My female Veiled has a soft casque

EVAtheGREAT

EVAtheGREAT

New Member
Hi I'm new here. I have a female veiled chameleon and we have had her for about 4 months. She was probably 6 months old when we got her. She has never had any problems until now. First off, her casque is soft, which I am assuming is not normal. I give her calcium supplements on the crickets and in her water. We had to move a few days ago and she has been black or dark brown since then. I am so worried about her. Besides my kids she is my baby. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. :(
 
Do you mean that the bone is flexible or that the sides of the casque are soft?

Can you post some pictures please....of the casque and the chameleon (side view)?

Does she show any signs of MBD such as what looks like an extra elbow above the real elbow, inability to lift her body off the branches, inability to shoot her tongue out far, bends to the legs or arms, etc.?

Is your chameleon getting UVB from either a tube/linear UVB light of from direct sunlight? (Neither should pass through glass or plastic.)

What brands of supplements are you dusting with and how often?

What are you feeding your insects? Do you gutload them?

What is the temperature in the basking area and what do you use for a basking light?
 
The sides of the casque are soft. She is not acting weak and she is moving around, but she is not opening her mouth to drink like she normally does. But I see her ingesting and swallowing when I water her. I gut load my crickets with fruits and veggies and water them with flukers. I dust the crickets with Rep-Cal phosphorous free with calcium and Vit.d3 and we supplement her water with Calcimize conditioner by exo-terra. We use a 100 watt basking light I think it is a Zoomed.
 
Her temp stays between 70-80 degrees and the humidity stays tropical. She doesn't have any elbow problems that I can tell no extra bends or anything like that. I feed the crickets sweet potatoes, apples, green leaf lettuce, things of that such.
 
yes I have a UVB light source, that is what her veterinarian suggested. She did shed on her casque about a week ago, could that contribute to her softness on the casque?
 
casque

The casque is where fat storage is located on a veiled (and tail). i'd say as long as the bone is good and sturdy, not pliable, you're ok. It's common for a veiled to have have soft parts of the casque (fatty tissue), but there is a big difference between the bone and the fat storage. You can judge this the front of the casque. If you can move the bone around with your fingers, that is not a good thing. If the fatty part feels soft it's a good thing. That means your cham has a good fat storage going on. However, if the bone feels soft or is pliable, that means it could be the start of MBD (metabolic bone disease) and your cham is not getting enough calcium. You do have a UVB source and you dust and add calcium to the water, so if you temps, lighting, and calcium regimen is in check, it's very unlikely that MBD would occur. If you're really really worried or don't think you can tell for yourself if the casque is right, take the cham to a vet and they'll tell you for sure.
 
The bone on the casque is hard and the sides are what is soft. She is still active and the only thing that has changed is we moved over the weekend and I am thinking that she is just stressed out right now, but ya know ya can never be too careful especially since they are so sensitive to everything. She came right out to me this morning and let me hold her and I felt all over her. The only other thing I can think is she has never laid eggs. So I am wondering if she may be getting ready and this is why she has displayed the darker colors lately. She will usually hiss at me when I touch her casque and she did not do that today so it really worried me. And like I said she has been so dark and she is usually bright green and displays alot of yellow, blue and orange.
 
i see

yah she may have gravid coloration right now then. Give her a place to lay eggs. if the sides of the casque are soft that's perfectly normal and is actually a good thing.
 
EVAtheGREAT said:
yes I have a UVB light source, that is what her veterinarian suggested. She did shed on her casque about a week ago, could that contribute to her softness on the casque?
Click to expand...

Not to beat the proverbial dead horse, but I am assumming that you have 2lights, the basking light and something like a flourescent Zoomed Reptisun 5.0?
 
stop worrying she's ok.
she's too young to go gravid at 6 months at this time of year
unless lots of factor have come into play... like: she's been exposed
to a male that's been courting her, high feeding, high temps and genetics (hybrid animal)
The greatest factor is having a adult male "trigger her" with display and advances...
I kinda doubt that she's mature enough yet.. without good picts and better info.

Please don't believe that that casque is intended to be this solid bony thing
it's a place to store fats and water thats built upon a boney framework.

everything is fine. don't bother her
if and when she triggers for egg production sans male
her colors will change slightly as well as her mood...
she'll be very pliable and friendly.
(another good reason to handle your animal)
she'll also express her golden streaks (ymmv/depending)
mate or don't mate... but be responsible for the offspring.
when she's carrying... her lower abdomen will be dropped and heavy
when compared to just being "full" after a good meal.

easy to spot... easy to manage... no problems.
good luck.
 
EVAtheGREAT said..."She will usually hiss at me when I touch her casque and she did not do that today so it really worried me. And like I said she has been so dark and she is usually bright green and displays alot of yellow, blue and orange".

Hmmm...I would put a suitable container of sand in the cage with her to make sure she has a place to lay....just in case.

The casque is fine if its boney along the front up to the peak and the pads are soft on both sides.
 
here is a proof taken from this site:
http://bioweb.wku.edu/faculty/Huskey/

Veiled%20chameleon%20skeleton%20rostral2.jpg


only the bone part that should not be soft/ bendable.
if you can bend the casque, then you have yourself a very sick chameleon.
 
My husband moved her to our bedroom and she seems to be doing better. I think she may have been a little stressed out and i got overly worried. She seems a lot more active and happy now that she has more privacy from our kids. As of right now she is bright green and looking like my beautiful girl that I know so well. We gave her a bit of natural sunlight today and that seemed to perk her up alot. Man I am so glad that I found this forum, ya'll are great here. Thanks for all of the advice, I feel a lot better about her health today. I will post some pics as soon as I can get time to replenish my batteries for my camera. I would love to share my beautiful female Eva with all of you. Thanks so much for all of the help and advice again all of you are great. Thanks for having us here. I feel so welcome! :)
 
I would like to let everyone know that My Cham EVA is doing great now. I think she was just stressed over the move. Thanks for all the concern and all of the advice!!!!
 
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