Is my cham sick?

[halesf98]

• Veiled chameleon. Female. 2-3 mo. Old. Been in my care for 2 weeks
• Handle my chameleon once every week or so. Havent been recently because I can tell she hates it and it stresses her out.
• I feed my chameleon small crickets and cockroaches. Not sure how much to give every day but I usually put 6-8 crickets in a day and 1-2 roaches a day. I cant tell if she is eating them really because I am out most of the day. I notice some crickets get out of their dish and run around the cage, so I cannot accurately track how much she is eating.
• Gut loading products: Flunkers Orange Cube &Aquadine
• Supplements: Sticky tongue farms Calcium mineral supplement
• Watering with a dripper (which she has gone for recently so I am relieved) and spray twice a day.
• Ive only seen her go to the bathroom once but her feces seem normal and is dropping a few drops of yellowish-clear liquid. I have never tested for parasites
• Her color is most of the time green but slightly been a little pale green recently. When she is pissed or hunting, she gets a normal blue speckled pattern (but I haven’t seen her eat in a couple of days)
• Screen cage. Large size: 18x18x36 with lots of places to hide and a good basking spot
• Using a ceramic heat lamp for heat on all the time sitting on the screen. She spends her time under here most of the time
• I am not sure actual temp but I think its at 80 deg.F I have a temp gauge but I have been just keeping it at the top of the cage. Any recommendations about how to keep and evaluate accurate temps.
• I spray for humidity. Any recommendations appreciated
• No live plants. Just fake plants
• Cagee is located 2 feet above the floor. Away from any vents and has view of a window
• West-Michigan

Current problem: My cham seems to be slightly lethargic. She has been chilling a lot with her eyes closed and will sometimes keep one eye squinted with the other open. She seems to be taking a nap of some kind throughout the day, which is concerning. I haven’t seen her eat in 2 days but again I am assuming she is eating when I am not around (I hope). She also likes to sit under the heat with her mouth open sometimes. She is not right now but sometimes I catch her with her mouth partly open with her eyes closed. I wish there was a vet that could come over and take a look. L

 

[Beman]

How often are you dusting with the mineral all? I see quite a bit going on here.

 

[halesf98]

How often are you dusting with the mineral all? I see quite a bit going on here.

i dust them every feed

 

[timw1]

Minerals twice a month, calcium everyday and calcium plus d3 twice a month. You need to change your husbandry. The Flukers is no good, gutload with greens, apples, oranges and good dry gutloads like cricket crack. There is also members here who make gutload and sell to the public @Matt Vanilla Gorilla. You need some live plants and need a thermometer to monitor temps. What light do you use for uvb? Also, what is the dish at the bottom of your enclosure for?

 

[halesf98]

oh i have been putting the mineral all on her crickets every day

 

[halesf98]

at my pet store they said the crickets get their water from the orange cubes so thats why i got them

 

[halesf98]

The dish at the bottom collects water

 

[Beman]

i dust them every feed

I am going to go through and give feed back on everything pulling info from caresheets as well.

1. Ok you are doing a major overload with vitamin D-3 ( your mineral All)....use calcium (without D3 or phosphorus) at nearly every feeding, multivitamin once every 2 weeks, and calcium with D3 once every 2 weeks.
2. gutloading with fresh veg according to care sheet or use a high quality gut load like Bug Burger by replashy. I have not heard of what you are using for gutload... Read through this https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/
3. spraying... You should be misting for at least 2 minute sessions providing one longer session 4-5 minutes during the day. They need this to clean their eyes and to stay properly hydrated. Mist king auto mated systems are very good for this and provide a very fine mist. Cage should dry out between mistings. You can wrap the back and sides with plastic vinyl to keep humidity levels between 40-70%. Get a hydrometer to know what your levels are.
4. Heat and lighting. Are you using a uvb bulb in your strip light? With the basking you should be using a basking bulb not ceramic. It needs to provide light so she knows that is where the warmth is. Do something no more then a 50 watt. you should create an actual basking area dropped down from the lighting so she is not able to get to close... Baby/juvenile (<9 months): ambient 72-80F (22-26C), basking 85F (29C)
Get something like this to angle your fixture for your basking bulb up off your cage top toward your basking area with the uvb fixture running next to it across the length of the cage. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007D1BUJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Think of it like a V with the bottom of the V being the basking spot and the lighting angling toward it. Use either a heat gun or temp guage to measure the basking branch. Heat gun = https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FYVEJMY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
5. You need a lot more vines running everywhere. You can get exo terra vines for this which you can attach to the side of the cage with tiny zip ties.
She may not be eating as much as a result of not having easy access to her food. So run vines all over with nothing higher then about the top 7 inches of your cage. So she can not get too close to the lights.
6. Live plants... Pothos are wonderful plants. Grow easily and will help with humidity levels. Also Veileds like to munch on their leaves. Will provide additional security as she can hide in them. Clean the plant rinsing well cover top layer of dirt with 1 inch or larger stones so she can not eat the dirt.

 

[halesf98]

this is my UVB light package

 

[Beman]

this is my UVB light package

That will work perfectly. but she has to be able to bask under it as well. You want her basking area at the top to incorporate both her uvb lighting and her heat light. So she is getting both while basking.

 

[halesf98]

I am going to go through and give feed back on everything pulling info from caresheets as well.

1. Ok you are doing a major overload with vitamin D-3 ( your mineral All)....use calcium (without D3 or phosphorus) at nearly every feeding, multivitamin once every 2 weeks, and calcium with D3 once every 2 weeks.
2. gutloading with fresh veg according to care sheet or use a high quality gut load like Bug Burger by replashy. I have not heard of what you are using for gutload... Read through this https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/
3. spraying... You should be misting for at least 2 minute sessions providing one longer session 4-5 minutes during the day. They need this to clean their eyes and to stay properly hydrated. Mist king auto mated systems are very good for this and provide a very fine mist. Cage should dry out between mistings. You can wrap the back and sides with plastic vinyl to keep humidity levels between 40-70%. Get a hydrometer to know what your levels are.
4. Heat and lighting. Are you using a uvb bulb in your strip light? With the basking you should be using a basking bulb not ceramic. It needs to provide light so she knows that is where the warmth is. Do something no more then a 50 watt. you should create an actual basking area dropped down from the lighting so she is not able to get to close... Baby/juvenile (<9 months): ambient 72-80F (22-26C), basking 85F (29C)
Get something like this to angle your fixture for your basking bulb up off your cage top toward your basking area with the uvb fixture running next to it across the length of the cage. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007D1BUJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Think of it like a V with the bottom of the V being the basking spot and the lighting angling toward it. Use either a heat gun or temp guage to measure the basking branch. Heat gun = https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FYVEJMY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
5. You need a lot more vines running everywhere. You can get exo terra vines for this which you can attach to the side of the cage with tiny zip ties.
She may not be eating as much as a result of not having easy access to her food. So run vines all over with nothing higher then about the top 7 inches of your cage. So she can not get too close to the lights.
6. Live plants... Pothos are wonderful plants. Grow easily and will help with humidity levels. Also Veileds like to munch on their leaves. Will provide additional security as she can hide in them. Clean the plant rinsing well cover top layer of dirt with 1 inch or larger stones so she can not eat the dirt.

can u provide me with a picture of how I should be doing the UVB and the heat lamp. Also my heat lamp does not emit light. What bulb so you prefer instead that has light. I think my bulb rn is more than 50 w

 

[Beman]

can u provide me with a picture of how I should be doing the UVB and the heat lamp. Also my heat lamp does not emit light. What bulb so you prefer instead that has light. I think my bulb rn is more than 50 w

You can use any basking bulb... Some people use regular household bulbs for the heat lamp. You have to be able to check your temps. With her being young you don't want your basking area to be hotter then 85. You can use something like this https://www.chewy.com/exo-terra-day...MIkoGVooaU4AIVhInICh05lgWMEAQYBCABEgIpzPD_BwE

So this is what I mean by angle to your lighting. So heat and uvb are in the basking zone. I have that bracket that I gave you the link for and my clamp light is hooked into it to give me the angle. My uvb bulb is running on the outside edge of the fixture.

 

[Beman]

So when you do Dust her crickets make it a light dusting not powdered donuts lol. I would not dust them for the next two weeks. Maybe set on your calendar the 1st and the 15th of the month moving forward.
Take a look at this podcast... He has fantastic info and over 90 episodes there are quite a few specific to Veiled Chams. https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/

 

[Beman]

@timw1 She should wait about 2 weeks before dusting feeders again right...

 

[timw1]

I would say so, looks like she has been overdoing it. You gave solid info.

 

[Beman]

I would say so, looks like she has been overdoing it. You gave solid info.

Thank you! I just wanted to make sure I was giving the correct info on this.

 

[halesf98]

@timw1 She should wait about 2 weeks before dusting feeders again right...

thank you for the info. I will buy calcium powder without d3 and will start that in a couple weeks. For now, I am concerned that the too much of the multi vitamin I have given her is making her not ok. is there something I can do right now to prevent toxicity?

 

[Beman]

thank you for the info. I will buy calcium powder without d3 and will start that in a couple weeks. For now, I am concerned that the too much of the multi vitamin I have given her is making her not ok. is there something I can do right now to prevent toxicity?

Your welcome it is a lot of info. Make sure she is drinking... It will clear her system.

If you like reading I got this book. It was full of great husbandry info https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1788650190/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[timw1]

is there something I can do right now to prevent toxicity?

Like Beman says, lots of water.