Is his casque ok?

[WelshOneEmma]

We have noticed that Hugo, our veiled chameleon, hangs out under the UV light and gets as close as possible. I have noticed some 'greying' areas on his casque, and wanted to see if people thought it was normal or if he is damaging his casque with longterm UV exposure. We are in the process of making a new enclosure for him, which will have the UV light a little higher (it's a linear Reptisun 5.0 before anyone asks ). There are no signs of ill health, he is drinking (i assume, as he poops daily and has very white urates), he eats about 8-10 medium locusts or crickets a day and is back to hand feeding the occasional waxworm. I am just a worry wart and wanted to get him checked out. He is about 5 months old, we have had him for 3.

PS. The last one is him getting annoyed at me and starting to bare his teeth! He wasn't over heating!

 

[jannb]

I think it's ok. Looks like he might shed soon to me. Jann

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Cool. Does he look relatively healthy? I want to do everything right with this one! He has now calmed down since his temper tantrum, so we haven't seen those amazing colours again.

 

[Miss Lily]

I don't see anything obviously wrong, Emma. The 'flaps' at the side of the casque do go grey/black looking when they get their adult colours. Lily's got grey scales on hers too. I just took this pic of Lily's casque so you can compare the 'grey' areas.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

I don't see anything obviously wrong, Emma. The 'flaps' at the side of the casque do go grey/black looking when they get their adult colours. Lily's got grey scales on hers too. I just took this pic of Lily's casque so you can compare the 'grey' areas.

Thanks Tiff! You know me, total worry wart! He is worse than Paris Hilton when it comes to sitting underneath that UV light! We tried to move the wires etc to stop him being so close and he freaked out so much he tried to climb on the light, so we quickly put things back the way they were! Stroppy little man!!

 

[Miss Lily]

Ha Ha! Wait til he can top up his tan outside! They bask differently in real sunlight. Looks to me that he's getting his 'big boy' colouring. He's grown so much since your avatar photo! He looks great!

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Ha Ha! Wait til he can top up his tan outside! They bask differently in real sunlight. Looks to me that he's getting his 'big boy' colouring. He's grown so much since your avatar photo! He looks great!

He is getting huge, although the appetite has decreased a bit, and he will only eat large crickets now - turns his nose up at the small ones! I don't think I would dare take him outside to bask. Not only would he bite the crap out of me for handling him (still hates it), he would probably try to make a run for it, resulting in the cats chasing him, he'd end up in next door's garden being chased by their dog! I am having a panic attack thinking about all the possibilities! He will have to make do with the new cage!!

 

[PardalisGirl]

He's fine....

Your boy is fine....He's at the age where his casque will get a gray or white coloration like that. It's part of becoming an adult. The only burning he would get would be from being to close to a basking bulb but that does not appear to be an issue. Or from one of those compact UVB lights that we all say NO too. Those caused burns because they are/were using UVB outside the range normal in nature and outside the range used by the traditional tube type UVB lights. They used a different compound formulation to make the UVB light and cause the differing range. Your boy needs to hang out at the top like that to get the UVB he needs.

 

[leid]

You're fine! Fred has the same thing going on. At first I was worried too, but looking at adult veileds, it appears they all have a gray frame around their casques.