eye cleaning or worse?

[bonillaphotography]

Well, My new chameleon, Python, just arrived this morning and he seems to be doing well. We had everything already set up for him when he arrived and he has been checking out his cage and already eaten 4 crickets! I did notice some strange behavior though, and I would like some feedback as I have never owned a chameleon before and I don't know what this means.

What I have seen him doing a few times is rolling his eye back, then a ball-like bulge comes to the front of his eye socket, he moves it around, then he flips his eye back to normal. Is he just cleaning his eyes, or could he possible have an infection or something stuck in his eye? He is very alert though and is constantly moving both his eyes around. I attached a picture that is with his eye rolled back, but I wasn't able to get a picture when he had the bulge out. Thanks for your help! I love my new chameleon!

Rachel

 

[Chamgirl]

I think that the behaviour you describe is alright. My own chameleons do this a lot when I am spraying them with warm water. They are cleaning their eyes out thats all

 

[2by2]

Sounds normal to me. My chams do this when they're cleaning their eyes. I must say though, I also was quite freeked out when I first noticed this behavior in my chameleons.

 

[bonillaphotography]

thanks!

Thank you. It is good to hear that everything is normal!!!

 

[Prism Chameleons]

It is very common for chameleons to roll their eyes and natural as the above responses stated. Another thing that they do, is when you give them water or a soft shower, you will see them drink, then roll their eyes bringing moisture into them.

Watch them when they take good drinks of water... almost every time you will see them moving their eyes to bring in some of that tasty stuff! This helps them to keep their eyes moist for all that looking around they do .

 

[Aeon Riddle]

My chameleon is doing this. But he seems to have to rub his eyes against leaf to deflate the right eye. A bit worried

 

[tkilgour]

Wow you dug up a very old thread. I have no idea what your problems are so instead of posting on this old thread you may want to use the link "how to ask for help" and start a new thread. Just to give you an idea, I adopted a female ambilobe from a family that had no idea how to care for their little one. One good thing is they had the lighting correct. However, they ignored an eye infection that had begun crusting over. When I got her, she was rubbing her eye on branches and leaves until it started bleeding. She couldn't see anything on one side of her head. The eye had scabbed up badly and was sealed shut. I started giving her a 10 min. shower, 3 times daily then followed by using a safe saline solution to squirt on the closed eye. Once cleaned, I used antibiotic ointment until I could get Tobramycin from the vet. After a week her eye began making huge improvements, the scabs dissappeared, and the crustiness vanished and the eye opened. Then I got to the vet and got the tobramycin and her eye has almost made a full improvement. Just a little scaring going on, but she has the eye opened mostly and she can now see again.

 

[Aeon Riddle]

there seems to be nothing in the eye and i have misted him and he only closes his eye. Hes only 4 months old and i have only had him for a few days, i dont know if its just me worrying. I have looked at other posts and am confused over what the problem is. I got Apollo off a breeder and he went through al the equipment with me in person, so i dont think theres anything wrong with the lighting.
I have also just found him with his eyes closed. He can open them, but closes them as well. I tried misting and he just closed his eyes and try to run away. I have checked his eyes and theres nothing in them, there seems to be no crustiness or bleeding. I dont know whats wrong with him.
Please help!
A

 

[tkilgour]

there seems to be nothing in the eye and i have misted him and he only closes his eye. Hes only 4 months old and i have only had him for a few days, i dont know if its just me worrying. I have looked at other posts and am confused over what the problem is. I got Apollo off a breeder and he went through al the equipment with me in person, so i dont think theres anything wrong with the lighting.
I have also just found him with his eyes closed. He can open them, but closes them as well. I tried misting and he just closed his eyes and try to run away. I have checked his eyes and theres nothing in them, there seems to be no crustiness or bleeding. I dont know whats wrong with him.
Please help!
A

To help I need you to fill out the info. in this link: One things chameleons do not typically sleep during the day. You said "I have also just found him with his eyes closed." Was he just blinking and rolling his eyes, if so is he rolling and closing eye excessivly? Was this during the day and for how long?

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

Then post a new thread in the health clinc section of this forum. Your are correct you could be a paranoid owner. We all tend to do this with our chams. Some of my chams. run from mist, some sit there and open up and say aaahhhhh! They all close their eyes when I mist. You may have no problems at all, a vitamin/ supplement issue, lighting, debris...who knows. That is why the "how to ask for help" form is ideal for you to fill out. Then members can help narrow it down for you.

 

[Destiny]

it sounds lik very normal bahavior ive seen many chameleons do this and most likely he just had something in his so he rolled it back. its kind of lik when we hav an eyelash stuck into our eye, we take it out. well thats basically a chameleons way of taking it out