Got her mouth open, yikes.

[PoshPenny]

Frita has been open mouth basking the last three days, I'm not too worried, but today when I picked her up to see if I could hear anything by placing her by my ear she huffed at me so I didn't really hear anything but this. But I did for a slight second think to hear a light sputtering sound. Not popping or clicking, but a weird sound. So I did the unthinkable and attempted to open her mouth. Frita had been less than friendly lately so touching her mouth is not my idea of a good time. But I got it to open by lightly touching her behind her mouth and I saw nothing. Looked clear. Will mucus always be present? Should I just take to the vet tomorrow to be safe? She looks great, color is great, she seems great. I just want to stay on top of a uri if she is getting one. I mean how will the vet know?

 

[APBMM veil charm]

Well I'm a newbi but my cham was doing this at one time and the experts told me that the basking spot maybe to hot. What's your temp in the basking spot ?

 

[Olimpia]

I second the basking spot question. It could be a question of just too much heat. How hot is the cage, basking and ambient temps?

 

[PoshPenny]

85 at the hottest spot. I have a 40 watt UVA light I use with my megaray so she gets both but it's in a far corner opposite her megaray. But across the top of the cage the temp is 85. I just went in there to check on her to see If she was doing it in her sleep and turned on the moon light which gives off heat to see where she was and she climbed up to it and started doing it
,open mouth basking--right in front of me. She didn't put herself to bed but I also just opened her mouth for the first time tonight I think she is stressed. Now I'm stressed out. She looks upset. I don't mind taking her in, But the zoo Atlanta vet she sees is only there one Saturday out of the month so she would see the vet that works under him.

 

[melble68]

To high temp is what I instantly thought also. Raise the basking light up so the basking temp backs down to 80-82 kind of a thing. Get completely rid of the moon light. You don't need the additional heat in the evenings. You shouldn't be disturbing her sleep like that. You also want a good temperature gradient change throughout your enclosure. Let your cham be able to move from one temp to another on their own. With all the poking and prodding going on, I can see why she's not very happy w/ you right now. Can you blame her? You obviously care an eminence amount about her, so don't take me wrong. I'm not trying to be mean. Just trying to help. I'm only reiterating what many many accomplished and experienced chameleon keeper have said on a regular basis. and Olympia is one of them. If you get someone like that to chime in on your request for help, listening to their advice.

 

[PoshPenny]

I don't keep the moon light on at night, she has no lights or heat sources on at night. My studio is pitch dark. I went in to see if she was open mouth breathing while sleeping( I read to do this on here)

I have a 18x18x36 reptibreeze and a 6 month old Cham so to find her in this would be hard without it. She wasn't in her usual spot.The moonlight gives off the same amount of light the moon does, it is dim to say the least, but does give some heat off and is mounted above her cage for any instance I would need access to her and not wanting to shine a light in her cage or turn on lights ect. She had not gone to bed which I found odd, came right up to the light and opened her mouth, so of course this worries me. I don't disturb her sleep ever, except tonight. But she wasn't asleep I opened her mouth an hour earlier to look for mucus.

I'm not offended by your reply, I'm grateful for everyone's advise. I answered olimpias question about my cage temps. I follow her blog. I think her and Jann are my two go to sources blog wise. But as far as Frita is concerned I'll remove the UVA, raise the megaray another half inch, and see if this helps , if not, I'll take her to the vet Monday. I am no vet but I am 4th year nursing student and a giant nerd who follows directions well. Trust me when I say I listen to what the experts on here say and do it. Without you guys my Cham would be dead.

 

[carol5208]

What is a megaray??

 

[Olimpia]

Carol, a Megaray is a bulb by ReptileUV that is both heat and UVB, they're very good if used properly.

OP, thanks for the kind words about my blog! What are the ambient temps in the cage? I don't know if you mentioned them. Having the megaray and an additional basking bulb might be unnecessary if the megaray keeps the basking spot in the 80's alone. Try removing it, like you mentioned, and see what happens.

 

[PoshPenny]

Just took her temps wanted to give her a second to relax today. I raised her cage a few inches because I know she is stressed from me touching her mouth last night and I'm giving her 100% space. I'm misting in her favorite green t shirt and then getting out of there. I'm out of raspberries so I'm off to get some of those and some wax worms for Xmas.

The ambient around in her cage is 78. The room stays at 72. That was with the UVA bulb, without it now, the ambient around her in the cage is is 74, the new basking temp is 81, the vine below that is 76-77, I included a pic of this vine, below that is 68. The bottom of the cage is 64-65ish. Humidity at the bottom is 60, at the top it stays at 30% between mists

and at 50-70% during mist times. She is misted 1x an hour for 6mins, with a fine mister with hot water that comes out warm. I test it on my arm. I redid my dripper with smaller holes and I'm dropping her misting to every other hour to reduce my presence to give her some space. I called the vet and they will see her if all these efforts don't resolve the open mouth breathing or she gets worse. I've included pics of her enclosure. She is my studio, in the study half where my clients don't go or where she can see the firing of the strobe lights. It has a private entrance so no one walks past her.

She has stopped as of this morning.

 

[melble68]

You go girl. Posh, it looks like your cham is being well taken care of. You keep up that care and dedication, and she's gonna do just fine. Nice job. The adjustment in the temps seems great for her. She appears to not ever of missed a meal.

 

[PoshPenny]

Lol yeh she is thick...er..

 

[PoshPenny]

Wait is she too thick?!?

Omg looking at these pics I just realized Frita is fat. Maybe it's the angle, I'm not joking lol. She just had a vet check up, they said she was healthy. 58 grams. Is that fat?

(Never mind I found a post about weights and according to Jann cammile weighed 116 grams at 7months, and Frita was 58 on the dot, so perhaps she is ok. )

I also switched to a reptizoom 10.0 today and a reptiglo 40 watt bulb. And replaced my digital thermometer with a better one to get better readings. I just want her to be healthy.

 

[PoshPenny]

New lights.

I'll keep the megaray as a back up.

 

[melble68]

I think you are just fine while she's a youngin. Once fully grown, you should keep an eye on how much she eats, how often, and her temps. To much food, to warm, will increase her chances of producing eggs.