my veiled won't eat, drink and all it does is keep its eyes closed!

[breannachelsey]

Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 10 gal. tank until I was able to get a screen one, doesn't have the top on it
* Lighting - not sure what bulb it is but it's a heating one that's blue and 60 watt, got it from the pet store.
* Temperature - around 78 degrees
* Humidity - dont know
* Plants - i have a vine, fake leaves and stems on a suction cup
* Placement - cage is in my room on the floor
* Location - mid Texas

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Female Veiled Cham, not sure how young, got her about 3 weeks ago
* Handling - never until her eyes shut
* Feeding - I feed her crickets and mealworms when she eats out of my hand recently. for crickets I've dusted calcium with vitamin d on sometimes
* Supplements - none
* Watering - i spray about 5 times a day, I don't really see her drink that much now. I bought a new mister that should come this weekend
* Fecal Description - half white half brown
* History - everything has been well until now, never had any problems.
* Current Problem - Both eyes are usually shut and she's not moving around as much anymore. whenever handling she still continues to keep her eyes closed, but she ate out of my hand about 2 days ago. she used to be a bright green and whenever I spray her she turns brown and whenever I handle her she's a light green

 

[Carlton]

Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 10 gal. tank until I was able to get a screen one, doesn't have the top on it
* Lighting - not sure what bulb it is but it's a heating one that's blue and 60 watt, got it from the pet store.
* Temperature - around 78 degrees
* Humidity - dont know
* Plants - i have a vine, fake leaves and stems on a suction cup
* Placement - cage is in my room on the floor
* Location - mid Texas

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Female Veiled Cham, not sure how young, got her about 3 weeks ago
* Handling - never until her eyes shut
* Feeding - I feed her crickets and mealworms when she eats out of my hand recently. for crickets I've dusted calcium with vitamin d on sometimes
* Supplements - none
* Watering - i spray about 5 times a day, I don't really see her drink that much now. I bought a new mister that should come this weekend
* Fecal Description - half white half brown
* History - everything has been well until now, never had any problems.
* Current Problem - Both eyes are usually shut and she's not moving around as much anymore. whenever handling she still continues to keep her eyes closed, but she ate out of my hand about 2 days ago. she used to be a bright green and whenever I spray her she turns brown and whenever I handle her she's a light green

There are several things you need to change in your care:

What exact brand of light are you using? It should be printed on the bulb itself. Doesn't sound like any UVB light is being used. Incandescent type bulbs don't produce UVB and she needs it to metabolize the calcium in her diet. Many pet shops don't have the correct type of lighting and don't know about it. You will need to get a fluorescent UVB emitting tube light as soon as possible.

You must track the cage humidity. Because you don't have any live plants in her cage, chances are its too dry and too warm for her, so she is getting dehydrated. Dehydrated chams won't eat and often sit with eyes shut because they are irritated.

Dusting needs to be consistent. She should be getting:

plain calcium (No vit D3) every day (just a light dusting)
calcium with added vit D3 once every 2 weeks
a herp multivitamin dust once every 2 weeks

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums. I'm sorry to hear about your girl. You were provided some excellent info above. I would like to add my blog for new keepers below. I have had great success raising my veileds this way. I'm also going to give you some links on females. They produce eggs without a male even being around and if they are not provided with a proper laying bin they will become egg bound and die. You should keep a laying bin in the enclosure at all time after they reach the age of 5 months. BTW She needs a bigger enclosure with allot of ventilation le a screen cage. Please post some photos of your Cham.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html?m=1
https://www.chameleonforums.com/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video-77225/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment2073

 

[kinyonga]

Please post a recent photo of her.

The light was already mentioned...but in addition to the UVB light you need to provide a basking spot in the low to mid 80'sF. You can use a regular household incandescent light bulb for this. Are you turning it off at night? If the temperature isn't warm enough she likely won't eat since rate of digestion is affected by temperature.

It would be better the cage was up off the floor.

Proper supplementing (as Carlton already described) is important as is the egglaying bin (Jann talked about), appropriate temperatures and feeding/gutloading the insects.

 

[breannachelsey]

here is a picture of her

<a href="http://s299.photobucket.com/user/xbreec/media/celeb/345A1E49-FD35-4E29-B356-14B4EC12F15E_zpsifrq9lye.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm283/xbreec/celeb/345A1E49-FD35-4E29-B356-14B4EC12F15E_zpsifrq9lye.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 345A1E49-FD35-4E29-B356-14B4EC12F15E_zpsifrq9lye.jpg"/></a>

http://s299.photobucket.com/user/xb...5-4E29-B356-14B4EC12F15E_zpsifrq9lye.jpg.html

not sure if it'll work but hopefully it does! I just added a UVB light to her tank

 

[jannb]

Poor little thing. She is so skinny. You need to get her to eat so she will die. Get her some Repta Boost http://t.petco.com/product/117291/Flukers-ReptaBoost-Insectavore-And-Carnivore-High-Amp-Boost.aspx and feed her this two time a day for about three days and then see if she will eat some nice juicy silkworms and hornworms. You can buy the value packs here for like $20.00:
http://www.lindasgonebuggie.com/

Would you consider giving her to a rescue that can give her the help that she needs? Check out ChamEO and take to Elisa there. She is wonderful. http://www.chameo.org/