Eye problem with baby hoehnelii

[Sweetcorn]

Nugget is my 6 week old hoehnelii baby.

Ambient temp in the room is 22c.
Housed in a faunarium with mesh lid.
Paper towel substrate and silk plants and twigs.
Feeding on micro crix & fruit flies.
Misted 3 times a day.
Is pooing daily, slight yellow/orange to urates

I've noticed today that one eye in particular is sunken in as you can see from the pics and he seems less active today than normal.

Any advice would be really appreciated to keep this little one hydrated as he is so small.

 

[Psychodrake]

Is pooing daily, slight yellow/orange to urates

My guess would be that he's a bit dehydrated. Do you have any idea what the humidity is in the vivarium?

 

[Sweetcorn]

My guess would be that he's a bit dehydrated. Do you have any idea what the humidity is in the vivarium?

Hi....I realise it's dehydration. Humidity is 80% at the moment.

I've just popped him in the shower with hot water running (not under the water) with the curtains closed to see if this helps.

How long would be best to leave him there for?

 

[Sweetcorn]

He's really not looking good now. Lying on his leaf with his eyes closed and I'm fearing the worse

 

[ataraxia]

your husbandry sounds good. babies this young are hard to figure out whats wrong. sometimes its an obvious solution but many times we have no clue why they turn for the worst.

im new to hoehnelii, i just had my first clutch in january. ive lost three and have no idea why. my next round im going to house them 2 to set up just to see if maybe there isnt a "king of the hill" situation going on. they all have there place but i do notice the stronger, bigger ones at the top and take advantage of a heat source..

if you do house all of them in the same enclosure. if your cage space is big enough maybe try a second basking spot. i have mine set to 80*.

if you dont already..try a live plant like a schefflera. they have lots of stems that can support these young ones.

 

[Sweetcorn]

Hi

Thanks for that. This particular one is housed alone, so there would be no bullying issues.

Mum of this one was wc and only gave birth to two. This one and another that was stillborn. A week later Mum died too. I've spoken to someone else and they think this could be a reason why this little one isn't thriving and is still smaller than the 4 that are 6 weeks younger.

I've heard that these are a very difficult species to keep and I'm sorry to hear you lost some of your babies too.

He's still hanging in there at the moment and I'll be keeping a very close eye on him and doing everything I can. It's just awful to see them deteriorate so quickly right before you eyes.

 

[Tazjunky]

Does it have a slight mouth infection on the first pic? just at the corner of the mouth? it looks slightly different from the other pic.

I had an Elliots chameleon that got a poorly eye which stemmed from an infected temporal gland (which sits at the corner of the mouth)

As for the temps it sounds good, but do you have the basking light on for him all day? i know that alot of people over here have had a bad time with babies, but found that staggering the basking times helped alot.

How is the little one getting on now?

 

[kinyonga]

I would say that you should get it to the vet right now...its sick.
Good catch on the mouth infection Tazjunky!

 

[Sweetcorn]

Just to update.....the little one passed away last Tuesday.

 

[Seeco]

Hi I have an idea. What were you feeding him and if it was fruit flies where did you get them from and what was the flies' media/food?

 

[Sweetcorn]

My husband gets the fruit flies from his supplier at work. It doesn't say what media has been used in them.

 

[Seeco]

Ok it is possible that the media has been supplemented excessively with vitamins. This MAY overwhelm the organs of a slower growing montane chameleon. Next time try a very basic homemade media based on potato flakes and powdered sugar.

Another possibility is mites in the fly culture. To avoid transmitting them place the fly cup in a large bin. Remove the lid and let flies escape into bin. Close lid and shake escaped flies into cage. This way you are not sprinkiling flies AND mites into the cham enclosure.

Sorry for your loss and try again!

 

[Sweetcorn]

Thank you for the tips Seeco. I still have 4 babies here that are 2 weeks old now and really hoping these little ones do better.

The only thing I could find out about the flies was the nutritional content:

Moisture 59%
Ash 2%
Protein 20%
Fat 14%
Other 5%

 

[Seeco]

Hmm. I recommend you make your own batch. If not try to avoid using vitamin powders for a while.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/fruit-fly-culturing-12441/