studiocham
New Member
Starting a thread on the topic, as it deserves its own. The pic of the grayed dorsal and caudal crests in the other thread shows a lamp burn.
One of the most common conditions seen in an otherwise healthy captive melleri is a lamp burn. An animal can be fine with a lamp for years and then one day, you find it scorched. It has puzzled us for years. We know they have difficulty sensing when their skin has burned and when they need to stop basking. We know the tissue either slowly regains color and health, or it goes white, then black/localized necrosis, and completely sloughs off (outwardly appearing awful, but the animal doesn't show discomfort).
Common burn areas: dorsal and caudal crests, lobes, top of skull, rostrum, elbows and knees/upper thighs, tail end, and toes (if hanging from cage ceiling). Occasionally, one finds burns on the ribs.
Treatment varies by severity and your vet's experience. Most are treated topically with a rinse of Nolvasan solution, air dry, then slathering on Silvadene cream and repeating all every 24-48 hrs. Some vets prescribe an oral antibiotic. The chameleons usually are fine and autotomize the necrotic burn area without trouble.
Keepers have suggested their interior body temp is what rules the "stop basking" trigger, UV sensation being secondary to it. If the ambient air temp gets low at night, they start off the next day with an interior body temp deficit*. In the morning when their lights come on, they will roast their outermost anatomy trying to reach their inner temp ideal because the heat is limited to a small beam area. Think of ants under a magnifying glass. In the wild, they would never experience localized burns from the sun due to the higher UV and the wide, even nature of the sunlight.
I have some observations that may help folks avoid burns in their melleri. I raised CB babies under 50 watt ReptiBulbs from ZooMed. (I use these incandescents because my melleri have avoided MVs like the plague.) When they were about 6 months old, I graduated them to 150w of the same brand, but the hood was much larger and raised further from the basking areas. The beam was wider and no one was burned. They went nearly two years like that, same 6' long cage they were raised in. Those who were separated later to smaller individual cages with 50-75w in smaller hoods were fine until we had some unusual frosts that dropped house temps while we slept. The appearance of burns coincided with those weather events. Those kept in large pair/group cages with the bigger hoods and bulbs never burned.
So, is it, "the wider the beam, and bigger the cage, the less risk of burns"? And once they reach a certain body mass, they can't go back to a smaller lamp without risking burns? Maybe we all need to rethink our smaller enclosures, and watch the balance of the room temps if multiple 150ws are on all day.
I may have to build enclosures in other rooms of the house to keep the room temps correct!
*As a side note, that sharp interior body temp drop must occur in the wee hours. About a week ago, I had to handle the pair in the walk-in cage after the lights had been off for hours. The ambient temp was 68F, but they were radiating warmth from their bodies and the soles of their feet, warming my hands. I didn't have a veterinary thermometer handy, sadly. Would love to get a thermal cam on them sometime!
One of the most common conditions seen in an otherwise healthy captive melleri is a lamp burn. An animal can be fine with a lamp for years and then one day, you find it scorched. It has puzzled us for years. We know they have difficulty sensing when their skin has burned and when they need to stop basking. We know the tissue either slowly regains color and health, or it goes white, then black/localized necrosis, and completely sloughs off (outwardly appearing awful, but the animal doesn't show discomfort).
Common burn areas: dorsal and caudal crests, lobes, top of skull, rostrum, elbows and knees/upper thighs, tail end, and toes (if hanging from cage ceiling). Occasionally, one finds burns on the ribs.
Treatment varies by severity and your vet's experience. Most are treated topically with a rinse of Nolvasan solution, air dry, then slathering on Silvadene cream and repeating all every 24-48 hrs. Some vets prescribe an oral antibiotic. The chameleons usually are fine and autotomize the necrotic burn area without trouble.
Keepers have suggested their interior body temp is what rules the "stop basking" trigger, UV sensation being secondary to it. If the ambient air temp gets low at night, they start off the next day with an interior body temp deficit*. In the morning when their lights come on, they will roast their outermost anatomy trying to reach their inner temp ideal because the heat is limited to a small beam area. Think of ants under a magnifying glass. In the wild, they would never experience localized burns from the sun due to the higher UV and the wide, even nature of the sunlight.
I have some observations that may help folks avoid burns in their melleri. I raised CB babies under 50 watt ReptiBulbs from ZooMed. (I use these incandescents because my melleri have avoided MVs like the plague.) When they were about 6 months old, I graduated them to 150w of the same brand, but the hood was much larger and raised further from the basking areas. The beam was wider and no one was burned. They went nearly two years like that, same 6' long cage they were raised in. Those who were separated later to smaller individual cages with 50-75w in smaller hoods were fine until we had some unusual frosts that dropped house temps while we slept. The appearance of burns coincided with those weather events. Those kept in large pair/group cages with the bigger hoods and bulbs never burned.
So, is it, "the wider the beam, and bigger the cage, the less risk of burns"? And once they reach a certain body mass, they can't go back to a smaller lamp without risking burns? Maybe we all need to rethink our smaller enclosures, and watch the balance of the room temps if multiple 150ws are on all day.
I may have to build enclosures in other rooms of the house to keep the room temps correct!
*As a side note, that sharp interior body temp drop must occur in the wee hours. About a week ago, I had to handle the pair in the walk-in cage after the lights had been off for hours. The ambient temp was 68F, but they were radiating warmth from their bodies and the soles of their feet, warming my hands. I didn't have a veterinary thermometer handy, sadly. Would love to get a thermal cam on them sometime!
