Black Crusty tip of crest on Male Veiled Cham

[Camo4604]

Chameleon Info:
Chameleon - Male Veiled Chameleon, 2 years old and I have had him for 8 months
Handling - Once a week I take him outside (summer and sunny) for about 20 min and every 3 days I take him out with his plants to clean the cage Also once a week I get him out and he climbs on top of my head and falls asleep for about 10 min
Feeding - Gut loaded dubias and crickets
Supplements - calcium supplement
Watering - Manually mist walls and plants 2 x daily and automatic sprayer every 2 hours for 15 secs and then I have a small slow dripper
Fecal Description - mostly dark but sometimes white, no parasites


Cage Info:
Cage Type - screen on 1 side and top and rest is plexiglass 4ft x 3 ft
Lighting - uv lamp clipped on outside top about 6 inches away from top of cage and heat lamp clipped on outside top about 7 inches away from top
Temperature - avg temp in day about 73 and at night 65
Humidity - between 43 and 57 % humidity
Plants - 4 plants inside 2 gardenia and 2 ficus
Placement - Cage is in bedroom by a window. Cage is about 5 inches off the floor, not much traffic
Location - South Carolina

Current Problem - The tip of his crest is black and thin, and very dry feeling.

 

[carol5208]

Is it possible that it could be a burn? I know you said your light are inches away though. I do remember seeing a Veild on here and he had something that was very similar. It ended up just finally breaking off like a big piece of shed. The people were freaking out because they thought the whole top of the casque was coming off and here there was fresh skin underneath. It was quite a few years back, but if I can find the thread for you I will post a link for it.

 

[Carlton]

Chameleon Info:
Chameleon - Male Veiled Chameleon, 2 years old and I have had him for 8 months
Handling - Once a week I take him outside (summer and sunny) for about 20 min and every 3 days I take him out with his plants to clean the cage Also once a week I get him out and he climbs on top of my head and falls asleep for about 10 min
Feeding - Gut loaded dubias and crickets
Supplements - calcium supplement
Watering - Manually mist walls and plants 2 x daily and automatic sprayer every 2 hours for 15 secs and then I have a small slow dripper
Fecal Description - mostly dark but sometimes white, no parasites


Cage Info:
Cage Type - screen on 1 side and top and rest is plexiglass 4ft x 3 ft
Lighting - uv lamp clipped on outside top about 6 inches away from top of cage and heat lamp clipped on outside top about 7 inches away from top
Temperature - avg temp in day about 73 and at night 65
Humidity - between 43 and 57 % humidity
Plants - 4 plants inside 2 gardenia and 2 ficus
Placement - Cage is in bedroom by a window. Cage is about 5 inches off the floor, not much traffic
Location - South Carolina

Current Problem - The tip of his crest is black and thin, and very dry feeling.

He has a very tall casque and something has damaged the area you are talking about. Chances are it did get burned at some point, but something else could have damaged it some time ago. Regardless which it was, the area is now necrotic and can't be saved. The black area will eventually peel away exposing healthy tissue at the break. If this were my cham I would probably have a vet check the area for any infection and probably have him trim away the dead tissue so the healthy edge can start healing sooner.

 

[Camo4604]

Yes thank you. The top of his crest peeled away today and has fresh tissue underneath. I applied neosporin to it.

 

[scerbz]

mine has something similar. some of it is coming off but not fully yet. mine got his by scraping his crest and back by squeezing out a very tight fit door. his back is finally back to normal, but top of his head not yet. its just something to keep an eye on.