New baby veiled gasping a lot

[MaxsAnimals]

We have owned a veiled female chameleon for 7 days. A few days after we got her I started noticing that she was wheezing and making a chirping sound occasionally. It kind of looked like she was choking. I looked online and got the idea that it could just be her cooling herself off and have been keeping an eye on her and making sure her environment was as accurate as possible. But she is doing the behavior more often and I am really concerned about respiratory infection.

I have a video of the behavior if that helps. The cage is a glass with mesh top from the pet store. She has a small heating lamp and a uvb coiled lamp during the day and a night heat lamp at night. The temp during the day is around 75-85 occasionally 90 at night it goes down to 75-80.

We mist several times a day so the humidity goes between 40% to 70%

I have been feeding her a few small crickets a day and have a bowl of tiny meal worms always available.

She is somewhat active but not as active as she was in the pet store. I don't see the crickets anymore but have never seen her eat one. I have seen her eat a meal worm once. Other than that I am not sure if she is eating them or if they are crawling out??

Of course now it is Saturday night and I won't be able to get to a vet until Monday to get an antibiotic if that is what she needs.

Just wanted some reassurance if I am overreacting or some other advice if I am doing anything wrong.

I can't attach the videos....

Thanks so much!

 

[MaxsAnimals]

I did figure out how to save a single frame of the videos but now I can't figure out how to add those...if anyone can tell me I think it would be helpful to see what she is doing. thanks again. Really sad and worried.

 

[chameeeleon]

Hi, looks like you're new here, so first off make sure you read through all the care sheets on this website. They really help. Here are a couple:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

And from what you said it sounds like you need to make some changes to your enclosure. You do not need a bulb on at night. She could be gaping because it's too warm. It is good to have a nighttime drop in temps into the 60s. You'll need a screen cage (I recommend ZooMed Reptibreeze) or at least a cage with a screen door for ventilation, and you should switch from the coiled uvb light (heard it causes eye issues) to a tube uvb light (wider coverage, ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 is recommended).

As for the breathing/wheezing issue you should copy, paste, & fill out this form: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ so that some more experienced users can help you.

And for the video you could upload it to youtube & post a link.