Layla hasn't been keeping her eyes open

[Mr Wilson]

We just took some pictures of her out of her cage so you guys can see how she looks. She has been randomly closing her eyes throughout the day. We decided to show her to our males just to see how she would react, I'm not really sure what she would look like when receptive, but she is about 10 months old so I suppose it's possible. However, I would imagine when they are receptive they don't close their eyes at all. She also doesn't seem to have any eggs or act like she is wanting to dig. Right now she has her open and seems fine.

Hope the pictures help out a little bit. To us she looks completely healthy. I'll fill out one of those forms in a little bit if you want.

 

[morpheon]

To me, she physically looks Ok. Were the pictures taken recently??

However, having her eyes closed during the day is NOT a good sign. Therefore, i strongly suggest that you fill this form: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ . Write as much detail as you can!! The more the better! I would like to know a lot more about when and for how long she closes her eyes, and what do you feed her, along with the gutload and supplements. Lastly, some infos on your lights is very important.

 

[Mr Wilson]

I figured you guys would want that And yes, the pictures were all taken today at around 3:00 this afternoon.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Female Ambilobe, she is about 10 months old we have had her in our care for a little over 3 months.
Handling - She is only handled during cage cleanings when we feel she needs to come out to clean and sometimes to put her in the window plant during the warmer weather, I'd say maybe 1-3 times a month the most.
Feeding - She is fed a variety of gut loaded crickets, zebra silkworms, hornworms and superworms. The worms are not all the time, just when we have them around to vary her and the other chameleons' diets. She is fed twice daily around 10 am (lights on at 8:30) and no later than 6:30 pm (lights out at 8:30) They are gutloaded with carrots and are fed the Flukers Cricket dust and the yellow quencher.
Supplements - Calcium: Rep-Cal, Monday and Friday. Herptivite and Flukers Calcium w/D3 alternate Wednesdays. There is no supplementation on Tues, Thurs, or weekends.
Watering - We have a MistKing system. They are misted every other hour alternating 1 and 2 minute intervals (2 mins at 9, 1 min at 11, 2 mins at 1 etc.) until the last misting at 7:00 at night before lights out at 8:30 pm.
Fecal Description - Her recent droppings seem to be normal - white urate, poops are normal, not too soggy (unless the mist goes on before we can spot clean) or too dry. Though we did find undigested crickets in her cage that had NO urate attached, which causes us to think she threw them up. She has not been tested for parasites yet.
History - We have 3 other male chameleons who are all kept the same exact way and follow the same schedule with eating and misting who are all healthy and are not showing any issues what so ever.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen, 18x18x36
Lighting - NatureSun 2.0 for plants, ReptiSun 5.0. Both have been in the cage for about 6 months so they may need to be changed but we're not totally sure. Any tips would be helpful.
Temperature - The basking area runs between 80 and 85 degrees F, the rest of the cage is about 75 degrees F. We have a dual thermometer/hydrometer
Humidity - Currently it is at 72%, it's usually lower but for some reason New Jersey decided to be disgustingly humid this week. Let's hear it for Fall!
Plants - Large Umbrella Plant (schefflera) which is live along with a fake vine.
Placement - The cage is in our living room where only us and our dog are in, but it is on the opposite of where we hang out, so the area is not terribly high traffic. She is not under/next to any air vents at all.
Location - Central NJ

Current Problem - Layla has been closing her eyes during the day, yet seems to look healthy. Her poops have been normal other than us finding undigested crickets recently, which did not have a urate attached to them, so we assume they are probably vomit. We have not seen a vet yet because we are trying to find a better one than the one we used with our first chameleon, Rosalita, who died after his care.

 

[fusionf5]

My same problem was from the lights. If you have a coil light try taking it away. The next day mine was normal

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Something might be stressing her out. Do you have extra / or loose insects inside her enclosure? Is she kept in darkness at night. Sometimes not getting enough sleep at night, due to a stray light source can cause daytime napping.

 

[carol5208]

I would not be feeding your chameleon at 6:30 at night. They need time duriing the day to digest their food while basking. I feed mine in the morning and maybe a little treat no later than about 3:00 p.m. Maybe that is why you saw the undigested crickets.

 

[Mr Wilson]

We have always heard from everyone on the forum that they need about 2 hours in order to digest, so 6:30, always being the absolute latest we feed all of them, is more than enough time. Our other males, 2 who we have had now for roughly 8 months, have been on this same schedule and have never had issues. It could be possible, but the other 3 chameleons would most likely be having issues as well.

Our lights are not coiled, they are linear, sorry I forgot to mention that one little detail. Could it be that her 5.0 is just ready to be switched out? We think we had read on here at one point that they should be changed every 6 months, any ideas on that?

If you look at the pictures, she doesn't seem stressed out, at least she doesn't look it. Even when she is in the cage she doesn't seem stressed. There are never loose bugs/worms in her cage. She has a great appetite and has no issues hunting them down and eating them. As for light, the only light source we have are night lights but they are not that bright. Maybe tonight we'll try to unplug one that is somewhat near the cage.

 

[sandrachameleon]

She's pretty

For me, the gutloading isnt adequate. Sometimes eye issues are related to vitamin deficiency, including vitamin A, possibly B vits. since you are primarily using crickets, you should be lightly calcium dusting those every time, not just twice a week.

You may like to check out the links regarding vitamin A from this blog entry:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html

You may like to read about gutloading in this blog entry:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

 

[carol5208]

We have always heard from everyone on the forum that they need about 2 hours in order to digest, so 6:30, always being the absolute latest we feed all of them, is more than enough time. Our other males, 2 who we have had now for roughly 8 months, have been on this same schedule and have never had issues. It could be possible, but the other 3 chameleons would most likely be having issues as well.

Our lights are not coiled, they are linear, sorry I forgot to mention that one little detail. Could it be that her 5.0 is just ready to be switched out? We think we had read on here at one point that they should be changed every 6 months, any ideas on that?

If you look at the pictures, she doesn't seem stressed out, at least she doesn't look it. Even when she is in the cage she doesn't seem stressed. There are never loose bugs/worms in her cage. She has a great appetite and has no issues hunting them down and eating them. As for light, the only light source we have are night lights but they are not that bright. Maybe tonight we'll try to unplug one that is somewhat near the cage.

Just trying to get to the bottom of this. I just never feed my chameleon that late an night. But if you have never had any problems then I guess it works for you!

 

[Mr Wilson]

Carol I appreciate your feedback But I'm just saying we had read that as long as it's within 2 hours of "lights out" it's OK. If that is not correct though I would really like to know so we can change their eating times.

We actually got our dusting schedule right off of the chameleon kingdom website so if that isn't enough, then maybe they should be made aware that their schedule isn't adequate enough to follow? We'll try adding more calcium for her on Mon, Tues, Fri and maybe one of the weekend days. They do get dusted twice a day on the original schedule. Could the fact that the lights are 6 months old be causing these possible eye issues too?

Sandra - we were also gutloading with Kale and Collard Greens but we need to go out and get some more so we've just been using the carrots we have.