Scratching

[Jakama]

I have seen my chameleon scratching her head against a piece of wood a few times today- seems there is something itchy on either her cask or her eye. What is this?

Information sheet:
Female veiled chameleon, about five months old. Owned it for two weeks. I handle her about two times a week. I feed my chameleon large mealworms and small crickets. I feed the mealworms bran, and the crickets fresh lettuce and carrots. On a normal day, she eats about three mealworms and five crickets. I dust them with Zoomed Repti Calcium without D3. I usually only dust the mealworms with these, and leave the crickets undusted. I will be dusting her food twice a month with Reptivite Reptile Vitamins with D3. I mist her twice a day with hot water, and I have a cup of water with a hole in it that I fill up about twice a day. I do see her drinking water from this. Fecal matter is dark brown, sometimes with a white section. I have never tested her for parasites. She received a burn on her left side on the second day we got her, but the situation that caused this has been remedied- I moved the lamp.
Cage is about 22x22x36 inches, screen. During the day, I use a 100W basking spot lamp from zoo med and a 15W UVB tube lamp (33% UVA, 10% UVB). At night, it can get pretty cold, so I use a 100W night basking lamp that emits dark red light. I switch it to daytime lighting at around 7:30 AM, and switch it to nighttime lighting at around 9:30 PM. I am using two live ficus in my enclosure, as well as a climbing vine, a large piece of driftwood, and a fake bush. I keep the temperature in the enclosure between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and I try and keep the humidity at around 60%. I have the cage located next to a heat fan that keeps the ambient temperature up, since it is winter. The table that the enclosure is resting on is about three feet off of the floor. I keep her enclosure in my room, and people do tend to walk around this room several times a day. This does provide the advantage of being able to keep an eye on her throughout the day. Her enclosure is next to a window, so she gets plenty of natural light during the day in addition to her two normal lights. I am located in California.

 

[bradleymarky]

i would stop feeding mealworms as they have hard skin and cause impaction
the temps should be in the low 80`s with no heat at night unless its less than 50 in the room (chams can still see red light and it will keep her awake at night)
keep her away from sunlight through the window as this can over heat the viv and her.
change the 100 watt bulb to a 60 watt house bulb.
the itching could be due to the burn she received if its only a fortnight ago it might still be annoying her.
your supplementing sounds fine to me but get rid of the heat fan.

 

[carol5208]

Does she have any left over shed she could be trying to get off? My cham will rub himeself sometimes on the branches and vines trying to loosen the skin off. You chameleon really does not need any heat at night unless your temps are going to get below 60 or so. You don't want any lights on, even red to distract her from sleeping. They like it DARK and cool for sleeping. If your temps are gonna get really cold, then most people use a ceramic heater to keep the temps up. Living in Calif you probably don't really have to worry about it. You need to gutload your crickets also with fresh fruits and veggies. Dark leafy greens, don't use regular lettuce, there is not much nutrition in regular head lettuce. I would cut back on the mealworm intake and feed her around 10-15 crickets, if she will eat them and a few mealworms here and there.Also, you say HOT water? How hot? Your water should be warm, not hot, so you need to specify hot. It can be hot when it goes in your sprayer but it should spray out warm. so if that is the case then that is ok. Get yourself a multivitamin also to use a couple of times a month. i would bump that 100watt down to like a 40-60 watt and see if you can get your basking temp in the 80 degree range +.

 

[Jakama]

Mk, thanks. I only use hot water for spraying, it comes out lukewarm. And she did just shed recently, so that's probably the case. Also, that's 10-15 crickets a day? Do subadults usually eat that many?