Please Help - Chameleon doesn't seem healthy

Super sorry if this was said already, but t8’s are poor sources of light. You don’t need a special fixture, just go to your local hydroponics store and buy a 24” sun blaster fixture; pair that with an Arcadia 12% or a reptisun 10, and your lighting is on point. Stop dusting d3 at every feeding. As you have a veiled, just get ‘repashy calcium plus LoD ‘ and use at every feeding. Don’t use supers to try to break a food strike—just let the little imp starve until he’ll take a roach/cricket or some other acceptable staple feeder. As for his behaviour: guys are dic$s, and as they mature, they get worse. If your Cham hates you, you should happy: that’s how a Cham should feel towards us.
 
Welcome to the forum!

You said ..."His name is "Houdini" and he inherited his name because he used to escape his original setup"....my first veiled chameleon male was Houdini too for exactly the same reason!

Regarding supplementing...I dust lightly at almost every feeding with Rep Cal phos free calcium powder to ensure that the chameleon gets enough calcium. I dust twice a month with a phos free calcium/D3 powder lightly and twice a month with herptivite powder lightly. Herptivite has a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A which will not bile up in the system like prEformed sources can. This leaves it up to you to decide if/when the chameleon needs some prEformed vitamin A.

It's also important to feed/gutload the insects well. I feed/gutload them with greens such as dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, etc. and veggies such as carrots, squash, zucchini, sweet red pepper, sweet potatoes, etc. a d a very small amount of fruit such as berries, apple, pear, melon, etc.

With adult veiled chameleons I don't recommend plants made of plastic or material. I only use real ones that are non -toxic.

For years I have used the long linear reptisun 5.0 UVB light.

I don't mist nearly that often with veiled chameleons. This may have to vary depending on where you live. (I live in Canada.)

I don't know for sure if olive oil is a good idea or not. I've never tried it so I don't want to tell you if its right or wrong. I do know that heavy misting is not a good answer to shedding problems usually. If it's a burn I would use flamazine or silvadene on the spots lightly....but check with the vet first.

I hope this helps!
 
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Beman said:
@FrozenRain00 First off welcome. Your going to receive a ton of feed back so just have an open mind and know we are trying to help you. See all my feedback in red bold.

Current Husbandry:
Humidity:
MistKing- Previous settings were 2 minutes of mist approx. every 2 hours. He started freaking out this past month whenever it went off (when I first noticed his strange behavior). Humidity was about 5-10% lower than needed so the vet recommended more frequent misting. I set the Mist King to the following (only allows for 10 settings): It mists for 1 solid minute at these times: 9:30a, 10:45a, 11:30a, 12:45p, 1:30p, 2:45p, 3:45p, 4:45p, 6:15p, 7:15p. Humidity is now a minimum of 50% and goes up to about 94% immediately after the mister goes off. I have gauges for humidity and temperature throughout his cage- top and bottom. Everything has pretty stable reading throughout.
He runs away from the mist when it goes off now- which is also weird.
1 ‘Big Dripper’- which I keep full daily. He does drink from it every morning.

For a veiled they should have a humidity level of 30-40% during the day. 50% is the max you want it to hit during the day. At night when the cage is its coolest (under 70 degrees) you can use a cool mist humidifier to kick the humidity up to 100%. The worry with the current schedule is two fold. 1. the cage is not able to dry out which exposes him to constantly walking on wet branches that can grow bacteria. 2. The humidity level is so high the risk to him is developing a respiratory infection.
I will give you a link to a podcast on naturalistic hydration.

Lighting/Heat:
Auto on/off starting at 8:00a and off at 8:30p. If I am in the room, I cover the sides of his cage with a dark towel (like you do with birds) so he can sleep.
With lights out the apartment is maintained at 70-73 degrees. This is still a little on the warm side at night.
UVB: T8 Zilla Reptile Slimline Reptile Lighting Fixture, 18-Inches. This fixture is not adequate and MBD is a serious risk for your Cham. You need a T5HO Fixture with a 5.0 bulb. This should be a 24 inch because a male Veiled needs room. A 18x18x36 inch cage is much too small for them at that age.
Basking: I HAD a Fluker's Basking Spotlight 100 watt. These bulbs died every month- OR would explode. I stopped using them because of the danger AND because Houdini was acting like he couldn’t get enough heat from it. (gauges would read 88 degrees max). I read on the forum many people use outdoor halogen spotlights with success, so I switched to that. The basking is now a Sylvania halogen 60W spotlight. Get a temp gun off amazon for 15 bucks. this will give you better idea what your temps are. He should sit right about 90-94 degrees at basking level. Some males prefer it slightly cooler.
The vet had me raise it from 8 inches above the basking area to about 15 inches: temperature holds between 88-94 degrees now. The bottom of the cage is around 70-75 degrees depending on when misting occurs. It seems like your temps are off. What are you using to measure temps. With a 60watt bulb at 15 inches. It just does not add up that your getting a basking temp of 88-94 degrees.
He never climbs on the top of the cage to get more heat.

Cage:
Large repti-breeze cage. I read he should be in an XLarge at this age, but I do not have the room with my current apartment setup to upgrade yet which is why he previously had free-range to 2 trees or the window plants in my apartment if he needed to get out and stretch. Until he is feeling better, I’m keeping him in his cage to monitor. Part of his aggression could be the small cage. This is something that will cause him additional stress and anxiety which will just compound his aggression.

Plants:
I have some plastic reptile-safe plants in his cage atm until the pathos gets larger. The living plants in his cage are: Pothos and Hibiscus. He used to eat them both (especially the hibiscus flowers- I don’t see him doing that anymore).
The plants in the windows are living: Pothos and an umbrella plant aka Schefflera.
The trees in my apartments are fake, about 6ft tall: 2 ficus.

Food:
Was mostly dusted crickets- he does not eat them lately. He also is picky about his crickets- if they have wings/cheep, he won’t eat them. Hates the local pet store stock and used to love the wingless ones from Petco.
He has been eating about 5 dusted super worms daily- at least it’s something right now. Superworms are extremely low in nutritional value. They should not be used as a staple diet due to this. I will post an image.
I’m going to reptile faire this weekend to see what other bugs I can add in to see if he will munch on them. The idea of roaches scared me- if they get out, I don’t want to the be the source of an infestation. (tips on these- or alternatives would be appreciated). Roaches are best as they gutload really well. And if you hand feed or cup feed they do not get out.

Vitamins:
Bugs are dusted daily with Rep-Cal Calcium w/Vit D. He is at risk for a D3 overdose. He should be getting fed every other day at this point in his life. The reduced appetite could very well be from way too much D3. This should be given 2 times a month alternating with the herpivite. Then for all the other feedings you should be giving calcium WITHOUT D3.
2x monthly with Rep-Cal Herptivite multivitamins.
I often clip fresh romaine lettuce- but he hasn’t eaten any.
He used to take a banana slice out of my hand once every couple weeks, but also turns his nose up to those lately.
I used to hand feed him- but I built a bug cup and he has been eating bugs out of this device for the past 3 weeks now to avoid the additional stress.

Drainage:
I have the entire setup on a metal shelfing unit. The top shelf holds the lights and the big dripper, the next shelf down holds his screen cage. The shelf under that holds a catch basin from the mister and dripper (there is screen on the bottom of his cage to prevent escape). I have the catch basin plumbed and a clear hose runs down to the bottom shelf where a sealed bucket sits and the excess water drains (makes it easier to dump and clean). There is a shelf between the basin and the bucket shelfing unit- this holds the clean water tun which is used by the MistKing throughout the day.

*I have attached photos. I apologize as I should’ve taken the photos of his skin BEFORE the olive oil. Upon taking these photos about an hour after applying the olive oil- I do have to say the spots on his sides and his knees already look 100x better.*


Ok so it would seem that your way of dealing with the aggression is by taking away everything that he was used to. going from free range to a tiny cage is stressful enough. But you have changed even hand feeding to cope with his aggression. I think this is exacerbating the issue for him. It is changing everything he is used to.

If you are going to keep him caged you have to upgrade the cage size. The lighting has to be upgraded to a T5HO fixture as already stated. That t8 will do nothing for him. The t5ho should be placed directly on the cage top along the center with his basking 7-8 inches below for correct UVI levels. Get the calcium without D3 asap as well. Take him off the calcium with D3 for a month so his body can start flushing it. Then only use the calcium with D3 2 times a month rotating week over week with your multivitamin. Correct the misting schedule. Listen to the podcast link.

While I agree the skin looks like burns... I really do not think that they are. I do think finding a Reptile vet that is actually experienced with chams would be a good idea. the advice you were given is not what I would expect from one with cham knowledge. The fact that they did not even physically look at him because they were scared is another indication.

Podcast link. All his podcasts are wonderful. https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/basic-info-on-misting-and-fogging.2325/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...s-through-the-fog-without-dispelling-it.2400/

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/


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beman,

Do you sleep or eat? Good lord, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so willing to share her time and experience to a complete stranger!!!! Love from Kaizen!
 
She’s being modest, on top of all that she helps me run my small business. She’s the most giving woman I’ve ever met and this forum is definitely blessed to have her.

...I’m just not buying the burn theory, it doesn’t add up for me. I’m thinking a bacterial infection from the constant damp conditions or something along those lines.
Unfortunately I’d need to see the skin without oil on it to say with confidence. I would advise to stop the olive oil. It may have helped him feel better temporarily but it’s treating a symptoms of an underlying larger problem and not the problem itself. It’s also masking one of the symptoms making it harder to track down the root cause.
 
Brodybreaux25 said:
She’s being modest, on top of all that she helps me run my small business. She’s the most giving woman I’ve ever met and this forum is definitely blessed to have her.

...I’m just not buying the burn theory, it doesn’t add up for me. I’m thinking a bacterial infection from the constant damp conditions or something along those lines.
Unfortunately I’d need to see the skin without oil on it to say with confidence. I would advise to stop the olive oil. It may have helped him feel better temporarily but it’s treating a symptoms of an underlying larger problem and not the problem itself. It’s also masking one of the symptoms making it harder to track down the root cause.
Click to expand...

Brody, your posts are nauseating

...but I understand, I miss those days haha
 
Kaizen said:
id love it if I was becca, but I’m a just a lowly chammer, and I’m a dude.
Click to expand...

A lot of us guys have helped this forum tremendously, but being guys, we run out of patience and end up getting kicked to the curb. Becca has the advantage of being able to take a lot of BS haha(this isn't talking about OP though). Infact, I wanted to post just to say, OP thank you for taking the time to fill us in on so much info without us even having to ask. We really appreciate that and it's refreshing to see. Don't have much to offer that hasn't been said already. Good luck
 
Brodybreaux25 said:
Lol what happens in the lounge....

What are you thinking, burn, bacteria, or something else? Not like you to keep so quite.
Click to expand...

Nah I'm happy for you guys.

As for OP's concern, if I'm being honest I'm really not sure. Most likely is a burn like you all said, but I feel like I've seen fungal infections like that before, but they're usually yellowish I believe. A check with a vet would probably be good idea just to be safe.
 
@FrozenRain00 I am leaning toward fungal as well. I really feel if this was a burn you would have known it. When it is a fresh burn well it looks like a burn. As far as the shedding issue this is something that would take more then a month or so to build up. The fact that the OP is saying within the last month or so these have appeared really makes me lean more to fungal or something of that nature.
 
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