Help!! My cham wont open his eyes

[Paigesss1296]

Your Chameleon - 3 month old male veiled chameleon
Handling - Almost everyday
Feeding - 7-8 small crickets a day
Supplements - calcium powder on all of his crickets
Watering - misting twice a day
Fecal Description - black with a little white
History - I got him from a reptile expo along with a girl chameleon the same age and she is doing perfect.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 10 gallon glass cage (i know that is bad but i am in the process of making him a tall screened cage. I made the girl one and she loves it. they were in the same cage before but because of his eyes im not sure if putting them back together is a good idea)
Lighting - 50 watt basking heat lamp for daytime and 50 watt night time light
Temperature - about 80 during the day and 70 at night
Humidity - about 60%
Plants - no live all fake with a basking rock
Placement -
Location - main floor in the living room of a house

Current Problem - a couple days ago i noticed he wouldnt open his left eye it did not have anything coming out of it and it didnt look swollen it just was closed and today i noticed that his right eye now is doing the same thing he only ate one cricket the last two days because he can not see to eat. Please help! these are the first chameleons ive had. I am very familiar with other reptiles though.

 

[FSchams]

You need a UVB light also it is very important!!!!

 

[melmelion]

OMG!!! the EXACT same thing happened with my Senegal Ralph in January, one day he just closed his eyes and wouldn't open them unless i got him really warm under his basking light, and he was always this really odd brown color, and he just cept getting worse and worse until one night he was sleep-climbing and the next morning he was GONE!!! (dead) later in life we found out it was because he was to stressed to be together with my female, Melon. i would separate them
ASAP!!!!!

 

[jknight]

Your Chameleon - 3 month old male veiled chameleon
Handling - Almost everyday
Feeding - 7-8 small crickets a day
Supplements - calcium powder on all of his crickets
Watering - misting twice a day
Fecal Description - black with a little white
History - I got him from a reptile expo along with a girl chameleon the same age and she is doing perfect.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 10 gallon glass cage (i know that is bad but i am in the process of making him a tall screened cage. I made the girl one and she loves it. they were in the same cage before but because of his eyes im not sure if putting them back together is a good idea)
Lighting - 50 watt basking heat lamp for daytime and 50 watt night time light
Temperature - about 80 during the day and 70 at night
Humidity - about 60%
Plants - no live all fake with a basking rock
Placement -
Location - main floor in the living room of a house

Current Problem - a couple days ago i noticed he wouldnt open his left eye it did not have anything coming out of it and it didnt look swollen it just was closed and today i noticed that his right eye now is doing the same thing he only ate one cricket the last two days because he can not see to eat. Please help! these are the first chameleons ive had. I am very familiar with other reptiles though.

Hi welcome the forums!!

I see a few things I would change with your chameleon husbandry,

1. A UVB is Crucial In cham care. A linear 5.0 reptisun is what I would us.
2. You should not handle him every day; this causes needless stress that can be deadly especially this young
3. A glass cage is not recommended because of poor air circulation
4. A basking rock is unnecessary
5. Night time light is unnecessary

What kind of calcium are you using? How much are you feeding? What are the basking temps?
I would change all those things I listed, a lot of live plants will help with the stress. Give him more places to hide.

 

[Paigesss1296]

Thanks everyone. I brought him to the vet last night and he ended up having a bacterial infection from the place we got him. The vet gave him a couple of shots of antibiotics and eye drops he opened one eye so far he seems to be doing better. And I will keep them separated until I Mate them.

 

[Lovereps]

I'm very glad you got him to a vet.
Obviously you are a very caring cham owner.

Chameleons can easily become sick when their care isn't just about perfect.
I'd guess that most of us were given at least some bad care advice when we first got our chams.
A great thing about this forum is that there are some very knowledgeable people who share what they have learned--as well as plenty of new cham owners.

I've noticed that you are only supplementing with calcium.
Calcium without any D3 or phosphorus is the right one to use on most feedings but...
Chams also need a multivitamin powder 2x each month
and a Calcium with D3 powder should also be used 2x a month

The healthiest diet for your cham is a variety of well-fed feeders, dusted
with the supplements as I mentioned above.
More info on that is here:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/

You can find excellent Veiled care info here:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

 

[Paigesss1296]

He didnt make it Im calling the breeder i got him from. Im very upset, I talked to a guy at a local reptile store and he said the breeder I got him from is very bad and a lot of her chameleons die after being sold. My girl beans is still alive, She is doing good she has no symptoms. I hope she stays alive.

 

[Lovereps]

So sorry to hear he didn't make it.

 

[natureboy86]

Your Chameleon - 3 month old male veiled chameleon
Handling - Almost everyday
Feeding - 7-8 small crickets a day
Supplements - calcium powder on all of his crickets
Watering - misting twice a day
Fecal Description - black with a little white
History - I got him from a reptile expo along with a girl chameleon the same age and she is doing perfect.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 10 gallon glass cage (i know that is bad but i am in the process of making him a tall screened cage. I made the girl one and she loves it. they were in the same cage before but because of his eyes im not sure if putting them back together is a good idea)
Lighting - 50 watt basking heat lamp for daytime and 50 watt night time light
Temperature - about 80 during the day and 70 at night
Humidity - about 60%
Plants - no live all fake with a basking rock
Placement -
Location - main floor in the living room of a house

Current Problem - a couple days ago i noticed he wouldnt open his left eye it did not have anything coming out of it and it didnt look swollen it just was closed and today i noticed that his right eye now is doing the same thing he only ate one cricket the last two days because he can not see to eat. Please help! these are the first chameleons ive had. I am very familiar with other reptiles though.

Very sorry to hear of your loss Nobody should ever have to go through that and you have the right to be pissed off...

That being said, that's awesome that you still have the girl and she made it.. Few precautions and additions you can take for your girl

I know you said you put her in a screen enclosure, which is great. That's a nice adjustment from where you had them before, but---

-Do you have thermometers? you should have one located near the basking spot, and another in the lower half or so of the cage for the ambient temperature.. You also want a gauge for humidity

-You say temperatures are 80 degrees at day and 70 by night.. Is that ambient? If so, what's her basking temp?

-Basking rock you should get rid of, as well as your night light. Chams should have darkness, typically 12 hours on, 12 off for this time of year. It's ok to let temps drop significantly at night, as this is true to the environment they come from

-MISTING---if you don't have a timing mister like a Mistking setup, you should DEFINITELY be misting more frequently than the two times you said you do.. She needs much more water than that... For hydration and humidity purposes. If you don't have time to mist more frequently, you should consider the mistking or perhaps a dripper so she can drink throughout the day

-As others have suggested, get a UVB linear lamp, and ASAP.. This is crucial to your cham's health.. It's basically their artificial sun, and they absorb important vitamins from it.

-Cage location: If you can, move her cage higher than the ground.. perhaps put her enclosure ontop of a shelf or something so she's higher in the room. Being below everything and everyone makes chams feel vulnerable and possibly stressed. Naturally, they live in the canopies of the jungle, so being high is their comfort zone.. The higher the better. I have mine sitting ontop of a nice vanity, which i use as drainage for my misting system as well.

-you should get a live plant or two.. it will help with humidity, and it will aslo give your veiled an option for a snack.. They love veggies and leaves of plants.. Mine chomps on his umbrella tree every now and then.

Just my two cents