New Chameleon Owner having problems already

[jojackson]

You only need one heat bulb, it dosent matter what type or color it is. 50-60 watts should be sufficient, but if you must use the 100, place it further away.
YOU MUST have a reliable thermometer, guessing with your hand just isnt good enough.
Assuming its a baby cham, you are very likely 'cooking' the poor bugger, since 1x100watt sounds excessive., no heat is required in your house at night if 65f is accurate.
your lizards hottest basking temp for the first few months should be 80f, the rest should be cooler.
Given its a glass cage with little ventilation, this makes a lower wattage heat bulb more important since the bottom of the cage should be in 70's f.

move the cage further from the radiator too, or you will definately kill it.

Living plants as listed here under 'Safe plant list' are more suitable and will aid in creating humidity, as will misting once or twice a day. Its now my more educated guess, in light of the new information, that your lizard is overheating.
Head up and mouth open is an obvious indicator.
Lizards dont have sweat pores so they cannot sweat to cool down. Instead they mouth breathe, exposing the lining of the mouth to evaporation, which cools the blood circulating through capillaries close to the surface.

Though when I do have the lamp on I put a towel on the top of the other side of the tank so if it is too hot for the cham he can go to the shade.

Im afraid this is fuzzy logic. The towel will only trap the heat inside further, the cage is glass and im assuming the top is the only ventilation.

Closing its eyes is a typical response to many and varied stimuli, in this case im betting its very low humidity and excess heat causing dryness and irritation, combined with no plants to sheild the light and hide which causes stress.

Fix those issues and its probly going to recover, despite the drama queens and doomsayers

 

[pssh]

Healthy chameleons do not have health problems. Usually only pet store chameleons have problems right off the bat, otherwise it is usually the owners fault. It would probably save you a lot of time and money to take him back.

He needs a Chameleon expirienced vet if you refuse to take him back. Find a vet for him if your normal one doesn't treat them.

 

[jojackson]

Thats like saying if you bought some food at the market and it didnt appeal to you, take it back.
This person is new to chams and 'running' from the problem by taking it back, wont be a learning experience. There is no reason to suggest 'its dying' or that there is anything wrong with it outside poor hsbandry.
Same thing may have happened to one bought from a sponsor/breeder.
No lizard is immune to poor husbandry in captivity.

 

[DJ Richey Rich]

I got a 10 day guarantee with mine its only been 3 days with his

 

[jojackson]

Most such 'garantees' (here at least) have a clause stating you must have it vet checked within 48 or 72 hrs of purchase or the garantee is null & void.
In anycase, A prompt vet check on any new aquisition is a smart idea regardless.

 

[DJ Richey Rich]

Even though a cham is not food if i bought a steak and it was brown in the middle when i took it out of the package I would take it back it teaches the seller to take better care of the item being sold.

 

[AReptile]

A CHAMELEON IS NOT A FROG OR NEWT. Chameleons clime towards a light they dont always know if its too hot kinda like us we go into the sun with out sunscreen the next day we look like a lobster. The pet store should have told u that a glass tank is very bad once it gets up to temp the heat has nowhere to flow so in return the tank gets the same temp as the basking temp. What light are u useing at night?

No but an amphibian's skin is much more sensitive and needs a lot of moisture and they are more likely to be cooked by an overbearing bulb than a reptile. No need to be like that when I'm asking a question about why the bulb would do that to a reptile, I have very little experience with reptile behavior and their living situation.

Though when I do have the lamp on I put a towel on the top of the other side of the tank so if it is too hot for the cham he can go to the shade.

Im afraid this is fuzzy logic. The towel will only trap the heat inside further, the cage is glass and im assuming the top is the only ventilation.

Closing its eyes is a typical response to many and varied stimuli, in this case im betting its very low humidity and excess heat causing dryness and irritation, combined with no plants to sheild the light and hide which causes stress.

Fix those issues and its probly going to recover, despite the drama queens and doomsayers

Hmm I didn't think of the ventilation thing that way. I just figured that shade= cooler temperatures= source of escape from the heat. How often should a light be on the chameleon then?

Thats like saying if you bought some food at the market and it didnt appeal to you, take it back.
This person is new to chams and 'running' from the problem by taking it back, wont be a learning experience. There is no reason to suggest 'its dying' or that there is anything wrong with it outside poor hsbandry.
Same thing may have happened to one bought from a sponsor/breeder.
No lizard is immune to poor husbandry in captivity.

I have a feeling if i go back to the store that the guy wont believe me that it has some sort of health problem. Like many of you guys said the stores don't know all their details and how to properly care for them. The guy who i did get it from he knew many of the basic stuff like me but i have doubts that he knows all of the suggestions im getting from you guys otherwise he would not have had the tank like that/ set my tank up like that.

 

[jojackson]

12 hrs on/12 hrs off is fine. Being accurate with temperature is very very important though. One reason frogs and reptiles may respond differently is simply that the skin is different. Frogs, unlike reptiles, do have nerve endings in the underlying skin layers, so they sense heat extremes and move away.
A reptiles nerve endings are buried rather deep among skin layers and are more touch sensory than heat detectors, hence a reptile will remain under temp extremes and gape, and quite often be burnt without realising it.
The smaller the animal, the less thermal mass it has, That is, it needs to thermoregulate more often than a larger one because heat is lost faster, so smaller lizards basking more often run a higher risk of overheating than their larger counterparts.
A rule of the thumb with reptile heat (passed on by those wiser than me) is that slightly cooler than recommended is better than slightly warmer.
The animal will simply bask longer to acheive its desired temperature.
Ventilation is important, more so later since bigger animals require somewhat higher basking temps.
With your young lizard in a glass cage, it relies on the screen top for ventilation, to let heat trapped by glass, escape.

Petstores are notorious for poor or little, or badly incorrect advice. Your not the first to discover this. Fortunately, this site is full of keepers with real hands on experience who will help you with accurate advice.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."Um it says on the box that it provides UVA yet you say UVB"...I said..."Your blue light doesn't produce UVB".

You said..."If 100 watt is too much what watt bulb should be used?"...I said..."All you need to provide heat is a regular incandescent household light bulb that puts the basking temperature in the low 80's."

 

[trdlabs]

You only need one heat bulb, it dosent matter what type or color it is. 50-60 watts should be sufficient, but if you must use the 100, place it further away.
YOU MUST have a reliable thermometer, guessing with your hand just isnt good enough.
Assuming its a baby cham, you are very likely 'cooking' the poor bugger, since 1x100watt sounds excessive., no heat is required in your house at night if 65f is accurate.
your lizards hottest basking temp for the first few months should be 80f, the rest should be cooler.
Given its a glass cage with little ventilation, this makes a lower wattage heat bulb more important since the bottom of the cage should be in 70's f.

move the cage further from the radiator too, or you will definately kill it.

Living plants as listed here under 'Safe plant list' are more suitable and will aid in creating humidity, as will misting once or twice a day. Its now my more educated guess, in light of the new information, that your lizard is overheating.
Head up and mouth open is an obvious indicator.
Lizards dont have sweat pores so they cannot sweat to cool down. Instead they mouth breathe, exposing the lining of the mouth to evaporation, which cools the blood circulating through capillaries close to the surface.

Though when I do have the lamp on I put a towel on the top of the other side of the tank so if it is too hot for the cham he can go to the shade.

Im afraid this is fuzzy logic. The towel will only trap the heat inside further, the cage is glass and im assuming the top is the only ventilation.

Closing its eyes is a typical response to many and varied stimuli, in this case im betting its very low humidity and excess heat causing dryness and irritation, combined with no plants to sheild the light and hide which causes stress.

Fix those issues and its probly going to recover, despite the drama queens and doomsayers

I know, i feel bad everybody is putting this little guy on it's death bed already. This person is asking for help and everybody's got them up on the chopping block. I think they should have did there home work first before they bought this little dude, but it is to late now. Now we need to walk them through the bad to get them to the good.

 

[ZippiesPal]

One thing at a time.

Reduce the temps.

1) get a repti-sun 5.0 18" bulb in a 20" fixture. This bulb does not put out any heat. It is a UVB bulb. Your cham needs this to process calcium.

2a) move that heat lamp away, maybe even just turn it off for a few hours. It should be off at niight anyways. I am suggesting that you immediatly stop adding heat, right now. Yes, that means NOW If I were you I would not want to create any more discomfort for my cham and I would go turn that heater (light) off right now and keep it off til the temp comes down in the tank.

3) ventalation is important. Your cham needs a screen cage and you can even build one out of PVC pipe, screen mesh and zip ties.

People on here are probably so fatalistic because they are feeling the Chameleons pain. PEOPLE HERE REALLY, TURELY, LOVE THEIR CHAMELEONS !!! It may be easier (for people on this forum (at least its true in my case)) to imagine your poor little Chameleon already dead (Out of its Misery), than to imagine the suffering its going through.

Have some compassion and improve its conditions.

 

[AReptile]

It opened its eyes before when I came over and closed them again. So basically everyone is telling me to use a regular house bulb and not use the 2 heating bulbs I have at my disposal? Also I read that the side of the chameleon that is getting the heat will turn different colors, does this mean that it is TOO hot? And if so will it move on its own to get out of the heat..

 

[thealissa]

It opened its eyes before when I came over and closed them again. So basically everyone is telling me to use a regular house bulb and not use the 2 heating bulbs I have at my disposal? Also I read that the side of the chameleon that is getting the heat will turn different colors, does this mean that it is TOO hot? And if so will it move on its own to get out of the heat..

No, the side that darkens is so that the chameleon can absorb more heat. If it is too hot, you will notice either burns on the chameleon's casque (or elsewhere) and/or it will be gaping it's mouth. Anyway, you should provide what is optimum for the chameleon. Don't give it too much and rely on it to figure things out.

 

[ZippiesPal]

Chameleons cant feel the heat...

... so they can burn themselves.

They will be attracted to just the right amount of heat to make them able to move around, but the animal lacks a mechanism for knowing when its skin temp is too high. You can use any regular old lightbulb to provide that correct amount of heat (I think 80 degrees F +/- 5 degrees) should be fine. You would measure this temp at the top of the screen closest to the heat source.

Yes, your prized heat bulbs are useless (harmful for your Cham). I understand that you probably thought you were ahead of the game when you realized you already had some of what you needed. Now, you realize that again because you have a large selection of regular lightbulbs in your house. Maybe you could just swap your house bulbs for those two special heat bulbs, and you'd still be even.

They need ventilation and humid air to breathe.

Unlike some other reptiles, more heat is not the right answer.

Ventilation is provided by a screene enclosure. You can make one, if you cant afford to buy one.

Humidity (moist air) is provided by misting with a MistKing or a Habba-Mister, the correct live plants, and a humidifier. I have a small spray bottle that I spray everything down with in addition to my Habba-mister.

My little guy just came home last night. I have spent the last several weeks planning, prepping, spending gobs of cash, and researching, in order to get my 'set up' just right. A week ago, it occured to me what a high maintainance critter I had chosen as a pet. I was visited by a real sence of concern over what I had started. The responsability seemed like it might be too much, but I was committed and Im sticking with this little guy because he is depending on me.

If I am doing something that I think is pretty smart and a senior member tells me to do something different, I put my ego in my pocket, and I do what is right for Zippy. A false sence of pride and a dead friend are bad pillows to try to sleep on at night.

 

[Carlton]

It opened its eyes before when I came over and closed them again. So basically everyone is telling me to use a regular house bulb and not use the 2 heating bulbs I have at my disposal? Also I read that the side of the chameleon that is getting the heat will turn different colors, does this mean that it is TOO hot? And if so will it move on its own to get out of the heat..

First thing to realize about chams...they don't spend the entire day in direct sun soaking up heat. They are forest creatures who bask in the morning to raise their metabolism, move out of the sun to hunt, drink, and search for mates, bask again if they get too cool, and then the cooler complete darkness at night allows their metabolism to drop enough to sleep. The temps in trees and bushes drops at night quite a bit. Ground dwelling lizards are in contact with the earth which radiates stored heat all night. Chams in trees are not adapted to need this constant temp and won't do well if they live in constant warmth day to night.

Chams don't need the specialized heat bulbs you were sold (but you could go ahead and use one if you control the temp). Any household incandescent bulb will provide heat. Rather than try to guess the actual wattage bulb you need in your particular room, climate, or cage setup, a better approach is to suggest the correct temperature the basking perch should reach. With an accurate thermometer you can measure the temp right under the light and adjust the bulb size or distance to meet that temp instead. I find the best way to measure the basking temp right where you need to is to use a non-contact infrared temp gun. You point it at anything you want and it will measure the surface temp of the object...cham skin...light bulb, wall, etc. They are not expensive and a fantastic tool. Check out the Pro Exotics website or LLL Reptile to find them. Radio Shack may have them also.

When a cham is cool and trying to warm up, it will darken the skin on the side closest to a heat source. You know that dark colors absorb more heat then light colors do. Once the cham reaches "operating temp" for the day it won't tend to do this. An overheated cham will look much lighter or paler and may hold its mouth open to get rid of heat.

I know it seems odd, but chams like many lizards don't have many heat sensors in their skin. They can get burned and can overheat before they actually decide to move away. On top of too much heat is dehydration. Little chams dehydrate quickly and one of the signs they are drying out is closed eyes. They eventually shut down and don't move at all.

You are going to need good moveable thermometers and humidity gauges (NOT the pet store cheapos...they aren't worth it and won't be accurate enough) to provide what your cham needs to stay healthy.

Pet store info is usually bad, and he may have had those little chams for a short enough time the problems haven't set in. Stressed chams often look "healthy" as they are active (agitated), colorful (the more colorful they are the more upset they often are), and most buyers don't know what to compare them to.

 

[DJ Richey Rich]

If you woUld listen to the advise on first page you need to put a gecko in the setup u have now and get

heat http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...ic-bulbs/-/zoo-med-50-watt-halogen-heat-bulb/

UVB http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...por-bulbs/-/zoo-med-18-repti-sun-50-uvb-bulb/

cage http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...riums-reptarium-accessories-and-explorariums/

drip http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...isters-and-humidifiers/-/zoo-med-big-dripper/

*****GET A DIGITAL HUMIDITY AND TEMP READER*****


supplements http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...cleaners/-/repcal-ultra-fine-calcium-with-d3/ http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...d-cage-cleaners/-/rep-cal-calcium-without-d3/

plants http://lllreptile.com/info/library/...-/list-of-nontoxic-plants-for-your-terrarium/

every thing u need to know http://lllreptile.com/info/library/care-and-husbandry-articles/

there is more but a key start

 

[tkilgour]

At least try to return the chameleon. You will be shocked how many places allow this. Simply, tell them you just bought it and the poor thing is sick. Then use all the information you just got from members here about husbandry and buy a healthy chameleon. You will get many healthy years with a healthy chameleon.

I am sorry for this terrible experience your having, it must be difficult and stressfull. Either way, if you don't return the chameleon, try changing your set up right away and your chameleon could possibly make a turn around. Good luck!

 

[AReptile]

Ok I was at work all day and I called the guy who sold it to me and he told me to bring it in which I did. I brought it in and told him what was going on and even they realized him walking around like stevie wonder was a problem with its health. He took it back from me and gave me another one. This one appears for the moment, to be in better shape. His eyes are open whenever I come by so that's a good thing that he is alert. I got the light off now so I really won't be able to tell anything else about him until tomorrow. And I found out that these chameleons in the store were about 3 months old. All of them appeared to be lively. I got a 40 watt bulb is that good enough for now? Also tomorrow I'm going to go out and try and get some of the things you guys are mentioning.

 

[pssh]

The watt may or may not be good enough or it could be too much still, you need a digital thermometer. If the chameleon you had, had something that could be spread to other chams, it most likely picked it up in the shop. That means that this one may have it too (if its contagious.)

It is cheapest to buy things from www.lllreptile.com

 

[Psi]

I'm glad the store recognized that the animal was having problems.

Be aware now that YOU need to be sure that you have your new animal in better conditions. Which I'm sure you now know from everyone in this thread heh.