basking chameleon

[lizzleberry]

hello
(again)
just wondering if it is normal for a chameleon to close his eyes whilst basking?
pascal has been basking basically all day, he started out a very dark green almost black color, and now is just dark green and stripey, hes sitting kinda tilting one way and switches over every so often, and one of his eyes (the one that seemed a bit stuck closed last night) was closed when i walked in, but opened when he realised i was there
it was the eye facing the heat bulb
the heat bulb does emit light, a creamy white light which is new as of yesterday since his green light heat bulb was replaced. he has never basked directly under a bulb before, i turned it up a bit in case it was because he was cold and it should be about 30 celcius in there, he was misted this morning, his dripper has been going most of the day roughly one drip per second. he has had a meal worm and hopefully has eaten some crickets, he wont be hand fed anymore for some reason.
for anyone who hasnt put up with my daily panicking, pascal is a 4 week old male yemen chameleon, i brought him home last saturday, he lives in a 38 gallon flexarium, has an asortment of fake plants, he has a 5.0 ubv bulb, and a pro rep 60w basking spot lamp. has never been handled except for in the store he came from, eats around 10 - 20 crickets a day, yesterday he had a wax worm and i have just introduced meal worms to his diet. his crickets are dusted with trex chameleon dust which apparently is all they need. gets roughly 12 hours sleep a night - lights out at 6pm, on at 0630. lives fairly close to a window, non traffic area, quiet bedroom.
thanks for any info.
i am worried about his eye, i think he may be dehydrated, if this is the case, what can i do to get him some water?

 

[carol5208]

no, it is not normal. I have never seen my chameleon close his eyes while basking, even if he is out in the bright sunlight of Florida. How are you providing water for him now? Is he drinking?

 

[lizzleberry]

i just misted him, i have not seen him drink yet.
on his first day he drank a drop from his dripper, but that was it. i havent seen him drink since
he hides when i do mist him, and he doesnt seem interested in his dripper
i am really hoping this is a just a lack of drinking problem
his eye is open most of the time, when im around, but i have seen him squeeze it shut a few time, like when you squeeze your eyes shut when there's something in it, but i cant see anything in it, and he isnt tame enough for me to want to take him out of there. he went green when i started misting him and he went from his basking spot to go hide, now he's still hiding while the water is dripping from the top of his flex but guaranteed he will go straight back to his basking spot when it stops, and then he'll sit sideways and go dark again.

 

[camimom]

Oftentimes, you wont see him drink. many of us dont.
As for the eye, are you sure he isnt just bllinking?
how far are your lights from his highest basking branch?

 

[lizzleberry]

i cant tell if he is blinking, i dont think he is because it is just the one eye, it is usually shut when i go look at him, then he'll open it, and look fine, but occasionally he will squidge it shut for a few seconds then open it.
he has been basking all day, his basking lamp is about 4inches from the top of the flex, his basking spot is about 8 inches from the flex.

 

[ShortStack]

What lights are you using now?

For both the UVB and the Basking ?

 

[camimom]

i cant tell if he is blinking, i dont think he is because it is just the one eye, it is usually shut when i go look at him, then he'll open it, and look fine, but occasionally he will squidge it shut for a few seconds then open it.
he has been basking all day, his basking lamp is about 4inches from the top of the flex, his basking spot is about 8 inches from the flex.

well chams can shut one eye at time, just ike they can move one at a time.

I would suggest saline solution. get some and put a drop in the affect eye. did your cham recently shed?

 

[Silkyslim]

My cham did the same thing as well. He would close one eye towards the bulb as he would bask. His turret was facing directly towards the light, so I watched him for the next week. Nothing changed, so I just reasoned that it was more energy efficient to close an eye then to keep it moving. I mean, isn't that the whole point of basking for a reptile anyways, to gain some energy.

 

[camimom]

How far are your lights from the basking spot?? this could have smething to do with it.

 

[lizzleberry]

hi,
my heat bulb (pro rep 60watt basking spot lamp) is 8inches from the top basking spot
my uvb lamp (26watt 5.0 compact repti glo ) is 4 inches from the top of the flex with no branches under it. although he can crawl along the sides and roof of the flex if he needs to

the shut eye was the one towards the bulb, but it has been the same eye that keeps closing all day and last night. it was worse this morning and last night, but he keeps squidging it shut, sometimes it is just shut - other times it looks like he is squeezing it shut. i cant see anything in it :/

 

[camimom]

I would try raising your bulbs about 2 inches higher. that might help.
if its not the lights, then your cham probably hass omething in the eye.
go to cvs or a drug store, and get plain saline solution. put one drop in the affected eye a couple times a day, and see how it goes.

 

[lizzleberry]

is that something that i can get from a drug store? and he's only a baby, who has still not been handled so i worry that a)the drop would be too much for one baby eye, and b) it would stress him out a tonne
i also dont know what people mean by "showering" their chameleon, but i know he hates being misted, i have heard this gets stuff out of their eyes

 

[camimom]

is that something that i can get from a drug store? and he's only a baby, who has still not been handled so i worry that a)the drop would be too much for one baby eye, and b) it would stress him out a tonne
i also dont know what people mean by "showering" their chameleon, but i know he hates being misted, i have heard this gets stuff out of their eyes

yes you canl. its regular saline that we use in our eyes, just make sure there are no additives in it.
and yes it sgonna stres him out, but if its something in his eye, it has to be done. a few min of stress wont kill him.
and to shower- get a plant, put him on it, put it on th efloor of the shower, aim the shower head towards the wall. let watet be warm,not hot, and it should bounce off the wall, the mist that comes off the wall should land on the plant and your cham. do this for 15-20 min, this will make him unhappy too, but he will get used to it. my guy flipped the first time. just watch him and make sure he doesnt do a suicide drop.