10 minutes at a time down lower where the cage is not hot. I'm still not sure what to think about it. Other than the mouth opening, she literally has no other symptoms that would point to a Respiratory infection. Although, it may just possibly be the start of one. I guess I will just have to keep a close eye on her.
 
Well this is day 2 of the mouth opening phenomenon. Still seeing no signs at all of mucus. Checked her nostrils and both seemed to be open and clear, no swelling at all. In fact I see that she is breathing out of them when she closes her mouth because they move and contract inside. She ate really well and is active around the cage as always. Hmmmm? Again I would not be concerned if she was only doing this under the heat bulb. But I catch her doing it around the mid sections of the cage. She is just opening her mouth slightly, and not puffing out her throat at all. She has no popping, crackling, wheezing in her breathing and she always closes her mouth as soon as I get close to her. Anyone have any further thoughts.:confused: I feel that I have been keeping her enclosure quite free of all things that can cause RI's Not too humid, not too dry, I keep her cage really clean, and she has open air flow.
 
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