Chameleon sleeping during the day when shedding

DavidSanmi

New Member
A couple days ago, my panther chameleon started to shed, and he was behaving and eating just fine until yesterday, when he started shutting his eyes during the day and stopped eating at all. He has shed the skin on his head, tail and legs, as well as its back, but he still has to shed the skin on his sides. I’m starting to worry about wether he is just going through a difficult shedding process, or he has another different condition as well.


CHAMELEON INFO:
Furcifer pardalis, few months all (not sure), male. It has been at my home for one day.
I haven’t handled it yet, except for when I put him in the terrarium.
He has eaten 2 cockroaches this morning. i’ve given him the insects with calcium.
I have an automated misting systemfor 20 seconds every three hours.
CAGE INFO:
It is a screen cage of 18x18x36 in.
I have a Exo Terra Sun Glo 125W and a ceramic 50W. The light is on for 12 hours a day.
The temperature is 95 Fahrenheit (35 celsius) in the hot spit with an average temperature in the terrarium of 75 Fahrenheit (24 Celsius).
I have three natura plants, two smaller one and one Pottum.
 
Hi. :) I see your thread from last week and you appear to have copied the husbandry you provided then. Have you made the changes suggested? Closing eyes during the day is not a good sign and you need to correct your husbandry ASAP. Young chameleons are quite fragile and without correct husbandry, can quickly decline. Incorrect husbandry can also be responsible for poor shedding.

CHAMELEON INFO:
Furcifer pardalis, few months all (not sure), male. It has been at my home for one day.
I haven’t handled it yet, except for when I put him in the terrarium.
He has eaten 2 cockroaches this morning. i’ve given him the insects with calcium. How many feeders are you giving and how often? What feeders besides roaches are you offering and what are you feeding to your feeders? Are your feeders the appropriate size? Rule of thumb is they need to be smaller than the space between your cham’s eyes. Do you mean you’ve dusted the feeders with calcium? Does it contain D3? You should be using a phosphorus free calcium without D3 for every feeding except one every other week. For the one feeding, use Reptivite with D3. There’s many different supplement regimens, but I think this is perhaps the easiest.
I have an automated misting systemfor 20 seconds every three hours. 20 seconds is not long enough and every 3 hours is too frequent. You should be misting for at least 2 minutes, 3 times a day. Once early in the day - either right before or right after lights go on, once mid day and once in the evening before lights out.
CAGE INFO:
It is a screen cage of 18x18x36 in. This is ok for now, but as your cham gets older he’ll be needing at least a 2x2x4’ enclosure.
I have a Exo Terra Sun Glo 125W and a ceramic 50W. The light is on for 12 hours a day. You have no source of uvb. You need a linear T5 ho fixture with either a 5.0 or Arcadia 6% uvb bulb. Like this one. https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/arcadia-prot5-uvb-kit.html A 125w bulb is way too much for basking. Just a plain incandescent household bulb (about 60w) should be fine for basking. No need for a ceramic heat bulb.
The temperature is 95 Fahrenheit (35 celsius) in the hot spit with an average temperature in the terrarium of 75 Fahrenheit (24 Celsius). 95 is way too hot for such a young cham, or for any cham. Temp at basking shouldn’t be any higher than 80. At night you want a temp drop to 60’s or 70’s.
What is your humidity? This is important to measure. It should be 50-60% during the day and can/should get higher at night when it’s cooler.

I have three natura plants, two smaller one and one Pottum.

Please check out this link and you’ll learn everything you ever wanted/needed to know about caring for your chameleon. https://chameleonacademy.com/panther-chameleon-care/
Another great resource is Neptune the chameleon on YouTube.
 
Hello,

From the last thread I lowered the basking temperature.
I’m giving it crickets, cockroaches and worms.
He has eaten about 9 per day until yesterday.
I’m dusting the bugs with calcium without D3 every feeding and with D3 twice a month.
I seem to be unable to rise the humidity over 50%.
 
Hello,

From the last thread I lowered the basking temperature.
I’m giving it crickets, cockroaches and worms.
He has eaten about 9 per day until yesterday.
I’m dusting the bugs with calcium without D3 every feeding and with D3 twice a month.
I seem to be unable to rise the humidity over 50%.
Ok, good. Have you gotten the correct uvb yet? Even though we give vitamin D3, uvb should be the primary source for it. What about a multivitamin? That should be used one feeding every other week on the weeks that you aren’t using the D3.
For humidity, adding more live plants will help. You can also wrap 2-3 sides of the enclosure with a shower curtain to hold more in.
Can you post some pics of your cham and enclosure please? :)
 
Hello, I will make sure to give him the multivitamin.
i also have the UVB light that was recommended and I’m going to buy more plants tomorrow. I took the chameleon to the vet and I was told that he is fine and that the sleepiness might be caused because the last couple days have been colder than usual where I live, making it harder to keep heat in the cage.
Right now is night time where Iive, I will try to post pictures tomorrow.
 
Hello, I will make sure to give him the multivitamin.
i also have the UVB light that was recommended and I’m going to buy more plants tomorrow. I took the chameleon to the vet and I was told that he is fine and that the sleepiness might be caused because the last couple days have been colder than usual where I live, making it harder to keep heat in the cage.
Right now is night time where Iive, I will try to post pictures tomorrow.
I’m going to question what the vet said. To my knowledge (keep in mind I’m not super experienced or knowledgeable) being cool wouldn’t cause a chameleon to close it’s eyes. It would turn dark in order to try to absorb more heat. Also keep in mind that not all vets are very experienced or knowledgeable about chameleons. Make the improvements to your husbandry and hopefully your little one will improve.
 
He ate two mealworms today (which is the only feeder he seems to eat roght now, although he used to eat crickets and cockroaches when I first brought him. He is active during short periods and then inactive again, and I don’t know why. Also, he is more active in the afternoon. I’m going to add more plants to see if he responds well.
 
Can you take pictures of the entire enclosure lights down so we can see what your working with.

The sunglo 2 in 1 lamp on that small of a cage could cause some major issues of over exposure to too high of a UVI level. Along with the extremely hot temps.
 
Here it is
 

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Yes, I‘m still using the 2 in 1. I took him to the vet, he caught some weight and was much more active and in two days at my enclosure he is sleepy again, might it be that the bulb isn’t emiting UVB anymore? Because acording to the vet, temperatures, humidity and plants are alright, but he isn’t eating and he is sleepy.
 
Yes, I‘m still using the 2 in 1. I took him to the vet, he caught some weight and was much more active and in two days at my enclosure he is sleepy again, might it be that the bulb isn’t emiting UVB anymore? Because acording to the vet, temperatures, humidity and plants are alright, but he isn’t eating and he is sleepy.
Your using the wrong uvb type. I know you think it is ok but it really is not. You need a t5HO fixture and a 5.0 or 6% bulb with the basking level 9 inches below it.

What your describing can happen when they are not getting the correct UVB levels... Too much and too little effect them the same way.
 
Can it appear this fast?
In a matter of days?
The problem is that chams will suffer with incorrect husbandry... They hide the fact that they are declining. Until their bodies start to shut down and they can no longer hide noticeable signs. You have multiple husbandry issues going on. Extreme heat along with incorrect UVI levels. The cham is new to you. So it had the correct husbandry prior I am guessing or additional issues from prior care. So the first few days you had him he may have seemed totally ok with the conditions. Then I am guessing the combo of much to high heat and the high UVI output along with all the stress of a new enclosure and home has now started to present with issues.

@MissSkittles went through your husbandry above all those items have to be corrected and reading the link she gave you will teach you a lot.

When their are husbandry issues they have to be corrected quickly with chams. It is important because they don't show us that they are ill or having issues. Everything is very subtle. This comes with time knowing your cham and its behaviors but when your new this is why having perfect husbandry is so important. You can not pin point the issues because you do not see them the way an experienced keeper would.

Temps and UVB need to be corrected now. Too high of heat causes them to dehydrate. The UVI level being too high is dangerous as well. There is not enough known about long term effects. But say you go out in the sun and get burnt then go out the next day and get burnt and again and again and again. Essentially this is what is happening. Your blasting him with a UVI level that is dangerous to even humans.

Did the vet run a fecal test to ensure there are not parasite issues?
 
They run fecal tests and nothing is wrong. I’m going to buy a linear uvb light with 5.0 and lower the temperature. I’m going to go to the vet also. Is there anything else that you think I should change?
 
They run fecal tests and nothing is wrong. I’m going to buy a linear uvb light with 5.0 and lower the temperature. I’m going to go to the vet also. Is there anything else that you think I should change?
80 for the temp no hotter...
You need a linear light T5HO fixture with the 5.0 bulb. basking branch would be 9 inches down from this. Then I would also add a light for the plants you can do this either with a 6500 daylight bulb in a t5 fixture or a jungle dawn led bar.

Your cage is very dark right now. I am sure that is not helping.

I am not sure what the vet will be able to do for you if this is a husbandry issue then they will not be able to fix anything. Fixing the husbandry is what will correct the issue. Since the fecal came back negative then that is not it.

How old is this cham? Can you post pics of it?
 
I don’t know the exact age of the cham, but it should be about 4 months old. I’m going to take him to the vet so they keep it healthy and eating while I change my husbandry. I will buy the uvb and basking bulb you tell me and see if he improves. Right now he is hiding and it is difficul to see him, but he is about 2.5 inches long.
 
I don’t know the exact age of the cham, but it should be about 4 months old. I’m going to take him to the vet so they keep it healthy and eating while I change my husbandry. I will buy the uvb and basking bulb you tell me and see if he improves. Right now he is hiding and it is difficul to see him, but he is about 2.5 inches long.
Ok I am guess your vet is set up for keeping chams?

I use these fixtures.... They come with the plant bulbs but you could get 2 or 3 of these and daisy chain them together then get the uvb bulb to replace one of the plant light bulbs. https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/t5-uvb-light-fixture.html
Here is the link to the UVB bulb. You get a 22 inch bulb for a 24 inch fixture. https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/arcadia-6-uvb-t5-reptile-bulb.html
These would overhang right now but when you upgrade your cage size to the 2x2x4 adult size enclosure these will be perfect.

I have 3 on each cage... It gets my basking temp up to about 80. My chams actually prefer to bask under these fixtures rather then their basking bulbs.
 
I did everything you told me and my vet (which is specialised in exotic animals such as chameleons) told me you were right to suggest the uvb that you told me. She said that the solar glo 125W was way too much and way too hot. Thank you for all your replies and tips. I hope this fixes the husbandry once and for all.
 
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