Panther Eye Rubbing?

[ballin]

Cage- 18x18x36 screen
Lighting- 5.0 linear tube 75 watt exo terra heat bulb
temp- basking 90-95 bottom 75-80
plants- fake but switching to real soon
placement- bedroom, not to much traffic, near a air vent that i close off
location- maryland

my chameleon- panther, 3 months, male
handling- none
feeding- crickets, wax worms, meal worms, meal worm beetles and moths
supplements- repcal, without D3 everyday cept wed. with D3, every mon and tues. herpivite every sun.
watering- misting 3 times, once in morning, after school, and early evening
fecal- brown with white urnate
history- got him about a month ago, eating everyday and drinks occasionally
problem-

Sometimes I will see him sitting with his eyes closed and I have also seen him rubbing his eyes against the vines, i noticed this about 5 days ago and he just shed yesterday.

 

[cushcameleon]

he just shed yesterday.

Did his entire body shed? Or just parts of it? Is there a piece of shed skin in his eye? My rudis chameleon rubs his eyes on his vines several days before his eyes/head begins shedding.

 

[ballin]

Did his entire body shed? Or just parts of it? Is there a piece of shed skin in his eye? My rudis chameleon rubs his eyes on his vines several days before his eyes/head begins shedding.[/QUOT

it looks like he got it all off him, all around the head area but he seems to be blinking his right eye a lot.

 

[cushcameleon]

Can you see anything stuck in his eye?

 

[ballin]

Can you see anything stuck in his eye?

nope cant see anything stuck in them, he can definitely see out of it though and it seems very alert when its open.

 

[cushcameleon]

Well the only things I have experienced when it comes to blinking eyes are shed skin, or compact bulb damage. Since you don't use a compact and since you claim their is no shed skin in the eye, I really don't know what other advice to give you. Clearly there could be some other causes, but none that I have experienced. Hopefully someone else will chime in, be sure to give the eye another thorough look while you wait. It is possible that you may not see the shed skin in the eye. You could mist him with warm water and see if anything flushes out.

 

[ballin]

Well the only things I have experienced when it comes to blinking eyes are shed skin, or compact bulb damage. Since you don't use a compact and since you claim their is no shed skin in the eye, I really don't know what other advice to give you. Clearly there could be some other causes, but none that I have experienced. Hopefully someone else will chime in, be sure to give the eye another thorough look while you wait. It is possible that you may not see the shed skin in the eye. You could mist him with warm water and see if anything flushes out.

I will try that, im pretty sure its not anything to bad and that im just so paranoid over its health. lol is there anything with my care that you would change though?. thanks

 

[hallenhe]

Mine has always rubbed his eyes now and again as part of what I have determined is his normal behaviour.
The face (and eye) rub, as performed by Thaxter: 1) Get a good grip on whatever you're going to rub against. 2) Tilt head slightly to the side that you're going to rub. 3) Rub face, squniching eye around in all sorts of terribly uncomfortable looking contortions. 4) (optional) Open and close mouth several times when you're done.
It's only one side of the face at a time, and seems to be a very deliberate process.

 

[ballin]

Mine has always rubbed his eyes now and again as part of what I have determined is his normal behaviour.
The face (and eye) rub, as performed by Thaxter: 1) Get a good grip on whatever you're going to rub against. 2) Tilt head slightly to the side that you're going to rub. 3) Rub face, squniching eye around in all sorts of terribly uncomfortable looking contortions. 4) (optional) Open and close mouth several times when you're done.
It's only one side of the face at a time, and seems to be a very deliberate process.

haha exactly what mines been doing, thanks for this reassuring post

 

[cushcameleon]

is there anything with my care that you would change though?. thanks

I don't really have any broad advice to give you, simply because panthers aren't my shtick . But when it comes to certain/specific problems, all I have to offer is my experiences with the same problem. Fortunately another member was able to diagnose the problem as normal behavior . I chimed in because I have experienced eye problems around and during the time of my chameleons sheddings. You still might want to give your cham a warm misting, just for extra extra precaution. I am a worry wort as well when it comes to the health of my chams

 

[hallenhe]

As far as I can tell, the eye rubbing is more or less an incidental part of the process, and the "purpose" behind it is to mark whatever he's rubbing with secretions from glands at the edges of the mouths. They can taste these secretions (invisible to us) and tell whether they or other chameleons have been there before. A related behavior you may observe is the chameleon slowly, deliberately lowering his head as he walks along, and very gently touching the very tip of his tongue to the surface - "tasting" for these secretions.

 

[Damus]

Mine has always rubbed his eyes now and again as part of what I have determined is his normal behaviour.
The face (and eye) rub, as performed by Thaxter: 1) Get a good grip on whatever you're going to rub against. 2) Tilt head slightly to the side that you're going to rub. 3) Rub face, squniching eye around in all sorts of terribly uncomfortable looking contortions. 4) (optional) Open and close mouth several times when you're done.
It's only one side of the face at a time, and seems to be a very deliberate process.

My juve chams has been doing exactly this on several occasions so i thought i would search and am glad i found this post, is this behavior confirmed at all? or just your observations?