I think my veiled has a URI

[KevinRensing]

Hey I just got this chameleon about a week ago. To my knowledge he is only about 2 months old. about 3 or so days ago he started acting weird. Making kind of popping or squeaking noises, under his basking light he lifts his head up facing the ceiling, closes one eye or both for seemingly no reason for long periods of time, kind of huffs or wheezes every once in a while and has been hanging out under his basking light with his mouth open. Since I am very new to owning a chameleon, I did not know if this was a bad thing or if it was normal or not so I left it but just kept an eye on it just to make sure. He appears to be doing it way more often now and i'm calling the vet to set up an appointment in the morning. Just wondering if any of you know what it might be as ive been doing my research and it appears to be a uri or lri. Anything I can do for him for now until I can get him into the vet?



Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Veiled male, been in my care about a week.
• Handling - Not too often
• Feeding - Small crickets, he eats about 6-8 a day. I dust them with calcium and mixed calcium and vitamins one day so far.
• Supplements - Calcium with D3 and vitamins
• Watering - Misting twice a day until cage is wet also a dripper
• Fecal Description - Brown and white. From my research it seems normal

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Glass sides, screen top (I know its not good, im working on finding a full screen setup) 18x18x24
• Lighting - uva/uvb bulb and 100w basking bulb
• Temperature - about 29 celcius under his basking light, 20 celcius at bottom of cage, timer turns off lights for 12 hours in the night
• Humidity - lowest is about 50 and goes up to about 75 ish when I mist the cage but I make sure to leave the doors open to keep air flow after a misting
• Plants - A live hibiscus plant in the middle, branch from arbutus tree with leaves still on and some fake foliage
• Placement - On my desk in a quiet room, cage is about 3 feet off floor
• Location - Westcoast British Columbia

 

[bobbydigital]

Seems like symptoms of a respiratory infection. From my personal experiences bumping up the temp has helped when my little guy showed symptoms. Not saying that's a cure but it's helped for my chams and bearded dragons. Get it to the vet asap to nip this problem in the bud.

Also for your supplements get calcium without d3. Your supplement schedule should be calcium without d3 every feeding, calcium w/d3 twice a month, multivitamin twice a month.