Baby Veiled arrived with eyes closed, has not opened them

B

Breezie

New Member
Chameleon Info:

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Male Veiled, arrived yesterday. Age unknown
Handling - just to move from his shipping container to his enclosure
Feeding - He will be eating gut loaded crickets...hasn't eaten yet
Supplements - Rep Cal Calcium and Reptivites
Watering - misting w/ warm water w/ the spray bottle 4x a day
Fecal Description -black adn white
History -Arrived via fed ex from LLLReptile on 12/27

Cage Info:

Cage Type - 18 x 18 x 36" Aluminum Screen Cage
Lighting - Zoo Med Mini Deep Dome Lamp, 100wt Zoo Med Powersun Bulb, lights ON 8am to 8pm
Temperature - 73-89 degrees
Placement - Where is your cage located? living room, not a high traffic area
Location - Washington DC area


Current Problem -Baby Veiled arrived with his eyes closed, and has not opened them. He is walking around blindly in his enclosure.
Attached are pics.

329026_10152382045420201_1046000508_o.jpg


282857_10152381974120201_1111140674_n.jpg


206785_10152382059810201_1032618720_n.jpg
 
Thanks Molly!!!

Talked to LLL Reptile. They are always so helpful :)
I'm going to keep misting him and watch him and hopefully its' just stress form the shipping.
 
My sister had a baby veiled that this happened to, it didn't open it's eyes so they took it to the vet and it died their because the vet accidentally choked it, best of luck!
 
he hasn't eaten in 3 days at least (since I've hard him) because he can't see his food. I'm sad. I have been doing what LLL reptile said-continue misting w/ warmish water. Hopefully we'll fix this- I'm kinda attached to this little guy.
 
May be totally wrong as I'm new to all this I have a kinyonga and mine did the same took it too the vets and the temp was too hot in the viv. May not be the same for you but good luck. Pet shop we got him from have us totally wrong info about all my questions vet really helped
 
I got A jackson chameleon the same day you did and its eyes were closed too. It died 2 days ago. I do not know about you, but the customer service was terrible and I just got my credit today. They gave me way wrong care info which I did not listen too, I am not a fan of LLLreptile. So I got one from a private owned pet shop and he is eating, drinking, and totally chill already.
 
Hopefully he has been drinking plenty of fluids and the mistings that you are giving him are several minutes long each, getting his plants nice and wet to ensure that he is in a humid enough environment.
It should dry between mistings, rather than being constantly wet, though.
The fact that he is active is a good sign but like you said, he needs to open his eyes to eat.
Has he opened either eye at all since he arrived?

Perhaps someone else more familiar with the Powersun bulbs will chime in with their thoughts but I'm wondering if the light may be too bright. I believe that your cham's cage is too warm for a baby veiled. Older chams can deal with hotter temps than the babies.

If it was my cham, unless the room is exceptionally cold, I would temporarily replace the 100 watt bulb with a lower wattage like a 60 watt, mist him and/or rinse his eyes and see if he opens his eyes after a couple of hours like this.
Since he arrived with closed eyes, it may not be the solution but it is worth a try, IMHO.

You can try directly rinsing his eyes with a stream of sterile saline solution like Bausch & Lomb Sensitive Eyes Plus saline solution.

As annoying as it is to bring a new pet to the vet--although it's often one of the first things done for a new dog or cat--it might be best to have a vet with plenty of reptile experience look at him before he begins to suffer from lack of food.
A vet can determine if he has infected eyes or a vitamin A deficiency, unless the saline solution rinse gets his eyes to open shortly.

If you don't already know of a competent reptile vet, you can let us know where you are and maybe someone knows of a good cham vet in your area and you can have a look at the links here and in this post for locating a vet with reptile experience:

http://www.arav.org/find-a-vet/

https://www.chameleonforums.com/veterinarian-resources-67/

If he opens his mouth at all, you can drop a juicy waxworm in his mouth and see if he eats it.
 
Get a sterilite tote and line the bottom with paper towel. Put your vines in the tote for climbing area.

Spray the vines (best to have live because it does hole the water drops longer versus being absorbed into the cloth) thoroughly and paper towels till they are damp *NOT soaking wet. when spraying also spray the chameleon but not with the force of the spray. spray above the little one and the mist fall upon him. The attempt here is to try and keep the humidity in the 50-60's with surfaces allowing him to drink from.

Set up the basking temp in the mid to high 80's. Let the paper towel dry out then spray again.
 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone for the help... he's still alive,and I've brought down the temp.
While his eyes are still shut, he has been drinking. Today, I made him real mad, and he did amazing color displays. He opened his mouth at me, showing how mad he was, and I had a brilliant idea...stuff a cricket in it. So that's what I did. I have gotten him to eat 2 crickets that way. We'll see if this will help keep this little guy alive :) I am happy there's some progress, although no eyes open.
 
way to think on your feet!
keep at it,
i think that getting food n water in him is fantastic!

it will be well worth it when he perks up.
get us a pic when he opens his eyes on wednesday!
hope springs eternal!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Veiled Chameleon Closed Eye and rubbing on branches
Replies
8
Views
374
MissSkittles
MissSkittles
E
Chameleon closed eyes during the day
2
Replies
23
Views
608
Sonny13
Sonny13
A
HELP PLZ both eyes closed and cant feed him
Replies
13
Views
903
Beman
Beman
O
(HOME FOUND) 2 year old Veiled Chameleon rehome - North DFW
Replies
1
Views
649
Ozone
O
C
Panther chameleon eye issue
Replies
3
Views
466
SteveH
SteveH
Back
Top Bottom