My veiled is closing one eye :s

[armando]

Your Chameleon - Veiled cham, male, 2.5 months (or so), has been in my care for a week.
Handling - Ive done it just couple of times to fix things around his enclosure
Feeding - I freerange the feeders, he didnt seem to like the cup. He was eating the ones that where running around, so I decided to stop with the cup.
I offer around 14 crickets daily, he seems to be eating them good. I also offer one superworm every other day.
I gutload my crickets with sandrachameleons dry recipe, oranges, carrots, yam, apples. and water.
Supplements - I use everyday plain calcium repticalcium. I also used repcal vitamin once. (i know I have to use it twice a month and d3 twice month). But I've had him for a week.
Watering - I have mistking. I mist twice a day. Two long sessions. (10 minutes, or more). I've seen him get up the branch and make awkward movements. (I believe its because he is drinking).
Fecal Description - They seem to be ok, they are long and dark, and with a little white spot at the end.
History - He is from a reptile store.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - its 60 cm x 30 cm. Top and front mesh, sides are glass and the back is rocks. I know glass is not ok, but I live in a VERY dry place. So.. I decided to go for half and half to maintain humidity. Air flow is good.
Lighting - 12 hours of light. Uv 0.5 zoomed and a regular house bulb
Temperature - 32 basking spot and 26 cool spot
Humidity - around 60%
Plants -photos and vines
Placement - next to a window.
Location - living room

Current Problem - Ive seen he closes one of his eyes sometimes. And Ive seen him rub them with the vines tiwce.
Im very paranoic, and I dont want anything to happen to him.
What should I do??

 

[Elizadolots]

How big are the crickets? I would be feeding very small crickets and offering as many as he will eat (he's a baby after all).

I think your over all temperature is too hot for such a small chameleon. As your cage is small (which is fine for his size! You'll need to move him into a bigger cage when he gets larger) you can't get much of a temperature range. He can't move out of the warmth because the bottom of the cage is still warm. I would try to get the top of the cage to 27 C. Once you have him in a cage that's 4 feet tall, a basking temp of 30C or even 33C will be fine as the temperature will drop as he moves down toward the bottom.

 

[macy]

is your uv light 0.5 or 5.0? i would switch to 5.0, that may be causing it.

 

[armando]

He seems to be eating fine.
I did realize that I should be using smaller crickets, I will switch to smaller ones.

Did I said 0.5? .. sorry its a 5.0 zoomed
I will fix temperatures aswell.

What about the eye? Do you think I should offer more repcal multivitamins to increase vitamin A?
is that the reason?

 

[Elizadolots]

Right off the bat I'd make the switch to smaller crickets (lots of them!) and lowering the temperatures. If, after a couple of days, you don't see improvement it might be time to consider other changes.

Eyes are sort of a "tell" on chameleons that everything isn't perfect. An eye being closed isn't automatically an eye that has a problem (though it might be).

 

[ataraxia]

You said you live in a dry place. You Mist twice a day and the humidity stays at 60? What are your lows?

2-3 month old Babies with the eye or eyes closed generally isnt from the lack of vitA. Husbandry is usually the cause. Everything looks fine but i dont understand the humidity. Personally i would shoot for a long misting about 15 minutes after the lights come on, then shoot for two more shorter sessions. One in the middle of the day and one about an hour or two before lights out.

Your current temps are fine but do require you to make sure the animal is offered the proper amount of hydration.

Do you have pics of the set up and chameleon?

 

[Elizadolots]

I disagree. That's too hot for a baby. If there was a place in the cage that was 22-23C I wouldn't object to the basking temp, but this little one has no place to go cool down.

 

[ataraxia]

I understand your worry but 78 as a cool spot isnt all that bad. Many of the recommendation on the boards from others that have bred animals isnt the all around standard of keeping. Any baby the age of this one can and will take advantage of a basking spot of 90 and will do just fine. A cool spot of 78 isnt make or break. This summer i have kept a few babies outside where it was reaching 100 and they thrived. I dont recommend this inside but it is just a point. Babies arent given special treatment in the wild. They dont get half used uvb bulbs (this is the funniest of all recommendations), room temperature heat and ETC. The sun they are subjected, the temps, rain fall and etc is raw. Not with a humanized thought and motherly hand.

The constantly repeated recommendations.... they do work but it doesnt mean temps just a little out of that "recommended" norm wont work either Heat within range in any situation requires offering proper amounts of water.

 

[Vegun]

My Veiled (same age) just went through this.

under a microscope the vet viewed some left over skin under his eyelid.

Saline solution and a Q tip a few times a day solved the issue. He enjoyed the gentle eye massage actually.

 

[Elizadolots]

Ataraxia, if the animal were thriving, I would agree. The animal is not thriving so reducing the temps is a good idea.

I suspect there is actually a quite wide range of what baby veiled's find acceptable. This one is not doing well with the warm range so it seems like trying a cooler range would be a good plan.

**edited to add**

In the wild a huge percentage of veiled chameleon babies die. That's obvious from the fact they produce so many eggs. Animals that can reasonably expect to survive infancy do not come out in clutches of 50, 60, even 80. But, if you own a baby veiled, you want to give it odds of surviving that are far above what it would have in the wild.

 

[ataraxia]

As stated the animal is eating the current offered feeders just fine, defecates normally and urates are white. The op is not describing heat stress colors, an animal on the bottom of the cage, gaping, etc. More than likely the issue is from debris (skin, dust, something picked up in the cage) and not enough mistings to help with eye cleaning.

Eliza, we are speculating, assuming possible treatments to issues we are being told without actually seeing whats going on first hand. You have given good advice here. The op has many good recommendations here to help solve this issue.