baby veiled sleeping in day, cold to touch

J

jtjonsdottir

New Member
We got our baby (around 1.5 -2 months) veiled about a week ago. we brought him home from the reptile expo and he was awake and active for a while then fell asleep on my wifes hand while i was setting up the inside of the enclosure. the past few days hes been keeping his left eye closed most of the time and i also catch him taking a nap during the day. today he went about half way down his enclosure and went to sleep at like 4 in the afternoon and stayed asleep for a couple hours. i got worried and since this isnt normal behavior for a chameleon I got him out. he didnt fight or get upset about coming out and once out he stayed put in one spot on my hand. i noticed he was cold to the touch and he quickly went to sleep.his grip seems a little weak but it could just be because he is young. He is in a large screen terrarium with a heat lamp for basking and also a daylight both on top of the cage. The normal temperature is around 75-80 degrees. He is fed gut loaded and calcium dusted crickets twice daily and has been eating very well up until today (he only ate about 6 all day today). i also mist the cage 3x a day and the humidity stays around 70.
 
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Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? veiled, male i believe about 1.5 months old. only about 2 inches or so from snout to anus. a little over a week
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? only once or twice a week so far. cage set up and to check on him tonight when i got freaked.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? small and medium sized crickets What amount? 4 in the morninga and four after that if he eats them quickly. What is the schedule? 7-7 for his lighting How are you gut-loading your feeders? carrots and gut load with calcium in it
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? repti-cal calcium with d3dust for one set of crickets per day
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use?manual misting How often and how long to you mist? 3-4 times a dayfor a minute or so each Do you see your chameleon drinking? not yet
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?colors are white and brown, never been tested or seen vet
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? 36x36x48 completely screen
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? zoo-med heat is ceramic heat emiter 150wabout 11 inches from basking spot. zoo-med day bulb 100w uvb bulb.
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? 79-81 in basking and 74 at cage floor but he never goes down there.Lowest overnight temp? 72 How do you measure these temps? digi thermometer
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? keep it around 70 How are you creating and maintaining these levels? manual misting What do you use to measure humidity? humidity guage. (not sure of the name)
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? none yet
Placement - Where is your cage located? behind the couch in the living room. Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? no At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 48"
Location - Where are you geographically located? manahttan ks


Current Problem - sleeping during day, one eye staying closed and cold to the touch, and him staying asleep in my hand with what feels like a weak grip after i take him out.
 
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I would recommend a very small cage for a baby that size and allot more small feeders. Babies should eat 12 to 15 small feeders a day. I would recommend using better gut load. More greens and fruits and veggies and a good dutload such as Cricket Crack.

You need 3 supplements to dust the feeders. Caluium without D3 everyday, calcium with D3 twice a month and a good multi vit. with some vit. A in it twice a month.

I'm not familiar with your lights but you only need two. I recommend the tube Reptisun 5.0 and a low watt house hold bulb for backing.

I would also highly recommend some live plants for him to drink from the leaves and to also help keep up the humidity.
 
sounds good and ill keep that in mind.
anything on why he is cold to the touch or keeps one eye closed and why he is sleeping mid day?
he is actively hunting and acquiring his meals, and he eats everything i give him and when he eats everything quick i give him more. i plan to get a plant for inside, for the time being he has multiple vines and the hanging leaf ropes to hide in and drink water from.
i also just bought the repti-cal herptivite with beta carotine in it so no worries about vit a overdose
 
this morning he has only eaten two of the crickets ive put in and its been about an hour since their entry to his habitat. i know he sees them because there has been three just sitting and moving within a 5" radius of his for most of that time... any help would be greatly appreciated. he has moved back up towards the top of his enclosure and he is staying a nice lime green color, but im still worried because his eating habits are off and i he still keeps his left eye closed most of the time.
 
jtjonsdottir said:
this morning he has only eaten two of the crickets ive put in and its been about an hour since their entry to his habitat. i know he sees them because there has been three just sitting and moving within a 5" radius of his for most of that time... any help would be greatly appreciated. he has moved back up towards the top of his enclosure and he is staying a nice lime green color, but im still worried because his eating habits are off and i he still keeps his left eye closed most of the time.
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Everything that I posted above in post number 4 could cause him to close his eyes and not eat. The wrong light can cause them to close their eyes. Too big of a cage they have a hard time finding their feeders. I would highly recommend you make some changes to your husbandry before it's to late.
 
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I would like to suggest a little warmer basking spot. Babies do require cooler temperatures, however 81 may be a little too low. If you are only misting for a minute three or four times a day he is most likely not getting enough water either. Like Jann said live plants for him to drink off of are really important. Dehydration can cause the lethargy adn weak grasp. Also like Jann said, he needs more to eat. Max of eight feeders a day is definitely not enough especially in a cage/setup that massive. Being as young as he is he should be in a much smaller cage, 18x18x24 or something similar. Lighting definitely needs some help also. Reptisun 5.0 will work. Good luck hope he gets better.
 
jtjonsdottir said:
sounds good and ill keep that in mind.
anything on why he is cold to the touch or keeps one eye closed and why he is sleeping mid day?
he is actively hunting and acquiring his meals, and he eats everything i give him and when he eats everything quick i give him more. i plan to get a plant for inside, for the time being he has multiple vines and the hanging leaf ropes to hide in and drink water from.
i also just bought the repti-cal herptivite with beta carotine in it so no worries about vit a overdose
Click to expand...

Congratulations on your little veiled chameleon. Chameleons can have eye issues quite often, I have learner from the past 10 years that there are many reasons for this. Their eyes are very sensitive as babies so the uvb could be causing the problem. A small cage is necessary, I wouldn't use anything bigger than 16x16x20 or a 20 gallon. Your temps are forsure low, basking should be around 90/95 and about 75/80 everywhere else. At night 72 is fine. Make sure you don't have too high of humidity, veileds don't require high humidity like panthers or most of the chameleons. This can cause respiratory infections, one of the symptoms is closing their eyes. I wouldn't mist more than once-twice a day. I have a caresheet on my website www.chameleonsgalore.com that has worked for me for 10 years, feel free to read it. Good luck with the little fellow!
 
chameleongalore said:
Make sure you don't have too high of humidity, veileds don't require high humidity like panthers or most of the chameleons. This can cause respiratory infections, one of the symptoms is closing their eyes. I wouldn't mist more than once-twice a day.
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what would you consider too high for humidity? i keep it between 55/70. 55 being the lowest ive ever seen it get.
i thought it might be too cold so i had another heat source and all that did was burn out the moisture super fast.
we're about to run go grab a reptisun 5.0 and switch out his day light to that. also planning to take him outside for some natural sun later today when it warms up see if some real sunlight might liven him up.
 
i bought the repti glo 5.0 and he livened up quite a bit. he it not keeping an eye closed anymore, he is now super active and running around like crazy. his head looks a bit like he might be about to shed so im thinking hes probably bout to shed and i think that might be why he isn't eating today.
 
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