Sick veiled chameleon seeking advice

Mcdoogles777

New Member
Hi everyone my son has a 4 month old female veiled Chamaeleon as of 3 days ago we found her on the bottom of her enclosure basically looking dead but still breathing. She isn’t big enough to be egg bound yet but we do have a sandbox in her enclosure aswell just incase. The temperature and humidity are on point. She was still drinking water up to that point. Apparently she wasn’t eating tho as we found a lot of her crickets dead under the sand box and super worms aswell. But she won’t open her eyes and is still barely alive. I’ve called over 15 vet offices who say they treat reptiles but no one is willing to treat a vailed chameleon because apparently they are fragile when it comes to their health! So I have been helping her eat crickets, mealworm Beatles,and super worms. Aswell as feeling her slowly with stage 1 baby food banana and peas to be exact. Does anyone know if I could help her in any other way? Or what is wrong with her. Her color is fine still light green until I pick her up to feed her then she displays her colors. She doesn’t open her eyes although one is starting to open since I started to help her eat and drink. And her eyes are not sunken in. Please help me
 
And yes we dust her crickets with calcium powder and multivitamins 2-3 times a month or when we feed mealworms or super worms
 
I'm so sorry you're going through this! Chameleons are indeed tough to care for and have specific needs. Can you post recent pics of her and her enclosure from top to bottom to start? We may ask you to fill out a full husbandry form but let's start with pictures first to assess the situation.
 
Hi. Sorry to hear that your chameleon isn’t doing well. Most important is to make sure she stays hydrated. ‘Force’ feeding or hydrating can be tricky and if not done properly, can cause aspiration. Chameleons airways are in the front of their mouth, so whatever you give needs to be placed in the back of her mouth. This pic may help. You want to aim towards the blue arrow.
D4626FF5-69C3-4E5B-984F-B12F4479B219.jpeg
Often chameleons don’t show that anything is wrong until quite late and the younger they are, the more fragile they are. At only 4 months old, I‘m very doubtful that she’s old enough for egg laying. We can try and help you find what the problem may be. If you can provide pics of your girl, her entire enclosure and answer the help questions it would give us more to go by. https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/ Just copy & paste
 
Please post some photos of her from the last couple of days and also of all of the cage including the lights.

I'd switch to squash baby food and sweet potatoes.
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - female veiled chameleon about 4-5 months old had her for 4 months.
  • Handling - She gets handled only when cleaning her cage 1-2x a week only if she chooses to
  • Feeding - We gut loud the crickets with carrots and banana peels and feed vita bugs super worms 2x a day morning and night about 4-5 crickets and 1-2 worms sometimes
  • Supplements - we dust the crickets with repti calcium from zoomed and give reptivite from zoo med’s for vitamins 2-3x a month
  • Watering - I have seen her drink and we mist the cage 2x a day. Aswell as using a fogger every day.
  • Fecal Description - has not been tested for parasites poop is white and dark brown solid sometimes slimy if we feed horned worms.
  • History - got her and a male as babies they have their own cages.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - exo terra screened cage 24”x 18”x36”
  • Lighting - we have a zoomed light system with a 5.0 ubv and heat lamp.
  • Temperature - the whole room stays around 70° All day at her basking hot spot it around 85 to 90° Depending on how hot it is here.
  • Humidity - not sure exact levels but we mist the tank twice a day and use a digger for 15min every day
  • Plants - We stoped using real plants due to crickets laying in the soil. Now we have silk vining plants.
  • Placement - the cage is on my sons dresser in the corner of his room. The top of the care is roughly 6ft off the ground

  • Location - Southern California
 
We took the laying box out when she got sick and couldn’t stay up on the vines anymore. The towel was there to help her stay upright Instead of flipping over my son is always switching their lights around so the long zoomed light photo was is on the males cage you can see I’m mad in the backyard
 

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Can you post photos that are closer please. Do you have more than one chameleon in the same cage?
Do you have 2 cages?
The double light ...does it have one heat light and one uvb?
 
The UVB in the longer light..is it a compact too? If so you need to get long linear Reptisun 5.0 or Arcadia 6% tube light.
Are the heat lights white?
 
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