dark, searching veiled

[Wndwlckr]

Hello all--!

i have a young male veiled chameleon..i dont know his age but i'm guessing 4 months or so.
i have him in a screen cage-- 2'X2'x3'tall.. with a live ficus and plenty of vines and such.
Lighting is...a 100W powersun bulb and i also have a 5.0 uvb tube bulb as well. the temperature on his basking perch (a little less than a 12 inches from the bulb) is 100-110 degrees depending on the time of day (my apartment gets warm) and the ambient temperature is around 85 degrees. i use a dripper and also mist 4-5 times a day.
every other day i heavily dust crickets with the t-rex chameleon vitamin stuff..

so anyway, my question:
i've been noticing today and yesterday that he has been roaming about the cage with dark coloring, almost like he's searching for food. however, there are plenty of crickets in his cage. when he's basking, he's still a darker green color. i dont understand whats wrong with him...is it normal?

he lightens up when i pick him up which makes me wonder if its just too hot in his enclosure...so i am constantly checking temperatures... and they appear to be normal.

he isnt showing any other strange signs..he doesnt open his mouth when he's under the lamp which tells me he may not be too hot...he's very active, his eyes are alert, and he's eating very well...however, i have noticed white crusties on his nose this past week, and he just shed today. maybe i'm overreacting, but after loosing my other veiled i really want correct whatever mistakes i'm making.

one other detail that may be helpful to know is that I just recently bought the powersun bulb for his enclosure. could the change of the bulb make a difference?

or is it just normal for a baby veiled chameleon to be dark in coloring sometimes..?

i'm kind of going out of my mind checking every little thing to make sure i'm not screwing up my chameleon's health..so any advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks!

-josh

 

[Brad Ramsey]

In my opinion you could reduce the supplementing by about half.
The crusty nose stuff is him expelling excess salts and minerals.
I also think your temps are too high.
My enclosure has a gradient from coolest to warmest of 68 degrees to between 86 and 90.
He may be looking for a place to cool down.
Dark coloration can mean he's wanting to absorb warmth, but I think in this case he may just be frustrated.
They need about 20 degrees in difference to thermoregulate (again in my opinion) but not down from 110.

-Brad

 

[Wndwlckr]

thanks man, i moved the cham to a cooler part of the apartment.. the ambient temp is like between 65 and 70 degrees and the basking spot is between 85 and 90...
he's still dark tho. so maybe he's absorbing warmth? he doesnt search around the cage anymore...he just enjoys basking and eating.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

I get a little nervous with the use of mercury vapor lamps. Between panthers and veileds, I suppose veileds can tolerate too much UVB more than panthers but... If you were trying to solve a problem of dark colors etc., don't overlook trying a Zoomed Reptisun 5.0 tube to see what happens.

Here's the UVB output info on the Powersun. The thing that caught my eye was variability between Powersun lamps. Some samples had twice as much UVB output (not a good thing for chameleons to have too much) as others of the same age . http://www.uvguide.co.uk/mercvapourfloods.htm#zoomedpowersun