Sorry I accidentally posted this twice.
I have a 7 month old male nosey be panther chameleon. He has recently started to keep his left eye closed a lot. He will open it when he is eating or drinking and moving around, but most of the time when he is not moving, he will keep that eye close and the other open. His eye looks fine just like the other eye. There doesn't appear to be anything in it and it is not cloudy or anything. Other than that he seems to be in good health. He still eats and drinks and moves around. I know I should take him to a vet but that is just not possible right now because I do not have the money. If the problem persists or gets a lot worse, I might be able to get some money for a vet next week. I also ordered some reptaid today and will start dosing him with it once it arrives via mail. I realize that most people on this forum are not professional herp vets, but i bet there a lot of people here who have been successfully keeping chameleons longer than I have who know more than I do about possible illnesses. So any help or suggestions as to what this might be and what I can do about it would be greatly appreciated.
Here is some info on the husbandry:
-7 month old male nosey be panther purchased about 5 months ago from lll reptiles at the reptile show. He weighs about 44 grams.
-I try to only handle him when necessary which is about to twice once a week when I check his weight or mess with his cage. I know chameleons do not like to be held and they stress easily so I try not to handle him a lot.
-I try to offer my chameleon a wide variety of insects such as crickets, mealworms, waxworms, superworms, and dubia roaches. In the last month he has started to eat less and he hasn't been gaining as much weight. He also has lost his interest in crickets for the most part probably because they were they main part of his diet for the first 4 to five months. He used to eat about 10 to 15 smaller crickets or mealworms. Now I feed him larger insects like the super worms and he eats about 1 superworm a day and a couple smaller meal worms, wax worms, or small roaches.
-I feed all the insects calcium enriched food and I dust them once right after i purchase them. I recently realized that I was using the wrong calcium powder. I used to use the calcium powder with d3 every time I would dust the insects. I stopped using that calcium powder yesterday and now I use calcium without d3. I also use reptivite about twice a month. That also has d3 and that will now be the only source of d3 that I give him. Because I learned too much d3 is not good.
-I use a dripper twice a day around 9am and 5pm when I get off work. I see him drink from the dripper at least once a day. I also mist twice a day.
-His feces are fine urinate is white. He has had a fecal test once when he was about 3 months old and results were fine.
-He is in a 16x16x32 inch screen cage. When I get the money I am going to get him a bigger cage because he is starting to outgrow this one.
-For lighting, I use a reptisun 5.0 and a 50 watt basking bulb.
-Right now the temperature is about 70 to 80 with a basking spot at 80 to 90 at night the temp is around 60 to 70. The temperature is fluctuating because of the temperature outside. I live in phoenix and it is starting to heat up. I also do not use a heater and have not started the ac yet. Once the ac goes on, the temperature will for the most part stay the same during the day although it won't drop as low as 60 at night.
-humidity fluctuates from about 40% to 60% but for the most part stays around 50%
-For plants I use pathos and some other plant I got at the pet store I believe its a fern. I also have some fake leaves and vines and a piece of wood. Also no substrate.
-Right now the cage is located in my closet on a dresser thats about 3 and a half feet. The closet is about 2 feet deep and has 2 sliding doors. I always keep the door on his half of the closet open unless I have a lot of people in my room. His cage is also in the corner so two sides of the cage are against a wall. If this sounds like there is not enough air let me know. This just seemed like the best place to put it so I can just close the door if there are people around or music going so I don't stress him out. And like I said the closet is not deep the front of the cage comes up to the front of the closet.
-And like I said I live in Phoenix, Arizona
If you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know. I don't really go on forums so if I did not post this right or if it is in the wrong spot let me know. I just didn't really know what else I could do because I cannot afford to take him to a herp vet right now. I can answer any questions. I have been keeping chameleons for about a year. I try to give my chameleon the best care possible. I have researched a lot on chameleons and chameleon care (as one should do before they buy any pet), but if anything in my husbandry is off please let me know so I can fix it. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I have a 7 month old male nosey be panther chameleon. He has recently started to keep his left eye closed a lot. He will open it when he is eating or drinking and moving around, but most of the time when he is not moving, he will keep that eye close and the other open. His eye looks fine just like the other eye. There doesn't appear to be anything in it and it is not cloudy or anything. Other than that he seems to be in good health. He still eats and drinks and moves around. I know I should take him to a vet but that is just not possible right now because I do not have the money. If the problem persists or gets a lot worse, I might be able to get some money for a vet next week. I also ordered some reptaid today and will start dosing him with it once it arrives via mail. I realize that most people on this forum are not professional herp vets, but i bet there a lot of people here who have been successfully keeping chameleons longer than I have who know more than I do about possible illnesses. So any help or suggestions as to what this might be and what I can do about it would be greatly appreciated.
Here is some info on the husbandry:
-7 month old male nosey be panther purchased about 5 months ago from lll reptiles at the reptile show. He weighs about 44 grams.
-I try to only handle him when necessary which is about to twice once a week when I check his weight or mess with his cage. I know chameleons do not like to be held and they stress easily so I try not to handle him a lot.
-I try to offer my chameleon a wide variety of insects such as crickets, mealworms, waxworms, superworms, and dubia roaches. In the last month he has started to eat less and he hasn't been gaining as much weight. He also has lost his interest in crickets for the most part probably because they were they main part of his diet for the first 4 to five months. He used to eat about 10 to 15 smaller crickets or mealworms. Now I feed him larger insects like the super worms and he eats about 1 superworm a day and a couple smaller meal worms, wax worms, or small roaches.
-I feed all the insects calcium enriched food and I dust them once right after i purchase them. I recently realized that I was using the wrong calcium powder. I used to use the calcium powder with d3 every time I would dust the insects. I stopped using that calcium powder yesterday and now I use calcium without d3. I also use reptivite about twice a month. That also has d3 and that will now be the only source of d3 that I give him. Because I learned too much d3 is not good.
-I use a dripper twice a day around 9am and 5pm when I get off work. I see him drink from the dripper at least once a day. I also mist twice a day.
-His feces are fine urinate is white. He has had a fecal test once when he was about 3 months old and results were fine.
-He is in a 16x16x32 inch screen cage. When I get the money I am going to get him a bigger cage because he is starting to outgrow this one.
-For lighting, I use a reptisun 5.0 and a 50 watt basking bulb.
-Right now the temperature is about 70 to 80 with a basking spot at 80 to 90 at night the temp is around 60 to 70. The temperature is fluctuating because of the temperature outside. I live in phoenix and it is starting to heat up. I also do not use a heater and have not started the ac yet. Once the ac goes on, the temperature will for the most part stay the same during the day although it won't drop as low as 60 at night.
-humidity fluctuates from about 40% to 60% but for the most part stays around 50%
-For plants I use pathos and some other plant I got at the pet store I believe its a fern. I also have some fake leaves and vines and a piece of wood. Also no substrate.
-Right now the cage is located in my closet on a dresser thats about 3 and a half feet. The closet is about 2 feet deep and has 2 sliding doors. I always keep the door on his half of the closet open unless I have a lot of people in my room. His cage is also in the corner so two sides of the cage are against a wall. If this sounds like there is not enough air let me know. This just seemed like the best place to put it so I can just close the door if there are people around or music going so I don't stress him out. And like I said the closet is not deep the front of the cage comes up to the front of the closet.
-And like I said I live in Phoenix, Arizona
If you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know. I don't really go on forums so if I did not post this right or if it is in the wrong spot let me know. I just didn't really know what else I could do because I cannot afford to take him to a herp vet right now. I can answer any questions. I have been keeping chameleons for about a year. I try to give my chameleon the best care possible. I have researched a lot on chameleons and chameleon care (as one should do before they buy any pet), but if anything in my husbandry is off please let me know so I can fix it. Any help is greatly appreciated.
