Odd Behaviour

[Carnae]

As this is my first cham I really don't know if this is normal behaviour or not, but it just doesn't look right.quite often during mistings, and for a bit after, my cham sqeezes her left eye shut (only really on the one eye) to the point where it looks like shes squeezed it right to the front of her turret. The skin over it at that point stretches so it shows a kind of dark pinky colour (not pigment change) just at that point. The eye looks fine, no different to the other, and if she hasn't properly closed her eyes when she does it, you can still see it through the whole in her turret. It looks really creepy but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She can see fine and she doesn't act different whilst she's doing it.

Any ideas?

 

[Nicodemayo]

The way your describing it sounds like she is cleaning her eyes!
does it look like this?

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

My Cham does something similar every now and then. He always closes the eye on the side I am misting him on.

Would you say it looks like the Cham is blowing a bubble with its eye?

It is my understanding that cham's do what you are describing. It is a way of removing the water from in and around their eye or anything that may have gotten inside.

It is freaky but I wouldn't worry about it unless it seems to bother him or he does it when not being misted or keeps the eye closed.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Nice pic, Thats what I was trying to explain. Looks like you posted it while I was typing.

 

[Carnae]

Yeah that's exactly it! Phew!! After a very near-death experience a couple of weeks ago I'm glad its normal!! Thanks very mcuh.

 

[Bill Sammon]

What was the near death experience? If was a chocking behavior it may be vit.A deficient! A few drops of cod liver oil given by mouth will clear that up. It also helps if the cham seems to be light sensitive. Just a thought.

 

[Carnae]

I don't know what it was. She seemed fine, then started to slow down eating and drinking until it got really serious. I took her to the vets, but when the vet took her out the box I'd brought her in she turned black, fell on her side and started panting. He didn't know what had caused it, said it was probably viral and that she'd had it since I'd had her, but after spending the night at the vets (he couldn't actually do anything for her, she was too small) she came home and started making a good recovery. She's now bright as rain....no clue what went on there. My boyfriends sister works at the vets I took her too and she asked the guy what he thought and he said it was a miracle she was still alive, let alone back to her old self!

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

A miracle baby!! I love a "good news" story.

 

[Kat77]

The way your describing it sounds like she is cleaning her eyes!
does it look like this?

Hehe, this is cute! I love their little eye routines.

 

[chamlover]

Yep, sounds like the little guy is just cleaning his little eyes and scaring the heck out of you. Ha ha. As far as giving him any kind of vitamin A, please use extreme caution; 1 drop too much CAN KILL THEM. Another thread has recently been started concerning this very topic and i suggest anyone thinking of giving their chams vit A read it thoroughly. I have been considering giving it to my chams and have been researching it for almost 3 weeks already and am still undecided as to whether to do it, which one to use, and how much to give.

Debby

 

[Carnae]

I've been reading it myself. The guy I got my Cham from has been breeding them for over 30 years and never used it, his Chams always have good life-spans and few health problems. Unless my vet tells me to at any point I;m gonna skip it!