Something is wrong, and i cant figure out what!

[kfacetastic]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - 4 month old Nosy Be Male Panther
Handling- i take him outside 3 or 4 times a week, hold on the way out and allow him to crawl on me if he wants, and then hold him on the way back to his enclosure.
Feeding - at first it was 15-20 pinhead crickets a day, not its more like 7-10 pinheads and a superworm or 2. yesterday he only ate 4 crickets and superworm
Supplements - multivitamin with calcium 5-6 times a week, calcium with d3 2 times a month
Watering - misting 2-3 times a day for a 1 min to 1.5 mins, i have a little dripper that drips for up to 1.5 hours a day
Fecal Description - dark brown to black with a bit white, solid. i havent seen him poo since friday, but that doenst mean he hasnt.
History - bought at a reptile show, took him to the vet for a checkup on friday, about 6 different people handled him (not ok in my opinion,) very stressed on the way home, have not taken him out but for a minute to check his eye which was bulging up like crazy.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen 2x2x2
Lighting - Repti sun 5.0 coil bulb (working on getting linear, but the vet took all my monay for the week) 100 watt heating bulb 12 in away from his basking spot
Temperature - cage floor is about 78-82, basking is about 83-86
Humidity - humidty guage says it a bit under 50 before i spray, and doenst change after i mist, but the humidity has to go up...right?
Plants - 2 pothos, orchid, and a non toxic fern like plant (i forget the name, but i checked before i bought it, and it should be fine.)
Placement - in the corner of my room, hardly any traffic, he only sees me regualry, very quiet and warm bc it is upstairs.
Location - Cary, NC

Current Problem -I took him to the vet friday, he has never had any issues the 3 weeks i had him before that, pretty friendly doesnt get too upset about much, very curious. At the vet about 6 people, vet nurses and receptionist kept handing him off to each other which in my opinion really stressed him out. the vet didnt find anything wrong with him, she said he was growing very well and was big for his age. on the way home he started to get really upset, opening his mouth and turning very dark. i immediately put him in his cage and fed him a superworm when i got home. he seemed fine. the next day when i turned on his lights and sprayed down the cage he did the crazies thing with his eye, it was about 3 times the size of the other one and the eyeball was moved to wear you could see straight into the orifice you would usaully be able to see his eye, i freaked out and called an emergency vet, but i had to go back to work. when i got back 3 hours later he was fine, eye and all. i have not taken him out since saturday to examine his eye. but yesterday he didnt eat and was on his branch he sits on when he is mad, he ate a superworm and 4 crickets out of my hand. when i went to turn his light off he was darker than i have ever seen him, and obviously very upset. after i turned the light out he turned back to his normal blues, but when i went to turn on his lights today he was still on his mad branch and darker than ever. I have no idea what is wrong. please help me! he did the same thing with his eye today. he ate a cricket and that is all for now...im really scared i want him to be ok.


this is what he normally looks like

and this is what he looked like today, his eye is all weird but you cant tell bc i know from experience he doenst like the camera and i didnt want to get in his face with it when he is already distraught.

 

[Elizadolots]

No, we can tell that's weird. It's possible he just got something in his eye. You might try increasing the misting, or even a shower. It's also possible there's an infection, you'd want to check with a vet for that.

It doesn't sound like your vet's office was the most experienced with chameleons. You might want to check out the list of vets in this forum: https://www.chameleonforums.com/area-area-country-vet-list-32880/ to see if there's someone else close to you that has a reputation for knowing about chameleons.

 

[tdotcham]

The anger is stress I'd guess. if you just got him... let him chill and settle in. I know it took a couple weeks before my guy really took to his cage. let's see some pictures of your enclosure, the picture you showed he seems to be trying to hide but there doesnt seem to be any sort of foliage.

id say stop handling him so much and taking pictures of him. as for the eye bulging, i was worried at first too. but if you are misting and hitting his eye this is how they clean them. they swish the water around

 

[jannb]

I'd try misting longer with warm water for his eyes. Also cut back on the multivitamin to twice a month and get plain calcium without d3 to dust with about every day. He needs a larger cage and I'd lower the temps a bit for basking and on the cage bottom. The bottom should be low 70's. 100 watt bulb should really heat up that small cage. I would use a 40 or 60 watt. How are you measuring the temps?

 

[Cainschams]

id say stop handling him so much and taking pictures of him.

Bingo! I would say excessive handling has something to do with him being stressed and then taking him to the vets for what looks to be him cleaning his eye. Not to mention what is going on in your avatar. That is very unnecessary stress being put on him. Chameleons spend their whole lives watching out for predators with big mouths. If you keep doing all of this unnecessary handling, moving around, pictures and other stresses that should not be happening I doubt your chameleon will ever acclimate to his new home.

If his eye is constantly like that then there is a problem but if he is doing it when misted he is trying to clean it out. If there is something in there prolonged mistings or giving him a shower can help get out what is in there. With all the handling I would say prolonged mistings in his cage.

 

[ataraxia]

eyes: was his eye doing this when you started to spray or was it like this before you started to spray? sounds like he was cleaning his eyes. a 2x2x2 will fit in your shower. if you have a removable shower head. with warm water, point it at the shower wall so the cage/cham will recieve the mist. this will beat misting him manually. it will be constant misting versus breaks in between resting your fingers and not to mention the clean up from all that water

his colors: maybe he is not happy with his cage set up. if your the only one that sees him. how high is he from your head? maybe try more vining plants around his perching branches. i see that you have pathos. it will grow fast but in the meantime maybe use fake vines in the areas the pathos hasnt been trained to yet. also the coil lighting and heat can play a factor.

 

[kfacetastic]

cainschams: to clarify, i did not take him for his eye bulging, i took him for a regular check up since i got him from a reptile show and wanted to make sure he didnt have any parasites or something that my untrained chameleon eye could not detect, if you ask me i feel like that was a pretty good decision on my part, you know.. making sure my animal is ok, another reason i use this forum. i feel as if any good caretaker of any animal would do so, but maybe that is just me.

from what i have read on here i should not put him in the shower until he is older bc he is only about 6 inches long, and spraying him directly could cause stress, as well as a being put in a bath tub. but maybe all the stuff i read was wrong? in all of your opinions does it make a difference how big he is or young he is?

He does only do that eye thing after i have misted him, so that explains that.

and if he crawls on me without me picking him up does that not show that he wants to be on me? should i not allow him to do so? from what i have read from these forums, a chameleon will crawl on you if he wants, but if it will cause him stress, tho he chose to do so, i will not allow that anymore, i just have a theory that the natural sunlight is much better for him than any UVB light, again maybe i am wrong. but the only way to take him outside is to carry him.

i have had him for almost a month now and have maybe 7 pictures of him, i wouldnt call that excessive, but i will change my avatar as to not offend anyone, sorry, at the time he didnt seem upset, and even after that picture was taken he didnt seem stressed.

i took him outside today and he immediately turned to his normal blues and seemed normal and happy, so should i have not taken him outside, though he obviously enjoyed it more? He ate 7 crickets and worm from my hand while we were out there too, would he have done so if he hated it so much?
and if he shows his best colors when outside and he obviously likes it, how do i get him out for natural sunlight without handling him? i mean he isnt going to just walk out there on his own....also, he started to move around and eat from his cup after he came inside...another good sign.

i have never had a chameleon before but i def have done research, i joined this forum for advice and to share something i loved with others. I feel it is better than only learning from the internet and never piping in with my questions.

Another thing i have learned from this forum is that all chameleons are not equal, some hate people and some will crawl from one room to the next to be with their caretaker, which type reptar is i do not know but he def doesnt hate me.

but thank you for all of your advice, i will take it to heart, new bulb on the way plus just calcuim dust (which i CAN NOT find in any pet stores, any good places online to order from?) and i will not open my mouth around him

 

[Olimpia]

I think that if your chameleon is crawling on your out of his free will, then he's not stupid, he knows what he's doing. And taking him outside is the abslute BEST thing you could be doing for him, it's not only healty physically but mentally too. I would continue to bring him outside if he still wants to crawl on you. Alternatively, you can bring out his whole little cage, but even then, he losed UV benefits through the screen of his cage.

There's obviously something upsetting him now that wasn't upsetting him before... and if you've been doing the same outside routine for a month now, I doubt that's it. Take a good look at his cage and the surroundings and see if anything has changed that might stress him out. Or if anything needs tweaking.

It's also possible that he may not like the cage any more if you're spoiling him with outside time Mine have gotten spoilt with lots of outside free ranging time and now mope in their cages when it's time for them to come inside. They aren't as black as your guy, but they deffinitely don't have their best colors.

 

[Psi]

You should probably get some larger crickets.
A few of my chams wont eat crickets which are too small.

 

[Cainschams]

cainschams: to clarify, i did not take him for his eye bulging, i took him for a regular check up since i got him from a reptile show and wanted to make sure he didnt have any parasites or something that my untrained chameleon eye could not detect, if you ask me i feel like that was a pretty good decision on my part, you know.. making sure my animal is ok, another reason i use this forum. i feel as if any good caretaker of any animal would do so, but maybe that is just me.

First, none of my opinions were supposed to be taken as condescending, rude, or saying that your husbandry is poor. Just thought I would confirm that Of course it is not a bad idea to get a check up. Although the excessive handling at the vets was really uncalled for which you already recognized.

from what i have read on here i should not put him in the shower until he is older bc he is only about 6 inches long, and spraying him directly could cause stress, as well as a being put in a bath tub. but maybe all the stuff i read was wrong? in all of your opinions does it make a difference how big he is or young he is?

He looks plenty big enough to put him in the shower. I let even my hatchlings, after they have grown a little, stay out in rainstorms when they are housed outside. If there is plenty of foliage for them to hide in they are fine. They know what to do.

He does only do that eye thing after i have misted him, so that explains that.

and if he crawls on me without me picking him up does that not show that he wants to be on me? should i not allow him to do so? from what i have read from these forums, a chameleon will crawl on you if he wants, but if it will cause him stress, tho he chose to do so, i will not allow that anymore, i just have a theory that the natural sunlight is much better for him than any UVB light, again maybe i am wrong. but the only way to take him outside is to carry him.

Everyone has their own opinion on handling. Me, I am for only handling when doing complete cage cleanings and short look overs. At that time I will snap a picture if I have the camera. I had a panther that would come crawl out of the cage to me yet I never handled him for only the reasons I stated. Natural sunlight is down right the best and I encourage everyone to give this to their animals whenever possible. I have nice light screen cages. I just take the whole cage in or out when moving them.

i have had him for almost a month now and have maybe 7 pictures of him, i wouldnt call that excessive, but i will change my avatar as to not offend anyone, sorry, at the time he didnt seem upset, and even after that picture was taken he didnt seem stressed.

The avatar doesnt offend me. Just not the best thing to do to an animal that spends its whole life trying not to be eaten, IMHO.

i took him outside today and he immediately turned to his normal blues and seemed normal and happy, so should i have not taken him outside, though he obviously enjoyed it more? He ate 7 crickets and worm from my hand while we were out there too, would he have done so if he hated it so much?
and if he shows his best colors when outside and he obviously likes it, how do i get him out for natural sunlight without handling him? i mean he isnt going to just walk out there on his own....also, he started to move around and eat from his cup after he came inside...another good sign.

As I said, taking him outside is one of the best things you can do. Its very possible that the vet visit stressed him out especially hearing they basically treated him like a rag doll. Maybe let him settle for a couple days until you take him out for sun or take his whole cage out. It does sound like he is doing fine eating from your hand etc. Again, could have just been the vet visit that has him freaked.

i have never had a chameleon before but i def have done research, i joined this forum for advice and to share something i loved with others. I feel it is better than only learning from the internet and never piping in with my questions.

Agreed.

Another thing i have learned from this forum is that all chameleons are not equal, some hate people and some will crawl from one room to the next to be with their caretaker, which type reptar is i do not know but he def doesnt hate me.

I stated my opinion on handling. Everyone is different and even the ones that seem to not mind it I still do not handle them. This is me. I also keep small chameleons that will jump, run, bit and freak when my hand is near unless there is a juicy bug in it.

but thank you for all of your advice, i will take it to heart, new bulb on the way plus just calcuim dust (which i CAN NOT find in any pet stores, any good places online to order from?) and i will not open my mouth around him

lllreptile.com is a good place to get all supplies from.