Swollen eyes and white crusty around nose

chic9336

chic9336

New Member
Hello!!
I’m very worried because my 2 month old veiled Chameleon looks sick! He is a male chameleon and I got him at PetSmart! His diet consists of crickets that I feed Flukes complete diet! He has blue light, uvb, humidifier, live pothos plant, and a small dripper. I’m giving my chameleon vitamin D supplements but not Vitamin A and I would definitely take recommendations on how to add this to his diet. I’ve been researching what could cause swollen eyes and vitamin A deficiency appeared. His cage is 16x16x30 Zoo Med’s ReptiBreeze that is an all mesh material. I’ve also researched that white crystals excrete salt and that this was normal but I didn’t know if this was connected. I also don’t know how to take the white stuff off his nose?
(I tried to take photos of his eye but he is sleeping)
-swollen eye was not here for more than 24 yet
-white crusty stuff has been there for 7
 

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Hi and welcome firstly to get the best help it would be helpful if you could fill out a husbandry form you can find this in the health section under how to ask for help. Copy and paste. Also if you could add pictures of entire enclosure top to bottom.
 
you said..."I’m very worried because my 2 month old veiled Chameleon looks sick! He is a male chameleon and I got him at PetSmart!"...how long have you had him?
Is he keeping his eyes shut during the day? If so...all the time or just when basking or what?

You said..."His diet consists of crickets that I feed Flukes complete diet!"...are the crickets of an appropriate size? Is he eating well?
I would recommend feeding him a wider variety of appropriate sized insects that have been well fed/gutloaded. You can use a wide assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, mustard greens, etc) and veggies (squash, sweet red peppers, sweet potato, zucchini, etc) and a tiny amount of fruit (Apple, pears, berries, papaya, etc.) for feeding crickets, locusts, superworms.The insects should be dusted properly just before feeding them to the chameleon too.

For dusting, you need a phos free calcium powder to dust the insects with 6 days a week for now. Also, a phos free calcium/D3 powder to use once every two weeks on the day that you don't use the supplement I already mentioned. You also need a vitamin powder with a beta carotene source of vitamin A to use on the other two days of the week that you don't use the other supplements. You might need a preformed source of vitamin A as well. (I've never needed one with my veileds.)

You said..."He has blue light, uvb, humidifier, live pothos plant, and a small dripper" ....do you hand mist as well? What UVB light are you using? Is it a long linear one or compact type? It's not recommended to use a colored bulb....so for basking I use a regular household incandescent bulb of a wattage that produces the proper basking temperature (80 F for the age your chameleon is). What's the cage temperature? Humidity?

You said..." I’ve also researched that white crystals excrete salt and that this was normal but I didn’t know if this was connected. I also don’t know how to take the white stuff off his nose?"...this wouldn't be connected IMHO. You don't need to remove the white salts unless they are blocking he nostrils. The salts are of minerals other than calcium that the chameleon does not need...so they are blown out the nose.

Hope this helps with the husbandry...but there may be things I've missed because you didn't fill out the husbandry form.

Concerning the chameleon sleeping and being sick...we need more information.
 
Last edited:
chic9336 said:
Hello!!
I’m very worried because my 2 month old veiled Chameleon looks sick! He is a male chameleon and I got him at PetSmart! His diet consists of crickets that I feed Flukes complete diet! He has blue light, uvb, humidifier, live pothos plant, and a small dripper. I’m giving my chameleon vitamin D supplements but not Vitamin A and I would definitely take recommendations on how to add this to his diet. I’ve been researching what could cause swollen eyes and vitamin A deficiency appeared. His cage is 16x16x30 Zoo Med’s ReptiBreeze that is an all mesh material. I’ve also researched that white crystals excrete salt and that this was normal but I didn’t know if this was connected. I also don’t know how to take the white stuff off his nose?
(I tried to take photos of his eye but he is sleeping)
-swollen eye was not here for more than 24 yet
-white crusty stuff has been there for 7
Click to expand...
White crust maybe too much calcium. They do that. How u dusting your crikets?
 
kinyonga said:
White crust around nostril is never calcium. It's salts of other minerals that the chameleon does not need to keep so they are expelled out the nose.
Click to expand...
Yeah that’s what I meant. His excreting out the excess calcium out. He may be over dusting feeders.
 
The member states giving vitamin d supplements so it is possible as I'm only speculating without any mention of calcium that there is to much v d and no balance of other
vitamins and minerals would that not explain excess salts ?
 
@Flick boy said..."The member states giving d supplements so it is possible"..."that there is to much v d and no balance of other vitamins and minerals" ..."would that not explain excess salts?"

The excess salts are expelled to do with water regulation in the cells of the chameleon...so I suppose if you feed the chameleon too much sodium and potassium and maybe small amounts of chloride and bicarbonate they would expel it and explain excess salts being expelled. (I'm not a vet or much of a scientist either.)

Vitamin D has to do with calcium regulation. I don't think it has anything to do with the salts expelled.

If we are going to continue to discuss the salts we should move it to another thread and deal with the swollen eyes here.
 
kinyonga said:
@Flick boy said..."The member states giving d supplements so it is possible"..."that there is to much v d and no balance of other vitamins and minerals" ..."would that not explain excess salts?"

The excess salts are expelled to do with water regulation in the cells of the chameleon...so I suppose if you feed the chameleon too much sodium and potassium and maybe small amounts of chloride and bicarbonate they would expel it and explain excess salts being expelled. (I'm not a vet or much of a scientist either.)

Vitamin D has to do with calcium regulation. I don't think it has anything to do with the salts expelled.

If we are going to continue to discuss the salts we should move it to another thread and deal with the swollen eyes here.
Click to expand...
The thread is titled swollen eyes and crusty nose so .
 
"Chameleons don't have the ability to sweat so they have to get rid of it another way. They do this by expelling this excess salt through a gland that they have around their nose. ... When the salt is excreted through the gland a white crust remains and this is what you see around your chameleon's nose." This is from a website. I'm sure its just that? my cham had it once and it just goes away within a day.
 
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