Napping baby Vieled and prefers his left eye

[Dragon Born]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - I have a male 3-4 month old cham.
Handling - Half a time maybe, he just grabbed my finger once.
Feeding - Feeding 3 weeks crickets, seems to prefer bigger crickets? Seems to eat 5-6 a day of the larger ones freerange I do not hand feed. Not really been gutloading my feeders...got small dubia roaches but dont know how to feed them to him.
Supplements - Herpative and calcium one once a week.
Watering - Use spray bottle 3-4 times a day. Seems to prefer to drink at night, not so interested in the morning or afternoon usually.
Fecal Description - Comes out like a sausage link and dries to a black and white color. Almost everyday he goes or everyday not really sure.
History - Got him from LLL reptile. WHen I got him he has a right eye that he didnt want to open or use and mainly uses his left eye. I see him use his right eye almost everyday while hunting crickets or looking for water. Seems to eat and after hes full naps again and then goes back to sleep. Only a few days have I seen him really active.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - mesh, chameleon set from lll. 5.0 uvb and 60 watt day bulb and 50 watt night bulb. benjamina ficus and grape wood or whatever its called
Lighting - zoo med blue day bulb, purple exo terra night bulb 50 watt/flukers 60 watt night bulb
Temperature - basking temps 90-95. mid level temp around80. lower lvl around 75.
Humidity - Stray 3x times a day no measurement
Plants - benjamia ficus
Location - San Francisco

Current Problem - Sleeps most of the day unless hunting or drinking. As well, prefers his left eye and only uses his right eye during hunting, drinking, or exploring. I got him from lll reptile like his and they told me it was probably a small cut that happened during shipping, however its been a almost a month and he still prefers his left eye and mainly uses it to look around..He as well rubs his eye seemingly trying to scratch it on branches or leaves.

 

[Tyaeda]

I'm not an expert, and do not know exactly why your chameleon is sleeping during the day, or having eye issues. However I noticed a few things that you should change, even if it's not causing the issues you're experiencing, because they can cause problems later on.

He's not eating enough. Young chameleons should be given as many appropriate sized feeders as he is willing to eat. Mine is a little older than yours, and he happily eats 15 a day (5 crickets, 3 times a day). You should also put calcium, without D3 in it, everyday. He needs calcium WITH d3, and a multivitamin twice a month.

Chameleons do not need light at night, it's actually a bad idea to have them. They are able to see colour, and have a light detector (3rd eye) on top of their heads. Night lights will disturb him. The temperature at night should drop around 10 degrees to keep him comfortable, and aid in digestion.

Your daytime basking temps are a little high. 80-85 fahrenheit is hot enough, especially for a young chameleon like yours.

Measuring your humidity is important. It should be around 50%, but should be allowed to dry out in between mistings. Humidity gauges are inexpensive, and often you can get one that also shows the temperature. I personally have 2 in my chameleons cage, so I can measure everything in different areas of the cage.

I hope someone with more experience and knowledge can help you with your specific issue. I would get in contact with lllreptile, along with a reputable vet who has experience with chameleons.

The lighting you have may be the issue, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

[Video Master]

For starters here is the care sheet for a Veiled and you should be following this for all sections. https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

You need to change your husbandry right away as that can be a big part of the problem.

Get rid of the blue day light and also the light at night. During the day for a basking light, use a standard household incandescent bulb of proper wattage to get your basking temp to the correct spec.

You basking temp is too hot as it should be 85 degrees. The ambient temp for the cage should be 80. Like stated before, drop at least 10 degrees for overnight so the chameleon can get good sleep.

You need to measure your humidity in the enclosure. You should be keeping it between 40% and 70%.

For supplements:
Calcium NO D3 every feeding
Calcium with D3 2 times per month
Multivitamin 2 times per month

The cham should be eating 10 - 12 crickets per day right now if not more. They should be around 1/4" for the size of them.

You need to gutload the feeders. If you do not gutload them, then they are pretty much like empty shells the cham is eating. Chameleons get their nutrients from eating their prey and the prey need to have been eating the fruits, veggies, etc...

 

[matt2310]

.................

i got a baby veiled from LLL about a month ago, the day after i got him he was having eye problems and then a cpl days later he started sleeping a lot and two weeks later he was sleeping all day and keeping both eyes closed most of the day.... in the end it did not work out well for him...

maybe somethings wrong with their babies?

 

[Dragon Born]

What is wrong with the day blue bulb? It emits vitamin A that is supposed to stiumlate feeding. As well the light provides better visibility for the cham. I have the sun glo bulb that isnt not blue, so I put that in there now.

As for the night bulb, it just changed it back to the flukers bulb which emits the lowest amount of heat and light at night. I live in SF, so it gets pretty cold at night which is why I have a night bulb. Honeslty, I do not think the bulb is bothering him, he sleeps like a baby every night.

I will deff start gutloading his crickets. Any idea how to get him to eat dubia? He wont hand feed and if I just put in on the screens they eventually just disappear. Ive tried putting some in a small dish in his change day and night but he has yet to eat one. I actually put 2 dubias in the dish one day and the next morning there were 3! no really sure how that happend lol. And sounds like I need to be getting some more cal. I have the one with D3.

 

[Tyaeda]

I live in Canada, where summer temps can drop almost 20 degrees at night. If the ambient room temperature does not dip lower than 55-60 F, you do not need an alternate heat source. If you do need another heat source, a light bulb is not the best route to take.


Accessive lighting can bother a chameleon's eyes, and cause them to blink a lot, or close their eyes completely. Since you're experiencing eye issues, I would definitely take the utmost precautions when it comes to lighting.

 

[Video Master]

What is wrong with the day blue bulb? It emits vitamin A that is supposed to stiumlate feeding. As well the light provides better visibility for the cham. I have the sun glo bulb that isnt not blue, so I put that in there now. Again, follow the care sheets. They have been developed over the years from many breeders and chameleon handlers that have LOTS of experience and do what is BEST for the chameleons. You have come on here asking for help and this is part of the help that you get. Referring back to the care sheets is the #1 thing that needs to be done. There are also companies that make a bulb that supposedly stimulates breeding in chams as well. THIS IS ALL MARKETING and you bought into it. You need a UVB light (preferably the linear kind), and basking light (standard household incandescent), and a 6.5k plant light (if you have live plants).

As for the night bulb, it just changed it back to the flukers bulb which emits the lowest amount of heat and light at night. I live in SF, so it gets pretty cold at night which is why I have a night bulb. Honeslty, I do not think the bulb is bothering him, he sleeps like a baby every night. You may think that it is not affecting his sleep, but lights at night affect a chameleon. That is fine if you do not want to listen to us on here, but you are asking for help and we are telling you what you NEED to do to help make your chameleon better. The care sheets have been the best practices put together over the years by many people with LOTS of experience. So again I say DITCH the lights at night. Chameleons can go down into the 50 degree range at night with no issues.

I will deff start gutloading his crickets. Any idea how to get him to eat dubia? He wont hand feed and if I just put in on the screens they eventually just disappear. Ive tried putting some in a small dish in his change day and night but he has yet to eat one. I actually put 2 dubias in the dish one day and the next morning there were 3! no really sure how that happend lol. And sounds like I need to be getting some more cal. I have the one with D3. Some chams will just not eat them. Some will not eat certain types of worms, some will only eat crickets, and yet others will only eat dubias. All you can do is keep trying if that is what you want to use but the cham may just not want them at all. Make sure that you are using calcium with NO D3 daily, and ONLY use D3 2 times a month. They can overdose on D3 and it can cause issues.

 

[Dragon Born]

Okay thanks video master. The only reason I used that flukers low light bulb at night is because the chameleon lady that has breed like over 160 chams from california to Florida(her words. you can tell by talking to her she has lots of experience and is very picky about what she prefers)recommended it to me. And that I live in cold SF is why I was questioning it. I guess Ill try tonight with no light and see what happens.

 

[Saldarya]

If it helps alleviate your concerns about nighttime temps, I intentionally, via air conditioning, move my night time temps down to 58 degrees.

As was mentioned before, the night time drop in temp will not harm them and is beneficial (in some species required).

Again as mentioned, get rid of the light at night, pitch black as much as you can.

Start there and work on the gutload as directed.

 

[Dragon Born]

Will do. Not really sure why VM seems like he is PMSing when he gives me advice. But you havent said why the zoomed the natural day blue light is bad for a chameleon during the day? It has a picture of a veiled chameleon right on the box(not that this means that much) but the light it produces is a very white light compared the more darker reddish light of the sun glo bulb. I read in the cham lighting that you want a whiter light so I still do not understand why the zoomed bulb would be harmful in any way. And I already have a UVB linear 5.0 fixture above his cage.

He sleeps in my room and I usually dont go to bed til at least 2am watching tv, but I turn off the lights in my room so its dark as possible for lil paarthurnax. Im hoping getting rid of the night bulb will help with the day time napping.

As well got some carrots and some celery to gutload the crickets with today. Was mainly thinking that using the carrots is my best/cheapest/easiest option. I have some "premium" dubia roach food as well that I feed the roaches. Will this work for crickets as well?

EDIT- as well I forgot to list to earlier but at least once a day I see him rubbing his right eye on a branch or leaf seeming like he is trying to scratch it. The looks normal and no signs of infection so idk what this is an indication of..lll rep told me to spray it in the eye with a squirt bottle(sounds mean I know) so I do that once of twice a day and he always opens it after shortly after but as well closes it again.

 

[Oliviabryant]

Be careful on how much you feed him VS how much he drinks.. They can get a rectal prolapse which requires a vet.
I would suggest feeding him half the amount you chose in the morning so he can bask and process it, then the other half mid day.
A lot of chams will stop eating when they are full but not all. My panther would eat until he dies if he could and he already eats probably more than he should.

 

[carol5208]

Will do. Not really sure why VM seems like he is PMSing when he gives me advice. But you havent said why the zoomed the natural day blue light is bad for a chameleon during the day? It has a picture of a veiled chameleon right on the box(not that this means that much) but the light it produces is a very white light compared the more darker reddish light of the sun glo bulb. I read in the cham lighting that you want a whiter light so I still do not understand why the zoomed bulb would be harmful in any way. And I already have a UVB linear 5.0 fixture above his cage.

He sleeps in my room and I usually dont go to bed til at least 2am watching tv, but I turn off the lights in my room so its dark as possible for lil paarthurnax. Im hoping getting rid of the night bulb will help with the day time napping.

There is nothing wrong with using the blue bulb. You can use it. It is just most of us use the white housebulbs. The red bulbs are frowned up as they are really unnatural as compared to the other bulbs. If you are going to watch tv late, just throw a sheet or blanket over the cage. Just make sure if your lights are on a timer that the blanket is removed before the lights come on. I almost started a dang fire one day when the sheet I used was laying on the hot dome. It actually burned a hole in it!

 

[Dragon Born]

Be careful on how much you feed him VS how much he drinks.. They can get a rectal prolapse which requires a vet.
I would suggest feeding him half the amount you chose in the morning so he can bask and process it, then the other half mid day.
A lot of chams will stop eating when they are full but not all. My panther would eat until he dies if he could and he already eats probably more than he should.

Okay but its kind of hard for me to control how many he eats and at what time because I free-range feed him because I enjoy watching him go all tiger status and climb the sides and the screen and hunt them down. I have a bowl of small dubia in his cage that he has yet to even touch so I do not know if bowl feeding will ever work for him.

 

[Dragon Born]

There is nothing wrong with using the blue bulb. You can use it. It is just most of us use the white housebulbs. The red bulbs are frowned up as they are really unnatural as compared to the other bulbs. If you are going to watch tv late, just throw a sheet or blanket over the cage. Just make sure if your lights are on a timer that the blanket is removed before the lights come on. I almost started a dang fire one day when the sheet I used was laying on the hot dome. It actually burned a hole in it!

Okay sounds good because I prefer the blue bulb to the sun glo one anyways and I think he does too. It lights up the cage more. As for timers, I turn the lights on by hand morning at night. somewhere between 8-10 in the morning and turn it off at 10pm. Hes got the 10pm thing down because at around that time every night he makes his way to wherever he feels like sleeping for the night. Sometimes when I turn on the light in the morning he takes his time waking up and is not instantly up and at it.

 

[Dragon Born]

UPDATE TONIGHT- well I got rid of the night bulb. He's sleeping upside down on the very top level of the screen and hes never done this before...as well hes moved back and forth changing his positions multiple times, which as well he has never done before....whenever I had the light in he never moved and always stayed in one place and now he seems to be very restless...

Kind of skeptical now of the advice given to me to get rid of the night light...obviously something is up.

edit- ya he has changed positions are least 5 times now and does not have a curled tail like he normally does at night hmmmmm no expert but this doesnt seem right at all go figure...

 

[Dragon Born]

Well I was really worried last night but he made it alright. But getting rid of the night light has not made a difference in his napping. Gonna keep turning it off at night and monitor any progress. I think gutloading the crickets is going to have the most positive impact on his energy.

and lol sorry if I came of kinda of snittery last night I was drunk and tripping out about him trying to sleep upside down and everytime I looked he was in a new position which is abnormal for him at night.