Why does he do this??

[chamclaris]

Hello everyone. I have a six month old panther and
every once and a while he will suck everything in for a few seconds and then relax. This is my first and only chameleon and I was wondering if this is something they all do and if anyone knows why hes doing it?
I would greatly appreciate your feed back. [emoji3]

 

[Chameleonlove5]

That is weird female 8month old veiled chameleon rocks ???

 

[kinyonga]

Can you post a couple more photos of it please? In that photo the head pads don't look puffed up like they should.

 

[Psychobunny]

Could be the start of a respitory infection, or just plain old congrestion.
Watch him close for coughing, breathing with mouth open, discharge from nose, etc.
It's likely nothing, but always best to look for symtoms early.

Chams can get congresion like people, sometimes just raising the temp, and increasing the RH will loosen it up in a few days.
Keep him away from fans, drafts, AC, etc. just to be on the safe side.

Like I said, it's probably nothing, but be alert anyway

 

[chamclaris]

Could be the start of a respitory infection, or just plain old congrestion.
Watch him close for coughing, breathing with mouth open, discharge from nose, etc.
It's likely nothing, but always best to look for symtoms early.

Chams can get congresion like people, sometimes just raising the temp, and increasing the RH will loosen it up in a few days.
Keep him away from fans, drafts, AC, etc. just to be on the safe side.

Like I said, it's probably nothing, but be alert anyway

Thank you for your response! He has been doing this on occasion ever since I got him 4/25/14. He mostly does it during misting sessions. He saw the vet 5/13/14 and she said he was perfectly healthy. I havent noticed any signs of respiratory problems other than one day last week he sat around with his mouth open but then never did it again. His nose is very clear, no discharge or coughing. Although over the past two weeks he has developed a bit of swelling around his neck that fluctuates throughout the day.I believe its some kind of edema. It looks very similar to the examples ive seen of gular edema. I have been doing my best to improve his husbandry and to be as consitant as possible. I changed his supplementing routine which seems to have helped.

 

[Psychobunny]

What all suppliments are you using, and are you gut loading your feeders?

Does he ever stick his head straight up and stay that way for a few minutes?

What do his poops look like?
How is his appetite?

 

[chamclaris]

What all suppliments are you using, and are you gut loading your feeders?

Does he ever stick his head straight up and stay that way for a few minutes?

What do his poops look like?
How is his appetite?

I had been supplementing with Repashy Calcium + every day but since I noticed this problem about 2 weeks ago I changed to using it once a week and I am now dusting with reptical calcium d3 and phosphate free powder the other six days of the week. I gutload with repashy bug burger that I replace every day. I use a dripper for one hr when he wakes up and I feed 10-12 crickets 30-60 min after the lights turn on. He loves to eat and he almost always eats them all within 10- 15 min. (he is really good with hand feeding) I mist 3X a day raising humidity to 65-80% and letting it drop to 30-40% in between mistings. He gets about 2 hrs of natural sunlight a week. I use reptisun T8 5.0. His basking is 95°F and the coolest part of his cage is 72°F. His poops are solid and brown but over the past week his urates have become increasingly runny but white, not a hint of orange. Every once and a while he arches his head back. Only once have I seen him do it for a few min. this is when I took the first picture I posted. He usually only does it for a few seconds but has been doing it more often the past two weeks. Maybe every 2-5 days or so. Also, a couple of days ago he strained way to hard while pooping and I saw a bundle of pink tissue come out of him. It went back in within 30 sec. though. It looked juat like the pics I have seen of intestinal prolapse. Today he seems alot better. Swelling is still there but he is active, has a strong grip and his colors look great. This is sn improvement from the last two days. Thank you for the input

 

[Psychobunny]

Your not dusting with cal+D3 every day are you?

You only want to give them that once a week, or every 2 weeks, depending on how much natural sun he gets.

The repashy cal+ (original formula) has D3 and everything else in it, so I use that instead of plain calcium with D3.

I also use the repashy cal+ LowD formula for my jacksons.

Use plain calcium with almost every feeding (I dont dust the worms) and the repashy cal+ original once a week, and a multivitamine once ever 3 weeks is what I do.
But you also need to take into account what you are gut loading your feeders with.

 

[chamclaris]

Yes I listed all that info above.