Small silver insect around feces

[pmxellos]

Hey guys! I have a young male veiled, about 8 months old, and I noticed today that there are small silver insects on his feces, a very fresh sample left less than an hour before. They almost look like tiny mites of some sort, or tiny flies, but I have not seen them fly. They are vigorous movers, but I only see them on the feces, and no where else. The feces is otherwise normal and I see no evidence of mites on him. I do keep him on layered coconut fiber dirt with some jungle wood chip like material over it and a green reptile carpet over that to prevent accidental ingestion, and he has an automatic sprayer. Could it be something from the bedding? Anyone have any idea what these little guys could be? I will try to get a picture next time, if I can capture them, they are super tiny! I needed my glasses to see them! Thanks

 

[Lathis]

It's likely from the bedding. All sorts of little bugs like damp soil conditions. What does your bedding do? It's a lot easier to keep the enclosure clean and dry if you have a bare bottom. You might consider removing the substrate.

 

[pmxellos]

I use this type of bedding to keep the humidity at an acceptable level in his enclosure. Otherwise it is very dry in my house and I have a heck of a time keeping it close to what he needs.

 

[carol5208]

Do you have live plants in your cage? A dripper? That can help humidity. What is your humidity with and without the substrate? It can more trouble than it is worth, not only harboring bugs, but bacteria from moisture.

 

[pmxellos]

I have an automatic mister that mists for 30 seconds every three hours. No live plants, used to have some but they always died :C Humidity is 40-50% with the substrate, 30-40% with out. It goes up for about an hour after misting.

 

[pmxellos]

I will note that the bedding generates a pretty terrible smell after it has been wet for a while, almost sulfur like. I have a lot of trouble keeping water from building up from the mister system, the bedding does keep the water under control a little by absorbing it. Any suggestions?

 

[pmxellos]

So, upon further inspection of the feces, I was mortified to notice tiny, thread line worms in his feces! I immediately had a fecal done and identified pin worm eggs and small pinworms in his feces. I know some people will argue that they are commensals and do not cause a lot of problems, but he had a LOT of them. I dewormed him with panacur and have removed every scrap of organic material from his cage and completely cleaned it head to toe. I am going to try using paper towels to cover the bottom instead

 

[pmxellos]

There were tons of those little silver bugs in the bedding also :C

 

[carol5208]

Sorry to hear your chameleon has pinworms and I am glad you are getting him the meds to clear it up. Also, good move on your part removing the substrate. It is more trouble than it is worth, like I said especially with all the water.