Worried about baby chams eye!!

Karyme18

Member
So I just got my baby chameleon and now she is about 2 months old almost 3 and she was doing great but I started noticing something off about her yesterday. She has been laying her head down more then usual and she has been a bit shaky so I assumed she was dehydrated and I got a dripper. Today I noticed that she cannot see me out of one eye which worries me since she is still a baby. Usually when I get close she’ll hiss at me but when I got close today she would not hiss at me or follow my finger with her right eye (facing her). I’ve never had a chameleon of my own but I had been taking care of our class chameleon for a year about a year ago. Im extremely worried about her.
Her cage temp is at 80 F and humidity is usually over 50%.
 
Veiled chameleon, female, 2-3 months old, I’ve had her since December.
She is handled about 2-3 times a week.
I feed her meal wormswith calcium that has d3 dusted 2 times a week, gut loaded crickets sometimes.
I used to mist with a reptile spray bottle and I used water conditioner. She is sprayed about 2-3 times a day. Now I own a dripper.
Her droppings are white and brown not runny.
I had a glass cage until today now I have a tall screen cage about 3ft.
I have 12 hour cycle with the lighting and it’s 25 Watts.
Her basking spot is around 80F and the rest of her enclosure is around 70F. Humidity levels are usually over 50%.
She has a pothos plant and a few fake plants.
My cage is not near any breezes, or high traffic areas and her enclosure is about 3 feet off the ground.
I live in New York but I have good heating in my house so it is rarely cold inside.
My concern is that she cannot see out of one eye. She usually hisses when I come close but with her right eye she cannot see me and does not follow any movement that is in front of her at the time.
 
Veiled chameleon, female, 2-3 months old, I’ve had her since December.
She is handled about 2-3 times a week.
I feed her meal wormswith calcium that has d3 dusted 2 times a week, gut loaded crickets sometimes.
I used to mist with a reptile spray bottle and I used water conditioner. She is sprayed about 2-3 times a day. Now I own a dripper.
Her droppings are white and brown not runny.
I had a glass cage until today now I have a tall screen cage about 3ft.
I have 12 hour cycle with the lighting and it’s 25 Watts.
Her basking spot is around 80F and the rest of her enclosure is around 70F. Humidity levels are usually over 50%.
She has a pothos plant and a few fake plants.
My cage is not near any breezes, or high traffic areas and her enclosure is about 3 feet off the ground.
I live in New York but I have good heating in my house so it is rarely cold inside.
My concern is that she cannot see out of one eye. She usually hisses when I come close but with her right eye she cannot see me and does not follow any movement that is in front of her at the time.
Ok what type of lighting are you using? Are they dome lights with uvb and heat bulb? Or are you running a T5 or T8 linear fixture for uvb?
 
Starting with the info you provided.
Mealworms are to never be given to Chams as they can become impacted due to being very hard for them to digest.
Calcium with D3 is only given 1 time to feeders.. Lightly dusted every 2 weeks. Or she can have a D3 overdose.
Crickets should be properly gutloaded every time. That is how she gets the nutrients is from the crickets eating them.
Keep using the spray bottle even with the dripper. Spray for at least 2 minutes 3 times a day. On leaves not her directly.
Screen cage is much better.
12 hour lighting schedule is correct with no lighting at all at night.
Basking spot is a little low. Should be no more then 85 degrees
Humidity is fine.
Lighting.... This is an issue. You need a T5 or T8 linear fixture with a 5.0 uvb bulb. This should be the length of your cage on the top. Compact uvb bulbs do not work and the cham can have eyes issues and much more leading to MBD.

I am going to link here the care sheet for your baby. https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
Plus additional resources here https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/
Read through all of these to help make your corrections. If one area of their husbandry is off then they can get sick.
 
Starting with the info you provided.
Mealworms are to never be given to Chams as they can become impacted due to being very hard for them to digest.
Calcium with D3 is only given 1 time to feeders.. Lightly dusted every 2 weeks. Or she can have a D3 overdose.
Crickets should be properly gutloaded every time. That is how she gets the nutrients is from the crickets eating them.
Keep using the spray bottle even with the dripper. Spray for at least 2 minutes 3 times a day. On leaves not her directly.
Screen cage is much better.
12 hour lighting schedule is correct with no lighting at all at night.
Basking spot is a little low. Should be no more then 85 degrees
Humidity is fine.
Lighting.... This is an issue. You need a T5 or T8 linear fixture with a 5.0 uvb bulb. This should be the length of your cage on the top. Compact uvb bulbs do not work and the cham can have eyes issues and much more leading to MBD.

I am going to link here the care sheet for your baby. https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
Plus additional resources here https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/
Read through all of these to help make your corrections. If one area of their husbandry is off then they can get sick.
Thank you very much. The man at the pet store told me that superworms caused impaction which is why I was feeding her meal worms instead but I will definitely fix what I was doing wrong. I appreciate this very much
 
Your chameleon is probably calcium deficient, they need uv light to metabolize calcium, calcium deficiency eventually will kill a chameleon, you need to get a linear 10.0 t-5 or t-8 uvb bulb 2 foot or 4 foot fixture, depending on your set up and a veiled should be in a 2' x 2' x 4' at least bigger will be better, meal worms for a chameleon will cause problems, stop feeding mealworms, get bsfl larvae and crickets and gutload both with organic vegetebles. Daytime temp should be over 75 - 83 and night temp should be 60-62, others will chime in with the rest of the info
 
Thank you very much. The man at the pet store told me that superworms caused impaction which is why I was feeding her meal worms instead but I will definitely fix what I was doing wrong. I appreciate this very much
Yeah unfortunately the people that sell the stuff at the pet stores are not always very educated. Read through the links I gave you and listen to everyone's feedback. Everyone here will steer you in the right direction. Use the search feature of the forum to look up specifics. You will find a ton of great info from others posts as well. :)
 
Yeah unfortunately the people that sell the stuff at the pet stores are not always very educated. Read through the links I gave you and listen to everyone's feedback. Everyone here will steer you in the right direction. Use the search feature of the forum to look up specifics. You will find a ton of great info from others posts as well. :)
Your chameleon is probably calcium deficient, they need uv light to metabolize calcium, calcium deficiency eventually will kill a chameleon, you need to get a linear 10.0 t-5 or t-8 uvb bulb 2 foot or 4 foot fixture, depending on your set up and a veiled should be in a 2' x 2' x 4' at least bigger will be better, meal worms for a chameleon will cause problems, stop feeding mealworms, get bsfl larvae and crickets and gutload both with organic vegetebles. Daytime temp should be over 75 - 83 and night temp should be 60-62, others will chime in with the rest of the info
Thank you I will for sure fix all this ASAP
 
Beman is right about pet stores!!!!! I think legal action should be taken against them for animal cruelty it would be a permanant fix of the problem.... on another note people here will help you and there are a treasure trove of husbandry info on this site if you care to research
 
Beman is right about pet stores!!!!! I think legal action should be taken against them for animal cruelty it would be a permanant fix of the problem.... on another note people here will help you and there are a treasure trove of husbandry info on this site if you care to research
For sure I’ve seen some of things pet store people do and it’s awful!!! But I’m extremely glad I found this website because I was freaking out and everyone here seems extremely nice And very helpful.
 
So my chameleon is looking much better she’s moving around the cage more and can see out of her eye again. I am gutloading my crickets and I am feeding her superworms and hornworms. I also got the right light. So thanks a lot for the help!!
 
So my chameleon is looking much better she’s moving around the cage more and can see out of her eye again. I am gutloading my crickets and I am feeding her superworms and hornworms. I also got the right light. So thanks a lot for the help!!
Wonderful to hear. You will find a lot of info by searching old threads as well. And of course ask questions when you need to. :)
 
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