Baby Veiled Chameleon Won't Open Eyes.
- Thread starter antlom90
- Start date
chameleonfan101
Established Member
It could be for many things. What kind of lights are you using?are the too close to the cage? Have you seen him eat? Is he hydrated?
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
please fill out the form so we can better help you https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
It can be many things. I you would please fill out this How To Ask For Help form then members can better assist you with your problem. Also if possible please post a picture of you cham and the set up.
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Location - Where are you geographically located?
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Location - Where are you geographically located?
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Species:Velied, Sex:Female, Age:about 1 month (guessing)
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Not at all really.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? I have very small crickets at the bottom of the enclouser. I had 5 in there now there is only 4. And i put 5 in there daily and take them out at night. And i have not seen her eat.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? No supplements yet.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I mist the enclouser about 4 times a day and i make sure it is wet before i stop. Yes, i do see her drink.
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? No, recent droppings as i can see.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Glass and don't know exact dimension but it is a tall 30 gallon cage.
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? I've been using a common house light because i thought it was the lighting.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? The bottom is about 60degrees ferinheight. and the basking spot about 70 degrees ferinheight and i'm using a thermometer.
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?Humidity level ranges between 60 and 70 percent. and there is a humidity bar on the thermometer
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Nope using petsmart bought artificial plants.
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?The Cage is located in my room no fans and hardly no traffic besides when i go to bed.
Location - Where are you geographically located? USA Georgia
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
The current problem is that she will walk around with her eyes closed or barley open and i have seen her eyes open in the past 4 days but i did see them open yesterday but she immediately closed them when i came close to her.
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Species:Velied, Sex:Female, Age:about 1 month (guessing)
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Not at all really.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? I have very small crickets at the bottom of the enclouser. I had 5 in there now there is only 4. And i put 5 in there daily and take them out at night. And i have not seen her eat.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? No supplements yet.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I mist the enclouser about 4 times a day and i make sure it is wet before i stop. Yes, i do see her drink.
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? No, recent droppings as i can see.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Glass and don't know exact dimension but it is a tall 30 gallon cage.
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? I've been using a common house light because i thought it was the lighting.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? The bottom is about 60degrees ferinheight. and the basking spot about 70 degrees ferinheight and i'm using a thermometer.
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?Humidity level ranges between 60 and 70 percent. and there is a humidity bar on the thermometer
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Nope using petsmart bought artificial plants.
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?The Cage is located in my room no fans and hardly no traffic besides when i go to bed.
Location - Where are you geographically located? USA Georgia
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
The current problem is that she will walk around with her eyes closed or barley open and i have seen her eyes open in the past 4 days but i did see them open yesterday but she immediately closed them when i came close to her.
IMHO you need to correct the following things asap.
You said you aren't using any supplements...your chameleon needs to have its diet supplemented. See below for information on that and gutloading.
At that age the chameleon should be eating a lot more small crickets than 4 or 5 a day.
70 F for a basking spot is way too cold...should be in the low to mid 80's and the temperature in the rest of the cage should be close to 80 F too.
Your chameleon needs to have a proper UVB light on the cage so that it can produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its diet (which you also are not providing for it).
Here's some information I hope will help you with supplementing, etc.....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.
Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.
A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it.
Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).
If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).
Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)
Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)
Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.
Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
You said you aren't using any supplements...your chameleon needs to have its diet supplemented. See below for information on that and gutloading.
At that age the chameleon should be eating a lot more small crickets than 4 or 5 a day.
70 F for a basking spot is way too cold...should be in the low to mid 80's and the temperature in the rest of the cage should be close to 80 F too.
Your chameleon needs to have a proper UVB light on the cage so that it can produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its diet (which you also are not providing for it).
Here's some information I hope will help you with supplementing, etc.....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.
Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.
A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it.
Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).
If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).
Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)
Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)
Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.
Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
fluxlizard
Avid Member
Advice you read is not true.
Kinyongia's advice is right on.
I've been breeding veileds for 20 years.
Best bet for a quick fix for your current problem is-
1) get the UVB light.
2) make sure you have a warm basking area (I'd recommend at least mid 80s- I use much warmer than even this but because you are so new to it, I'll say mid 80s- but remember you need to only heat one area to this range- the lizard needs to be able to move away from the heat if it wants).
3)mist your lizard gently to get the eyes open for a few minutes.
4) immediately feed supplement dusted insects (calcium with d3 right away followed by another feeding later after another misting with multivitamin).
Make certain the enclosure dries out completely between mistings.
Usually when babies keep eyes closed it is a d3 or vit a deficiency by inadequate supplementation. Probably the next most common problem that causes this is too much sitting moisture in the enclosure. In my experience.
fluxlizard
Avid Member
I don't, but many on here do. But it isn't necessary.
MaximusTheGreat
New Member
3 week old veiled chameleon
I just breeder mine for the first time and the eggs finally hatched. One of the babies isn't opening his eyes or feeding on his own. Any advice?
I just breeder mine for the first time and the eggs finally hatched. One of the babies isn't opening his eyes or feeding on his own. Any advice?
