Cham tilting up towards the light

[reggycham]

hi everyone, i’m new to the forum because i recently just got a female veiled chameleon. she is amazing and has no issues with feeding, handling, pooping or anything like that. but recently i’ve caught her sometimes while basking she’ll hold her body up/tilt her head up a little. does she do this for the warmth or could there be something wrong? Thanks

 

[cadet21345]

Do you mist or fog in the day, and do you hear it making pops when it breathes or wheezing, and do you see it open its mouth during the day. This is leading me to believe your girl may have a uri

 

[reggycham]

Do you mist or fog in the day, and do you hear it making pops when it breathes or wheezing, and do you see it open its mouth during the day. This is leading me to believe your girl may have a uri

I mist in the evening and the morning for 4 minutes, I let the cage dry in between those. She doesn’t make any popping noises but occasionally I hear her make a kind of “huffing” noise.

 

[Herp_Lover26]

Those are both concerning signs of an upper respiratory infection. What she is doing is called “star gazing”. Can you post a video of the noises? Often uri’s need antibiotics from a vet, but you must be very careful about which vet and take what they say with a grain of salt. They have told me to give my chameleon a bath(a huge red flag).

I use ARAV.org
I hope the mods don’t mind me posting that.

 

[elizaann2]

It does look like a URI possibly. She also looks a little pale. Would you mind filling out this husbandry form? This will give us more guidance on how to best support you.

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 do 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 -

 

[reggycham]

Those are both concerning signs of an upper respiratory infection. What she is doing is called “star gazing”. Can you post a video of the noises? Often uri’s need antibiotics from a vet, but you must be very careful about which vet and take what they say with a grain of salt. They have told me to give my chameleon a bath(a huge red flag).

I use ARAV.org
I hope the mods don’t mind me posting that.

I’ll try and get a clip of the noises tomorrow. It doesn’t sound super scraggly or wheezy, it’s like a little sneeze almost. But I’ll consider taking her to a vet as soon as I can. Thank you so much

 

[elizaann2]

Also welcome

 

[reggycham]

It does look like a URI possibly. She also looks a little pale. Would you mind filling out this husbandry form? This will give us more guidance on how to best support you.

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 do 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 -

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - She’s a female veiled chameleon, the people I got her from said she was about 10-12 weeks old and i’ve had her for two weeks now.
• Handling - I handle her about every other day, she’s pretty welcoming towards it and overall pretty friendly.
• Feeding - I feed her crickets and silkworms as of now, and have given her a superworm once. About 5-6 crickets in the morning and at night and a few silk worms occasionally. I gut load them with fruits like banana and leafy green scraps.
• Supplements - I use Repticalcium without d3, and Reptivite vitamins. I dust the calcium without d3 every feeding, and haven’t used the vitamins yet given i just got her but i’ve heard it is twice a month.
• Watering - I mist the cage with an automatic mister twice a day, once in the evening and once in the morning for 4 minutes. Occasionally I’ll mist for a minute or two in the midafternoon cause i live in quite a dry climate. She drinks off the plants and leaves just fine.
• Fecal Description - Her poops seem completely normal in both color and consistency, and her urates are mostly white/cream color with occasionally an orangish tip. She hasn’t been tested for parasites.
• History - She’s from Petco, she was a baby veiled in one of the small enclosures paired with another female. The people didn’t seem to really know all too well about her so she may be older or younger than they say, but she is for sure a female.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? She’s in an all screen cage, 2x2’x4’ i believe.
• Lighting - I cannot remember the brand but i have two UVB/heat bulbs up at the top about 6-7 inches from her main basking branch. I have the lights on from 8am-8pm.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? The cage floor is typically low-mid 70s, and the basking spot is almost always 85 degrees. The lowest overnight temp is around 65 and I use a combination Thermostat/Hygrometer to measure.
• Humidity - When misting the humidity reaches around 70-80%, and in between misting it’s usually at 40%. I use a misting system and occasionally hand mist, and also have live plants. I use my combo thermo/hygrometer.
• Plants? If so, what kind? I have one real golden pothos, one Ti plant, one Yucca plant i believe and a chinese money tree. all of these are live. i have two fake plants in the enclosure as well.
• 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? My cage is in the far corner of my bedroom, on top of a dresser. Im about eye level with the middle of the cage. I’m the only one ever in there either sitting on the bed or going to sleep at night. The air conditioning vent does point towards the cage but i put blankets over two sides of the cage at night to help kind of defer the cold.
• Location - Where are you geographically located? Arizona, USA.

Current Problem - Cham occasionally caught basking with head facing up, and a small sneezing noise was heard once or twice.

I hope this helps .

 

[elizaann2]

Also here is a vet list

 

[elizaann2]

See my feedback in red

• Your Chameleon - She’s a female veiled chameleon, the people I got her from said she was about 10-12 weeks old and i’ve had her for two weeks now. She is such a cute! Since you have a female, you need to know that veiled females will lay infertile eggs much like a chicken would. Baby girl needs a lay bin so when she has those eggs she has a place to lay them. See attached
• Handling - I handle her about every other day, she’s pretty welcoming towards it and overall pretty friendly. Chameleons are shy lizards. I try not to handle my babies unless I am doing a physical check or am taking them to the vet. She may be friendly but 95% of the chameleons out there are shy and standoffish. If you have a friendly chameleon I would look at the enclosure set up to make sure it has everything she needs before saying she is friendly.
• Feeding - I feed her crickets and silkworms as of now, and have given her a superworm once. About 5-6 crickets in the morning and at night and a few silk worms occasionally. I gut load them with fruits like banana and leafy green scraps. Great variety! I'll attach the bug sheet and gut load sheet, you can follow this for what to feed your baby and what to feed your bugs. With your beautiful girl being so young you will want to feed her more than what she is currently getting. She should be eating at least 10-12 feeders every single day.
• Supplements - I use Repticalcium without d3, and Reptivite vitamins. I dust the calcium without d3 every feeding, and haven’t used the vitamins yet given i just got her but i’ve heard it is twice a month. Excellent!! Does the Reptivite vitamins have d3?
• Watering - I mist the cage with an automatic mister twice a day, once in the evening and once in the morning for 4 minutes. Occasionally I’ll mist for a minute or two in the midafternoon cause i live in quite a dry climate. She drinks off the plants and leaves just fine. Typically chameleons are shy drinkers so if you are seeing her drink often that should be a sign that your hydration method is off. Lets see if we can fix that . I also live in a very dry place, if you can get your temps below 68 degrees at night in her enclosure nighttime fogging is an excellent way to hydrate your chameleon. Once I started fogging I stopped seeing my chameleons drinking.
• Fecal Description - Her poops seem completely normal in both color and consistency, and her urates are mostly white/cream color with occasionally an orangish tip. She hasn’t been tested for parasites. Excellent! You want a mostly white urate so lets keep working on your hydration method. As I mentioned earlier, I fog at night from 12-6 am. I mist 30 minutes before lights come on, add a dripper at 3 pm, and then mist again about 930 pm. I strongly recommend getting your lady checked for parasites.
• History - She’s from Petco, she was a baby veiled in one of the small enclosures paired with another female. The people didn’t seem to really know all too well about her so she may be older or younger than they say, but she is for sure a female.

 

[reggycham]

See my feedback in red

• Your Chameleon - She’s a female veiled chameleon, the people I got her from said she was about 10-12 weeks old and i’ve had her for two weeks now. She is such a cute! Since you have a female, you need to know that veiled females will lay infertile eggs much like a chicken would. Baby girl needs a lay bin so when she has those eggs she has a place to lay them. See attached
• Handling - I handle her about every other day, she’s pretty welcoming towards it and overall pretty friendly. Chameleons are shy lizards. I try not to handle my babies unless I am doing a physical check or am taking them to the vet. She may be friendly but 95% of the chameleons out there are shy and standoffish. If you have a friendly chameleon I would look at the enclosure set up to make sure it has everything she needs before saying she is friendly.
• Feeding - I feed her crickets and silkworms as of now, and have given her a superworm once. About 5-6 crickets in the morning and at night and a few silk worms occasionally. I gut load them with fruits like banana and leafy green scraps. Great variety! I'll attach the bug sheet and gut load sheet, you can follow this for what to feed your baby and what to feed your bugs. With your beautiful girl being so young you will want to feed her more than what she is currently getting. She should be eating at least 10-12 feeders every single day.
• Supplements - I use Repticalcium without d3, and Reptivite vitamins. I dust the calcium without d3 every feeding, and haven’t used the vitamins yet given i just got her but i’ve heard it is twice a month. Excellent!! Does the Reptivite vitamins have d3?
• Watering - I mist the cage with an automatic mister twice a day, once in the evening and once in the morning for 4 minutes. Occasionally I’ll mist for a minute or two in the midafternoon cause i live in quite a dry climate. She drinks off the plants and leaves just fine. Typically chameleons are shy drinkers so if you are seeing her drink often that should be a sign that your hydration method is off. Lets see if we can fix that . I also live in a very dry place, if you can get your temps below 68 degrees at night in her enclosure nighttime fogging is an excellent way to hydrate your chameleon. Once I started fogging I stopped seeing my chameleons drinking.
• Fecal Description - Her poops seem completely normal in both color and consistency, and her urates are mostly white/cream color with occasionally an orangish tip. She hasn’t been tested for parasites. Excellent! You want a mostly white urate so lets keep working on your hydration method. As I mentioned earlier, I fog at night from 12-6 am. I mist 30 minutes before lights come on, add a dripper at 3 pm, and then mist again about 930 pm. I strongly recommend getting your lady checked for parasites.
• History - She’s from Petco, she was a baby veiled in one of the small enclosures paired with another female. The people didn’t seem to really know all too well about her so she may be older or younger than they say, but she is for sure a female.

Thank you so much for the feedback! Yes the vitamins do have d3 in them. I have also been thinking I need to change my hydration methods, she has seemed a bit thirsty and have been looking into getting a fogger since I’m sure the room gets cold enough at night for one.

 

[elizaann2]

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? She’s in an all screen cage, 2x2’x4’ i believe. Please share a picture of your enclosure, including the lights on the top
• Lighting - I cannot remember the brand but i have two UVB/heat bulbs up at the top about 6-7 inches from her main basking branch. I have the lights on from 8am-8pm. Is the UVB linear or a screw in bulb? The screw in bulbs do not give our chameleons what they need. Your girl needs a T5HO 5.0 or 6% linear UVB. The UVB is super important so she does not develop MBD.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? The cage floor is typically low-mid 70s, and the basking spot is almost always 85 degrees. The lowest overnight temp is around 65 and I use a combination Thermostat/Hygrometer to measure. Perfect! The only thing I would change is your basking. The top of your enclosure you don't want any warmer than 78 degrees. Your basking branch don't want to have any hotter than 80 degrees. Veiled girls will develop more eggs with high temps and lots of food so we have to be careful so we do not super charge their bodies.
• Humidity - When misting the humidity reaches around 70-80%, and in between misting it’s usually at 40%. I use a misting system and occasionally hand mist, and also have live plants. I use my combo thermo/hygrometer. During the day you want 40-50%. At night you want to get to 80-100% if possible. Knowing you live in a dry state I would suggest using corrugated plastic or even a shower curtain wrapped around 3 sides to help hold in humidity.
• Plants? If so, what kind? I have one real golden pothos, one Ti plant, one Yucca plant i believe and a chinese money tree. all of these are live. i have two fake plants in the enclosure as well. You will want to take out the fake plants. Veiled chameleons have a habit of eating plants in their enclosure and fake plants cause impaction. You'll also want to make sure that the plants in your enclosure are safe for your baby to eat. I'll attach some examples of safe plants for your baby.
• 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? My cage is in the far corner of my bedroom, on top of a dresser. Im about eye level with the middle of the cage. I’m the only one ever in there either sitting on the bed or going to sleep at night. The air conditioning vent does point towards the cage but i put blankets over two sides of the cage at night to help kind of defer the cold. Great!
• Location - Where are you geographically located? Arizona, USA.

 

[elizaann2]

This is the care sheet I follow for my veiled girl.
https://chameleonacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Veiled-Care-Summary-2022C.pdf
https://chameleonacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Veiled-Care-Summary-2022C.pdf

 

[elizaann2]

Thank you so much for the feedback! Yes the vitamins do have d3 in them. I have also been thinking I need to change my hydration methods, she has seemed a bit thirsty and have been looking into getting a fogger since I’m sure the room gets cold enough at night for one.

Perfect! This is the fogger I use, its really nice with the fill top. If you check out the care sheet I shared you can mimic the fog schedule and then make adjustments as you need for your environment.

 

[reggycham]

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? She’s in an all screen cage, 2x2’x4’ i believe. Please share a picture of your enclosure, including the lights on the top
• Lighting - I cannot remember the brand but i have two UVB/heat bulbs up at the top about 6-7 inches from her main basking branch. I have the lights on from 8am-8pm. Is the UVB linear or a screw in bulb? The screw in bulbs do not give our chameleons what they need. Your girl needs a T5HO 5.0 or 6% linear UVB. The UVB is super important so she does not develop MBD.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? The cage floor is typically low-mid 70s, and the basking spot is almost always 85 degrees. The lowest overnight temp is around 65 and I use a combination Thermostat/Hygrometer to measure. Perfect! The only thing I would change is your basking. The top of your enclosure you don't want any warmer than 78 degrees. Your basking branch don't want to have any hotter than 80 degrees. Veiled girls will develop more eggs with high temps and lots of food so we have to be careful so we do not super charge their bodies.
• Humidity - When misting the humidity reaches around 70-80%, and in between misting it’s usually at 40%. I use a misting system and occasionally hand mist, and also have live plants. I use my combo thermo/hygrometer. During the day you want 40-50%. At night you want to get to 80-100% if possible. Knowing you live in a dry state I would suggest using corrugated plastic or even a shower curtain wrapped around 3 sides to help hold in humidity.
• Plants? If so, what kind? I have one real golden pothos, one Ti plant, one Yucca plant i believe and a chinese money tree. all of these are live. i have two fake plants in the enclosure as well. You will want to take out the fake plants. Veiled chameleons have a habit of eating plants in their enclosure and fake plants cause impaction. You'll also want to make sure that the plants in your enclosure are safe for your baby to eat. I'll attach some examples of safe plants for your baby.
• 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? My cage is in the far corner of my bedroom, on top of a dresser. Im about eye level with the middle of the cage. I’m the only one ever in there either sitting on the bed or going to sleep at night. The air conditioning vent does point towards the cage but i put blankets over two sides of the cage at night to help kind of defer the cold. Great!
• Location - Where are you geographically located? Arizona, USA.

The bulbs are screw in. I’ll get to changing that as soon as I can. This is some pictures that may give you an idea of the enclosure, as I don’t have a full photo of it yet. I can upload tomorrow. I plan on adding more branches or vines because I’ve seen she doesn’t have too much climbing space. I also am currently working on making the bottom accessible for when she needs her lay bin.

 

[elizaann2]

The bulbs are screw in. I’ll get to changing that as soon as I can. This is some pictures that may give you an idea of the enclosure, as I don’t have a full photo of it yet. I can upload tomorrow. I plan on adding more branches or vines because I’ve seen she doesn’t have too much climbing space. I also am currently working on making the bottom accessible for when she needs her lay bin.

Oh she is so tiny!!!

FYI the vine you have in there flakes off with time and gets in eyes easily. I’d remove that once you have more branches.

Sounds great, share full pictures tomorrow and work on getting that linear uvb. She isn’t getting what she needs to make strong bones so that’s super important.

 

[reggycham]

Oh she is so tiny!!!

FYI the vine you have in there flakes off with time and gets in eyes easily. I’d remove that once you have more branches.

Sounds great, share full pictures tomorrow and work on getting that linear uvb. She isn’t getting what she needs to make strong bones so that’s super important.

This is the enclosure as of right now. I’m sure it probably isn’t the best, but I’m trying to learn . (Ps, that bowl was on the ladder because I had just got done feeding her. It’s not a permanent thing in there haha.

 

[elizaann2]

I’ll try and get a clip of the noises tomorrow. It doesn’t sound super scraggly or wheezy, it’s like a little sneeze almost. But I’ll consider taking her to a vet as soon as I can. Thank you so much

Sorry I missed this post yesterday somehow. If you are hearing sneeze noises I would strongly advise you to take her to the vet. Between that and her stargazing I'd say she most likely has a URI. With a URI once you start to see symptoms the infection is well underway in a chameleon's lungs and acting quickly is important, especially with how small she is, her tiny body doesn't have reserves to fall back on and she is quite fragile at this age.

 

[elizaann2]

This is the enclosure as of right now. I’m sure it probably isn’t the best, but I’m trying to learn . (Ps, that bowl was on the ladder because I had just got done feeding her. It’s not a permanent thing in there haha.

Ok thank you for sharing. I feel like first steps need to be getting her to a good exotic vet with chameleon care experience, getting her on antibiotics and getting the proper UVB. Then lets go from there.

 

[Gloriawood]

I just want to say welcome to both you and your baby girl! She’s such a cutie! You are in good hands here. Please let us know if you get her to the vet and how it goes. I’m rooting for her!