Is this an infection?

AloeVeraCham

New Member
I bought Aloe yesterday at a PetSmart after a lot of research. Though on the ride home I scoped out a possible infection on her foot. It is a pale color and it’s making her foot swollen.
I wanted to make sure this was an infection first. She may have fallen or something at the petstore in her enclosure and injured her foot. As I saw this I also noticed there was a circular pale dot that slightly sticks out that looks like this on her foot. So I was wondering if this was an infection or a fungus? Or possibly both. Or something else. We are planing to take her to the vet as well. (Picture below of her back foot which is the one laying against my arm and mysterious dot. I do not want to take her out her cage because she’s already stressed out from yesterday.)


E7E76D0D-3066-428B-AFA8-D4DA2D359D01.jpeg
 
I bought Aloe yesterday at a PetSmart after a lot of research. Though on the ride home I scoped out a possible infection on her foot. It is a pale color and it’s making her foot swollen.
I wanted to make sure this was an infection first. She may have fallen or something at the petstore in her enclosure and injured her foot. As I saw this I also noticed there was a circular pale dot that slightly sticks out that looks like this on her foot. So I was wondering if this was an infection or a fungus? Or possibly both. Or something else. We are planing to take her to the vet as well. (Picture below of her back foot which is the one laying against my arm and mysterious dot. I do not want to take her out her cage because she’s already stressed out from yesterday.)


View attachment 237194

Chameleon Info:
  • My Chameleon - Female veiled Chameleon, about 3 months old, I got her yesterday
  • Handling - I haven’t handled her since yesterday because I do not want to further stress her out.
  • Feeding - I feed her two crickets, salad, and one superworm a day. I feed the crickets oranges and strawberries.
  • Supplements - I use the brand repti calcium giving them calcium once a day, calcium with D-3 once a week. And a multi vitamin once a month.
  • Watering - I spray their cage often and I created a diy dripper for her. I’ve saw her drink water before but she doesn’t look dehydrated.
  • Fecal Description - I just got her so I don’t know what this looks like yet.
  • History - N/A
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Screened cage, 16’’ by 16” by 30”
  • Lighting - Repti med, 60 blue daylight bulb and 5.0 uvb bulb.
  • Temperature - 85-90 degrees F for basking area and 80-70 cooler areas.
  • Humidity - fairly high going up to 80%
  • Plants - I’m using fake plants and a fair amount of them. And fake flowers as well.
  • Placement - it’s enclosure is in my room. My room doesn’t have air conditioning so it’s fairly warm with and without the fan on. The cage is set on a desk that’s about two feet tall and the top of the cage is about 5 feet high.
  • Location - I live in Florida which is the perfect weather for chameleons
    image.jpg
 
Chameleon Info:
  • My Chameleon - Female veiled Chameleon, about 3 months old, I got her yesterday
  • Handling - I haven’t handled her since yesterday because I do not want to further stress her out.
  • Feeding - I feed her two crickets, salad, and one superworm a day. I feed the crickets oranges and strawberries.
She needs way more. No less than 10 feeders until 5-6 months old. When she's ready to lay her first clutch is when you start cutting back. Your gutload is insufficient. See attached "gutloading" caresheet
  • Supplements - I use the brand repti calcium giving them calcium once a day, calcium with D-3 once a week. And a multi vitamin once a month.
Do multivitamin once ever 2 weeks and calcium + D3 once every 2 weeks. See attached caresheet "supplements"
  • Watering - I spray their cage often and I created a diy dripper for her. I’ve saw her drink water before but she doesn’t look dehydrated.
  • Fecal Description - I just got her so I don’t know what this looks like yet.
  • History - N/A
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Screened cage, 16’’ by 16” by 30”
You're going to hate hearing this but that "chameleon kit" you bought needs to be thrown in the trash or returned. At some point she will 1 need a bigger enclosure. At least 18x18x36. Lighting also needs replaced. See below comment.
  • Lighting - Repti med, 60 blue daylight bulb and 5.0 uvb bulb.
The basking bulb should be an incandescent or halogen variety 50w to start and should be raised above the screen to prevent burns. Those coil bulbs are junk and do not deliver enough UVB to your chameleon to prevent MBD. You'll need a 24"T5HO linear UVB hood with a 5.0 or 6% bulb.
  • Temperature - 85-90 degrees F for basking area and 80-70 cooler areas.
Females dont need to be any hotter than 85*.when juveniles I recommend no hotter than 82*
  • Humidity - fairly high going up to 80%
This needs to come down to 30-40% during the day. May need to invest in a dehumidifier. 80-100% is ideal for night time only. This will prevent RI from forming as well.
  • Plants - I’m using fake plants and a fair amount of them. And fake flowers as well.
Ficus, pothos, umbrella. All fairly cheap and all fairly needed for your chameleon to feel comfortable and above all safe.
  • Placement - it’s enclosure is in my room. My room doesn’t have air conditioning so it’s fairly warm with and without the fan on. The cage is set on a desk that’s about two feet tall and the top of the cage is about 5 feet high.
  • Location - I live in Florida which is the perfect weather for chameleons
Not necessarily. I would say Florida is too humid and even too hot sometimes for chameleons. Yes there are wild veileds in Southern Florida but they aren't exactly thriving.
Side notes: upgrade lighting immediately and work on lowering temps and humidity as well.

chameleon-food.jpg
chameleon-gutload.jpg
chameleon-supplements.jpg
chameleon-non-uvb-light.jpg
chameleon-uvb-light.jpg


https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
 
Chameleon Info:
  • My Chameleon - Female veiled Chameleon, about 3 months old, I got her yesterday
  • Handling - I haven’t handled her since yesterday because I do not want to further stress her out.
  • Feeding - I feed her two crickets, salad, and one superworm a day. I feed the crickets oranges and strawberries.
  • Supplements - I use the brand repti calcium giving them calcium once a day, calcium with D-3 once a week. And a multi vitamin once a month.
  • Watering - I spray their cage often and I created a diy dripper for her. I’ve saw her drink water before but she doesn’t look dehydrated.
  • Fecal Description - I just got her so I don’t know what this looks like yet.
  • History - N/A
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Screened cage, 16’’ by 16” by 30”
  • Lighting - Repti med, 60 blue daylight bulb and 5.0 uvb bulb.
  • Temperature - 85-90 degrees F for basking area and 80-70 cooler areas.
  • Humidity - fairly high going up to 80%
  • Plants - I’m using fake plants and a fair amount of them. And fake flowers as well.
  • Placement - it’s enclosure is in my room. My room doesn’t have air conditioning so it’s fairly warm with and without the fan on. The cage is set on a desk that’s about two feet tall and the top of the cage is about 5 feet high.
  • Location - I live in Florida which is the perfect weather for chameleonsView attachment 237197
Hi hun. Welcome to the forum. I am going to give you quite a bit of feedback on your sheet and set up. There is quite a bit you will need to correct for her. See all my feedback in red bold.

  • My Chameleon - Female veiled Chameleon, about 3 months old, I got her yesterday
  • Handling - I haven’t handled her since yesterday because I do not want to further stress her out.
  • Feeding - I feed her two crickets, salad, and one superworm a day. I feed the crickets oranges and strawberries. Ok at 3 months old she is going to be eating quite a bit more then a few crickets to be healthy. You are looking at needing to feed her 10-15 every day at this age. What you are feeding your crickets is called gutload. This has to be massively improved. We are gutloading to pass the nutrients on to the cham. I will include an image below. If you go the fresh veg route they need it everyday and it needs to be an assortment of mostly leafy greens which you will rotate with new types each week.
  • Supplements - I use the brand repti calcium giving them calcium once a day, calcium with D-3 once a week. And a multi vitamin once a month. So you need to give calcium without D3 at every feeding. Calcium with D3 2 times a month and a multivitamin 2 times a month. These two can be rotated each week. You are lightly dusting the feeders no powdered donuts.
  • Watering - I spray their cage often and I created a diy dripper for her. I’ve saw her drink water before but she doesn’t look dehydrated. Make sure you are spraying for 2 minutes to trigger her to drink. Urates which is the white portion of her poop is what you are looking at along with her eye turrets. Do not spray her directly and use room temp water.
  • Fecal Description - I just got her so I don’t know what this looks like yet. Please take her to the vet to be checked out and take in a fresh stool sample for them to run a fecal for parasites. Please make sure you go to a vet that actually is a reptile vet.
  • History - N/A
Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - Screened cage, 16’’ by 16” by 30” You will eventually need to upgrade her cage size to accomodate a permanent lay bin. They lay eggs like chickens without being mated.
  • Lighting - Repti med, 60 blue daylight bulb and 5.0 uvb bulb. UVB lighting needs to be upgraded. The compact bulb in the double dome is not recommended for Chams. You will need a T5 HO fixture with a 5.0 or 6% arcadia bulb for a single bulb fixture. If you get a quad then you need a 10.0 or 12% arcadia bulb. this fixture is placed directly on the cage top and basking is placed 7-8 inches below to ensure the correct UVB levels. This fixture should run the length of the cage. So if you will be upgrading the cage to a 2x2x4 then you need to buy the 24 inch fixture now to save money in the end. This is very important for her to have this to avoid the risk of her developing MBD>
  • Temperature - 85-90 degrees F for basking area and 80-70 cooler areas. 90 degrees is too hot for her at basking level. She should be no hotter then 85. Get yourself a heat gun. They are about 15 bucks on amazon. If the branch is measuring 82-83 degrees then she will be getting about 85 degrees where her body rises into the heat.
  • Humidity - fairly high going up to 80% Too high. So you want this between 30-50% max during the day. It can be 100% at night when all her lights are off and the cage is cooler. I am going to link a podcast on hydration this will help your whole picture...
  • Plants - I’m using fake plants and a fair amount of them. And fake flowers as well. Remove the fake flowers. Veileds will try to eat anything. if she gets off a piece it can kill her. You need real plants. Get a dwarf umbrella tree to go into the cage. cover the soil with 1 inch or larger river rock to keep her from eating it. with respect there is not much cover in there for her. She needs to be able to hide to feel secure.
  • Placement - it’s enclosure is in my room. My room doesn’t have air conditioning so it’s fairly warm with and without the fan on. The cage is set on a desk that’s about two feet tall and the top of the cage is about 5 feet high.
  • Location - I live in Florida which is the perfect weather for chameleons

Ok as for the cage... remove the green stuff in the bottom it is a breeding ground for bacteria. You can wrap the back and the side of the cage to keep the mist from spraying out the cage as well. Shower curtain works for this. You need many many more horizontal branches. use tiny zip ties to secure them. You can build a bamboo frame as well to go into the cage to support them instead of attaching to the screen. You will need a drip pan for run off. This can be done with just about anything that is larger then your cage length and width. use the forum search function to find specific things you may be wanting to learn more about.

https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/

chameleon-food(1).jpg
chameleon-gutload.jpg
 
Hi hun. Welcome to the forum. I am going to give you quite a bit of feedback on your sheet and set up. There is quite a bit you will need to correct for her. See all my feedback in red bold.

  • My Chameleon - Female veiled Chameleon, about 3 months old, I got her yesterday
  • Handling - I haven’t handled her since yesterday because I do not want to further stress her out.
  • Feeding - I feed her two crickets, salad, and one superworm a day. I feed the crickets oranges and strawberries. Ok at 3 months old she is going to be eating quite a bit more then a few crickets to be healthy. You are looking at needing to feed her 10-15 every day at this age. What you are feeding your crickets is called gutload. This has to be massively improved. We are gutloading to pass the nutrients on to the cham. I will include an image below. If you go the fresh veg route they need it everyday and it needs to be an assortment of mostly leafy greens which you will rotate with new types each week.
  • Supplements - I use the brand repti calcium giving them calcium once a day, calcium with D-3 once a week. And a multi vitamin once a month. So you need to give calcium without D3 at every feeding. Calcium with D3 2 times a month and a multivitamin 2 times a month. These two can be rotated each week. You are lightly dusting the feeders no powdered donuts.
  • Watering - I spray their cage often and I created a diy dripper for her. I’ve saw her drink water before but she doesn’t look dehydrated. Make sure you are spraying for 2 minutes to trigger her to drink. Urates which is the white portion of her poop is what you are looking at along with her eye turrets. Do not spray her directly and use room temp water.
  • Fecal Description - I just got her so I don’t know what this looks like yet. Please take her to the vet to be checked out and take in a fresh stool sample for them to run a fecal for parasites. Please make sure you go to a vet that actually is a reptile vet.
  • History - N/A
Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - Screened cage, 16’’ by 16” by 30” You will eventually need to upgrade her cage size to accomodate a permanent lay bin. They lay eggs like chickens without being mated.
  • Lighting - Repti med, 60 blue daylight bulb and 5.0 uvb bulb. UVB lighting needs to be upgraded. The compact bulb in the double dome is not recommended for Chams. You will need a T5 HO fixture with a 5.0 or 6% arcadia bulb for a single bulb fixture. If you get a quad then you need a 10.0 or 12% arcadia bulb. this fixture is placed directly on the cage top and basking is placed 7-8 inches below to ensure the correct UVB levels. This fixture should run the length of the cage. So if you will be upgrading the cage to a 2x2x4 then you need to buy the 24 inch fixture now to save money in the end. This is very important for her to have this to avoid the risk of her developing MBD>
  • Temperature - 85-90 degrees F for basking area and 80-70 cooler areas. 90 degrees is too hot for her at basking level. She should be no hotter then 85. Get yourself a heat gun. They are about 15 bucks on amazon. If the branch is measuring 82-83 degrees then she will be getting about 85 degrees where her body rises into the heat.
  • Humidity - fairly high going up to 80% Too high. So you want this between 30-50% max during the day. It can be 100% at night when all her lights are off and the cage is cooler. I am going to link a podcast on hydration this will help your whole picture...
  • Plants - I’m using fake plants and a fair amount of them. And fake flowers as well. Remove the fake flowers. Veileds will try to eat anything. if she gets off a piece it can kill her. You need real plants. Get a dwarf umbrella tree to go into the cage. cover the soil with 1 inch or larger river rock to keep her from eating it. with respect there is not much cover in there for her. She needs to be able to hide to feel secure.
  • Placement - it’s enclosure is in my room. My room doesn’t have air conditioning so it’s fairly warm with and without the fan on. The cage is set on a desk that’s about two feet tall and the top of the cage is about 5 feet high.
  • Location - I live in Florida which is the perfect weather for chameleons

Ok as for the cage... remove the green stuff in the bottom it is a breeding ground for bacteria. You can wrap the back and the side of the cage to keep the mist from spraying out the cage as well. Shower curtain works for this. You need many many more horizontal branches. use tiny zip ties to secure them. You can build a bamboo frame as well to go into the cage to support them instead of attaching to the screen. You will need a drip pan for run off. This can be done with just about anything that is larger then your cage length and width. use the forum search function to find specific things you may be wanting to learn more about.

https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/

View attachment 237207View attachment 237208
2030bbf0e84a68814e4cd40f52a2de6b.jpg
 
Hi hun. Welcome to the forum. I am going to give you quite a bit of feedback on your sheet and set up. There is quite a bit you will need to correct for her. See all my feedback in red bold.

  • My Chameleon - Female veiled Chameleon, about 3 months old, I got her yesterday
  • Handling - I haven’t handled her since yesterday because I do not want to further stress her out.
  • Feeding - I feed her two crickets, salad, and one superworm a day. I feed the crickets oranges and strawberries. Ok at 3 months old she is going to be eating quite a bit more then a few crickets to be healthy. You are looking at needing to feed her 10-15 every day at this age. What you are feeding your crickets is called gutload. This has to be massively improved. We are gutloading to pass the nutrients on to the cham. I will include an image below. If you go the fresh veg route they need it everyday and it needs to be an assortment of mostly leafy greens which you will rotate with new types each week.
  • Supplements - I use the brand repti calcium giving them calcium once a day, calcium with D-3 once a week. And a multi vitamin once a month. So you need to give calcium without D3 at every feeding. Calcium with D3 2 times a month and a multivitamin 2 times a month. These two can be rotated each week. You are lightly dusting the feeders no powdered donuts.
  • Watering - I spray their cage often and I created a diy dripper for her. I’ve saw her drink water before but she doesn’t look dehydrated. Make sure you are spraying for 2 minutes to trigger her to drink. Urates which is the white portion of her poop is what you are looking at along with her eye turrets. Do not spray her directly and use room temp water.
  • Fecal Description - I just got her so I don’t know what this looks like yet. Please take her to the vet to be checked out and take in a fresh stool sample for them to run a fecal for parasites. Please make sure you go to a vet that actually is a reptile vet.
  • History - N/A
Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - Screened cage, 16’’ by 16” by 30” You will eventually need to upgrade her cage size to accomodate a permanent lay bin. They lay eggs like chickens without being mated.
  • Lighting - Repti med, 60 blue daylight bulb and 5.0 uvb bulb. UVB lighting needs to be upgraded. The compact bulb in the double dome is not recommended for Chams. You will need a T5 HO fixture with a 5.0 or 6% arcadia bulb for a single bulb fixture. If you get a quad then you need a 10.0 or 12% arcadia bulb. this fixture is placed directly on the cage top and basking is placed 7-8 inches below to ensure the correct UVB levels. This fixture should run the length of the cage. So if you will be upgrading the cage to a 2x2x4 then you need to buy the 24 inch fixture now to save money in the end. This is very important for her to have this to avoid the risk of her developing MBD>
  • Temperature - 85-90 degrees F for basking area and 80-70 cooler areas. 90 degrees is too hot for her at basking level. She should be no hotter then 85. Get yourself a heat gun. They are about 15 bucks on amazon. If the branch is measuring 82-83 degrees then she will be getting about 85 degrees where her body rises into the heat.
  • Humidity - fairly high going up to 80% Too high. So you want this between 30-50% max during the day. It can be 100% at night when all her lights are off and the cage is cooler. I am going to link a podcast on hydration this will help your whole picture...
  • Plants - I’m using fake plants and a fair amount of them. And fake flowers as well. Remove the fake flowers. Veileds will try to eat anything. if she gets off a piece it can kill her. You need real plants. Get a dwarf umbrella tree to go into the cage. cover the soil with 1 inch or larger river rock to keep her from eating it. with respect there is not much cover in there for her. She needs to be able to hide to feel secure.
  • Placement - it’s enclosure is in my room. My room doesn’t have air conditioning so it’s fairly warm with and without the fan on. The cage is set on a desk that’s about two feet tall and the top of the cage is about 5 feet high.
  • Location - I live in Florida which is the perfect weather for chameleons

Ok as for the cage... remove the green stuff in the bottom it is a breeding ground for bacteria. You can wrap the back and the side of the cage to keep the mist from spraying out the cage as well. Shower curtain works for this. You need many many more horizontal branches. use tiny zip ties to secure them. You can build a bamboo frame as well to go into the cage to support them instead of attaching to the screen. You will need a drip pan for run off. This can be done with just about anything that is larger then your cage length and width. use the forum search function to find specific things you may be wanting to learn more about.

https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/

View attachment 237207View attachment 237208
I appreciate this, for the feeding I have done a lot of research and too feed them as much as they want. Though I’ve listen to a podcast by chameleon breeders that people make the mistake of feeding it too much. 15 crickets is a a lot. But if this is correct I will do that. And also there is plenty of spots she can hide in she slept lower down into her plants last night and I made sure to put enough greens. The fake plants aren’t much of a problem because she doesn’t try to eat them and it’s impossible for her to bite it off. I’m also still working on setting up her cage I’m trying different positions for the branches. And yes I’m working on getting a bigger cage.

I’m going to be cleaning the carpet of the floor as often as I can so bacteria won’t grow.

I placed two Slices of orange and strawberry I don’t under how this isn’t enough if you can go into detail with that.

For the rest I will fix as a responsible chameleon owner.
 
I know for sure it’s a female there isn’t a spur nor does she have a bump under her tail. I can’t get a good picture because I don’t want to take her out her enclosure she throws a hissy fit. I’ll try to get the best one I can right now.
 

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I appreciate this, for the feeding I have done a lot of research and too feed them as much as they want. Though I’ve listen to a podcast by chameleon breeders that people make the mistake of feeding it too much. 15 crickets is a a lot. But if this is correct I will do that. And also there is plenty of spots she can hide in she slept lower down into her plants last night and I made sure to put enough greens. The fake plants aren’t much of a problem because she doesn’t try to eat them and it’s impossible for her to bite it off. I’m also still working on setting up her cage I’m trying different positions for the branches. And yes I’m working on getting a bigger cage.

I’m going to be cleaning the carpet of the floor as often as I can so bacteria won’t grow.

I placed two Slices of orange and strawberry I don’t under how this isn’t enough if you can go into detail with that.

For the rest I will fix as a responsible chameleon owner.
If you are only feeding 3 feeders she will not grow properly. While yes not feeding 30 feeders a day is important you will find most Veileds will easily take down a dozen feeders when they are growing. Mine would take down 15-18 crickets. While I never aloud more then that because he would have done it when they are young they have to eat.

I know you think the cage is good and there is plenty of cover. It really is not. They have been known to eat the fake flowers. You would be surprised at how much force a young cham has when it comes to going after something they want. They will try to chew on the fake plastic plants as well. This can be damaging to their mouths. Causing infection leading to mouth rot if they cut their mouth on a fake plant. You have only had her 1 day. Trust me she will go after the plants.

Bacteria will still grow in the carpet if you clean it or not. It is just asking for issues moving forward if you choose to keep it.

Again I am giving you my feedback as someone who has chams. What you think may be fine and the research that you have done well respectfully this is not entirely the right way of approaching chameleon keeping. However this is your choice we just point out the things that can or will cause issues for your cham.
 
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