Baby veiled not interested in eating, staying in one spot all day with eyes closed.

[Slabbe1997]

I just got a new buddy. We are doing everything we can and researching as much as we humanly can. He is a 2-3 month old male. We got him from Petco 3 days ago. He is not showing interest in eating. I’ve seen him eat 3 crickets in 3 days. We are getting mixed up advice from too many sources I think. Should we have a light on at all in his enclosure during sleep hours? How can we keep the humidity up in his enclosure? We have wrapped 3 sides, leaving the screen on top and in the front uncovered to keep air flow. We have a dripper going, his temp is good at night at a decent 68-70 degrees. But humidity isn’t reaching higher than 55%. Our house is pretty dry (we live in Maine, where winter is dry and summer is HUMID HUMID). We mist the entire enclosure for 1 minute before lights on around 7:30 am (lights on at 8 am) and we mist it for about 2 minutes an hour after lights out (lights out at 8 pm).

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum and the world of chameleons!

What UVB light are you using? I can see that it's not a long linear tube light. Its recommended that you use the long linear one...either the Reptisun 5.0 or the Arcadia 6% long linear one.
It could be part of the problem.

No lights at all at night.
Are you using a basking light?
What is the warmest temperature in the cage?

The wrapping and real plants should help he humidity...but misting longer should help as well.

He should be eating a lot more the that every day at that age.

 

[Slabbe1997]

Welcome to the forum and the world of chameleons!

What UVB light are you using? I can see that it's not a long linear tube light. Its recommended that you use the long linear one...either the Reptisun 5.0 or the Arcadia 6% long linear one.
It could be part of the problem.

No lights at all at night.
Are you using a basking light?
What is the warmest temperature in the cage?

The wrapping and real plants should help he humidity...but misting longer should help as well.

He should be eating a lot more the that every day at that age.

The uvb light we are currently using is junk tbh, we got it from petco and the lady clearly didn’t know what she was talking about. We just ordered a linear light and it will be here in two days. his backing spot gets to a temp of 82 degrees give or take. The rest stays between 68-72. I’ve been leaving his uvb on at night so maybe he is just too tired to eat?? He must not be able to sleep well because of the light!

 

[kinyonga]

Please don't leave the UVB or any other light on at night.
That might be the whole problem....or at least a big part of it.

 

[Slabbe1997]

Please don't leave the UVB or any other light on at night.
That might be the whole problem....or at least a big part of it.

Unfortunately we were told otherwise and I think this is why he is showing no interest in eating. From now on there will be no lights on in his enclosure at night time! Thank you

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi and welcome! It’s so very hard to know what to believe is right with so much bad or old information out there. Of course this is the place where we can help guide you and make sure you get everything as perfect as possible.
For learning the most current and accurate husbandry https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/ and for veiled specific info https://chameleonacademy.com/veiled-chameleon-care/
After you check those out, come on back here and we’ll help you correct whatever might need it and help you enjoy a beautiful and healthy chameleon for many years.

 

[Slabbe1997]

Hi and welcome! It’s so very hard to know what to believe is right with so much bad or old information out there. Of course this is the place where we can help guide you and make sure you get everything as perfect as possible.
For learning the most current and accurate husbandry https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/ and for veiled specific info https://chameleonacademy.com/veiled-chameleon-care/
After you check those out, come on back here and we’ll help you correct whatever might need it and help you enjoy a beautiful and healthy chameleon for many years.

I’ve read the blogs and listened to the podcasts and now it’s got me thinking that he may have something in his left eye. The one eye is closed and I did see his pawing at that side once yesterday. Since turning lights off lastnight he is a more vibrant green today than he was yesterday. And I also think he needs to eat and is lacking his vitamins and calcium and that’s why he is so lethargic. But how do I get him to take his vitamins and calcium if he won’t eat his food? He has been drinking and no sunken in eyes. I don’t want to try to hand feed as it seems to just stress him out more and i feel like he has been shut down due to stress rather than a health issue. But now it’s getting to be a health issue. I have a cup hooked up with crickets and some collard greens to keep the crickets fed and alive. But he won’t do anything more than hang out next to the cup.

 

[MissSkittles]

Are the crickets small enough? Rule of thumb is anything larger than the space between the eyes is too big.
If you’d like, we can review all of your husbandry and make sure all is correct. Just copy/paste the following with your answers. More pics of your enclosure will help also.
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.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[Slabbe1997]

• Your Chameleon - Veiled male chameleon, 2-3 months old, had him for 3 days
• Handling - Not handling unless absolutely necessary. Only twice since we got him. Just to move him into the enclosure and once to pull him out so we could replace his fake plants with real plants and adjust the rest of his stuff.
• Feeding - trying to feed small crickets from petco (we are using what we have left up and going to start using Dubia roaches as his staple, feeding the crickets potato’s, collard greens and cabbage to gut load them. Haven’t established a schedule yet because he hasn’t been interested in food at all really.
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? The petco clerk gave us the incorrect stuff and we just replaced them with the correct stuff yesterday. Now we have Flukers multivitamin with D3 and calcium without d3 we had to order online cause petco didn’t have it. It will be here by the 30th.
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? We self spray with a mist bottle for 2 minutes half an hour before we turn his lights on, and we mist for 3 minutes an hour after we turn his lights out. We also have a dripper going 24-7 to drop onto his leaves up near his basking area, and yes we do see him drink.
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? He has had one BM since we brought him home. It was brown white and yellow, looked pretty mucusy, and it wasn’t a solid piece. It was pretty broken up.
• 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? Zoo med reptibreeze chameleon kit, all screen, 16” by 16” by 30”. We did wrap the outside three sides with a clear shower curtain to help retain some humidity, our house is very dry.
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? All of our lighting is by zoo med, the dome came with the chameleon kit but we ditched the blue bulb for a normal incandescent house bulb because his basking spot wasn’t reaching a good temp. We just ordered a linear uvb lamp for him to replace the coiled uvb that came with the kit.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? The bottom of his cage gets to a cool temp of between 67-69 degrees, his basking spot reaches 85 degrees. Enclosure is no higher than 68 degrees at night time. We have a digital reader. And we have the little zoo med Velcro’s ones that stay in the elcosure just for backup measures
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? We are having a hard time with this one. We have a very dry house. Humidity during the day is between 25-30%, at night we can’t get it higher than 55% other than when we spray.
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Yes love plants only. We have a large green pothos and a small golden pothos
• 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? Our cage is in our bedroom, low traffic and quiet, I do have a fan blowing air out of the room. It is near a window but window and curtain stay closed. There is an air vent. It’s about 2 feet from the bottoms corner of the enclosure. The top of the enclosure is 4.5 feet from the floor.
• Location - Where are you geographically located? We are in the middle of maine. It is a very dry climate most of the year. Very very humid in the summer time

 

[MissSkittles]

Good to hear that you’re in the process of making needed changes with lights, supplements, etc.
Being so young, he should probably have much smaller crickets/feeders than you’ll be able to get at most pet stores. I would suggest ordering some on line. There are some great vendors in the forum sponsors. I don’t think Josh’s frogs is a forum sponsor, but they are great for getting a variety of small feeders. I’m guessing that you may need 1/8 to 1/4” crickets/feeders for such a little one. It’s better for them to be too small than too big.
Low humidity can effect the eyes. Is your hygrometer analog or digital? The analog ones are notoriously inaccurate. If your hygrometer is accurate, perhaps adding an additional brief misting during the day may help raise humidity a little. The ideal range is between 30-50%, so you aren’t too far off. At night, you have a great temp drop and can use a cool mist humidifier to raise humidity. You don’t want to use a humidifier during the day as high heat plus high humidity increases risk for respiratory infection.
Basking temp should come down a little to 80. The best way to do this is to raise the light off the screen top by a couple of inches. Little chameleons love to walk along the screen tops of their enclosures like little monkey lizards, so you’d want to do this anyhow to prevent burns.
As your baby grows, he will need a much larger enclosure of a 2x2x4’ or equivalent.
Are you positive you have a boy? Male veileds will have prominent nubs on their back feet called tarsal spurs, which are visible even on babies.
Coming from Petco, there could be any number of things going on. He could have an internal parasite, supplementation was most likely wrong, etc etc or they could have just sold you a sick animal. The younger the chameleon, the less resources it has to fall back, on so even the smallest error in husbandry can be catastrophic. I would suggest a visit with a good vet (preferably experienced with chameleons) and a fecal check for parasites asap. Unless you luck out, you may have to travel a little bit for a vet. This will help you find one. https://arav.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=3661
I wish I had definitive answers to help you and your sweet little one.

 

[Mrjamwin]

Welcome to the forums.

 

[Slabbe1997]

Good to hear that you’re in the process of making needed changes with lights, supplements, etc.
Being so young, he should probably have much smaller crickets/feeders than you’ll be able to get at most pet stores. I would suggest ordering some on line. There are some great vendors in the forum sponsors. I don’t think Josh’s frogs is a forum sponsor, but they are great for getting a variety of small feeders. I’m guessing that you may need 1/8 to 1/4” crickets/feeders for such a little one. It’s better for them to be too small than too big.
Low humidity can effect the eyes. Is your hygrometer analog or digital? The analog ones are notoriously inaccurate. If your hygrometer is accurate, perhaps adding an additional brief misting during the day may help raise humidity a little. The ideal range is between 30-50%, so you aren’t too far off. At night, you have a great temp drop and can use a cool mist humidifier to raise humidity. You don’t want to use a humidifier during the day as high heat plus high humidity increases risk for respiratory infection.
Basking temp should come down a little to 80. The best way to do this is to raise the light off the screen top by a couple of inches. Little chameleons love to walk along the screen tops of their enclosures like little monkey lizards, so you’d want to do this anyhow to prevent burns.
As your baby grows, he will need a much larger enclosure of a 2x2x4’ or equivalent.
Are you positive you have a boy? Male veileds will have prominent nubs on their back feet called tarsal spurs, which are visible even on babies.
Coming from Petco, there could be any number of things going on. He could have an internal parasite, supplementation was most likely wrong, etc etc or they could have just sold you a sick animal. The younger the chameleon, the less resources it has to fall back, on so even the smallest error in husbandry can be catastrophic. I would suggest a visit with a good vet (preferably experienced with chameleons) and a fecal check for parasites asap. Unless you luck out, you may have to travel a little bit for a vet. This will help you find one. https://arav.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=3661
I wish I had definitive answers to help you and your sweet little one.

My husband and I are going to DIY build him a permanent enclosure that will be much bigger than this temporary one! And I will give him an extra mist around noon time from now on until we can get him a cool mist fogger. Do you have any recommendations for one of those? I don’t know where to get one or what kind to get. We do have a small room humidifier but I didn’t want to use it because of the risk of bacteria. Do you think it would be okay to place above his enclosure at night to help his humidity at night? Also he is definitely a boy, he has the spurs on his hind heels. We specifically went with a male to avoid the egg laying situation.

 

[CalamityCrow]

My husband and I are going to DIY build him a permanent enclosure that will be much bigger than this temporary one! And I will give him an extra mist around noon time from now on until we can get him a cool mist fogger. Do you have any recommendations for one of those? I don’t know where to get one or what kind to get. We do have a small room humidifier but I didn’t want to use it because of the risk of bacteria. Do you think it would be okay to place above his enclosure at night to help his humidity at night? Also he is definitely a boy, he has the spurs on his hind heels. We specifically went with a male to avoid the egg laying situation.

For a mister I invested in a mistking. It allows you to set all the misting on a timer and it's been absolutely fantastic. You just need a 5gal bucket and a little work to get it set up. Plenty of YouTube videos on it.

https://www.amazon.com/MistKing-MKM...s_a_1_1?qid=1648572187&sr=8-1&srs=13498579011

 

[MissSkittles]

Yes, I agree with @CalamityCrow about investing in a Mist King. You can preset all of your daytime mistings and at night, instead of using a fogger/humidifier, you can set some brief mistings to raise humidity. They are a bit pricey but well worth it.

 

[Ghostbirb]

I agree, I got one for my girl and it’s been working amazing!

 

[Slabbe1997]

Yes, I agree with @CalamityCrow about investing in a Mist King. You can preset all of your daytime mistings and at night, instead of using a fogger/humidifier, you can set some brief mistings to raise humidity. They are a bit pricey but well worth it.

We are definitely going to be getting one. For now I’ll probably just do a couple extra listings throughout the night for a couple weeks. My husband starts a new job soon with waaaaay better pay so we are gonna use that first check to do some major upgrades and start building his permanent enclosure.