Update on Aesop!

[Jupiter]

Helloo everybody! It’s been way too long since I’ve posted; I’m going to try and be more active again. Aesop has grown a ton, especially in the color department, since I last posted. He’s about eight months old now, which means he has now officially been with me for the majority of his life.

He’s had some problems with his eyes; one day I woke up and he had all sorts of fluid buildup and his eyes were droopy. I flushed them out with saline, which helped some, but things got worse again so I took him to Ferret. She gave him an oculonasal flush, which got some debris out and took care of the fluid buildup, and gave me some ofloxacin drops to give him twice a day to prevent/fight any infections (I just ran out the other day, and I’m kind of surprised they lasted as long as they did. Giving eye drops to a chameleon is hard haha). Fortunately that seems to have pretty much done it, his aim is returning (he stopped using his tongue for a few days at one point ) and his eyes look much better, although they are still a tad droopy. Most importantly though he’s stopped sleeping with them open as far as I can tell, which was really making me worried. Things seem to be looking up!

I upgraded his cage to big boy status with thicker branches and opened up the rest of it by moving the floor from the middle to the bottom, although I kept the platform it was on to use as support (it makes more sense in the pictures).

Speaking of which, even though I wasn’t posting I was still taking pictures fairly regularly, if not as often, so I still have a decent record of his growth. Those of you who followed my old thread know that I’m quite fond of sharing photos, so with no further ado, here are some pics of him from over the last two months or so, organized in chronological order courtesy of photobucket.













“…what?”





Really starting to see those colors…

 

[Jupiter]

So I have no idea what, if anything, triggered it, but one evening he showed the craziest colors, I’ve never seem him do anything like it before or since. Unfortunately all the pics I got were blurry, but you get the idea





That’s only a little bit of overexposure on his head, his pads were really white!









I borrowed my dads camera and got some nice outdoor shots.



This was a miss…



…this was not!






Skeptical…





Here’s what his cage looks like now. I was really surprised with how easily he made the transition.

 

[Jupiter]

I love this picture. His colors are bustin loose!





His eyes started acting up and I stopped taking pictures for a while. Here we are at the vet







He shed a week or so ago. It started just before bedtime, and must have loosened all night, because he was wearing it in the morning.







Doing a little cross-dressing?





The result!



I was giving him his drops and he decided to fire up for some reason.

 

[Jupiter]

These pics were all taken in the last few days.













Crusin through his freerange





I’ll try and update more often again, although I’m sure after all that you are probably totally sick of him for now haha. As long as I have an audience who appreciates natural beauty, check out this cool moth I found in my yard, this cool leaf I found in my yard, and the double rainbow I saw coming back from seeing Ferret.





This is only half of it; there were no trees or buildings to the left so you could see the full arch of it, storybook style. I couldn’t get a full pic because a car pulled up into that turn lane and then my light changed. Oh well.



That’s all folks! Thanks for looking!

 

[Jupiter]

Gah! Aesop almost gave me a heart attack! I left his door open to let him freerange as he pleased, stopped paying attention for a bit, and when I came back to check on him he was nowhere to be found! I checked all the usual spots, all the unusual spots, and eventually started semi dismantling things. This was over the course of like 20 minutes, and I started freaking out more and more until I started making all sorts of crazy jumps and correlations and working myself up. I had fed him butterworms for the first time earlier today and started thinking that maybe he had had an allergic reaction and had fallen, and was getting ready to take eveything apart and look on the floor, when I noticed him chilling on the mistking tubing on the other side of his cage! He must have gone up and over. He just seems to love throwing me curve balls every now and then. Or maybe he just wanted to check out the Dali poster behind his cage.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Perfect! You were on my list to call today to see how he was doing. His eyes look great! I'm glad he stopped sleeping with them open too...I didn't have a great explanation for that other than inflammation from conjunctivitis causing some swelling making it difficult for them to close fully. He flashed the prettiest colors during his oculonasal flush! Eye drops are fun aren't they? You should try eye ointments! I gave up on mine and switched to drops after like a day. Great pictures of your handsome boy! Not that I don't love seeing him, but hope he doesn't need to see me again soon.

 

[pigglett79]

Very nice pictures. He is so colorful. I love the story you create with the pics and the random ones at the end. Glad his eye is doing better.

 

[jannb]

He has really grown and turning into such a handsome little man. Welcome back and thanks for all the great shots of Aesop.

 

[Jupiter]

Perfect! You were on my list to call today to see how he was doing. His eyes look great! I'm glad he stopped sleeping with them open too...I didn't have a great explanation for that other than inflammation from conjunctivitis causing some swelling making it difficult for them to close fully. He flashed the prettiest colors during his oculonasal flush! Eye drops are fun aren't they? You should try eye ointments! I gave up on mine and switched to drops after like a day. Great pictures of your handsome boy! Not that I don't love seeing him, but hope he doesn't need to see me again soon.

Yeah me too haha. It's nice to be able to chat with a fellow cham lover, but...you're The Vet. Going to see the vet pretty much sucks, unless it's just a physical. I can't even image ointments, the drops were such a pain. His whole turret usually ended up soaked before I got one in. I found it helped sometimes to get a drop to form on the end of the nozzle and then wait for him to look out and then "bonk" it into his eye from the side. But oi. I think we're both glad that's done with haha. The only other thing I can think of that may have caused it (and I don't really know how much this makes sense, since things seem to have cleared up and this is still there) is that I noticed that that fungus in his schefflera didn't go away (in fact it did the other thing), so that may be messing with him. Either way I'm just going to chuck it tomorrow when I overhaul his cage. Thanks for the compliments on my pictures! (And all your help of course)

Very nice pictures. He is so colorful. I love the story you create with the pics and the random ones at the end. Glad his eye is doing better.

Thank you for the kind words, I am too! His colors really ratcheted up a notch after his most recent shed. I'm glad you like my pictures

He has really grown and turning into such a handsome little man. Welcome back and thanks for all the great shots of Aesop.

Thank you for the re-welcome It has been super fun watching him grow, I only wish I had been a little more diligent about picture taking while I was gone . I wish mine came out as good as yours though

 

[Thegreatfonz]

My friend Aesop! He looks sooo good! After that shed his colors are poppin! Glad to see his eye is doing better, is he completely over it yet?

 

[LLGabriel]

Great thread!! Your pictures are great and Aesop looks to be enjoying life! I'm glad you found him peeking around that cord! Been there haha! That brief moment of panic is horrible! Happy to see he's doing well. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Jupiter]

My friend Aesop! He looks sooo good! After that shed his colors are poppin! Glad to see his eye is doing better, is he completely over it yet?

Thanks man! I can only guess what he'll do after the next one Not completely, but like 95% I'd say. His aim is still not great, but now that I think back on it he's never really been much of a sharpshooter. I've seen him make some pretty long shots, especially when the food is loose, but it seems like if he can, he usually prefers to get within three or four inches. How's Renly? Are there any newer pics you can direct me to?

Great thread!! Your pictures are great and Aesop looks to be enjoying life! I'm glad you found him peeking around that cord! Been there haha! That brief moment of panic is horrible! Happy to see he's doing well. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! I'm glad you like them Yeah it's no fun. At least it was indoors so I at least knew he was SOMEWHERE. It would be super scary to lose a cham outside

 

[drdepo]

Very Nice Pic!

 

[Jupiter]

Thank you very much

 

[ReptiGeek]

This thread has been so much fun to look through!
Aesop has come a long way, beautiful variety of colouration!
Thanks for sharing, keep it up!

 

[Jupiter]

Thank you thank you I definitely will. I know, he seems to be rockin the whole rainbow right now! We'll see how much of it sticks around