Paranoid about young cham colors!!

Rockrobert30

New Member
•Your Chameleon- 3-4 month female veiled chameleon named Annabelle, she was a gift from the girlfriend. I've owned many reptiles (anoles,bearded dragon, iguana ect) but first chameleon and have always wanted one. Amazing personality.

•Handling- She is handled briefly 10-20min once a day for feeding. Food regularly escapes her enclosure. Until i build another one she is brought to a large tote with a perch and small ficus and she eats there.

•Feeding- Varies from day to day. While in her enclosure she eats 1-3 crickets. When i bring her out once a day in her feeding tote she pigs out on 3-6 small crickets, 1-2 roaches, and green horned worms are her favorite. Each day is different. Some days she eats a couple green horned worms and a few cricket, and some she just eats 5-9 crickets. Crickets are gut loaded and what i gut load them with changes week to week.

•Supplements- standard lightly coated crickets with calcium w/o d3 and with d3 once a week. Reptivitiman twice a month... only have had her about a month.

•Watering- automatic mister using a single nozzle now. Sprays every 8 hours for 16 seconds plus hand spray with a quality mister 2-3 times a day. Paranoid with the automister. Don't want it blasting her all the time so i prefer doing it by hand so i know it was done thoroughly. The auto misting system is more of a fall back if I'm gone all day and there is something there keeping it from completely drying out.

•History- she was a gift and was bought from petco which worries me, I'm not a fan of there practices especially with reptiles that actually requires know how and patience. The people there are relatively clueless on there needs.

•Enclosure- 18" wide 48" tall round screened enclosure.

•Lighting- 75 watt halogen heat lamp for basking on a dimmable switch. I take temperature measurements daily( very very paranoid of harming her) . 26w cfl 5.0 uvb

•Temperature- day time bottom temp 72°-76° basking spot 81°-87. Night temps 60°-68°.. using digital meter with thermistor.

•Humidity- 40% on a dry day- never higher than 60%. Occasionally drops to low and gets in the 30% range.

•Placement- bedroom on top of a round table 18" off the floor. Near a window that's covered with light proof curtains early morning and evening and opened in the afternoon for sun.

•Location- Upstate New York...... winters are super cold and inside is very dry. Summer will be wonderful for her as it is near subtropical.


So I've only Annabelle about a month, she was a gift from my girlfriend. She had bought her over 2 weeks prior to giving me her. When i first got her she was a very nice bright green. Now she has this white grey blotchy color all over. She does have a light bruising on her eye, employee claimed she was a bit bullied by the other chameleons and she was bit in the face. I built her a nice large screened enclosure with only live plants ranging from 4 foot tall schellflera and small ficus and pothos. She eats plenty, drinks water from her dripper daily. She is very active and has an absolutely adorable and funny personality. I take her put every day and bring her to a tote and put variety of food in there and she goes to town. She'll eat while she is in my hand and she'll take food from my hand. She has only once ever showed aggression or agitation and that was the first day i moved her and she was rightly pissed. But she climbs right onto my hand coming out of her cage and her "feeding arena" without needing to do anything. Sometimes it feels like she wants to get out and explore. Many times I've attempted to put her in her enclosure and she'll turn around and climb back up my arm. One night it took almost 20 min to get her back in her enclosure. I refuse to grab on her or be forceful in anyway so sometimes things take awhile hahaha. She does one odd thing that I've never heard of them doing. After she eats she'll walk to the side of her tote closest to me and she'll reach up for me on her hind legs. I've been clear across the room and I'll turn around and she'll be done eating reaching straight up with nothing above her at all. Sorry for the long post but I'm quite concerned about her colors. As well as the white blotchy colors on some parts it looks shiny. I figured at first she was about to shed but nothing has happened and she hasn't shed since i got her she is gaining weight quickly. I weigh her once a week to monitor her growth. The pictures i added are 15 minutes before her bed time. Wanted to get clear pics of her sides, plus one i took showing what she does absolutely everytime she is done eating. I try not to handle her to close to bed because she will in fact fall sleep on me . Sometimes refusing to get off my hand. During the day is very active and loves to explore when i take her out.
 

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I know absolutely nothing about translucent veileds except that they are a thing. I'm not sure if it's somethIn that they 'grow into' but it might be worth looking in to. At the very least you might stumble upon some knowledge about her coloring.

I did do a bit of looking and cannot find anything to do with white chameleons that isn't shedding.

Is her skin as smooth as it looks where it's white?
 
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I would take her to the vet just to make sure she's healthy and nothing underlying since she came from the store. My first thought when I look at the pictures is a fungal infection. The black could be burns or also a fungal infection. I don't have any experience with fungal infections and it may just be her starting to shed, but in the pictures it looks like it has a yellowish tint.
If it is just her shedding, you could try putting her in the shower for awhile in lukewarm water on one of the plants. Aim the head so the water bounces off the side creating a mist on the leaves and she will also be able to drink.
How long ago did you notice the blotches?
 
I know absolutely nothing about translucent veileds except that they are a thing. I'm not sure if it's somethIn that they 'grow into' but it might be worth looking in to. At the very least you might stumble upon some knowledge about her coloring.

I did do a bit of looking and cannot find anything to do with white chameleons that isn't shedding.

Is her skin as smooth as it looks where it's white?
I highly doubt this is a translucent as they are usually born with some characteristic of being translucent my guess is as good s @#Chams4life since there is black somewhere in the mix of it all
 
The white blotches started showing up about a week and a half ago. Across her body it looks like it's part of her color. No raised areas, no bumps perfectly smooth like the rest of the skin. Basically if it wasn't white you wouldn't be able to tell anything is there. But... on top of her head it is slightly shiny like she is starting to shed and it's been that way for at least 2 weeks. I can get a close up here soon and I'll post it. I need to clean her cage so I'll take pics when i move her . I'm completely boggled. She acts normal, eats and drinks. I think I'll definitely try the shower. She hasn't shed since we got her. My girlfriend said when she first got her it looked as if she had recently shed her skin and she was bright green.
 
@#Chams4life @Oneofthosemegans I'm truly hoping she is just about to shed. I just noticed that there is some peeling on her head. I also couldn't find anything about quite chams that wasn't shedding. I know she is due for one. I just got some close ups. She is a bit agitated today. For the first time in weeks she didn't climb straight to my hand and turned around the other way. I just did the shower with her, she seemed to be okay with it for the first minute or so but wouldn't get on her plant. She started getting upset and then got on her plant. I'm terrified it's a burn as about 2 weeks or so she managed to get closer to her heat lamp then she should of. It was for a short time and showed no discoloration of any sort for days after. I was quite panicked about it though. It's very cold here in upstate and heaters are drying out the room. I have humidifiers going and i also have a reptifogger but she doesn't seem to like it, it was stressing her out so i rarely turn i on.
 

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About 12". But i dim it too about 50% give or take 10%. I have a 75w halogen bulb in there now for basking. Full power is way to hot. I removed or lowered everything that was closer than 12"
 
I'm starting too think it could be from her light :(. It's only on areas that would be exposed from lighting from above. Her belly and under her body in general is perfectly light green. Neon green almost when she is feeding. I'll never forgive myself if this is my fault.
 
I'm starting too think it could be from her light :(. It's only on areas that would be exposed from lighting from above. Her belly and under her body in general is perfectly light green. Neon green almost when she is feeding. I'll never forgive myself if this is my fault.

If you search "white burn" on the forum you will find other case unfortunately it does look like that's what it is. I'd save other people posts for when you take her in to the vet. If they aren't familiar with it (depending on how knowledgeable the vet you've pick is with chameleons) it might help to show other cases.
 
Have you looked into where you're going to the vet? There is a thread on here about them. There's also a website ARAV.org the original vet I chose said they take chameleons but I was doubtful of their knowledge as they are a wildlife (minnesota) vet. I found one on that site that was over an hour away but it was so worth it.
 
Oh no. I believe you to be right.. the vet i found was a referral from a local pet shop. They have a herpetologist there. The employee says that is where they bring there chameleons. It's not to far away. It's gonna be a day or two before i can make it there. If it is a burn what can i do right now to help treat so it doesn't get infected or worse? I've lowered her basking light even more and swapped out the uvb bulb for a lower wattage one to be on the safe side. It makes perfect sense as they say the pigment cells get bleached from high heat. Omg i can't believe it's probably my fault. Feeling like an idiot right now.
 
I want to thank everyone for their fast responses and help. And thank you @Oneofthosemegans for identifying the issue. Annabelle will be going to the vet here soon. The white has slowly darkened into a light shade of black. It does appear to be healing as if over night most of the color has faded away and she has more green showing. I've made changes to her enclosure and changed her basking light to a less intense halogen and dimmed it. Basking temperatures are around 81°- 85° in the hottest spot. Luckily i work a seasonal job and I'm on my vacation portion, so i will be home to keep a close eye on her and be able to apply what ever treatment the vet prescribes. I'll continue with updates and maybe someone can learn from my mistake. I can't begin to describe how horrible i feel about this. My pets are like my kids and i take mistakes very personally. :( .. chameleons are amazing animals with incredible personalities. Definitely cannot afford to over look any details when it comes to there care. Thank you again
 
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