Keeps opening his mouth really wide

[SweetObsolete]

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - Panther cham (ambilobe x ambanja). Male. Hatched 10/10/10. Had him since February 15th.
* Handling - About 2-3 times a week.
* Feeding - I feed him crickets, and sometimes hornworms and/or silkworms. He eats about 8-15 small crickets a day, and a few worms for treats. I feed him every day around noon, then treats a couple times a day. Crickets are gutloaded with fresh veggies (kale, zucchini, carrots, broccili, cauliflower, etc.) and orange slices.
* Supplements - Rep-cal calcium + vitamin d every other day and herpivite once a week. Dusted on feeders.
* Watering - I have a habba mister. I also have a dripper made out of a bottle with a hole punched in the bottom. I mist several times a day (its really dry here in the winter).
* Fecal Description - Normal looking. Dark brown feces with white urates.
* History - Not sure?


Cage Info:

* Cage Type - Zilla Screen cage. It's a smaller one, his baby one. It came with the screameleons kit.
* Lighting - Reptisun uvb light and a heat lamp for the basking spot... I don't remember what its called but its silver and came with the screameleons kit.
* Temperature - The basking spot is usually around 80 degrees, with the rest of the cage being around 70-75. It never gets lower than 65 at night.
* Humidity - I have a humidity gauge; the humidity ranges a lot from 30-80. I know that's a problem, and I'm trying to control it.
* Plants - I have a little ficus tree in there, some fake plants, one of those bendy vines, and today I just put a small bromeliad at the bottom.
* Placement - In the living room, at about eye level.
* Location - Minneapolis, MN


Current Problem - He keeps opening his mouth at random times and just sitting there with it open really wide. He doesn't hiss at me when I go near him or anything, I just see him sitting in his cage with his mouth open for extended amounts of time. At first I thought it was just when he was shedding, cos he would open his mouth big to try to get the excess skin off. But, now I've seen him doing it all the time. Does anyone know why he might be doing this?

 

[jannb]

The next time he has his mouth open see if you can see extra saliva in his mouth. Have you heard any popping sounds? Does he puff out his chin? Could be an RI. I don't think he's too hot at 80. I recommend getting his basking spot up to about 84.

 

[SweetObsolete]

This sounds really dumb, but I'm not sure what extra saliva would look like? I mean it seems a bit watery in there, but I don't know what's normal.

He hasn't been puffing out his chin. He only does that rarely when he's pissed at me for some reason (like moving his stuff around or something). Haven't heard any popping noises or anything like that. I'll raise his basking temp. I'm afraid of frying him.

I took a pic of him with his mouth open. Sorry its not that good but its hard to get one, he's not doing it constantly.

 

[jannb]

How are you checking his temps?

 

[Julirs]

If he is only doing it when he sees you then he is threatening you! Praise him for being a big bad scary chameleon! They love that!

Respiratory infection saliva would look stringy or sometimes it can have a brown tint, and there would be alot of it. Don't worry about one ot 2 stringy saliva strands-that is pretty common.

 

[carol5208]

The saliva will kinda look "stringy" and will be from the top of his mouth to the bottom if that makes sense.

 

[SweetObsolete]

With thermometers... A zoo med digital thermometer at the basking spot. Then I have a regular room thermometer right next to him in the room.

 

[SweetObsolete]

I was hoping he was just doing it cos he was threatening me... but I think its weird because he does it when I'm sitting all the way across the room, and not even nearby.

There's definitely no long stringy saliva, and its not brown. Whew that's a relief.

 

[ataraxia]

try this...turn his basking light off. give him about 30 min -1 hour. see if he is still doing this. possibly you have a defective thermometer. his colors dont scream out "im super hot" but who knows. its just a thought.

 

[SweetObsolete]

Okay thanks, I'll try it.

What would his colors look like if he was super hot?

 

[adamkwas]

Okay thanks, I'll try it.

What would his colors look like if he was super hot?

He should be a light colour, however that isn't always the best indication as to whether he's being over-heated or not!

 

[ataraxia]

it is different to each species and age for colors thrown when hot. for instance my carpets will turn a neon yellow when hot. my panther will throw alot of white. so it will vary.

 

[SweetObsolete]

Well, like I said in the first post, he's a 5 month male panther (ambilobe x ambanja). Doesn't have any real bright colors yet. I've noticed he tends to be darker basking... which would lead me to believe that he is cold, not warm, but I'm a total newbie here.

He turns very light colored when he's sleeping, almost white. When he's just chillin, not basking or anything, he's usually medium peach/orange with a little bit of red.

I don't know, he seems happy, except for the mouth thing.

 

[ataraxia]

did you try unplugging your lamp?

 

[SweetObsolete]

Hey... so just wanted to bump this up again cos he's still doing it. I unplugged the lamp, and he wasn't doing it them. But, he does it really sporadically so its hard to tell if that's for sure the problem.

He doesn't appear to be doing it to intimidate me though, because I see him doing it across the room and then I come closer and he quick shuts it.

I've also noticed that he doesn't do it ever when I have him outside of his cage. Could it be possible that he gets pissed being in his cage? I know that sounds weird, but his colors are always much better (ie less black/grey/brown) when he's just chilling outside of it with us (usually on a ficus tree, or on my head), and I never see him do the open mouth thing. Thoughts?

 

[ChamChick]

Supplements - Rep-cal calcium + vitamin d every other day and herpivite once a week.

I use my supplements much less than that. I don't think that it would have anything to do with what your little one is doing (please correct me if I'm wrong anyone) but I dust everyday with calcium WITHOUT D3, and use my calcium w/D3, and my Herptivite every other Tuesday alternating. So one Tuesday is my calcium w/D3, then the following Tuesday is my hertivite, and so on and so forth every Tuesday.

Hope that helps a little with your supplementing, because from what I understand, over supplementing can be as dangerous as under supplementing

 

[kinyonga]

Are you sure its a male?

 

[SweetObsolete]

Thanks for the supplementing tips, I've been a little confused about that... but I've just been going by the instructions I got, and with the supplies that came with the kit.

kinyonga, do you have reason to believe he could be a female? Because this is something I've been kinda wondering about. To me, it seems like he should have more color than he does right now, and I don't know about the whole vent bulge thing... I guess I just trusted that the breeders would know what they're talking about?

 

[SweetObsolete]

Here's a somewhat recent picture of him, I can try and get more later, but alas, I am short on time!

 

[CalaMala]

My little guy does that, but only when he is making a bowel movement! I was actually going to post a thread about it to see if that is normal or maybe he is constipated. He always potties on the same side of his habitat, and toward the front. But I noticed the few times I saw him with his mouth open he was doing his biz...lol... So if that is normal then YEAH, and maybe you should check under him when he moves! If not then I will follow your post to see if I need to check anything else!