My 3-4 month old chameleon won’t open its eyes and won’t move off of basking spot eat or drink for the last few days
- Thread starter Chase12
- Start date
janjan20
Chameleon Enthusiast
Welcome! Sorry she is not doing well, to start the basking is too high I would go back to the 60w bulb. Needs to be in the low 80s for a Cham that age. Also, pls fill out the help form below. Just copy and paste. Please be very detailed and provide pics of the ENTIRE enclosure from the lights down.
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.
Chameleon Info:
Cage Info:
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
--------------
Please Note:
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.
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.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types 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?
- Placement - 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?
- Location - Where are you geographically located?
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
--------------
Please Note:
- The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
- Photos can be very helpful.
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? It’s a girl had her for 6-8 weeks been doing great until the last week
Cage Info:
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Chameleon won’t eat drink or keep eyes open
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Please Note:
- Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? 1-2 since I’ve had her
- Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? Feeding crickets regularly she constant has them in her cage not sure of gutload I keep carrots and apples in cage for them to eat but other than that I just purchase them from pet store in my area
- Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Flukers repta calcium with d3 1-2 times a month and flukers calcium without d3 every feeding
- Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? Recently purchased a dripping system but before that was and still am hand misting 2 times a day morning and night
- Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? White and yellowish also black parts in it
- History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Glass with screen
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? Zoo-med Lights uvb is 5.0 13w reprising compact and daytime blue heat bulb 60w just changed it out with the 150 What is your daily lighting schedule? 10-12 hours
- Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? 85-90
- Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 50% maintains with hand misting and dripper
- Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? No live plans
- Placement - 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? Recently moved change to middle of room away from window where it was before because i live in Michigan and was worried with the window being cold if at night temps in cage would drop
- Location - Where are you geographically located? Michigan
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Chameleon won’t eat drink or keep eyes open
--------------
Please Note:
- The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
- Photos can be very helpful.
Attachments
Kaizen
Chameleon Enthusiast
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Syreptyon
Chameleon Enthusiast
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There are many things that could be causing/contributing to this, but the most likely options I see based on your husbandry are related to: inadequate diet, supplements, and lighting. See below for specifics, and thank you for filling out the form!
Gutload: Carrots and apples are not nutritious enough to be your only gutload items. Nor can you trust a store to gutload their crickets with anything other than cheap, easy food that will do your chameleon little good. In order to provide your chameleon with the nutrients it needs, you need to gutload the crickets first with healthy ingredients like: collard greens, dandelion greens, turnip greens, alfalfa, escarole, papaya, sweet potato, etc. See the resource section of the Forums for more info on this.
Supplements: Although your calcium schedule looks good, you are missing the third type of essential supplement - the multivitamin. Without an appropriate multivitamin, your chameleon is missing essential components of its diet which cannot be offered through feeder insects alone. This means your chameleon is missing out on vitamin A, the deprivation of which commonly leads to eye problems.
Enclosure: What are the exact dimension of her cage? It looks significantly too small for a veiled chameleon, even a young one.
Lighting: Both of the light bulbs you're using will need to be replaced. The basking bulb of a chameleon should never be a colored one (like red or blue). Instead, you will want to switch it out for a regular white household bulb of the same wattage. Chameleons are photosensitive animals and white light is more natural and healthy for them.
As for the UVB, and this is much more important, the compact bulb type you're using is no good for chameleons. Their UVIs are unpredictable and they don't spread out their UVB efficiently enough for chameleons to benefit throughout the cage. Instead, what you will have to replace this with is a T5 HO linear bulb that is as long as your enclosure is wide.
Temperature: There is info missing from this field. Exactly what is the temperature of the basking spot? This should be a specific value and not a range as wide as 85-90. How do you measure this temperature? A probe? An analog gauge? Temp gun?
Other notes:
- Remove the substrate in the bottom of the enclosure. It will do nothing but gather water and harbor dangerous bacteria that will hurt your chameleon - especially in such a tiny cage, this won't take long to happen. Instead, just go bare bottom or use paper towels on the bottom, which you will need to change out daily. Substrate is not at all necessary for chameleons.
- It is highly recommended to include live plant.
- Invest in a timer system for your lights. You said they are on "10-12" hours, but routine is important to chameleon health. You want those lights on a timer, so your cham's daylight schedule is consistent.
The husbandry can be dealt with in a bit...that chameleon needs to be helped right away...please get it to a good chameleon vet now!
You've been given some good information above but I have a couple of comments...
You need some branches that are not as thick so the chameleon can climb them more easily. You need more branches and greenery in the cage too. Live plants are recommended with a veiled since they will eat or nibble on the leaves and it can lead to impaction if it ingests a fake leaf....especially females do this.
The cage needs to be away from the windows because you live in a cold climate and the draft from the window will lead to respiratory issues even if you think the window is well sealed. Do you hear any raspy breathing now or does she ever sit with her mouth open and head up?
On earning the vitamin powder...I recommend you get one with a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A. This form of vitamin A won't build up in the system like prEformed (retinol, retinyl, palmitate) sources will but it leaves it up to you to decide when/if your chameleon needs some preformed.
Hope you get it looked after quickly or you're likely going to lose your chameleon.
You've been given some good information above but I have a couple of comments...
You need some branches that are not as thick so the chameleon can climb them more easily. You need more branches and greenery in the cage too. Live plants are recommended with a veiled since they will eat or nibble on the leaves and it can lead to impaction if it ingests a fake leaf....especially females do this.
The cage needs to be away from the windows because you live in a cold climate and the draft from the window will lead to respiratory issues even if you think the window is well sealed. Do you hear any raspy breathing now or does she ever sit with her mouth open and head up?
On earning the vitamin powder...I recommend you get one with a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A. This form of vitamin A won't build up in the system like prEformed (retinol, retinyl, palmitate) sources will but it leaves it up to you to decide when/if your chameleon needs some preformed.
Hope you get it looked after quickly or you're likely going to lose your chameleon.
Last edited:
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
This may help you in finding a reptile vet.
https://arav.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=3661
https://arav.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=3661
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Kaizen
Chameleon Enthusiast
Reptivite/herptivite are the two big ones, but I don’t use your supplementation regime, so others will be better able to advise you here.
Yes she as sat with her mouth open once last night any idea as to why?
Kaizen
Chameleon Enthusiast
It is really important that you see a vet. Gaping can be as trivial as feeling too hot, or as important as an upper respiratory infection. If that were the only issue, I’d be happy to discuss further, but I really think you need to see a vet ASAP.
Kaizen
Chameleon Enthusiast
I understand your position. Please understand that of the people on this forum: we are not vets (@ferretinmyshoes, being an exception), and there is only so much random people can help with. I wish you and your Cham the best, and hope that you can make it to a vet.
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