Chameleon closed both eyes

[AyraS27]

So I’ve been having a problem with my juvenile veiled chameleon the past few days. To start from the beginning. She’s currently in a mesh enclosure 24x24x48. Humidity roams between 60-80%. Temps under the basking like is at about 85 but I make sure she can’t get closer than 6inches from the light. I tend to mist her 2 times a day, as well as I have an automatic mister. I got her from Petco about 6 weeks ago because she was in an enclosure with 2 other Chameleons about 2 times her size and I felt horrible. I brought her home and she seemed to be doing fine, but only had an appetite for crickets. I was dusting the crickets with repti-calcium as well as gutloading them. About a week ago she started to be a little off. She would just hide in her plants for most of the day, but I thought it was just because they’re shy. A few days ago I began to notice that her left eye was starting to close, she continued to eat so I didn’t think much of it. 2 days ago her left eye was no longer open and she was sluggish. When ever I put my hand in her enclosure, she would his and threaten to bite me. That day she ate 1 cricket. I called my vet and they said they’re not available for the next week. So I carried on, thinking that it was vitamin A deficiency. The next morning I went to multiple pet stores, got dubias as well as additional multivitamins to coat the dubias and crickets. When I got home both of her eyes were closed, with her right eye being partially closed, not as bad as the left. She still noticed I was there, but was not reacting to me putting my hand in the enclosure, to the extent that I could touch her and she wouldn’t move. I put some crickets in one of her hanging bowls, and dubias in another in hopes she would eat it. She didn’t react to any, so just decided to turn off her light and call it a night for now since it’s getting a little late. I’m not sure what I should do at this point, not Vets around my area handle exotic animals, and my vet I usually go to won’t be available for a few days. Is there anything that I can do to help my girl out, at least to help her toughen out until the vet is available. She doesn’t have any lesions, no burn marks, no bubbles or foam around her mouth. She looks healthy, just her eyes are closed. Unfortunately I have put her to sleep, so I won’t be able to get a picture of her right now, but if needed I’ll get some when I get home from work tomorrow. Also I work overnight, 3am to 12pm. I typically turn her light on at 2am and turn it off at 5pm. I’ve been doing that with my milk snake as well as my turtles for a while and they’re both thriving, so I didn’t think that would have any negative affects on my chameleon. Is it a possibility that my irregular sleep schedule is negatively affecting her? Thank you in advance to anyone that responds

 

[kinyonga]

You can solve the light issue by getting a timer for the lights so they can be on a more natural time.

As for the eyes closed...it would be better for us to see some photos.
Do you only dust with the calcium powder...no calcium D3 powder with prEformed vitamin A twice a month?
What UVB light are you using? Long linear tube? What light do you use for basking?

 

[AyraS27]

You can solve the light issue by getting a timer for the lights so they can be on a more natural time.

As for the eyes closed...it would be better for us to see some photos.
Do you only dust with the calcium powder...no calcium D3 powder with prEformed vitamin A twice a month?
What UVB light are you using? Long linear tube? What light do you use for basking?

So I’ve been dusting with calcium powder regularly, as well as switching in Reptivite multivitamins that has both Vitamin A as well as D3. The UVB light is the long tube T10, and as for the basking light I don’t really remember the exact details on it.

 

[Beman]

View attachment 321636
So I’ve been dusting with calcium powder regularly, as well as switching in Reptivite multivitamins that has both Vitamin A as well as D3. The UVB light is the long tube T10, and as for the basking light I don’t really remember the exact details on it.

Can you give us specifics on the light and the bulb strength? It should not be a T10. Long linear fixtures would be a T8 or a T5HO. Then bulb strength options are 5.0, 6%, 10.0 And 12%.

Can I see pictures of the entire enclosure please.

 

[AyraS27]

Can you give us specifics on the light and the bulb strength? It should not be a T10. Long linear fixtures would be a T8 or a T5HO. Then bulb strength options are 5.0, 6%, 10.0 And 12%.

Can I see pictures of the entire enclosure please.

Can you give us specifics on the light and the bulb strength? It should not be a T10. Long linear fixtures would be a T8 or a T5HO. Then bulb strength options are 5.0, 6%, 10.0 And 12%.

Can I see pictures of the entire enclosure please.

Sorry I had to go find exactly what it was, I didn’t remember it off the top of my head. But yeah it’s a T5 10. This is the current setup, there’s a bowl at the bottom right now because I was in between changing her carpet and I didn’t want water from the dripper spilling everywhere. I’m not sure if you can see it very well, but both of her eyes are opening up a little now but she’s not reacting to dubias or crickets. She hisses everytime they’re near her. I put little bird feeders on the side to try to keep count on how much she eats, because regularly I just let them free roam and she catches them well.

 

[AyraS27]

Sorry I had to go find exactly what it was, I didn’t remember it off the top of my head. But yeah it’s a T5 10. This is the current setup, there’s a bowl at the bottom right now because I was in between changing her carpet and I didn’t want water from the dripper spilling everywhere. I’m not sure if you can see it very well, but both of her eyes are opening up a little now but she’s not reacting to dubias or crickets. She hisses everytime they’re near her. I put little bird feeders on the side to try to keep count on how much she eats, because regularly I just let them free roam and she catches them well.

Can you give us specifics on the light and the bulb strength? It should not be a T10. Long linear fixtures would be a T8 or a T5HO. Then bulb strength options are 5.0, 6%, 10.0 And 12%.

Can I see pictures of the entire enclosure please.

Can you give us specifics on the light and the bulb strength? It should not be a T10. Long linear fixtures would be a T8 or a T5HO. Then bulb strength options are 5.0, 6%, 10.0 And 12%.

Can I see pictures of the entire enclosure please.

Also I just saw her right away seem to bulge pretty far out and then settle back to normal. It was open the whole time. She kinda just looked up, opened her mouth and then her eye bulged out. Is that normal? I’m absolutely lost right now with this.

 

[Beman]

Ok so quite a few things here... She is able to get far too close to that T5, with the 10.0 UVB bulb you need a full 11-12 inches to the closest branch. If their are fake plants (which are dangerous with Veileds) then you need to ensure the light fixtures are not sitting right above where those plants are. More then likely eyes closing are due to extreme over exposure to UVB.

I personally do not like feeding in bird bowls like that. When you get chams from big box stores they are typically free fed which means you need to replicate that with a feeder that is similar in concept like the full throttle feeder or shooting gallery feeder run. Also if you are not feeding very small feeders they will not go for them.

Temps should not be hotter than 80 at basking. You need many more branches/vines. at the correct distances. And you need some live centerpiece plants. All fake plants should be removed and put on the outside of the enclosure to provide coverage. Veileds eat their plants so having fake ones in the cage are dangerous.

Reptivite with D3 should only be used 2 times a month say the first and the 15th. Then all other feedings you will use calcium without D3.

Your lighting schedule will impact her. These are not snakes that are easier to adapt to your schedule. They are arboreal and need 12 hours lights on with 12 hours of total darkness. If your lights are kicking on when she should be sleeping. Or kicking off when the room is still bright from it being daylight still this is going to impact her. I am saying her only because that is how you are referring to her. I would need to see pics of the back feet to confirm gender. This is important because female care is different due to them laying infertile eggs.

Humidity for daytime should be 40-50% max.

It looks as though you are using the chameleon kit that comes with the double dome light. Your width of cage does not look like a 2x2x4.

The eye puffing up and rotating is what they do to clean their eyes.


Start reading this husbandry program and every module in it. This will jump start your understanding of how to care for and what to provide. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/

Ask questions here. You will want to start making the changes quickly. At this age they go downhill fast. Besides getting a fecal done I doubt a vet will be able to help you. Everything I am seeing is linked to husbandry issues which once corrected she should bounce back.

 

[AyraS27]

Ok so quite a few things here... She is able to get far too close to that T5, with the 10.0 UVB bulb you need a full 11-12 inches to the closest branch. If their are fake plants (which are dangerous with Veileds) then you need to ensure the light fixtures are not sitting right above where those plants are. More then likely eyes closing are due to extreme over exposure to UVB.

I personally do not like feeding in bird bowls like that. When you get chams from big box stores they are typically free fed which means you need to replicate that with a feeder that is similar in concept like the full throttle feeder or shooting gallery feeder run. Also if you are not feeding very small feeders they will not go for them.

Temps should not be hotter than 80 at basking. You need many more branches/vines. at the correct distances. And you need some live centerpiece plants. All fake plants should be removed and put on the outside of the enclosure to provide coverage. Veileds eat their plants so having fake ones in the cage are dangerous.

Reptivite with D3 should only be used 2 times a month say the first and the 15th. Then all other feedings you will use calcium without D3.

Your lighting schedule will impact her. These are not snakes that are easier to adapt to your schedule. They are arboreal and need 12 hours lights on with 12 hours of total darkness. If your lights are kicking on when she should be sleeping. Or kicking off when the room is still bright from it being daylight still this is going to impact her. I am saying her only because that is how you are referring to her. I would need to see pics of the back feet to confirm gender. This is important because female care is different due to them laying infertile eggs.

Humidity for daytime should be 40-50% max.

It looks as though you are using the chameleon kit that comes with the double dome light. Your width of cage does not look like a 2x2x4.

The eye puffing up and rotating is what they do to clean their eyes.


Start reading this husbandry program and every module in it. This will jump start your understanding of how to care for and what to provide. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/

Ask questions here. You will want to start making the changes quickly. At this age they go downhill fast. Besides getting a fecal done I doubt a vet will be able to help you. Everything I am seeing is linked to husbandry issues which once corrected she should bounce back.

Ok cool, thank you so much. So now question about properly setting up live plants for her enclosure. How am I supposed

Ok so quite a few things here... She is able to get far too close to that T5, with the 10.0 UVB bulb you need a full 11-12 inches to the closest branch. If their are fake plants (which are dangerous with Veileds) then you need to ensure the light fixtures are not sitting right above where those plants are. More then likely eyes closing are due to extreme over exposure to UVB.

I personally do not like feeding in bird bowls like that. When you get chams from big box stores they are typically free fed which means you need to replicate that with a feeder that is similar in concept like the full throttle feeder or shooting gallery feeder run. Also if you are not feeding very small feeders they will not go for them.

Temps should not be hotter than 80 at basking. You need many more branches/vines. at the correct distances. And you need some live centerpiece plants. All fake plants should be removed and put on the outside of the enclosure to provide coverage. Veileds eat their plants so having fake ones in the cage are dangerous.

Reptivite with D3 should only be used 2 times a month say the first and the 15th. Then all other feedings you will use calcium without D3.

Your lighting schedule will impact her. These are not snakes that are easier to adapt to your schedule. They are arboreal and need 12 hours lights on with 12 hours of total darkness. If your lights are kicking on when she should be sleeping. Or kicking off when the room is still bright from it being daylight still this is going to impact her. I am saying her only because that is how you are referring to her. I would need to see pics of the back feet to confirm gender. This is important because female care is different due to them laying infertile eggs.

Humidity for daytime should be 40-50% max.

It looks as though you are using the chameleon kit that comes with the double dome light. Your width of cage does not look like a 2x2x4.

The eye puffing up and rotating is what they do to clean their eyes.


Start reading this husbandry program and every module in it. This will jump start your understanding of how to care for and what to provide. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/

Ask questions here. You will want to start making the changes quickly. At this age they go downhill fast. Besides getting a fecal done I doubt a vet will be able to help you. Everything I am seeing is linked to husbandry issues which once corrected she should bounce back.

Ok cool, thank you so much. So now question about properly setting up live plants for her enclosure. Am I able to keep them inside the pot and leave the pot like that inside of the enclosure or would I need to get soil and plant the plants. Also this is actually the size before 24x24x48, my bad. It’s 16x16x30. I’m using the double light, but only using the one for heating her up, not the UVB side. I’m gonna try to run to Lowes or Home Depot and see if they have any of the plants listed, it’s finally getting a little warmer here in jersey so hopefully plant shops open soon and I can find them. I also just put the bird feeder in there to see if I could keep track of what she was eating, but I do think she was doing good catching the insects on her own. I’ll try to switch up her husbandry today and tomorrow, and post an updated picture later on. If you could let me know what you think, that would be great. She’s a little aggressive right now, so I wouldn’t really be able to get you a picture of her back feet to know what her gender is. I just like to think that it’s a female because it was house with multiple other chameleons. Thank you so much for your help again

 

[Beman]

Ok cool, thank you so much. So now question about properly setting up live plants for her enclosure. How am I supposed

Ok cool, thank you so much. So now question about properly setting up live plants for her enclosure. Am I able to keep them inside the pot and leave the pot like that inside of the enclosure or would I need to get soil and plant the plants. Also this is actually the size before 24x24x48, my bad. It’s 16x16x30. I’m using the double light, but only using the one for heating her up, not the UVB side. I’m gonna try to run to Lowes or Home Depot and see if they have any of the plants listed, it’s finally getting a little warmer here in jersey so hopefully plant shops open soon and I can find them. I also just put the bird feeder in there to see if I could keep track of what she was eating, but I do think she was doing good catching the insects on her own. I’ll try to switch up her husbandry today and tomorrow, and post an updated picture later on. If you could let me know what you think, that would be great. She’s a little aggressive right now, so I wouldn’t really be able to get you a picture of her back feet to know what her gender is. I just like to think that it’s a female because it was house with multiple other chameleons. Thank you so much for your help again

Get plants that are veiled tested off that list. You will also need 1 inch or larger river rocks to put a layer on top of the soil. Give them a good rinse in the shower, then put rock on then put in the cage...

Now when your at lowes look at the plastic washing machine pans. Typically 24x24 in size and a bit larger. This would go under your cage to catch water run off.

Does not surprise me that the cham is aggressive. it does not feel great and honestly these are not a friendly species most of the time.

Start reading that link I gave you it will help a ton.

 

[AyraS27]

Get plants that are veiled tested off that list. You will also need 1 inch or larger river rocks to put a layer on top of the soil. Give them a good rinse in the shower, then put rock on then put in the cage...

Now when your at lowes look at the plastic washing machine pans. Typically 24x24 in size and a bit larger. This would go under your cage to catch water run off.

Does not surprise me that the cham is aggressive. it does not feel great and honestly these are not a friendly species most of the time.

Start reading that link I gave you it will help a ton.

Awesome. Thank you again for the tips. Feels a little weird having an aggressive animal since both my snake and my turtles are extremely friendly, but I’ll work on turning it around. I’m currently cleaning my turtle filter and then I’ll be hitting a few garden centers near by. Thanks again.

 

[AyraS27]

Get plants that are veiled tested off that list. You will also need 1 inch or larger river rocks to put a layer on top of the soil. Give them a good rinse in the shower, then put rock on then put in the cage...

Now when your at lowes look at the plastic washing machine pans. Typically 24x24 in size and a bit larger. This would go under your cage to catch water run off.

Does not surprise me that the cham is aggressive. it does not feel great and honestly these are not a friendly species most of the time.

Start reading that link I gave you it will help a ton.

So this is what I’m working with now after a quick trip to a lovely garden around my area. (Surprisingly they had some Veiled’s too and had some good tips on what to work with.) I didn’t grab any Pathos this time because they were too big, so I’m using the fake plants still just for the sides, but I will be changing asap.

 

[Beman]

So this is what I’m working with now after a quick trip to a lovely garden around my area. (Surprisingly they had some Veiled’s too and had some good tips on what to work with.) I didn’t grab any Pathos this time because they were too big, so I’m using the fake plants still just for the sides, but I will be changing asap.

pull your UVB towards the middle. With that T5 and 10.0 bulb make sure you have a measured distance of about 11 inches to the vines below. You will want to add more horizontal vines as well.

 

[Ares05]

Awesome. Thank you again for the tips. Feels a little weird having an aggressive animal since both my snake and my turtles are extremely friendly, but I’ll work on turning it around. I’m currently cleaning my turtle filter and then I’ll be hitting a few garden centers near by. Thanks again.

just ducking in to say that the vast majority of chameleons (especially veiled) do not tend to be 'friendly'. My boy is about to turn 3 and still has a special kind of hate for me, lol. They are very much a look-dont-touch type of animal. Most people can form a trust between them and their chameleons, for the purposes of vet visits, checking weights, general look overs, hand feeding, etc, but it's rare that you will find a friendly chameleon the same way as a beardie or some snakes. Some veiled will tolerate you somewhat, and thats about it. It does vary though. Some tolerate occasional handling, some wont ever want you touching them or near them. The bond isn't something that can be forced, just has to happen over time if it's going to.

 

[Hshopkins]

Did your veiled chameleon recover? I am
A new owner as well and facing the same issue. I would really appreciate any advice you have to offer. Thank you!