chameleons doing odd things

[beeek0]

okay so i noticed my male panther chameleon tends to close his right eye from time to time but when I come up to him or he notices something he will re-open it and proceeds onto his day, but will later close it back up.. I've only seen him do it a couple times in the past 3 days but I just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong.. and he is eating well, drinking, and roaming around the cage at times when hes not basking... If its bad thing please let me know as soon as possible.

thanks

 

[Solid Snake]

Its generally a bad thing.

Is he kept inside?

 

[beeek0]

yes, he is indoor. room temp is usually around 75 to 80 degrees during the day and around 68 to 70 at night.. humidity is always around 40 to 60 percent.. and I have a custom dripper I made, that is constantly running throughout the day.. I mist them 2 to 3 times a day as well.. Any ideas on why he would be doing it? His cage is also by a window but not directly..

 

[drcrossfire]

2 ideas:

He might have some debris caught in it-- try misting him heavily a few times in the face. Chameleons dont have tears, so misting is how they clean!

Otherwise, i have heard that it could be caused by vitamin A deficiency -- if you haven't gutloaded/dusted with any vit a-- a very very small amount might help this problem.

be careful if dusting with vit a- you do not want to overdose-- though i have heard that vit a toxicity is rare and a kind of "over-hyped" scare... still, be careful.

 

[beeek0]

Thanks for the info guys... it might just be because he is shedding.. I will try misting him more.. Also I gut load my crickets and dust them with calcium every day except 2 days a week and dust with herptevite/D3 once a month.. So I'm sure the Vitamin A shouldn't be a problem..

 

[drcrossfire]

Herptivite has beta carotine, not vit A. I have not seen any definitive information/studies saying whether or not chameleons can convert this precursor into vit a. And depending on what you gutload with, you may not be gutloading with a performed vitamin A.

I've heard of people giving a light dusting with performed vit a about twice a year.

While im not saying this is definitely your problem, I just wanted to fill you in on some nutritional info I have stumbled upon over time