my chameleon is very sick she is a 5 month old jackson cham and she is very lethargic.. she is buldging her eye out and rubbing it on the branches.. she is also opening her mouth wide and looks like she has this thick suliva in her mouth.. i dont know what to do we raised the temp in her cage and lowered the humidity like told.. but she is so lethargic she just lays their and sleeps.. last night i found in the back of her tank these tiny tiny white worm things i did some research and i think they are fruit fly larvae but unsure... i wonder if they have something to do with her sickness.. please help:confused
i need help
- Thread starter cham420
- Start date
opihiman
New Member
somethink about what you said earlier caught my ear....
First you should get your cham to vet ASAP. the sooner the better and the quicker they will be on the road to recovery.
Second...can you fill out the questionare in the following link
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
Good luck
OPI
First you should get your cham to vet ASAP. the sooner the better and the quicker they will be on the road to recovery.
Second...can you fill out the questionare in the following link
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
Good luck
OPI
i believe she been like this for about 2 days and i believe she is eating cuz we put alot of crickets in and most were gone.. but like i was saying i found tiny little white worm looking things in the cage i believe are fruit fly larvae do you think they have something to do with her being sick
i also have 2 chams the male is about 2 months and is doing great but we have not found the worm things in his cage its just the female and last night we took everything out of her cage and cleaned it very good scrubing the tank and everything.. we have no live plants in it, we were keeping the temp at 80-83 degrees with humidity about 60 percent which i was told was purfect.. we gut load the crickets and give them the vit water cubes for the crickets.. they are feeder crickets.. we have had her for about 3 months and was perfect until now..
dodolah
Retired Moderator
Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information, you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.
Cage Info:
* Cage Type - Describe your cage construction (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
* Lighting - What brand and type of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
* Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
* Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
* Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
* Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Chameleon Info:
* Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
* Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
* Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
* Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
* Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
* Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
* History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
* Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.
Pictures are helpful
Cage Info:
* Cage Type - Describe your cage construction (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
* Lighting - What brand and type of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
* Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
* Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
* Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
* Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Chameleon Info:
* Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
* Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
* Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
* Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
* Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
* Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
* History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
* Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.
Pictures are helpful
Cage Info:
* Cage Type - the cage is an 18 x 18 glass cage with a screen top and a vent in the front of the cage
* Lighting - blue uv light for day time and a red infrared light for night
* Temperature - during the day the tank is about 80-85 floor like 75-80, night time dropping the temp to about 70
* Humidity - humidity stays about 70-75
* Plants - their is no live plants just fake hanging ones
* Location -the cage is next to tv up on tables to keep up from the floor
Chameleon Info:
* Your Chameleon - she is a female jackson about 5-6 months old. we have had her for 2-3 month
* Handling - while cleanign the cage or sometimes when she crawls on our hands to come out she is pretty social
Feeding - feeding her feeder crickets, use gut load and vit cubes in the cricket keeper to keep them hydrated and supplies vit for cham, we give about 6 crickets about every 2-3 days or when needed
* Supplements - give gut loaders with vitamins, and also these orange cubes that provide vit and such for crickets and cham
* Watering - we have an automatic mister that goes off every 3 hrs for 15 seconds and we put reptasafe drops to purify the water
* Fecal Description - here fecal use to be normal black with little white, now its still little bit the same with some mucus but is going quite good
* History - none that she was healthy and very active until a couple days ago
* Current Problem - very lethargic, sleeping more, stressed, has thick mucus in mouth, kept bulding left eye out like a water balloon and rubbing it on branches and keeping it closed only opening for couple sec, but now looks like getting better is looking with both eyes again but unsure how long that will last
* Cage Type - the cage is an 18 x 18 glass cage with a screen top and a vent in the front of the cage
* Lighting - blue uv light for day time and a red infrared light for night
* Temperature - during the day the tank is about 80-85 floor like 75-80, night time dropping the temp to about 70
* Humidity - humidity stays about 70-75
* Plants - their is no live plants just fake hanging ones
* Location -the cage is next to tv up on tables to keep up from the floor
Chameleon Info:
* Your Chameleon - she is a female jackson about 5-6 months old. we have had her for 2-3 month
* Handling - while cleanign the cage or sometimes when she crawls on our hands to come out she is pretty social
Feeding - feeding her feeder crickets, use gut load and vit cubes in the cricket keeper to keep them hydrated and supplies vit for cham, we give about 6 crickets about every 2-3 days or when needed
* Supplements - give gut loaders with vitamins, and also these orange cubes that provide vit and such for crickets and cham
* Watering - we have an automatic mister that goes off every 3 hrs for 15 seconds and we put reptasafe drops to purify the water
* Fecal Description - here fecal use to be normal black with little white, now its still little bit the same with some mucus but is going quite good
* History - none that she was healthy and very active until a couple days ago
* Current Problem - very lethargic, sleeping more, stressed, has thick mucus in mouth, kept bulding left eye out like a water balloon and rubbing it on branches and keeping it closed only opening for couple sec, but now looks like getting better is looking with both eyes again but unsure how long that will last
dodolah
Retired Moderator
* Lighting - blue uv light for day time and a red infrared light for night
What brand is this "blue" UV light.
I don't think you need a red infrared light for night.
* Supplements - give gut loaders with vitamins, and also these orange cubes that provide vit and such for crickets and cham
So, you mean you don't give supplements for your cham and rely only on the gutload?
* Fecal Description - here fecal use to be normal black with little white, now its still little bit the same with some mucus but is going quite good
the mucus concerns me a bit. You really need to go to the vet. and meanwhile, bring a fresh sample of her poop so the vet can check it for parasites.
What brand is this "blue" UV light.
I don't think you need a red infrared light for night.
* Supplements - give gut loaders with vitamins, and also these orange cubes that provide vit and such for crickets and cham
So, you mean you don't give supplements for your cham and rely only on the gutload?
* Fecal Description - here fecal use to be normal black with little white, now its still little bit the same with some mucus but is going quite good
the mucus concerns me a bit. You really need to go to the vet. and meanwhile, bring a fresh sample of her poop so the vet can check it for parasites.
opihiman
New Member
I think I ready you have a glass tank for you chams also...
you may want to change that tank for something with more ventilation. Chams are very susseptable to Upper Respiratory Infections if their habitat is either too dry or too wet. In a glass enclosure it is almost gauranteed to be too humid.
Do you have some way of measuring the humidity in the enclosure.....?
Also one more question, what kind of misting system do you have?
Good luck
OPI
you may want to change that tank for something with more ventilation. Chams are very susseptable to Upper Respiratory Infections if their habitat is either too dry or too wet. In a glass enclosure it is almost gauranteed to be too humid.
Do you have some way of measuring the humidity in the enclosure.....?
Also one more question, what kind of misting system do you have?
Good luck
OPI
Julirs
New Member
I think the majority of keepers on here, especially those with Jacksons will say it is a NO GO on the glass cages. Most petstores will market Exoterra glass cages for chams, but it just usually does not work out.
Do you have a digital read out thermometer because most analogs are worthless. URI is a sign of too high humidity and temps alot of the time.
Do you have a digital read out thermometer because most analogs are worthless. URI is a sign of too high humidity and temps alot of the time.
dodolah
Retired Moderator
is this the blue light you're talking about?
In that case, you probably should discontinue using it and change it to reptisun 5.0 linear
Is this the cage you have?:
Those are good for frogs and pygmys. The glass promotes stagnant air and it also raise the temp considerably (often too much).
This is the cage you want:
I'm sorry but do you know why everybody in the petstore (friends or not) will recommend the exoterra?
because it will cost you more.
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