one eye closed when basking?

tdotcham

New Member
I've been watching my boy big red for a little bit... and he consistently closes one eye while basking. It always seems to be the eye which faces the door that looks out to the room. However, his tail is not curled up, and his other eye is looking around and he is alert... as soon as he spots me he opens the other up.

I'm just curious if any of you have experienced this before and what could correct it.

His basking spot is a 65w soft white spot bulb with a 24" reptiglo 5.0
his supplementation schedule is calcium w/o d3 on 2 feeders lightly dusted daily with zoo meds reptivite once or twice a week (preformed vitamin a).
his staple food is large crickets, 3 or 4 a day, with the occasional silk/super worm treat
 
Change the basking light to regular household incadescent, see if that helps. Misting/spraying, increasing humidity all work to help them remove debris from their eyes.
Prevention of eye issues related to debris, as I think yours is, is something not really embraced by this community yet, I hope to rectify that with more discussion.
I personally beleive its because chams have a very tiny opening in the eye turret, this makes removing aiborn or other debris a chore than can take days of eyerolling.
This is commonly seen with chams closing only one eye or the other during the day, it should not be confused with sleeping during the day, or keeping both eyes closed due to
serious infection, vit A deficiency or defective lighting.
Cheers :)
 
what the man above me said.

only thing i could offer as a suggestion is making reptivite a once a month ordeal. hes getting d3 a possibility of 8 times and month along with preformed vitA. just a suggestion i dont have any experience using reptivite that much so i dont know the dangers. how old are your uvb bulbs?
 
The UVB was replaced about two months ago. As to the reptivite, his breeder from ChromaChameleons has recommended this supplementation. He rotates daily between the two but I decided to do the vitamins once or twice a week.

The amount of d3 in reptivite is minimal compared to the amounts found in calcium w/d3


What can I try? I've been misting softly and letting him clean his eyes daily. Is saline solution I see talked about here more effective. ?
 
If Chroma Chameleons told you how to supplement and it works perhaps your problems are the result of changing the supplement schedule Chroma recommended?
 
If Chroma Chameleons told you how to supplement and it works perhaps your problems are the result of changing the supplement schedule Chroma recommended?
I cut back a little on what harry recommended as well. I did this knowing that my eye for spotting problems is inferior to his. I decided it would be better to go a little lighter and up the dosage if I deemed nessicary. I am yet to see any eye problems developed with my chams. I have faith that reptivite contains the right balance of d3 and pre formed a. Give or take being used once to three times a week. If a lack of nutrients is the case in this situation, I would have to lean towards a lack of nutrients within the gutload based on my personal experience, tinkering with and researching the great schedule chroma introduced me to. Lynda, are you hinting towards a lack of vitamin a in this case?
T.dot, you where mentioning a new gutload... do you have the nutrition facts writeup? How long have you been using it again?
 
i received a awesome piece of information today on supplements and lighting. i will post the info tomorrow (i left it at the shop). it mainly focuses on care given to VC's from birth - 6 months of age. the different variation of supplement use with lighting tested on groups over a 6 month period. if i remember correctly the study was done on 56 vc's..poor animals that got the raw end of the deal for science but hopefully it will save other lives in the process.

pantherlover: how long have you been using harry's regiment? what does it consist of?
 
Ive had great success using reptivite 1 day on, one day off, alternated with zoomed repticalcium w/o d3 for about a year now. Ive been experimenting with lightening the amount a bit for the last few months just out of curiosity. Im yet to see any ill effects. Ive had a total of 7 chams. 4 of which when I was quite younger. Even as I child I noticed eye issues, lethargy and my pets going down hill. When I started up again I didnt think twice about using the same old multivitamin I used before. Being more emerged in keeping when I took up the hobby as an adult, I recognized the same old issues. With further research, I read about the theory that some or all chams are unable to convert betacarotine into vitamin a. Also about the eye issues associated with vit a deficiencies. I picked up the same old multivitamin and found it only had a small amount of betacarotine. I was gutloading with carrot, but only to crickets. I read about dabbing a tiny drop of preformed a from a gelcap as treatment for the deficiency. I repeated and my animals health was slowly restored. I had my concerns about preformed a vs d3 until I learned about this tried and tested method of administering a safe amount of both within one bottle.
 
that is very interesting. do you only dust a few feeders or do you lightly dust the bunch?

so, basically the only way someone can over supplement VitA is to either 1)use retinol every feeding 2)use VitA oil in excess
 
Pantherlover said..."Lynda, are you hinting towards a lack of vitamin a in this case?"....I was only wondering why tdotcham would change if the chameleon hadn't had that problem when it was on Harry's regime.
 
that is very interesting. do you only dust a few feeders or do you lightly dust the bunch?

so, basically the only way someone can over supplement VitA is to either 1)use retinol every feeding 2)use VitA oil in excess

I wouldn't say that's the only way it can be over supplemented but I do think that reptivite with d3 has a good working balance of both vit a d3.I dust 3 of 5 feeders for my current chams daily. I only do this because I fear I dust a little on the heavier side sometimes.

I think its good practice to cut back rather than increase supplements if there is a possible supplement issue, then, further tweak the method based on the behaviour observed if needed.
 
Exactly. I spoke to panther about it and decided I would chill on the multis to see if I was over supplementing. The change has been recent as in two weeks. I may try the vit a dab on a feeder.

My gut loading is slacking, however I do my best to feed the crickets kale and carrot mix. They probably get it three times a week. The Gutload I mentioned to you panther was just a small amount I used for a week. Not sure of the exact name. I did however see biggy red with an eye closed again last night. Again the eye facing the door, however this time it was the opposite eye.

It could be a bulb issue perhaps waiting to correct. My gfs apartment was cold this winter so I used a 100w incadesent bulb which was pretty bright. I bought the 65 watt spot bulb this weekend just past, and the basking temp is perfect now that the weather is warmer and is much more dim
 
I wouldnt discard what jojackson said about debris in the turret. No renovation has been done in the pad since the problem? Id continue with the increased misting... WHen I hand mist, I do so from above the cage. I think it gives a more natural feel and it thins out the mist until the water beads up and falls from the top like raindrops. Try to find yourself some clear glass incandescent just to rule out the lights as the culprit. Also, youve been mentioning the door... maybe try and cover the front of the cage for a few days and see if it makes a difference. I would be hesitant to try the vitamin a gelcap. Honestly I doubt, in this case, that a lack of vitamin a is the culprit, as you are using reptivite. It could also backfire if your not certain. If you do decide to go with that method, research just how little you are trying to administer. Something like 50 to 100 iu. Keep in mind, the gelcaps I found contained somewhere in the ballpark of 3000 iu. Just do your research and be positive about your actions as overdosing preformed a is more than likely fatal.

keep us posted...
 
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