Juvenile Veiled chameleon eye closed

AleksR

New Member
Hello. Recently I purchased a female veiled chameleon. She was fine when I got her but yesterday I noticed her left eye was closed for a while, and now today she had it closed for a longer period. She can still open it but just seems to be an issue with it. I tried showering her and I noticed she tried to rub her eye and was bulging it. Not sure if there’s skin or something in there. I’ve only had her for five days, so I’ve only been feeding her crickets that are lightly dusted with calcium. Her appetite is fine and eats well. She’s enclosed in a 18”18”38” mesh cage as I will upgrade in the near future. She gets misted 2-3 times a day as well. I’ve also noticed she likes so sit directly under the uvb bulb ( Reptisun T8 with and 18” uvb bulb by thrive). I am also planning on upgrading the lighting as I realized it’s not giving enough light and I’m not too sure if that may be an issue with her eye. Her basking temp is 85-87 and her ambience temp is roughly around 73-78. Feel free to ask for more information. Thank you in advanced.
 

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Hi there welcome to the forum. Her basking is way too hot for her. your looking for a basking temp of 78-80 at the very max end. You want to raise that fixture up so the temp is much lower. The way she is holding it almost looks as though she has something stuck in it. Have you seen her rubbing on that black exo terra jungle vine? These actually are not good for chams because pieces of the coating can come off into their eyes.

You do want to upgrade your UVB to a t5ho fixture and a 5.0 or 6% bulb strength. Then basking would be 9 inches below. So you may need to live the new fixture up off the top of the cage to accommodate the distance needed to basking.

What calcium are you using? With D3 or without D3?
 
Thank you for the reply. For the first couple days I was giving her calcium with d3 because that’s what the lady at the pet store said. After doing research and realizing I shouldn’t, now I have been just been using calcium. I will rearrange the enclosure and lift the light and reduce the heat. Is there any way I could help with the eye?
 
Thank you for the reply. For the first couple days I was giving her calcium with d3 because that’s what the lady at the pet store said. After doing research and realizing I shouldn’t, now I have been just been using calcium. I will rearrange the enclosure and lift the light and reduce the heat. Is there any way I could help with the eye?
Is she trying to clean it on her own? You would know it looks like an alien is trying to bubble out lol and they pop it out and rotate it. What is her response when you mist her? Does she move out of the water or stay in it?

Per her supplements you know now calcium without D3 6 days a week then 2 times a month calcium with D3 and 2 times a month you want a multivitamin like reptivite without D3. These two would rotate week to week on the 7th day.
 
When I mist her is when she moves her eye around and tries to get it out. Yes I bought proper supplements like calcium with and without d3 as well as a multivitamin. Should I mist her more often to help her get it out?
 
When I mist her is when she moves her eye around and tries to get it out. Yes I bought proper supplements like calcium with and without d3 as well as a multivitamin. Should I mist her more often to help her get it out?
So I would turn off the basking fixture and let temps drop. Then see if doing a really long misting session of 5 minutes helps her clear it. But make sure cage temps drop and do not turn the fixture back on for about an hour or more so the cage can dry out a bit first.

Let us know if this works. But that fake vine can cause further issues so I would remove it and add real branches or vines that do not have the flaky stuff.

This will be a great resource for you to learn more about her care https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
 
So I would turn off the basking fixture and let temps drop. Then see if doing a really long misting session of 5 minutes helps her clear it. But make sure cage temps drop and do not turn the fixture back on for about an hour or more so the cage can dry out a bit first.

Let us know if this works. But that fake vine can cause further issues so I would remove it and add real branches or vines that do not have the flaky stuff.

This will be a great resource for you to learn more about her care https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
Thank you so much I will do that all right now and update with results.
 
It could be something to be with the light but there are other things that can cause them to close an eye....or both...so if it's not resolved by changing the lighting...please post again.
 
Yes exactly what @kinyonga said. If there is no change after her cleaning it with the long misting please let us know.
So I took her out of the cage. She wasn’t happy at all about that nor was she not happy about things being moved. I got rid of all those vines and now just used bamboo and another yucca plant to fill some space for the mean time. I misted her for a while and she was cleaning her eye but she still seems to have something caught in it. She’s now really still with both eyes closed. Sorry for the awful photos.
 

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Are you using power compact uvb? Those can put out a uv “ spike”. A high point of uv that can be dangerous. Try turning it off, just for a bit and see what she does.
 
Are you using power compact uvb? Those can put out a uv “ spike”. A high point of uv that can be dangerous. Try turning it off, just for a bit and see what she does.
I’m not exactly sure what a power compact UV is. I’m just using the reptisun T8 light bar with the 18” uvb bulb by thrive. Sorry for the poor information.
 
Both eyes are open when I make noise or slightly scratch on the mesh but it seems like she rather have it closed than open. If that makes any sense. But when she does open her left eye, it’s doesn’t seem swollen or like their is any discharge.
 

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