Is Shedding a Sign of Health?

[Phatturk]

Hi All,

I have a 10-12 week old male veiled chameleon that I have had for almost 1 month now. He is very tiny and skinny but always a very bright green color. When I got him he was missing the tip of his tail and very lethargic but I misted him 3 times a day and paid very close attention to him for the past month always worrying. He has gotten out of his lethargic mood and is very active but still doesn't eat very well maybe only 2-3 1/4" crickets a day. This morning I noticed that he was starting to shed and this afternoon he is full blown "night of the living dead" with skin hanging every where. Can I see this as a good sign or is it just something that would happen regardless of his health? Any advise would be appreciated.

P.S. Also every time I mist him he closes one of his eyes as if he got water in it and he looks like he is in pain. His eye closes and then starts to kinda rotate around and bulge out a little. Am I doing something wrong? My other Chameleon doesn't seem to have this problem at all.

 

[Tygerr]

The lack of eating and skinniness is probably something you'll have to continue to keep an eye on, but as for the shedding and eye-bulging, these are natural things for the chameleon to do.

Chameleons will go through sheds their entire life (reptiles never actually stop growing), but since their rate of growth slows down as they age, the frequency of shedding will slow down. As long as their sheds go quickly (usually a day or two for a healthy cham to shed fully, although as they get older the sheds can be more difficult, and also they may only partially shed), this is a normal and healthy process for the cham.
Also, it should be noted that chams may eat a little less shortly before and during a shed.

The eye-bulging is normal too. Chams do that to aid in the cleaning of their eyes. I find that my chams tend to do this even more during mistings when the humidity has been a little low.

 

[Phatturk]

Cool! Thanks for the info. I will continue to monitor his eating and size but as far as I can tell his shed will only be today. It is already mostly gone except for a couple of hangers. Do you have any advise on how to get him to eat a bit more? Last night before I noticed he was about to shed I held him for the first time and put him in a small bin with about 25 1/4" crickets in it and he showed absolutely no interest. He just wanted out of there. After he sheds should I continue to try this? I would put the crickets in his cage but I am afraid he won't eat them then they might bite him while he sleeps or something.

 

[kinyonga]

What temperature is the basking area? Ambient temperature?

 

[Phatturk]

Well I have a great monitoring system and the ambient temp is always around 75 durring the day and drops to 65 at night the basking spot is around 90-100.

 

[evertech11]

my friend had a bearded dragon that didnt shed and it turned out that it had internal parasites. shedding means growing