Something seems off… closing eyes while light is on. Probably just time for a vet visit?

[Beppo]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Ambanja panther chameleon, male 1 year old in my care for 9 months
• Handling - maybe once a week to let him out to his free roam
• Feeding - Dubia, silkworms, bsfl, grasshoppers, (hornworms and super worms once a week as a treat)
• Supplements - rep cal calcium and reptivite every 2 weeks
• Watering - Mistking 4 mins before lights on and 4 mins before lights off. Fogger at night. Rarely do I see him drink
• Fecal Description - plump brown with bright white urate. Tested for parasites once worth negative results. Taking a sample in next week to test again.
• History - last year around this time of year I witnessed jeb closing his eyes for short amounts of time during the day and after doing a reviews and keeping and eye on him we chalked it up to winter slump. He is doing this again… now I wonder is it winter slump again or is he stressed from changing enclosures or both or something else completely. (I will do a parasite test to rule that out)

Cage Info: 4x2x4

• Cage Type - hybrid screen with double doors to seal up at night for fogging
• Lighting - ubv is 12% 46 inch 4 jungle dawn plant lights and 1 75 basking bulb all Arcadia
• Temperature - ambient temp is 70-72 and basking is set on my herpstat at 82
• Humidity - 50-55 during the day and 70-100 percent at night
• Plants - 2 ficus, 1 wandering Jew, a lipstick plant, a cat palm and a prayer plant
• Placement - in portion of living room curtained off next to guest bathroom. Ceiling fan
• Location - Washington PNW

Current Problem - I am worried because I have witnessed his eyes closed while his ubv is still on when I get home from work. It’s dark outside sure and the temps have dropped significantly. He moved into a bigger enclosure 1 week ago and seems to be pretty scared still. I have seen him exploring and acting mostly like himself just a little hesitant. Eating like normal. I will take in a fecal sample to his vet next week. But the eye closing really has me concerned. I checked ubv with solar meter and there is an area directly below the bulb (9 inches) that gets 4- 4.5 readings and I’m going to look into that a bit more tomorrow to make sure I don’t have higher readings over 6 anywhere. Since taking these pictures I did move the basking area up to 9 inches I did have it at 12 but felt he was not getting warm enough so I adjusted it.



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Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

Last edited: Jan 20, 2010

 

[elizaann2]

Well your enclosure is absolutely beautiful.

If the fecal comes back negative you could do three consecutive samples to ensure you didn’t miss any parasites since they don’t always shed eggs.

Other than him recently moving to a new enclosure (stress) and his ambient temps being a little low (top for mine is 78, 72 at the bottom), I don’t see anything else that stands out to me.

Are your supplements expired by chance?

 

[Beppo]

Well your enclosure is absolutely beautiful.

If the fecal comes back negative you could do three consecutive samples to ensure you didn’t miss any parasites since they don’t always shed eggs.

Other than him recently moving to a new enclosure (stress) and his ambient temps being a little low (top for mine is 78, 72 at the bottom), I don’t see anything else that stands out to me.

Are your supplements expired by chance?

Thank you for your response. I will do the fecals. I checked my supplements and the rep cal doesn’t have an expiration date on it at all so I’ll buy a new one to be safe. The other is not expired. And thank you for the compliment on the enclosure I feel very lucky that my husband bought it for me, he’s not ready to let me get more chameleons so I’m spoiling the one I have the enclosure came with two basking light domes and I have a lower watt bulb I’m going to add to bump up the temp as well. Thanks again.

 

[MissSkittles]

I have to ask about your uvb…why are you using a 12%? It should be a 6%. The UVI should be around 3.0 at your basking area. Either try a 6% bulb or raise the 12% so your get a 3.0 UVI at basking level. I can’t say that is why he’s closing his eyes, but it could be.
I’m assuming your ReptiVite has Vitamin D3 in it.
Btw, I’m totally jealous of how gorgeous your enclosure is. Such full healthy plants.

 

[Beppo]

I have to ask about your uvb…why are you using a 12%? It should be a 6%. The UVI should be around 3.0 at your basking area. Either try a 6% bulb or raise the 12% so your get a 3.0 UVI at basking level. I can’t say that is why he’s closing his eyes, but it could be.
I’m assuming your ReptiVite has Vitamin D3 in it.
Btw, I’m totally jealous of how gorgeous your enclosure is. Such full healthy plants.

So I had a 6 % in there and it was barely registering. After speaking to another member who has the same enclosure and uses a 12 percent I changed mine. It’s also important to say that the eye thing was happening before I did this. But I was thinking of raising it up I was going to mess with it in the morning. Thank you so much I’m really happy with how it has turned out… but I just hope I can figure out what’s bothering him otherwise I feel bad for even moving him at all as he was doing so well until I moved him…

 

[MissSkittles]

Did he have the ficus in his previous enclosure? While it is a safe plant, if trimmed or broken, the sap comes out and can be irritating until it dries.

 

[Beppo]

Did he have the ficus in his previous enclosure? While it is a safe plant, if trimmed or broken, the sap comes out and can be irritating until it dries.

He had a small one that was pretty withered.. I didn’t know that though so thank you

 

[Sonny13]

First, beautiful enclosure
I‘ve noticed similar behavior with Parson’s and not directly both eyes, but always one eye. And always within 3 days after feeding with the vitamins the got D3 in it and she’s in the natural sunlight. This continues 2-3 days and stops again. Personally, I find it odd that both Parsons and Panther, both from the same region, got differences in the supplementation. Because Parsons only once a month vitamines and panthers twice. I would say try to stop with the vitamins for one month and see what happens.

 

[elizaann2]

Thank you for your response. I will do the fecals. I checked my supplements and the rep cal doesn’t have an expiration date on it at all so I’ll buy a new one to be safe. The other is not expired. And thank you for the compliment on the enclosure I feel very lucky that my husband bought it for me, he’s not ready to let me get more chameleons so I’m spoiling the one I have the enclosure came with two basking light domes and I have a lower watt bulb I’m going to add to bump up the temp as well. Thanks again.

Lucky!!! I’d love something like that for my babies.

If he started acting like that once you moved him it could be stress related. My panther is sensitive like this as well.

 

[Andrew1283]

Imagine waking up one morning and your house moved from Massachusetts to Arizona

 

[Steve A]

Imagine waking up one morning and your house moved from Massachusetts to Arizona

Honestly, I think I'd be happy with that. Give me the warmth over brutal winters any day

If I had it my way I'd basically live like a chameleon, only I'd prefer warmer nights

 

[Steve A]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Ambanja panther chameleon, male 1 year old in my care for 9 months
• Handling - maybe once a week to let him out to his free roam
• Feeding - Dubia, silkworms, bsfl, grasshoppers, (hornworms and super worms once a week as a treat)
• Supplements - rep cal calcium and reptivite every 2 weeks
• Watering - Mistking 4 mins before lights on and 4 mins before lights off. Fogger at night. Rarely do I see him drink
• Fecal Description - plump brown with bright white urate. Tested for parasites once worth negative results. Taking a sample in next week to test again.
• History - last year around this time of year I witnessed jeb closing his eyes for short amounts of time during the day and after doing a reviews and keeping and eye on him we chalked it up to winter slump. He is doing this again… now I wonder is it winter slump again or is he stressed from changing enclosures or both or something else completely. (I will do a parasite test to rule that out)

Cage Info: 4x2x4

• Cage Type - hybrid screen with double doors to seal up at night for fogging
• Lighting - ubv is 12% 46 inch 4 jungle dawn plant lights and 1 75 basking bulb all Arcadia
• Temperature - ambient temp is 70-72 and basking is set on my herpstat at 82
• Humidity - 50-55 during the day and 70-100 percent at night
• Plants - 2 ficus, 1 wandering Jew, a lipstick plant, a cat palm and a prayer plant
• Placement - in portion of living room curtained off next to guest bathroom. Ceiling fan
• Location - Washington PNW

Current Problem - I am worried because I have witnessed his eyes closed while his ubv is still on when I get home from work. It’s dark outside sure and the temps have dropped significantly. He moved into a bigger enclosure 1 week ago and seems to be pretty scared still. I have seen him exploring and acting mostly like himself just a little hesitant. Eating like normal. I will take in a fecal sample to his vet next week. But the eye closing really has me concerned. I checked ubv with solar meter and there is an area directly below the bulb (9 inches) that gets 4- 4.5 readings and I’m going to look into that a bit more tomorrow to make sure I don’t have higher readings over 6 anywhere. Since taking these pictures I did move the basking area up to 9 inches I did have it at 12 but felt he was not getting warm enough so I adjusted it.



--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

Last edited: Jan 20, 2010

Everything sounds good except the 12% UVB, considering the distance you're branches are. I wonder if the change of season is somehow affecting him. Although of course you're keeping the temps/humidity where they need to be regardless. As already suggested, I would definitely go to a 6% UVB and monitor, see if there are any changes.

I hope he's okay and side note: I love your enclosure. It looks awesome!

 

[Andrew1283]

Everything sounds good except the 12% UVB, considering the distance you're branches are. I wonder if the change of season is somehow affecting him. Although of course you're keeping the temps/humidity where they need to be regardless. As already suggested, I would definitely go to a 6% UVB and monitor, see if there are any changes.

I hope he's okay and side note: I love your enclosure. It looks awesome!

This is why I liked keeping a salt water reef tank. Any time there was an issue, a large water change solved the problem. With these guys we have so many variables, and they don’t show weakness until it’s usually too late. My dogs do the same thing. They hide illness and injury very well.

 

[elizaann2]

Imagine waking up one morning and your house moved from Massachusetts to Arizona

Great perspective. I would be freaking out myself.

 

[Beman]

Ok... Lets hit a few things here. One I would order repashy calcium plus LoD version. It is better balanced than the reptivite. Reptivite has phosphorus and repashy does not. Also repashy lod has lower levels of A and D3.

Next let me ask you about the other lights on the cage... You have 3 plant lights are these all LED jungle dawns?

Now for UVB... Really double check your output... Right below the UVB light. Check branch and then come up 3 inches to where he rises off the branch. Looks like your branch gets much higher in the center of the cage.

 

[Beppo]

I was thinking about this more, and I wonder if it’s likely he’s cold and can’t hang out anywhere but the too during the day and with all the new plant lights being so bright now:.. could that affect him at all

Everything sounds good except the 12% UVB, considering the distance you're branches are. I wonder if the change of season is somehow affecting him. Although of course you're keeping the temps/humidity where they need to be regardless. As already suggested, I would definitely go to a 6% UVB and monitor, see if there are any changes.

I hope he's okay and side note: I love your enclosure. It looks awesome!

thank you so much! I am not getting any lethal readings just some higher areas … I think I will lift it a little more since the 6 was barely registering… I’m not sure still messing with it but definitely need to tweak.

 

[Beppo]

Ok... Lets hit a few things here. One I would order repashy calcium plus LoD version. It is better balanced than the reptivite. Reptivite has phosphorus and repashy does not. Also repashy lod has lower levels of A and D3.

Next let me ask you about the other lights on the cage... You have 3 plant lights are these all LED jungle dawns?

Now for UVB... Really double check your output... Right below the UVB light. Check branch and then come up 3 inches to where he rises off the branch. Looks like your branch gets much higher in the center of the cage.

Ok thank you I will check into this!

 

[Beppo]

First, beautiful enclosure
I‘ve noticed similar behavior with Parson’s and not directly both eyes, but always one eye. And always within 3 days after feeding with the vitamins the got D3 in it and she’s in the natural sunlight. This continues 2-3 days and stops again. Personally, I find it odd that both Parsons and Panther, both from the same region, got differences in the supplementation. Because Parsons only once a month vitamines and panthers twice. I would say try to stop with the vitamins for one month and see what happens.

Interesting! I often wonder if we are over supplementing but just don’t know enough yet. Thank you

 

[Beppo]

Thank you everyone for your really good feed back. Sometimes I go into panic and I don’t think of a lot of these things … I appreciate each and everyone of you

 

[Beppo]

Ok... Lets hit a few things here. One I would order repashy calcium plus LoD version. It is better balanced than the reptivite. Reptivite has phosphorus and repashy does not. Also repashy lod has lower levels of A and D3.

Next let me ask you about the other lights on the cage... You have 3 plant lights are these all LED jungle dawns?

Now for UVB... Really double check your output... Right below the UVB light. Check branch and then come up 3 inches to where he rises off the branch. Looks like your branch gets much higher in the center of the cage.

Also there are actually 4 plant lights. Definitely tweaking the ubv may go back to 6