Hi everyone,
Exactly one week ago I got my first chameleon! For the first 3 days everything was well, but then on day 4 she got very 'restless' when she started shedding, climbing the sides of her cages, and surprisingly me when feeding her! Since two days she has been this dark colour (as shown in the picture), has still some little pieces of skin left, and yesterday I even caught her with her eyes closed during basking, however she would quickly open them when I would approach her cage. All day she would almost just lay sideways on her basking stick, while barely moving. Now I noticed that I dusted her feeders with the calcium with vitamin D3 instead of the one without D3 for the first three days, but quickly turned back to the regular calcium. Now since two days I've tried dusting her feeders with multi-vitamin (the only option for extra vitamin A, I am still waiting for the 'pure' vitamin A to arrive) as I read on the forum that the eyes closing and difficulty shedding might be caused by lack of vitamin A. Also I added a laying bin yesterday as I hoped maybe she was just looking for a place to lay.
Chameleon Info:
Cage Info:
Current Problem - She kept closing her eyes during basking (haven't seen it today so far) can't completely shed and is permanently dark coloured. (except when she sleeps)
I hope she will be better! because even though she is only one week here I really want to take good care of her!
Exactly one week ago I got my first chameleon! For the first 3 days everything was well, but then on day 4 she got very 'restless' when she started shedding, climbing the sides of her cages, and surprisingly me when feeding her! Since two days she has been this dark colour (as shown in the picture), has still some little pieces of skin left, and yesterday I even caught her with her eyes closed during basking, however she would quickly open them when I would approach her cage. All day she would almost just lay sideways on her basking stick, while barely moving. Now I noticed that I dusted her feeders with the calcium with vitamin D3 instead of the one without D3 for the first three days, but quickly turned back to the regular calcium. Now since two days I've tried dusting her feeders with multi-vitamin (the only option for extra vitamin A, I am still waiting for the 'pure' vitamin A to arrive) as I read on the forum that the eyes closing and difficulty shedding might be caused by lack of vitamin A. Also I added a laying bin yesterday as I hoped maybe she was just looking for a place to lay.
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon - Female veiled chameleon 'blue', got her 7 days ago. The pet store told me she was 3-4 months old.
- Handling - once when I got her, and once when she decided to climb me.
- Feeding - I feed her as many crickets as she can in the morning (about 6-7 crickets), gutload them with apple and sweet potato, dusted with ZooMed repticalcium (with and without D3, as explained above). For the last 2 days I dusted with Repashy supervite. When this box of crickets runs out I want to change to Dubia's (thus rotating the type of feeder). The pet store told me they only feed crickets.
- Supplements - Reptivite calcium (one with and one with our vitamin D3) and Repashy supervite. calcium everyday, every Sunday either the D3 version or Supervite (so both 2x per month)
- Watering - I mist her enclosure with a mister 30 seconds in the morning, 30 seconds in the evening and 10 seconds at noon. She drinks from leaves and when I try to feed (water?) her with a pipet.
- Fecal Description - She has never been tested for parasites. Her poop has a white slimy sac, with a very dark brown 2cm long poop tail.
- History - she was very healthy until she started shedding, and seemingly always in a good mood. Now she is just indifferent to everything except her morning meal. (and mad at my phone while taking a picture)
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - I have a 90x45x90cm exoterra screen cage, with shower curtain attached to the side and back.
- Lighting - I have a arcadia T5HO 6% uvb (one week old) and a 40W rep tech basking lamp both resting on top of the screen mesh roof. They go on around 9am and turn of at 8:30pm.
- Temperature - Bottom of the cage is 20 degrees Celsius, her basking spot around 29 degrees celsius. at night it drops to around 16-17 degrees celsius. (I have an analogue thermometer/hygrometer combo on the bottom of the cage, and an analogue stick thermometer I sometimes use to measure her basking spot.
- Humidity - I have a mister, this keeps it around 35-60 during the day, when I go to sleep and wake up it is usually around 60-70 (I am thinking of using my fogger in intervals at night to raise that a bit) but I never checked at night the exact humidity. I mist 3 times a day, at 10am 30 seconds, 2pm 10 seconds and 6pm 30 seconds.
- Plants - I use only live plants, a schleffera, Pothos, tilandsia, and a syngonium in her laying bin for coverage.
- Placement - It is standing in the corner of my study/bedroom. There is a ventilation in the other corner of the room. Out of direct sunlight, out of sight of the window. On top of a dresser, the top is about 1,80 meters high
- Location - I am located in the Netherlands, Utrecht.
Current Problem - She kept closing her eyes during basking (haven't seen it today so far) can't completely shed and is permanently dark coloured. (except when she sleeps)
I hope she will be better! because even though she is only one week here I really want to take good care of her!