Male veiled with mushy, black spotted casque

[redwidowz]

My male veiled chameleon has recently (within the last 2 days) developed these black spots on the back of his casque and near the bottom sides. I pushed on it and the skin on his casque is kind of mushy. I thought MBD but he has not had any problems relating to MBD; his limbs are fine, his color is great besides the small black spots, his casque is straight, and he eats and drinks like a fat kid with cookies and milk.

Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 3 1/2ft high by 2ft wide by 2 1/2ft long, all mesh with a wooden frame. Biovines all over the place for climbing; he hangs out at the very top.
* Lighting - ReptiSun 5.0 and ReptiNightGlo 40w. Nightglo is on 24hrs a day, reptisun on 12-14hrs a day. Heatlamp was inside the cage but moved outside recently, and UVB remains outside the cage at all times.
* Temperature - Hydrometer ranges temp between 85 at night and 97 during the day
* Humidity - Hydrometer ranges humidity between 35 and 50, and I have a lake right outside the window.
* Plants - Fake plants inside cage; had a live zebra plant and a pothos but cham stayed away from them so they were removed.
* Placement - Corner of bedroom, located between wall and dresser (1/2 foot of airway all around). Have a fan in the room
* Location - California, major city


Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Male veiled chameleon, approximately 6 months old. Owned since 2/3 weeks old
* Handling - Once a day, anywhere from 2 minutes if being placed in feeder cage to 30 minutes of handling
* Feeding - He gets 10-15 small crickets a day, dusted with calcium twice a week. Crickets are gutloaded with Fluker's orange cubes and carrot slices.
* Supplements - Rep-cal phosphorous-free calcium with vitamin D3, and reptolife plus multivitamin. He was getting calcium daily for the first 3 months then multivitamin every week, but it started coming out of his nose so doses got scaled back to dusting twice a week and a multivitamin bi-weekly.
* Watering - Spray 1-2 times daily, dripper after feeding. Cham does drink off leaves, and occasionally goes up to the spout of the dripper and takes water from there.
* Fecal Description - Droppings are good, urinate and feces, good coloring.
* History - Only other problems cham has is during shedding, he frequently gets shed in his eyes, but it clears up after a day or two.
* Current Problem - See above

 

[graydon]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like it could be a burn. You need to change your lighting immediately. Chams need 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. You need a standard 40 or 60 watt house hold bulb for his basking light. As far as uvb goes.. Is your reptisun a coiled compact bulb? or is it a linear bulb? If it is a compact coil, you will need to change it to a linear tube. The coils cause blindness. 97 seems a little hot. What is your ambient temp in the cage?

 

[Jakedn]

That heat is definitely to high for him. It should be 90 at the hottest.

From what you describe of his casque it sounds like a burn, and is likely to be one with that heat. But to be sure, can we see a picture of him? I would also be interested to see a picture of his set up.

I have no idea what the ReptiNightGlo is, but he does not need anything on at night time. I suggest you get rid of that.

 

[summoner12]

Sounds like a burn.. can you post pics?

The heat is a bit too high. chams need to cool off in the night time. You should not need a heat source at night if the temps are above low 60's (inside) and you should not have any light source at night, period. The red heat lamps can be seen by a chameleon and other reptiles. During the day, provide a UVB source, with no cover over the lamp, UVB does not pass through plastic. Be sure to replace the lamp every 6 months. As a heat source during the day a household lamp or spot or flood light works well. Do not give a high wattage lamp for heat if the lamp will be placed close to the cage. A diffused lamp is good, like a flood light.

 

[pssh]

They have taken care of the actual part you asked about, but I have a few questions.

Is the UVB bulb coiled? Or linear? Why do you have feeder bin? Food should be in his cage for him to eat as he pleases. Do you use a calcium without d3? Too much d3 (more than two or three times a month) can cause health problems. Calcium w/o d3 should be LIGHTLY dusted on his crickets almost every feeding. Is the highest your humidity ever is 50%? It's should be around 50% normally then spike up around 70% when misting. What color are his urates? Why did you take out the plants? They help with humidity and they can eat them if they please...

 

[HairyScaryMark]

Why did you take out the plants? They help with humidity and they can eat them if they please...

This.... When I moved to a bigger cage I expected my humidity to decrease but when adding an additional large Ficus Benjamina my humidity now sits at around 50-55% during 'dry' periods. Previously in my smaller cage with a few plants it would go down to 40-45%

 

[Trace]

Your temps do seem a tad high but just to take a contrary position; black occipital lobes (the flaps at the back of the casque) is considered normal colouration for Veiled Chameleons and those spots tend to develop at sexual maturity.