White nose??

[skeleptica]

Lola seems happy and healthy but I started noticing yesterday that her nose is turning white... I thought maybe she was going to start shedding or something but it's just her nose... there's no cocaine stash anywhere that I can find... heh. any suggestions?

B

 

[Phatturk]

I have read on here in other posts that it comes from the animals salt glands as a way to excrete salt basically. Its not harmful as far as I have read and I guess it is pretty normal because it happened to my little guy as well.

 

[skeleptica]

that's a bit of a relief... any suggestions as to why they do this?

 

[Heika]

How heavily are you supplementing? Chameleons will also discharge excess minerals, etc. from their nose.

 

[Jordan]

that's a bit of a relief... any suggestions as to why they do this?

They do this to conserve water. If it came out the other end they would have to use water to expel the waste.

 

[skeleptica]

so does this mean that she is possibly dehydrated?

 

[Cherron]

Nope, not in my experience. My veileds are the only chameleons that I have that get the white crustiness on the nose and really only my female veiled. I have never had a problem with her hydration. She gets the white crustiness around her nose occasionally.. maybe once every other month. I just dampen a cotton swab with plain water and gently wipe it away. As long as she has no other signs of dehydration (urates yellow or orange, sunken eyes, "loose" looking skin) then I wouldn't worry about it being a factor.

Over supplementation can also cause this, as Heika pointed out. What dusting schedule are you following? What are you gutloading your feeders with?