keeping one eye closed.

[bdjl1]

Our panther chameleon has been having issues off and on with his left eye. Sometimes it seems perfectly fine, other times like today he is only opening it a little bit. He also does this weird looking thing where he kind of sucks his eyes in a little and rolls them around and then they go back normal, if that makes any sense. any ideas?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - male panther chameleon, about a year and a half, we've had him since he was a couple months old
Handling - once every couple weeks
Feeding - we are currently feeding him 3 meal worms a day with wax worms as treats. we have been out of crickets for a couple weeks getting more tomorrow
Supplements - we dust his worms with a mix of flukers calcium with d3 phosphorus free and rep-cal herptivite with beta carotene multivitamins vitamin a free
Watering - we have a waterfall in the cage that we see him drink out of occasionally, we also mist the cage 2x a day
Fecal Description - most recent from a few minutes ago is about 2-3" long, solid but wet looking dark brown

Cage Info:
Cage Type -screen cage 2'x2'x4'
Lighting - 2 ceramic heat lamps, one with a dome one with a wire holder, 60w light bulb for basking, and a 24" reptisun 10.0 his lights are on a timer from 8am-9pm
Temperature - 68 at the bottom 90 at the basking, thermometer under the basking area and in the bottom
Humidity - 70% in the jade at the bottom of the cage 50% at the basking area.
Plants - 2 bromeliads and a jade plant
Placement - on top of a dresser, away from windows, 2 sides of the cage are against a wall(its in a corner), pretty low traffic area
Location - bellingham, wa

 

[Jamelon]

When he sucks in his eye it means hes trying to wash it out, they also do that by bulging it out as well, i got freaked out when my little girl bulged out her eye at first haha. i would suggest increase the frequency of mistings or have longer misting sessions. You could also give your cham a warm shower.

 

[sandrachameleon]

For how long (days, weeks, months?) has he been doing this with his eye. It may just be that he is cleaning it, or it could be an issue with the eye or even a nutrient deficiency.

Either way, I highly recommend you improve the selection of feeders you are offering. Waxworms are awful, mealworms are only marginal, and crickets alone (with only mealworms and waxworms) are not, IMHO, enough.

What do you gutload with?

 

[bdjl1]

he's been doing it off and on for a couple months, ever since he had an issue getting the skin off around his eye while molting. he was scraping it on a vine to try and get the skin off. do you have any suggestions for websites where we can get other food? we're having a hard time finding variety at the pet stores around here.

 

[fifth0vodka]

I had the same issue and it seemed like the warm shower made a world of difference.

 

[laurie]

he's been doing it off and on for a couple months, ever since he had an issue getting the skin off around his eye while molting. he was scraping it on a vine to try and get the skin off. do you have any suggestions for websites where we can get other food? we're having a hard time finding variety at the pet stores around here.

Forget the pet stores. Order online form our sponsors. Several of them carry feeders of various types. All my crickets come from Ghann's, I also order from mulberry farms, and some forum members in the classified on this forum. Just lewd in the food section of the classified at the top.

 

[bdjl1]

thanks so much! we're ordering horn worms and repti worms from mulberry farms, my husband is going to be home for awhile before college tomorrow so we're going to try giving him a warm shower.

fifth0vodka- how did you go about giving your cham a shower? a rope from the shower head or on a plant in the bathroom...

 

[laurie]

thanks so much! we're ordering horn worms and repti worms from mulberry farms, my husband is going to be home for awhile before college tomorrow so we're going to try giving him a warm shower.

fifth0vodka- how did you go about giving your cham a shower? a rope from the shower head or on a plant in the bathroom...

Showers are usually on plants to make the cham a little more secure. Water warm but not hot. Bounce the mist off the side of the shower onto the cham so he doesn't get blasted. Try for 15 - 20 minutes twice a day if your cham is ok with it, some of them just really freak. I have had a couple who would not stay in the shower so I filled the shower full of steam and sat then in the steam for a while, not as good but better than nothing.

 

[kinyonga]

Although improving the variety in the food is a good idea, I doubt that it has anything to do with the eye issue.

IMHO you need to change your supplementing....but this again may not have anything to do with the eye. The normal supplement routine is to use a phos.-free calcium powder at most feedings to help make up for the usually poor ratio of calcium to phos. found in most feeder insects. Phos.-free calcium/D3 twice a month to ensure that the chameleon gets some D3 and allowing it to produce the rest of its D3 from its exposure to the UVB. The herptivite should only be used twice a month too.

Waterfalls can be a source of bacteria if not kept scrupulously clean...this might be part of the problem with the eye if its not clean enough.

What do you gutload/feed to the insects? Please be specific.

Do you have the ceramic heaters and the basking light on all the time?

 

[morpheon]

...Or a torsaded UVB light (i wish i had Kevin's cool picture with his thumbs up and down!).

I would add about the waterfall that "scrupulously clean" means washed EVERYDAY... So i strongly suggested removing it and using a dripper instead.

Ordering insects from our sponsors is also a great idea. Usually these insects are well fed, and you can buy some great gutload for them as well! You should give a try with some superworms as a stable feeder along with crickets and dubias if you are brave enough. Then, some silkworms and hornworms every week or two would be great!

 

[bdjl1]

i had heard not to feed them that many superworms because they're genetically altered so they grow fast and arent that nutritious.

we gutload with flukers high calcium cricket diet.

the ceramic heat lamps and basking bulb go off at night with the repitsun. so theyre on from 8am to 9pm

 

[Chameleon Company]

It sounds like classic vitamin A deficiency. Likely your supplements have beta-carotene as the vitamin A source, which is inadequate. I'll send a PM with info.

 

[AfroJoe666]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - male yemen chameleon, about 7 months, we've had him since he was 5 months old
Handling - once every couple days he wants to come out when feeding
Feeding - we are currently feeding him 2 crickets and alternate locusts.
Supplements - we dust his crickets with a mix of flukers calcium with d3 phosphorus free and rep-cal herptivite with beta carotene multivitamins vitamin a free
Watering - we have a drip system in the cage that we see him drink out of occasionally, we also mist the cage 2x a day
Fecal Description - most recent from a few minutes ago is about 1" long, solid but wet looking dark brown with lump of white

Cage Info:
Cage Type -screen cage 38cmx38x88
Lighting - 1 ceramic heat lamp with uvb bulb 80w.
Temperature - 70 at the bottom 90 at the basking, thermometer under the basking area and in the bottom
Humidity - 75% in the jade at the bottom of the cage 55% at the basking area.
Placement - on top of a dresser
Location - England, Southampton


Problem: my chams right eye has been shut all day and he seems to be bulging and squinting it, showers not helped and misting more frequently seems to darken his colours,

 

[AfroJoe666]

He now has a slight black ring under his right eye

 

[JoXie411]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - male yemen chameleon, about 7 months, we've had him since he was 5 months old
Handling - once every couple days he wants to come out when feeding
Feeding - we are currently feeding him 2 crickets and alternate locusts.
Supplements - we dust his crickets with a mix of flukers calcium with d3 phosphorus free and rep-cal herptivite with beta carotene multivitamins vitamin a free
Watering - we have a drip system in the cage that we see him drink out of occasionally, we also mist the cage 2x a day
Fecal Description - most recent from a few minutes ago is about 1" long, solid but wet looking dark brown with lump of white

Cage Info:
Cage Type -screen cage 38cmx38x88
Lighting - 1 ceramic heat lamp with uvb bulb 80w.
Temperature - 70 at the bottom 90 at the basking, thermometer under the basking area and in the bottom
Humidity - 75% in the jade at the bottom of the cage 55% at the basking area.
Placement - on top of a dresser
Location - England, Southampton


Problem: my chams right eye has been shut all day and he seems to be bulging and squinting it, showers not helped and misting more frequently seems to darken his colours,

You might what to start your own thread. This is an old post

 

[SharpShooter]

He now has a slight black ring under his right eye

You can get a picture of a cham cleaning it's eyes but multiple pics? This cham appears to keeping that one closed.

Try the shower and if no rapid change, needs a trip to a good vet with cham experience.

 

[AfroJoe666]

Dont know how to start threads and I have done the shower part, still not opening his eye

 

[Multivitamins]

Dont know how to start threads and I have done the shower part, still not opening his eye

Click on the menu on top left select forums it has different sections select the most relevant to your post and it will then allow you to create a thread

 

[cloverthechameleon]

Dont know how to start threads and I have done the shower part, still not opening his eye

Curious to what 80 watt uvb bulb youre using ? You need a far more varied diet then 2 crickets or 2 locusts a day. What is your exact suppliment scheudle and what are you gutlaoding with? I think these might be the source if not one of the sources to your issues.

 

[AfroJoe666]

Curious to what 80 watt uvb bulb youre using ? You need a far more varied diet then 2 crickets or 2 locusts a day. What is your exact suppliment scheudle and what are you gutlaoding with? I think these might be the source if not one of the sources to your issues.

This is the bulb I am using but kine is 80w as the 100w was making the cage way to hot,

The calcium dust is what I use to put the CRICKETS/ LOCUSTS in before feeding but only a small amount, the insects get fed with apples, oranges