Gout

[ridgebax1]

After reading ferret's post about her cham with gout, I have seen Omar sort of do the same thing but he rests his butt on his temeperature gauge. This is the only place I have seen him do this and thought it was his way of getting closer to the heat. I see the temp reads only 75 but the lights had only been on a short time. It is usually 80-85. Any opinions?

 

[Oliviabryant]

Are you using a red light as a heat lamp?
Try a digital gauge with a probe. You can buy them for about 15-20$ and they actually work. Also will you fill this out

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

 

[carol5208]

That is kinda odd. Does he hang his leg like that and not grip the branch? Maybe it is just the pic but his left foot and ankle looks kind of puffy?

 

[ridgebax1]

when he sits like that both back legs are up in the air. But like I said he does not hang his legs off of any other branches. I think the puffy look might be the focus cause I used my cell phone camera. Lately he has not been the most cooperative photo taker! I will try to get a better picture of his back legs when I get home in the morning. I "torture" him every day by watching him and seeing how he looks moving around in his enclosure. When he has been sitting on the temp gauge like that sometimes he will gape after awhile and will eventually move elsewhere. He will also hang on the vine that you may be able to see to the right of the picture. I just figured he really likes the heat. The light is a red heat lamp type bulb. I had switched to a regular incandescent light but it was not bringing the temperature up high enough so I switched back. I figured I would just use this until I needed to replace it.

 

[ridgebax1]

Here are better pics of his back leg. I don't know why but sometimes my pictures from my cell phone are upside down on my computer! I am not hanging him upside down in the pics.

 

[carol5208]

In the new pics his leg looks fine. I would use a higher wattage white housebulb to achieve the basking temp you want. They go as high as 150 watts I think so you should be able to get enough heat. I would not use the red. I am not even sure why they sell those. The sun is not red and it just seems so unnatural to me with a red light, plus it does not brighten up the enclosure at all. How far down is your branch under the light?

 

[camimom]

His legs look find to me.

Veileds have naturally thick back legs, but I wouldn't say they are unnaturally thick or puffy.

Maybe he just likes to rest his butt there.

 

[ridgebax1]

The basking branch is about 6 inches away from the bulb. I will pick up a 75 and 100 when I go to the store today! He does seem to love the heat. He will sit there and even when he is too hot, he gapes rather than moves!