Help! mouth opened

[ShazEnrico]

Your Chameleon - Ambilobe Pnather Chameleon, male, 4.5 months, in my care for almost 3 weeks
Handling - Mainly to clean his cage, or to transport him to the plant by the window that he likes to sit in and soak up the sun.
Feeding - crickets, silk worms and a few butter worms, gut loaded with a store bought gut loading formula(green jelly cubes) as well as mango. I tried to feed him around 10 a day sometimes he eats a bit more and some days not as much.
Supplements - repashy calcium
Watering - I mist the cage with a bottle around 5 times a day for about 25 seconds. I sometimes see him drinking, but not very often. I also recently added a dripping system. So hopefully that'll work.
Fecal Description- seems pretty consistent and white
History - I bought him from a breeder at a reptile expo.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - screen cage, 15x15x30
Lighting - Exo Terra Repti Glo 5.0 terranium lamp and I had a zoo med Basking lamp 75w since they had no 60w bulbs. Just before i posted this i switched it to a regular clear 60w household bulb. I turn his lights on at around 8:30-9am and turn them off at around 8:30-9:00 pm(Since I am up working at night i cover the sides of his cage with a sheet and work with a dimply lit lamp until i head to bed, and then i quietly turn off my lamp and uncover his cage)
Temperature - I only have one zoo med thermometer at the moment so i keep it by his basking spot. and it reads between 85-90 degrees. The humidity in my room used to be very low so i bought a humidifier and some plants and now i'm able to keep it around 50-65. I'm going to buy another digital one and place it near the bottom today.

Plants - I have a croton that he chillis in outside of his cage to take in sun, as well as a small umbrella tree inside his cage.
Placement - The cage sits on a dresser about 2 feet off the ground. there is a vent on the floor quite near by. He is not located in a heavy traffic area. just in my room right behind me.
Location - I'm located in Toronto, Canada.

Problem-
He keeps his mouth open quite often, not only when basking under the bulb, but even when i put him in the plant by the window in the sun. So i suspected it was either the beginning of a respiratory infection or a temperature problem. I took him to the vet this morning. But the whole ride there as well as being there he never did the mouth opening thing. Except for when the vet got him angry in order to look inside his mouth. The vet never said anything about respiratory problems but he did say that his grip felt slightly weak and gave me some supplements etc. So I'm thinking that the moth opening thing has to do with the temperature. Hopefully you guys can help me out with this one, I really want this little guy to be healthy.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the Chameleon Forums. Opening the mouth could be caused from being too warm. I would recommend getting a better way to check the temps. I use a laser temp gun and love it. Opening the mouth can also be a sign of an RI. Have you noticed any extra saliva in the mouth or puffing out the chin?

 

[ecoreef]

More than likely he's just getting too warm. I don't see any excessive mucus or anything but be on the lookout. Add more plants to his enclosure so he can get out of the "sun" and into the shade more. Like jan said try using more themometers. One at the basking site and one lower in his cage in the shade.

and another thing...

GET THOSE NEWSPAPERS OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE ENCLOSURE!!! Anything that absorbs and holds water for a long time in a big NO NO when it comes to chameleons. Especially at the bottom where all the poop and nasty stuff is. The constantly wet newspaper plus poop and stuff can breed bad bacteria that CAN give you cham a respitory infection if he gets any in his mouth(cricket walks on bottom of enclosure and then your cham eats it when it climbs back up or whatever).

Hope everything turns out good!
-Alex

 

[ShazEnrico]

Haven;t noticed extra saliva and he only puffs out his chin subtly a couple times directly after having his mouth open and then stops. I just picked up another thermometer for the lower section of the cage and i'll pick up some more plants tomorrow. I also got rid of the newspaper right away. Thanks a lot for the help guys, really appreciate it. I'll keep you updated on the situation.

 

[ecoreef]

Fo sho. Good job removing the newspaper. You want EVERYTHING to dry up at some point durring a 24 hour period(usually overnight everthing dries up) or anerobic bacteria will start to grow if water is left standing or somthing remains wet for a long period of time. Becuase chameleons have evolved for a life above ground their immune systems have not evolved to deal with the nasty bacteria that grow in standing water on the ground. Give your chameleon the heaviest watering earlier in the day and ample water throughout the rest of the day but a couple hours before lights go out stop waterings so things can start to dry up. Air movement(a light fan ect) can help everthing dry up at night as well.
-Alex