veil cham acts weird

fusionf5

New Member
I have a 3 or so inch veil Chameleon not including tail. She's a female and I have only had her for about 2 or 3 weeks. She eats about ten crickets with one meal worm a day. But she had been acting weird lately. She would just look up at the lights for a bit than act normal again. Than she started to rub her face along the plants and vines. No today she does the same thing but went under the water dripper and "took a shower" pretty much. After that she went up on the vine and went to sleep at 2 pm. Than I took her out to get the water off her eyes and she walked on my hand with her eyes closed and kinda sounded like she had trouble breathing and couldn't keep her eyes open. Now an hour later she seems normal but sleepy. Don't think she ate today either.
 
Day time sleep is often a sign that something 's wrong. Keep a close eye on her. They can rest during daytime, but they have to open their eyes as soon as you approach them.
If she continues to act strange in your opinion, go seek a vet.
 
Your Chameleon - veil Chameleon 3 inches long without tail. Not sure age but I'd guess 5 months? She is mostly green never really shows dark besides the first day I got her. She is mostly active.
Handling - once a week maybe. Not for long just to clean or move.
Feeding - about 8 crickets a day. Two or three times a day with one or two meal worms.
Supplements -
Watering - dripper. I coat the leaves like 3 times a day. Dripper is going as much as I can. And I see her sometimes drink it.
Fecal Description - she goes in the bowl to collect water so not to sure. Mostly brown and white
History - reptile expo in ny.

Cage Info:Cage Type - 1.5x1.5x2.5h for now.
Lighting - repti glo 2.0 uvb 13w. And night glo 50w infrared. Uvb on off 8 am to 8 pm with timer.
Temperature - high of 92 in heat and 90 is in uvb light. Bottom is 80 lowest.
Humidity - I need to check that.
Plants -fake plants with one pothos
Placement - in bed room. I'm normal not home a lot. Just to feed and water her.
Location -new jersey



Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
 
Your Chameleon - veil Chameleon 3 inches long without tail. Not sure age but I'd guess 5 months? She is mostly green never really shows dark besides the first day I got her. She is mostly active.
Handling - once a week maybe. Not for long just to clean or move.
Feeding - about 8 crickets a day. Two or three times a day with one or two meal worms.
Supplements -
Watering - dripper. I coat the leaves like 3 times a day. Dripper is going as much as I can. And I see her sometimes drink it.
Fecal Description - she goes in the bowl to collect water so not to sure. Mostly brown and white
History - reptile expo in ny.

Cage Info:Cage Type - 1.5x1.5x2.5h for now.
Lighting - repti glo 2.0 uvb 13w. And night glo 50w infrared. Uvb on off 8 am to 8 pm with timer.
Temperature - high of 92 in heat and 90 is in uvb light. Bottom is 80 lowest.
Humidity - I need to check that.
Plants -fake plants with one pothos
Placement - in bed room. I'm normal not home a lot. Just to feed and water her.
Location -new jersey



Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

TOo Hot, too hhot!!!! keep high temp to 80-85 max, everywhere down to 70-75.

lighting- get reptisun or repti glow 5.0(linear tube, not coil/compact- blinds them or other eye probs, the2.0 mght be too weak. get basking light use a regualr hardware bulb about 60 watts( the red bulb is bad for them, can cause eye probs, they sleep at night so everything goes off, get digigtal thermometer, and hydrometer....need more live plants, probably bigger cage

good thing you are doing is watering her, dripper and misting, feeding is okay....have you tried supplements????

hopefully moe poeple can chime in to help you more:)
 
for being only 3 inches, i dont think that she is 5 months maybe 3-4, i think your temperatures may be a bit high try lowering it to the high 80s in the basking spot. Id also recommend getting a reptisun 5.0 tube bulb everyone seems to be recommending it on this forum. How long do your mistings last, is it just to coat the leaves? or is the water dripping off the leaves as if it were raining. What is your humidity level at? Sorry so many questions :p if she it sounds like she is having trouble breathing she may have a respiratory infection
 
Troubled breathing is not a good thing.

Also if you have a bowl in the cage to collect water you might want to think about creating some type of drainage system to get the water away from the enclosure.

Do you not have a hygrometer? I picked up a digital outdoor one at the local hardware store. It has a probe on the end of 5 ft. wire that I was able to position where I saw fit. It cost me 20 bucks, well worth the investment.

My uneducated but logical guess would be that your cage is consistently too humid from all that water within the enclosure and she could be getting some sort of respiratory infection. I would defiantly call your vet though.
 
I guess pet store workers told me the wrong lighting stuff than.. when i went to buy the lights I forgot to bring the info on which ones so I just asked. And the cage is for now I'm getting one a lot bigger with more live plants. And I did think it was that infection. Is there any thing I can give her
 
The dripper will go as long as I'm home. And I mist 3 times a day and get the leaves pretty wet so it runs. Thanks for all the help
 
she will be better off now without that light! and dont worry they like the teps to dip in the night where veilds are from the temps get extremely hot and cold, they are hardy as hell!
 
The Pet Stores strike again!

Damn dude. Wish the pet store didn't sell me that crap. Can I use a regular house light bulb till tomorrow

Typical Pet Store story... they are willing to sell you anything that's thier job, unfortunatley thier job really does not require they know what they are talking about! Yikes!

Well you are on the right track w/ the Forums so good lucck with your Cham!
:eek:
 
Also I am surprised nobody said this but mealworms run a risk of impaction, and feeding them frequently to a chameleon of that size could lead to other problems down the road. So you may wanna cut down on the mealworms to every several feedings or something instead of every time. You should be able to get the reptiglo linear 5.0 from a pet store, but people say reptisun 5.0 is better. I have the reptiglo and my cham is relatively healthy.
 
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