Chameleon with swollen eyes, please help!!

[kinyonga]

Her Color and size, etc. indicate that she is sexually mature and producing eggs. Please read the link @Ghostbirb gave you to @MissSkittles blog and pay particular attention to the feeding and temperature control…although, if she is full of eggs the feeding amount won’t change the number of eggs she’s already producing.

Best scenario right now would be if she lays/buries all the eggs she’s working on….and isn’t suffering from follicular stasis or dystocia.

 

[kinyonga]

• female veiled chameleon about 1.5-2 years old I think. Been in my care for a little over a year.
• She’s handled about two times a week gently with food as a reward. She doesn’t like human interaction much though, so I try to respect her boundaries.
• She’s feed once a day. Usually a mix of crickets/superworms/hornworms with fresh veggies like spinach, lettuce, carrots, and strawberries. Once a day feeding is not needed at this age. Follow what is in @MissSkittles blog. Better to add more variety of insects to her diet too…silk worms, roaches, hoppers, once in a while a wax worm. Go easy on the super worms and mealworms if you use them. For gutloading/feeding crickets, hoppers, roaches, you can use a wide assortment of greens and veggies such as dandelion greens, kale, collards, carrots, sweet potatoes, sweet red peppers, squash, zucchini…skip the spinach and lettuce. A very small amount of fruit such as berries, melon, apple, pear is ok….but keep the amount small.
• I dust my feeders with repti-calcium from zoo med. Phos free calipcium should be used at all feedings but two a month and on those two feedings a vitamin powder with D3 and a prEformed source of vitamin A should be used. All dustings should be light.
• I use a mist sprayer about three times a day (before school, after school, and before bed) and mist her enclosure heavily. I sometimes notice her opening her mouth when I mist her, but I think it’s out of annoyance (?)
• Usually brown/white. I recently noticed some yellow, so I started increasing her misting and gave her a warm water bath for about 10 minutes in a shallow dish. A tinge of yellow is ok…but too much yellow indicates dehydration.
• No previous health issues.

Screen cage ( I posted pictures of the enclosure in another comment)

• Lighting is the zoo med tropical uvb & heat lighting kit. lights go off every night around nine and I put a blanket over her cage since I usually stay up to work on my assignments. Most often recommended UVB lights are the ReptiSun 5.0 or the Arcadia 6% @Beman can give you good information about the position of the lights above the cage. A regular incandescent household bulb can be used for basking. No coloured lights are recommended.
• Middle of cage is about 70 degrees, top is about 80 usually.
• I use a humidity gauge in my enclosure. It’s usually around 70-80%
• No live plants, she likes to eat them. Live plants that are non toxic to chameleons are recommended. They help with humidity and since veiled chameleons nibble on plants, we want real once so they won’t nibble on fake once and become impacted if they succeed. Female veileds are particularly big nibblers.
• Cage is located in my room. Loudest it gets is when I play music, but i keep it quiet, since I don’t like loud music either. Sits next to my air purifier since it can get a little stinky. sits on a small table so about 2 feet off of the ground. Their hearing is somewhat limited but they can sense vibrations and actually communicate with vibrations at times. Does your air purifier blow air on the cage?
• Deep South. Very humid, very warm.

I will leave it up to someone else to add charts about gutloading and plants, etc. This covers many of the concerns already.

BTW, this doesn’t really cover the reason the eyes are swollen. You may need a good exotics vet to solve that issue.

 

[Ghostbirb]

To add onto @kinyonga's reply, my feedback will be in bold
Here it is:

• female veiled chameleon about 1.5-2 years old I think. Been in my care for a little over a year.
  • That sounds about right for age. Your girl is so pretty! As stated in replies above, right now your first priority is getting a lay bin ready and set up as egg binding is deadly.
• She’s handled about two times a week gently with food as a reward. She doesn’t like human interaction much though, so I try to respect her boundaries.
  • It's good to respect her boundaries, chameleons are very shy creatures and are kind of like fish, where they often do better with only being looked at and not touched. Even though you want to be as sparse with handling, it's always a good idea to gain trust with your chameleon in case you need to get them to the vet or something similar. Here is a great blog on how to build trust with your chameleon! https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/
• She’s feed once a day. Usually a mix of crickets/superworms/hornworms with fresh veggies like spinach, lettuce, carrots, and strawberries.
  • To start, unlike bearded dragons, chameleons are strictly insectivores and should only be fed bugs as their digestive system is not built to break down fruits and veggies. Secondly, you are feeding your girl too much. Chameleons are prone to obesity, and it can cause problems especially with egg laying females as a buildup in fat can impact their egg laying. For your girl you will want to be feeling her 3-5 appropriately sized bugs, (no wider than the distance between her eyes), every 2-3 days, for example I feed my veiled girl every monday, wednesday and friday. You have a decent variety of bugs going on which is good, but the super worms and hornworms should be fed in moderation as they are not the best staple feeders, I'll attach a chart on the best bugs to feed your chameleon!

While you dont want to be feeding your chameleon the fruits and veggies, you can feed them to you bugs. Gut Loading makes sure your bugs are healthy and nutritious enough to feed to your cham. Ill also attach a chart on it below.

• I dust my feeders with repti-calcium from zoo med.
  • Is this repti-calcium with or without D3? Supplements are very important as you can overdose your chameleon and problems can arise, such that this could be the cause of your girl's eye issues. You will want Repti-calcium without D3 dusted on your feeder every feeding, and then you will want a vitamin that get used instead of the calcium twice every month, like on the 1st and 16th. The one many of us use is Reptivite as it has all the necessary vitamins and d3.
• I use a mist sprayer about three times a day (before school, after school, and before bed) and mist her enclosure heavily. I sometimes notice her opening her mouth when I mist her, but I think it’s out of annoyance (?)
  • Some chameleons love misting, and some hate it, your girl may not like 1. The misting and 2. You going into her cage.
• Usually brown/white. I recently noticed some yellow, so I started increasing her misting and gave her a warm water bath for about 10 minutes in a shallow dish.
  • The brown and white shows good hydrations and a little bit of yellow is usually ok. If the poop is mainly yellow/orange, then your chameleon is dehydrated. It's not recommended to soak your chameleons as there is no evidence of them absorbing the water through their cloaca, they are also dry shedders, so soaking could cause shedding to be harder for them. If you're worried about hydration, silkworms and occasional hornworms are great for hydration!
• No previous health issues.

• Screen cage ( I posted pictures of the enclosure in another comment)
  • So from what I can see of your enclosure, it is much too small for your girl. The minimum size requirement is 2x2x4’ or something equivalent. The bigger the better. You will also want to remove the green carpeting on the bottom as it can be a breeding ground for bacteria. I'll go over plants and sticks later on.
• Lighting is the zoo med tropical uvb & heat lighting kit. lights go off every night around nine and I put a blanket over her cage since I usually stay up to work on my assignments.
  • I see this was addressed above. You do not want any colored lights, like blue or red as they can hurt your chameleon's eyes. I will also repeat for uvb you will need a linear T5HO with either ReptiSun. 5.0 or Arcadia 6% bulb.
• Middle of cage is about 70 degrees, top is about 80 usually.
  • That's pretty good, for female veiled you do not have their basking area to go over 80 degrees. It's also good at night to have a temperature drop into the 60s.
• I use a humidity gauge in my enclosure. It’s usually around 70-80%
  • That humidity is good for nighttime but way too high for the day. You will want daytime humidity to be around 30-50%.
• No live plants, she likes to eat them.
  • You will want live plants as she may still nibble and eat the fake ones. If this happens she could get a fatal bowel obstruction. It's actually very type of common for our veiled chameleons to eat their plants, all my girls' plants are littered with bites. Chameleon Cage Plants - Chameleon Academy: chameleon academy has a lot of good information on plants, I recommend you check it out.
  • You also want to add lots of sticks as they act like highways for chameleons and are their main way to get around their enclosure. I would also recommend removing that fuzzy type vine as if your girl rubs on it, the material can come off and get into her eyes. Flukers or Pangea vines are suggested for climbing. Stay away from moss and black coated vines.
• Cage is located in my room. Loudest it gets is when I play music, but i keep it quiet, since I don’t like loud music either. Sits next to my air purifier since it can get a little stinky. sits on a small table so about 2 feet off of the ground.
• Deep South. Very humid, very warm.

Im sure if I missed or forgot anything then other will chime in!

 

[GrannyK]

No laying bin, i never even realized i needed one! And she looks a little plump because she was puffed up since my evil phone violated her precious personal space, lol

Thankfully your in good hands here, I’m not experienced as others here so follow their recommendations and I hope your little girl stays strong!!
Welcome to the forum!!

 

[Jo_bo_24]

Hi everybody!

I have a 1.5 year old female veiled chameleon. She has been perfectly healthy her whole life until now. About two week ago, i noticed her eyes were slightly swollen. I misted her and they went back to normal, so i assumed she was just cleaning her eyes. Today, i noticed that her stool has been yellow for a bit, so i gave her a warm bath and misted her whole enclosure. The humidity in the cage always remains at about 80%. However, i recently noticed that her eyes started swelling up again slightly and i am worried. I think it might be a vitamin A deficiency or dehydration. I think it might be because I feed her superworms regularly, so i will be cutting back on that. The problem is that I am a minor, and vets are very expensive in my area. Please tell me if there is any way i could do this without a vet. I will bring her, but i wanted to make sure that im not just being paranoid and then getting stiffed out of $100 for an appointment. I really dont want anything to happen to her any help is greatly appreciated please . Ive attached an image of her below.View attachment 355073

New non-tinted UVA lighting, more nutritional food, more sparse feedings, and a laying box!! (I had to cover her enclosure because she seems to be very shy while laying ) our new problem is that she seems completely uninterested in her laying box!! I’m very anxious because I don’t want to be eggbound is that normal behavior?

 

[kinyonga]

Her plumpness worries me.I think she’s carrying a big load of eggs and that can be trouble. If she starts to decline, you will need to get her to a good chameleon vet immediately. Decline…sitting low in the branches, sleeping during the day, lethargic, etc. Even if she does have a lot of eggs, it’s not always a complete death sentence…some can manage to lay them all. It’s really up to her in a way.

 

[MzLaurie]

Hello. I think the one stick that you put in the Lay bin maybe too steep for her she needs several safe routes to get to the bottom of her cage and into and out of the laybin. Also you may want to add some more sand soil so she can really dig. Make sure it’s moist enough and packed enough so you can dig a hole without the sides collapsing in. The vines from fluker farms are great and you can get them from Amazon for real cheap. They have three sizes. Medium may be a good start for her. In the meantime get some sticks that are as thick as you pinky that she can wrap her feet around and zip ties and get creative make her a jungle gym. They love to climb and explore. Now the eye issue that hasn’t been addressed. It’s actually her eye lids that swelled up. Since it is both eyes I seriously doubt it’s infection. I think that since she hasn’t had a multivitamin it’s most likely lack of vitamin A. Also insufficient uvb could be the cause. A linear uvb that is long enough to span the entire width of the top of her cage would be great. Also, since you know she likes to eat plants I would buy a head of collard greens from the grocery store, rinse off well and keep in frig standing up in a vase type container and it will last a month or more. On the days you don’t feed her, put some pieces of collard greens in her dish and see if she will eat that. It has the highest source of vitamin A and K of all greens. Offering her a salad may keep her from eating the new live plants you get. Don’t worry if her poo gets darker, that’s normal. When my gal gets ready to lay eggs, she stops eating and drinking for about three days. I am in agreement that if she doesn’t start going to the bottom of the cage soon or shows any signs of lethargic behavior to get her to a vet as she may be egg bound. I am so glad you came here and asked for help. Bravo to you! I know you want the best for her and there is so much misinformation out there this is the best place for advice. Chameleons are so amazing and we are all still learning about their needs. Please keep us all updated. Oh the chameleon academy on line has great tips for cage set up too.

 

[MzLaurie]

Oh I forgot to mention you said you are hand misting. It is a possibility that there may be some bacteria buildup in your mister. That could cause her eyes to become irritated. Make sure it’s clean out really good. Put a cap full of bleach in then fill it with water and let it sit for at least an hour then throughly clean it out with soap and water and flush it several times so there is no bleach residue left behind before you resume using it. You should do this about once a month to avoid bacteria growing in the water.

 

[Jo_bo_24]

Hello. I think the one stick that you put in the Lay bin maybe too steep for her she needs several safe routes to get to the bottom of her cage and into and out of the laybin. Also you may want to add some more sand soil so she can really dig. Make sure it’s moist enough and packed enough so you can dig a hole without the sides collapsing in. The vines from fluker farms are great and you can get them from Amazon for real cheap. They have three sizes. Medium may be a good start for her. In the meantime get some sticks that are as thick as you pinky that she can wrap her feet around and zip ties and get creative make her a jungle gym. They love to climb and explore. Now the eye issue that hasn’t been addressed. It’s actually her eye lids that swelled up. Since it is both eyes I seriously doubt it’s infection. I think that since she hasn’t had a multivitamin it’s most likely lack of vitamin A. Also insufficient uvb could be the cause. A linear uvb that is long enough to span the entire width of the top of her cage would be great. Also, since you know she likes to eat plants I would buy a head of collard greens from the grocery store, rinse off well and keep in frig standing up in a vase type container and it will last a month or more. On the days you don’t feed her, put some pieces of collard greens in her dish and see if she will eat that. It has the highest source of vitamin A and K of all greens. Offering her a salad may keep her from eating the new live plants you get. Don’t worry if her poo gets darker, that’s normal. When my gal gets ready to lay eggs, she stops eating and drinking for about three days. I am in agreement that if she doesn’t start going to the bottom of the cage soon or shows any signs of lethargic behavior to get her to a vet as she may be egg bound. I am so glad you came here and asked for help. Bravo to you! I know you want the best for her and there is so much misinformation out there this is the best place for advice. Chameleons are so amazing and we are all still learning about their needs. Please keep us all updated. Oh the chameleon academy on line has great tips for cage set up too.

Im addressing the vitamin A deficiency as we speak, but I never thought of collard greens! I will try those out. When I get home today, I will add more to the laying box for her to be comfortable. Thank you!!

 

[Jo_bo_24]

Oh I forgot to mention you said you are hand misting. It is a possibility that there may be some bacteria buildup in your mister. That could cause her eyes to become irritated. Make sure it’s clean out really good. Put a cap full of bleach in then fill it with water and let it sit for at least an hour then throughly clean it out with soap and water and flush it several times so there is no bleach residue left behind before you resume using it. You should do this about once a month to avoid bacteria growing in the water.

I never thought of that possibility! I just empty it out and rinse it with clean water