Female veiled odd face behavior

[jazif2]

So my female veiled is about 5-6 months. She is healthy and eats well. The only odd thing is that she closes her right eye from time to time. she will open it when she is roaming around her enclosure, and when she is focusing on her food. But when she is lounging its closed most of the time. Also I noticed that she was keeping her mouth open. This is the second time I have seen her do this. Not too sure if i should be worried or not. If anyone has any ideas or need more information like the: how to ask for help template, let me know. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

 

[Carlton]

We can't really guess without the help questions answered in detail. Chams close an eye for lots of reasons, so we need to tease this apart with more information. If she's opening her mouth while she's basking but closes it once she's moved away from the heat, she is probably adjusting her body temp. Its normal.

 

[jazif2]

Your Chameleon - Female veiled, ~5-6 months. I have had her for 2 months.

Handling - 1-2 times a week for 5 min at most.. will hand feed just to get her used to handling.

Feeding - Crickets, meal worms, wax worms. ~8 crickets per day and will throw in 2-3 wax worms or meal worms.Feeding time in the afternoon around 1. Gutloading them with a green jello looking bites from local reptile store.

Supplements - ZooMed Reptivite: reptile vitamins with D3, once a week.

Watering - MistKing watering system. 5 times a day for a minute at a time. Do you see your chameleon drinking?: Im not home most of the day time when the misters are on to be honest.

Fecal Description - Fecal looks normal, (I have read the posting on chameleon "poop 101", the urine portion looks white). Have not tested for parasites since she has been with me.

History - Got her from a local reptile store, she was in an enclosure with I'm guessing siblings. She was an aggressive eater when I saw her that day and still is. She likes not afraid of the mistaking going off like my other chameleons, she just sits there and gets misted.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen cage 16x16x30

Lighting - Deepdome lighting with uvb 5.0, and 75w red basking light. Lighting 8am-8pm, no lighting at night.

Temperature/Humidity - 85.2 F basking, 76F bottom of cage, 65% humidity. Use a National Geographic Instant Infrared Thermometer, and eco terra hygrometer.

Plants - Umbrella plant and bovines

Placement - Located in my apartment living room. (I live along so there isn't a lot of people to strew them out.) No fans or vents, I leave the my back screen door open to help circulate air during the day so my apartment dent get stuffy. At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?: 6.5 ft.

Location - Where are you geographically located?: Southern California

Current Problem - Shutting her right eye randomly but keeping the other open. There are picture above. She will open it when she eats to focus, when she is lounging she will close it. And recently just noticed her leaving her mouth open a few times. (seen in picture)

Hope all this info helps.

 

[jazif2]

any suggestions on what might help?

 

[sharp229]

From the information provided everything looks pretty good except for the supplements and gutloading. You should dust with calcium every day, calcium with D3 every other week, and multivitamin every other week. You should use fresh fruits and vegetables for the gutloading, you can find examples in the care sheet.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/complete-veiled-care-sheet-52325/

If she only opens her mouth when hot and has no other symptoms, then it sounds like it may be a vitamin A deficiency. See the thread below for details:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/cham-keeps-closing-one-his-eyes-66576/

You can also help the eye with pure salene solution:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/saline-solution-35457/#post327298

If there are other symptoms such as popping sounds or bubbles/mucous, it mat be an RI.

One other thing, I would replace the red basking bulb with a white incandescent house bulb or flood lamp; not sure how red light would affect them since its not natural. By UVB 5.0, do you mean a ZooMed ReptiSun 5.0 CFL? If so, what wattage?

 

[jazif2]

From the information provided everything looks pretty good except for the supplements and gutloading. You should dust with calcium every day, calcium with D3 every other week, and multivitamin every other week. You should use fresh fruits and vegetables for the gutloading, you can find examples in the care sheet.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/complete-veiled-care-sheet-52325/

If she only opens her mouth when hot and has no other symptoms, then it sounds like it may be a vitamin A deficiency. See the thread below for details:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/cham-keeps-closing-one-his-eyes-66576/

You can also help the eye with pure salene solution:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/saline-solution-35457/#post327298

If there are other symptoms such as popping sounds or bubbles/mucous, it mat be an RI.

One other thing, I would replace the red basking bulb with a white incandescent house bulb or flood lamp; not sure how red light would affect them since its not natural. By UVB 5.0, do you mean a ZooMed ReptiSun 5.0 CFL? If so, what wattage?

What is RI? I haven't noticed her making weird sounds.
So I should get a 50watt bulb that I would use in my bedroom lamp?
Yes the UVB is 5.0 CFL, 13 watts.
(is 10.0 CFL, 13 watts not good for chameleons?)

Anyone willing to share additional advice?

 

[zsazsa85]

RI means Respiratory Infection.
I use 10.0 ReptiSun fluorescent tube. It is good too. Some owner thinks it is too strong,some that it's not.

 

[Big Gulp]

Yup, ditch the red light for a regular white house bulb.

 

[zsazsa85]

As it was told before, get rid of the red light and use normal light bulb instead and use calcium every feeding, calcium with D3 and multivitamin with D3 once every two weeks!
In uour cham's case it can be supplement deficiency.

 

[jazif2]

THANK YOU for all the feedback! I hope these changes will help.

 

[jazif2]

Update!

So I did some shopping today!
Got the regular home bulbs, so there is no more red light.
(Picture of my set up)



Got calcium! Hows this?



And I cut up some apples and oranges for the crickets and myself



PS made a container for keeping my crickets thanks to ferretinmyshoes' blog on keeping crickets in bulk:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/511-keeping-crickets.html



(I just got a little fancy)