Napping During the Day

marooned

marooned

New Member
My little lady, still a tiny one, has been taking little naps today. She took a nap on my plant for 10 mins and I woke her up. I then saw her closing her eyes in her cage, but she opened her eyes after a minute and then closes them again and repeats. Is this anything I should be concerned about? I thought I read somewhere that it's not normal. If it is not normal, why is that?

Thanks for your input!
 
A chameleons hearing and sense of smell are both very bad so they rely on their vision to be aware of their surroundings and as protection from predators. So closing your eyes is a big issue if your life depends on it.

So eyes closed during the day is a sign that something is off, this could be signs of illness, exchaustion, dehydration...

We need a better insight of your husbandry to be able to help, but you may want to start looking around for a vet that has eperience with these animals aswell.

Please fill out the how to ask for help form:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
 
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Veiled Cham, female, age I think 3-6months. I've only had her for 4 days.
  • Handling - I take her out 1-3 times a day and let her walk around and play on plants (which I know are cham friendly).
  • Feeding - I;ve been gutloading. However, shes only eating 6-7 crickets on Saturday. Sunday she ate a super worm, which I think was too big. I left worms and crickets in her cage since but she has not eaten any. I tried giving her carrots and grapes with no luck.
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Watering - She drank a decent amount of water off of leaves on Saturday and I haven't seen her drink since. I spray her viv at least 3-4 times a day and make sure that the leaves in her cage have drops on them.
  • Fecal Description - Her poops are firm and I would say half brown half white. She hasn't been tested for anything.
  • History - I have no previous info. I got her from a local pet store and from what the guy told me about care I think he may have not been caring for his Chams correctly.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Screen rectangle cage. Roughly 14 x 14".
  • Lighting - She has lights on all day for atleast 14 hours a day. She has UVB and 120V 6W 60Hz light. Sorry I don't remember the exact brands/types.
  • Temperature - To be honest I have not yet measured the temp. so not sure.
  • Humidity - I don't measure humidity either, but again I spray many times a day.
  • Plants - I have a Pothos and Baby Tears in her cage.
  • Placement - The cage is located near my door so gets a decent amount of traffic when I go in and out. The top of the cage is about 4' from the ground.
  • Location - I am in northern CA, so it's not that warm. Pretty mild temps.

Current Problem - She hasn't been eating the past few days. She looks skinny. I noticed today that she was breathing a little bit funny, but I think it was triggered by stress.

Thanks so much for your input, I really want to take good care of her!
 
Petstore advise often is terrible advise and mainly aimed at getting you to purchase a lot of crappy equipment at their store that you will end up replacing soon after if you want to keep a healthy animal.

Lights should be 12hr/12hr on/off.
You should measure temps, this is important. She needs heat to digest food properly but not to much heat so she will overheat.

I dont measure humidity either but whats important is that they get some longer mistings of around 5 minutes. They will use this time to clean their eyes and drink if they need to hydratre.

You didn't fill in anything on supplements? Do you provide calcium and multivitamins?
What do you use as a gutload?

Breathing funny can also be signs of stating RI, make sure she doesnt get any draft from being close to the door.

From what I can judge of your profile picture she doesnt look to good, best to schedule a vet visit for a checkup.
 
marooned said:
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Veiled Cham, female, age I think 3-6months. I've only had her for 4 days.
  • Handling - I take her out 1-3 times a day and let her walk around and play on plants (which I know are cham friendly).
  • Feeding - I;ve been gutloading. However, shes only eating 6-7 crickets on Saturday. Sunday she ate a super worm, which I think was too big. I left worms and crickets in her cage since but she has not eaten any. I tried giving her carrots and grapes with no luck.
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Watering - She drank a decent amount of water off of leaves on Saturday and I haven't seen her drink since. I spray her viv at least 3-4 times a day and make sure that the leaves in her cage have drops on them.
  • Fecal Description - Her poops are firm and I would say half brown half white. She hasn't been tested for anything.
  • History - I have no previous info. I got her from a local pet store and from what the guy told me about care I think he may have not been caring for his Chams correctly.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Screen rectangle cage. Roughly 14 x 14".
  • Lighting - She has lights on all day for atleast 14 hours a day. She has UVB and 120V 6W 60Hz light. Sorry I don't remember the exact brands/types.
  • Temperature - To be honest I have not yet measured the temp. so not sure.
  • Humidity - I don't measure humidity either, but again I spray many times a day.
  • Plants - I have a Pothos and Baby Tears in her cage.
  • Placement - The cage is located near my door so gets a decent amount of traffic when I go in and out. The top of the cage is about 4' from the ground.
  • Location - I am in northern CA, so it's not that warm. Pretty mild temps.

Current Problem - She hasn't been eating the past few days. She looks skinny. I noticed today that she was breathing a little bit funny, but I think it was triggered by stress.

Thanks so much for your input, I really want to take good care of her!
Click to expand...
Do you use supplements? Are you planning to upgrade to a bigger screen cage soon? Get a temp gun and humidity gage ASAP along with cage. I would move the enclosure to a quieter place without lots of traffic or a draft. The lights should be on for 12 hours, not 14. Are you steaming the carrots? Grapes should only be given in small amounts. What have you been gutloading with? Get a lay bin set up ASAP, too. Why are you handling her that often?
 
"Handling - I take her out 1-3 times a day and let her walk around and play on plants (which I know are cham friendly)."

seems a bit drastic! I've had mine for over a week now and haven't touched him once... that alone sounds stressful! a less traffic'd area will probably help too.
 
marooned said:
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Veiled Cham, female, age I think 3-6months. I've only had her for 4 days.
  • Handling - I take her out 1-3 times a day and let her walk around and play on plants (which I know are cham friendly).
  • Feeding - I;ve been gutloading. However, shes only eating 6-7 crickets on Saturday. Sunday she ate a super worm, which I think was too big. I left worms and crickets in her cage since but she has not eaten any. I tried giving her carrots and grapes with no luck.
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Watering - She drank a decent amount of water off of leaves on Saturday and I haven't seen her drink since. I spray her viv at least 3-4 times a day and make sure that the leaves in her cage have drops on them.
  • Fecal Description - Her poops are firm and I would say half brown half white. She hasn't been tested for anything.
  • History - I have no previous info. I got her from a local pet store and from what the guy told me about care I think he may have not been caring for his Chams correctly.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Screen rectangle cage. Roughly 14 x 14".
  • Lighting - She has lights on all day for atleast 14 hours a day. She has UVB and 120V 6W 60Hz light. Sorry I don't remember the exact brands/types.
  • Temperature - To be honest I have not yet measured the temp. so not sure.
  • Humidity - I don't measure humidity either, but again I spray many times a day.
  • Plants - I have a Pothos and Baby Tears in her cage.
  • Placement - The cage is located near my door so gets a decent amount of traffic when I go in and out. The top of the cage is about 4' from the ground.
  • Location - I am in northern CA, so it's not that warm. Pretty mild temps.

Current Problem - She hasn't been eating the past few days. She looks skinny. I noticed today that she was breathing a little bit funny, but I think it was triggered by stress.

Thanks so much for your input, I really want to take good care of her!
Click to expand...

Sorry mate chameleons don´t play. this could be a respons to stress. let he be in her terrarium and take her out when cleaning the terrarium if needed. what supplements do you use? what do you gutload with?
 
marooned said:
OK, I guess I made a rooky mistake. Thanks so much for your advice guys. I'll leave her alone :)
Click to expand...
Are you setting up a lay bin? Could you answer my questions from above, please? I just want to help you so you can help your chameleon.
 
I have not gotten a lay bin yet. Also out of curiosity - if I put my hand in her cage and don't force her but she walks onto my hand how come that is not ok?
 
marooned said:
I have not gotten a lay bin yet. Also out of curiosity - if I put my hand in her cage and don't force her but she walks onto my hand how come that is not ok?
Click to expand...
Just the constant handling daily could be causing her duress. Sorry to nag, but could you answer the rest of my questions, too, please?
 
If I were you, I would get a vet appointment (from an exotics vet with lots of female veiled experience and knowledge) ASAP, along with a lay bin
 
marooned said:
I have not gotten a lay bin yet. Also out of curiosity - if I put my hand in her cage and don't force her but she walks onto my hand how come that is not ok?
Click to expand...
Most of the times they do that because they want out of the enclosure, not to be with their caretaker.

It could be the enclosure is not setup properly, or the location where it stamds isnt ok and she resorts to drastic measures to find a better place to live.

Can you share a pic of the enclosure?
 
A lay bin may be needed in the future but if your profile pic is a recent one a lay bin is a low priority. You have a lot more pressing issues to resolve, focus on them first.
 
marooned said:
My little lady, still a tiny one, has been taking little naps today. She took a nap on my plant for 10 mins and I woke her up. I then saw her closing her eyes in her cage, but she opened her eyes after a minute and then closes them again and repeats. Is this anything I should be concerned about? I thought I read somewhere that it's not normal. If it is not normal, why is that?

Thanks for your input!
Click to expand...
I have been seeing some of your posts and am also a very new chameleon owner so I would listen to what others are saying first but...
I bought my chameleon from petsmart on a Friday afternoon, and by Monday morning I could tell something was extremely wrong especially because of what people were telling me on posts.
I took her in to the vet they have registered or whatever and she still didn't make it. About a week and half later they called me saying they had a new one for me and after receiving her I noticed a night and day difference right away.

My first chameleon, would barely eat, was very small like in your profile pic, would rest in the same spot all the time and I then started to get droopy eyes.
I would say you need to pry get yours to the vet as well to see if they can help her before it is to late.
We made the mistake of buying from those big name brand places which is not good, they keep them in really bad conditions.
I'm not trying to discourage you but I kind of know what your going through. I hope your chameleon starts feeling better soon!
 
You just got the chameleon so I would not handle it for a few weeks. Make sure the enclosure has lots of foliage (live plants are best) to provide hiding places and retain humidity.

You need to measure the cage temps since it is vital to the chameleons health. There are three spots that you want to get temp reading from which are the basking branch which should be about 6 inches under the basking light, the middle of the cage and the very bottom. The basking branch should, obviously, be reading around the recommended basking temps which for a young veiled would be low to mid 80*F. The temps in the cage should gradually drop as you go lower in the cage.

Start here and with what others mentioned above. Also, use the caresheet found in the resource section of this forum. Its the best quick guide for chameleon care.
 
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